Helmet camera.

[anthonytsi]

I've been looking for a decent helmet mounted vid cam and I am reluctant to buy one before I ask you all which ones you recommend.
Waterproof, and good low light capability are some of the requirements.
If any of you have video using the ones you recommend that would be cool too.
Thanks in advance.

[LukeM]

I've never heard of a small, rugged video camera that also has good low light capabilities, but the GoPro Hero series is owned by a few people I know who like it. Comes in multiple versions too. I'd say that whatever you do, just be prepared to provide a lot of light.

[anthonytsi]

I have looked all around today and believe that the Go pro that you recommended is the best deal. I saw cameras that had half the capability and cost much more. Thanks.

[VACaver]

I tried using my Contour HD while caving. Despite being told by Contour that "the camera will pick up anything your eyes can see", the video is really dark and pretty much useless.

[Mugger]

I have an older GoPro (I think it's a Hero 3 or 5) the works ok, just need to watch your head on low ceilings and having more than one light going (multiple people) helps a lot. I haven't tried out the new ones yet, but I suspect they're going to need plenty of light too.

[anthonytsi]

I decided against the Go Pro due to someone that I know saying the same thing about the light situation. He also said that it has a sort of fisheye lens that puts the light right in the middle and the surrounding video is dark.

[VACaver]

I decided against the Go Pro due to someone that I know saying the same thing about the light situation. He also said that it has a sort of fisheye lens that puts the light right in the middle and the surrounding video is dark.

It's the same with the Contour...what's right in front of you shows up just fine (as long as it's no further than 15 feet or so), but everywhere else is dark.

[NZcaver]

You just need a wider light.

The Go Pro is nice, but would be much more practical (and more appropriate value for money) if it had a small screen built-in so you can actually review the footage and/or shoot handheld and see what you're getting.

After experimenting with my ATC-2K for a while, I pretty much gave up on helmet cams for caving or anything else. Unless a specific need arises, I'll either use the video mode in my little Canon point-and-shoot (which is pretty good in low light), or just stick with stills.

[VACaver]

You just need a wider light.

The Go Pro is nice, but would be much more practical (and more appropriate value for money) if it had a small screen built-in so you can actually review the footage and/or shoot handheld and see what you're getting.

After experimenting with my ATC-2K for a while, I pretty much gave up on helmet cams for caving or anything else. Unless a specific need arises, I'll either use the video mode in my little Canon point-and-shoot (which is pretty good in low light), or just stick with stills.

My Canon point and shoot actually takes pretty good video in caves. Much better than my Contour HD.

[Mugger]

You just need a wider light.

The Go Pro is nice, but would be much more practical (and more appropriate value for money) if it had a small screen built-in so you can actually review the footage and/or shoot handheld and see what you're getting.

After experimenting with my ATC-2K for a while, I pretty much gave up on helmet cams for caving or anything else. Unless a specific need arises, I'll either use the video mode in my little Canon point-and-shoot (which is pretty good in low light), or just stick with stills.

The newer Go Pros have optional "backpacks" that can be added, one being a small LCD screen (retail here locally is about $55-60). I was able to play around with one the other day and thought it was pretty cool. The LCD pack comes with a replacement door so the camera remains waterproof (to about 100') with the screen attached.
Some of the older models were really bad with the fish eye view, but the newest one seems to be better.

[anthonytsi]

You just need a wider light.

The Go Pro is nice, but would be much more practical (and more appropriate value for money) if it had a small screen built-in so you can actually review the footage and/or shoot handheld and see what you're getting.

After experimenting with my ATC-2K for a while, I pretty much gave up on helmet cams for caving or anything else. Unless a specific need arises, I'll either use the video mode in my little Canon point-and-shoot (which is pretty good in low light), or just stick with stills.

The newer Go Pros have optional "backpacks" that can be added, one being a small LCD screen (retail here locally is about $55-60). I was able to play around with one the other day and thought it was pretty cool. The LCD pack comes with a replacement door so the camera remains waterproof (to about 100') with the screen attached.
Some of the older models were really bad with the fish eye view, but the newest one seems to be better.

Can you expand on the "newest one seems to be better"?. Do you own the newest one?

[Mugger]

You just need a wider light.

The Go Pro is nice, but would be much more practical (and more appropriate value for money) if it had a small screen built-in so you can actually review the footage and/or shoot handheld and see what you're getting.

After experimenting with my ATC-2K for a while, I pretty much gave up on helmet cams for caving or anything else. Unless a specific need arises, I'll either use the video mode in my little Canon point-and-shoot (which is pretty good in low light), or just stick with stills.

The newer Go Pros have optional "backpacks" that can be added, one being a small LCD screen (retail here locally is about $55-60). I was able to play around with one the other day and thought it was pretty cool. The LCD pack comes with a replacement door so the camera remains waterproof (to about 100') with the screen attached.
Some of the older models were really bad with the fish eye view, but the newest one seems to be better.

Can you expand on the "newest one seems to be better"?. Do you own the newest one?

I own an older Hero 3 (one of their first) and a Hero 5, and have friends/family who own the HD Hero. The image has a slight fish eye when used just for stills, but isn't as noticeable when used for video. As a side note, a few TV programs on History/Discovery (Mythbusters, Stan Lee's Super Humans to name a few) are now using these in place of some of the traditional cameras for rough conditions because the image quality is high and the cameras hold up well for the relatively low price.

[NZcaver]

The newer Go Pros have optional "backpacks" that can be added, one being a small LCD screen (retail here locally is about $55-60). I was able to play around with one the other day and thought it was pretty cool.

Yeah, I was looking at the Go Pros at REI and talking with the guy about the screen thing. Camera + screen = too expensive for a toy I'd only play with occasionally. Especially if the sound quality sucks, which apparently it does. It was really bad on my old ATC-2K, too.

[rlboyce]

If you're desperate enough and have a spare, sacrificial point-and-shoot laying around like I do, you could just mount one of those to your helmet. My Edelrid has holes in the side, so all I needed was a 1/4-20 threaded rod, a nut and a modified plastic bottle cap to fine tune the angle of the camera. Unless you're dealing with extremely tight passages (and I mean extremely), then you won't even notice it's on your head. The stuff I went through had some squeezes and low crawls, and I think the camera only touched the cave walls once, and barely at that.

The main disadvantages are that if you have to mount it at 90 degrees like I did then your video will be more tall than wide, you can't take it into a very wet environment (unless it's waterproof), and most point-and-shoots don't do too well with low light. You want as bright of a headlamp as possible if you try this. The only light I used was the 5mm high setting on my Apex (the spot on high probably would have been better), but if I had used a Sten or something brighter the video probably would have turned out really well. Oh yeah, the sound is kind of static-y too, but not too annoying though.

[anthonytsi]

Nice video. Thanks for the advice.