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"Video game view" helmet cam

Apr 16, 2006
392
0
Golden, CO
Seeing the Sam Hill front boom view got me thinking, what would it look like if i turned it around so it was facing forward. The problem with directly reversing it would be the helmet blocking most of the center screen. I rigged up an "over the shoulder" rear boom and heres the setup.

The camera fits snugly in the "crush proof" section of 4" pvc, I also filled it with batting to aid in shaking on the camera. It fits in the Camel back along with the battery pack, and you can't really even feel it. The helmet feels weird not riding cause its got so weird polar moments of intertia it didn't have before - it doesnt like to spin much. But thats kinda good when riding cause it acts like a nice steady hand. Theres black iron tube counter weights on the other side of the boom to counter out the camera so it feels pretty neutral on your head, just a little heavier.



I tested it briefly in my jumpless, stuntless, boring grass back yard, and heres some footage, i think it looks pretty cool - not sure if anyones done the same view before. I'm gonna adjust the angles and stuff at Diablo, and clean up the wires hanging out obviously. Yea the AWB feature is kinda sucky, I'm prolly picking up a newer 420 tvl with lower lux model off of ebay if this setup works good. Theres no sound - didnt think it was worth it.

 

demo 9

Turbo Monkey
Jan 31, 2007
5,910
46
north jersey
sick angle but i think it wood be better if u could get it farther back. (may not be possible) but seeing the whole bike and whole rider wood be nice
 

SPINTECK

Turbo Monkey
Oct 16, 2005
1,370
0
abc
Nice job steve. I personally don't like the side view- kind of makes me sick. You need to ask others if they feel the same, if not then don't worry about it.

You may want to put the cam directly behind, parallel and above your helmet, maybe even a little longer. This way it will simulate riding and not make your brain do things it wouldn't normally do, thus making me woosy.

I've always wanted to try that perspective following a rider because:

1. your view is higher than a normal helmet cam
2. you capture the rear of the rider and more of the riders' bike if you want.
3. BIGGEST REASON: the rod acts a dampener and you get very little camera vibration.

One thing I can't figure out, your video was kind of filmy (colors and contrast weren't vivid). Was it the actually filming or the rendering that made it dull/filmy??

Great post!
 

SPINTECK

Turbo Monkey
Oct 16, 2005
1,370
0
abc
Good points. I actually don't like helmet cam shots anymore unless the filmer is following a rider. Chernobyles concept following a rider would be killer.
 

BikeMike

Monkey
Feb 24, 2006
784
0
The POV has real potential to better capture the feeling & magnitude of stunts and steeps.
 
Apr 16, 2006
392
0
Golden, CO
Thanks all.

Demo 9 - Yea I'm gonna test the waters with this version. Unlike the "sam hill" view where its straight forward and back, this one sticks out the sides, so I'm still unsure how its going to go trailside with trees and stuff haha. If I'm comfortable with the clearance i get, I'll prolly extend it 8-10 more inches out at the angle its at.

Nat - I'm getting there haha. This is only version one, I can see where you get the motion sickness idea from though - I'm not as succeptable to that kind of stuff so if anyone else gets that feeling let me know. I will play around a little more after this weekend, this is only my first endeavour into the world of helmet cam'age. The colors being so weird is from the crappy auto white balancing on the bullet cam, I'm pretty sure cause you can see where i think it finally changes to a natural light setting about half way through.

jefedelosjefes - Thanks man, I will be tweaking the angles tomarrow (tomarrow, more like today!?!? i gotta get to sleep lol)

BikeMike - Yea thats what I'm goin for, I'll be sure to test 'er out on anthem and RTK drops, hopefully the ducttape holds up! I initially intended to catch rider's in front of me as well, but I think this is almost more of a "solo" shot, and really gives the viewer a better sense of what is going on since you can see the head, shoulders and cockpit all moving and reacting to what your riding. Diablo (or any real DH trail for that matter) should be a really good test for this - I just hope i dont snag the sucker on a tree lol.

I'm still gonna tweak all the angles a little more, but like people are saying, the pole should be longer/farther out. When i have some more time I'm going to make a back mounted version, but that will require prolly its own backpack like support harness cause frankly I don't feel like ducttaping a pole to my back ;)
 

Kanye West

220# bag of hacktastic
Aug 31, 2006
3,740
470
I can't wait for the lawsuits to roll in when some kid snares himself on a tree with that.

With that said, try a little closer distance, aiming the camera forward more, and maybe a slightly wider angle lens.
 

Damo

Short One Marshmallow
Sep 7, 2006
4,603
27
French Alps
I think its awesome MobileChernobyl.

I have done the rear-facing view before and have been trying different approaches to the front facing view. The problems are : balance, keeping the boom & wires out of shot and keeping the entire rig out of harms way.

With your set-up, the boom sticks out to the sides. You would need to be careful when riding. Maybe a wide-angle lens would help?

When I did a run of the Croatian champs course, I had a camera similar to yours right in the centre of my vision. It made line spotting difficult. You should have seen everyones expresions as I rode up to the startline. Classic. When I came back up though, had a huge crowd wanting to see the results. I tried a run with the forwards-facing camera, but it looked sh1t.

Your idea has some good possibilities. Keep posting your attempts. I'll be playing with ideas this summer too.

Here's the Croatian run:
 
Apr 16, 2006
392
0
Golden, CO
Went to Diablooo today, Kinda sucked for filming most of the day with the fog and low light haha. I road from 9 to 3 before filming, so I was a little tired. But what really sucked was the mud f'd up my bushings in my fork and the thing was like super high compression/friction from the mud and grit in the seals just grinding away at my bushings - wore me out really quick after that cause so much more of what it should have been absorbing was just going right into my arms. Either way got one run in at least with the "boom cam" and I guess when you strap a helmet to your head with a 3 foot rod on it, it kinda draws attention haha everyone was like "dude your gonna brake your neck if you hit a tree with that" - thanks smart one.

Either way it worked, but it DEFINATELY inhibited my riding (go figure). I had to plan for every tree that looked the least bit threatening, and concentrate on keeping it forward to view the trail - so half the time I wasn't really looking where I was going lol. After all that work, the camera angle was still kinda sucky, showing too much of me, and not looking forward enough. I shoulda spent more time on the setup, but its kinda akward seting up a helmet that looks like it should be a helicopter as crowds gather coming off the lift. I'm gonna hafta work on a few things but, its getting there, I think this view is promising once I get the angles and view dialed. Its still really cool, but if your succeptable to motion sickness in video games or anything, be cautious haha. I'm typically not, but in full screen it almost did make me a little nascious or maybe thats just from riding in the mud all day, and on old existing trails with 1-2 feet of leaves and fallen trees not pushed off 'em :rolleyes:.


The quality is still kinda poor. When I'm not poor I'll pick up a new camera with better resolution and auto white balancing.