Twenty20 ContourHD has is the world’s first 720p helmet cam
Twenty20 ContourHD has is the world’s first 720p helmet cam
The Twenty20 ContourHD has is the world’s first 720p helmet cam for the consumer market. Beyond recording 30fps 720p (or 854×480 60fps SD) as easily viewable and editable QuickTime .mov files there are a score of well thought out features to ensure the ContourHD’s rugged usability for the “active” videographer.
Right off there’s the size, a puny 123 gram water-resistant anodized aluminum body that resist drops and vibration. The TRail™ Mount slides and locks onto mounts for your goggles, helmet, handlebars. And there’s easy operation, thanks to the glove-friendly oversized sliding record switch on the top of the unit.
While there is no viewer for playback, laser-sighting lets you go all Borg and assimilate the world’s views though the 135-degree wide angle lens. And you can assimilate a lot, though packaged with a 2GB MicroSD card, the ContourHD supports 16GB cards which at a rate of 30min/GB can film 8 hours of HD – won’t your friends be overjoyed at sitting through that?
So the package is near perfect for your motorcycle tour or adventure, save for a couple of issues. As you’d expect the microphone develops a lot of wind noise at speeds over 40kph. Then there’s the quality of the footage.
In the sun ContourHD produces admirable footage, but (as you can tell from our review video) the ContourHD wrestles with the low-light and contrast of cloudy days. Also the plastic lens on our unit was easily scratched, developing whirls even after a careful first cleaning with a micro-fiber lens cloth, that’s a big issue for the intended use.Way better than expected is the image stabilization, especially given the grave road game we put the ContourHD through.
Mind you, at a diminutive $299.99 Twenty20’s ContourHD is way more high definition trick than the standard-definition trash that populates the market in this price bracket. It won’t turn you into Top Gear, but the ContourHD is a step in the right direction.
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10-31-2009, 02:52 AM
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