Cavechat.org

Hi all,
I'm not a caver, I'm a scientist who works on a cave so my experience of both caving and videography is pretty limited...but I need some advice and I'm hoping someone here can help!

I need a helmet cam that can take good quality (not necessarily HD though that would be a bonus) footage for about 5h and I have a budget of about £300 (about $500) at the moment though could spend more I guess if I have to. I need one that I can basically put in place and forget about for an entire cave expedition and then download the footage from aferwards. If I had to change SD cards halfway through, that would be ok I guess as long as there was some kind of warning as to when it needed doing. If possible, I'd like to be able to take it off and give it to one of the divers who collects my samples from the underwater parts of the cave too, so a waterproof one would be a huge bonus. If I have to buy two separate cameras (one for me, one for the diver) that's not a problem.

Also, where is the best place to mount it so that the LED lights on the front of the helmet give the camera enough light but don't bleach the picture too much?

The cave in question is Movile Cave (Pestera Movile) in Romania, if anyone's interested.
Thanks very much!
rich

I have a VIO Sport helmet camera.

http://www.vio-pov.com/



It records in DVD quality and can record for quite long periods 6hrs+ (depending upon the size of your SD card. Upto 8GB max)

Waterproof to 1m.
Wrist mounted remote control
Separate camera and recording unit.
You can view your recording on the main unit.
You can change the exposure settings to work in low light conditions. (Works really well with headlamps)
Excellent customer support, I have had my main unit replaced after a screw on the main body came loose allowing water into the unit, they did not question how why where or when, they did not ask for proof of purchase, they simply replaced it.

$??

Depending on your location and currency, it may be above your budget; however, they are worth the extra cost.

If you don't need the camera to be High Definition, but need it to be waterproof, small and tough your best option is the POV1.5. It records for up to 8 hours and the camera head can go down to 10m under water, so it should be perfect for what you need it for, however it is a little bit more expensive than your £300 budget. There's a review of the camera at http://www.actioncameras.co.uk/review_of_vio_pov1.5 that you might find helpful.

Thanks Leigh! The second one that you mention is just about within my price-range and I'll look into it further.
rich

Google search ContourHD. They run about 279 and use external memory but a micro 32gb SD card will hold about 8 hours. This is all I know about it so far. I am looking at possibly getting one of these to record my adventures they also have a waterproof case for it that runs about 30$ if you find it at the right place on ebay or amazon.

100% Contour HD, great camera great value, you dont even need thelatest 1080p model, the regular 720p on eBay will do you great. The only mod that i would do with these otherwise great cameras and widely used by parachute jumpers etc. is that it needs extra mounting to stop it flopping around (and thats when you get camera shake for no reason) This can be done with extra tying up/taping, or using extra foam around it to keep it rigid agains the helmet. It may seem like hassle, but 15 minutes working on this before you leave your home will make the world of difference when you see your clips imported into iMovie or Final Cut or whatever DO IT.......

Fenix lights eh? Not a patch on these:




This is the Moonshiner7, first of its kind (and prototype) to supersede the moonshiner 4. This is lighting t its best:
1) 7 LEDs give anything up to 1200 Lumens of power (slideable from nearly off to full 1200 lumens).
2) Custom features like color temperature preference (when ordering from these guys).
3) Custom lens for how wide/narrow you want your beam to shine - mine is 40 degrees.
4) Unbelievably hard core batteries will power s Sten on full bore for a week (smaller batteries also availabe)
5) Alloy fins to dissipate heat.
6) Screw mount for mounting on tripods or gorilla tripods (like pic below) that cling to stals/walls, for handy lighting.

Check them out here (Crap website, hasnt even got the brand new light in it!, but great lights!!!, great guys too!):
http://www.arceye.eu/lights/moonshiner-video-lights

I dont work for them either but i have two of their lights. Is this a bit ? I'll mention that contour HD cameras rule for helmets once again! thats ON topic......

In the UK the consensus seems to be the GoPro is much better than the Contour, it is being explained that the Contour does not detect LED light well, and hence shots were not well lit and the cave divers there seem to like the GoPros better too.

/their 2 cents and since their caves are all really wet and jazz, and they like their lights over there (seriously, rare for me to see someone *not* with a scurion or similar)

FWIW, today only (June 15), Amazon is selling the Contour for $179:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/goldbox/ref=ts ... mzn_lmsmn1

At that price I can't resist anymore, so I'm snapping one up -- I'll report back here once I've had a chance to try it in-cave.