ContourHD: ideal for in-car video?
 

IMO this is the cam worth buying. I think you'll agree after looking at the videos- add to that the ability to use up to a 16gb sd card, super compact size, lithium rechargeable battery and it's available in multiple resolutions. But to me the best feature is the image stabilization- unlike all the cheap korean cams (Aiptek) it lacks the crazy image waviness found with the stabilization on those cams. The only real issue is wind noise in the audio on the bikes- understandable - but these companies should have an external audio-in port for a remote mic IMO. That's what I used to do in my race cars, put the mic in the trunk and get the engine w/o the wind.

Here's the 720p cam on Amazon.com - add coupon CONTOURH at checkout to drop the price to $169.99.

Off road driving video on vimeo.

Awesome vimeo test run on a motorcycle.

More motorcylce video.

Lots more ContourHD video on vimeo.

The image stabilization is very impressive on all the videos including the downhill mountain biking one on amazon. Its small and looks like it would be the cats meow to me. Long as the viewing angle is large enough to capture what you want in the miata, might be too shallow mounted on the rollbar.

Here's a good example of viewing angle- add to that the fact that it's wide format and I think it'll do well from the roll bar.

Been wanting this camera for mountain biking. One guy was using one at the trails I frequent and he only had good things to say about it. Do it.

I disagree with this point. There is a ton of waviness in the Audi rally video, and it's obvious in the Aprilia vid too. The waviness is about as bad as my Aiptek when I run it in 1080, but in 720 @ 60 fps I have never detected a hint of waviness in any of my videos.

Still, if I was looking for a <$200 solution that ContourHD wouldn't be terrible. My Aiptek was $170 and I have another few bucks in the mics I built because its internal mic isn't very good (thankfully it has a mic input jack). The Contour appears to do a very good job with wind noise for a built-in mic. On track with a hardtop the audio would probably be decent from a roll bar mount. And it would be easier to play with camera placement with this thing. If you don't like the view from the roll bar, you could probably do a suction cup mount to the windshield.

Another decent cheap option is the Creative Labs Vado. A track friend of mine uses one of these suction cupped to the windshield in his RX-8. Search the username wankelbolt on youtube for his vids. It's 720p, 8GB built-in memory and costs $100. The extra $70 for the Contour gets you the smaller form factor and the capability of more memory (though you still have to buy the SD card) but from what I've seen doesn't take significantly better video.

I do like this video alot.


Any thoughts on the new Go-Pro in HD?

Obviously this is probably one of the best videos that go-pro can produce since its on their site but the quality is amazing:
GoPro HD HERO®: Pre-Production Test Footage

Group buy anyone?