GoPro HD Hero review and helmet cam face-off
By Tim Stevens 
posted Nov 16th 2009 12:40PM
posted Nov 16th 2009 12:40PM
What's this, another tiny, high-definition camera to strap onto your person before doing something wild and crazy? Yes, it's the latest pixel-pushing contender for high-def helmetcam supremacy, the GoPro HD Hero; a little gray box in a waterproof case that can record 1080p at 30fps, 720p at 60, and comes with a selection of mounts that will enable the thing to hang on to just about whatever you want to sling it from -- but at $299 you might not feel particularly inclined to put it in harm's way. Worth the risk, and how does it compare to the competition and its predecessors? Read on for the full analysis, and of course plenty of gratuitous high definition footage.
Unboxing and first impressions
The HD Hero has gained a bit of volume and weight compared to its predecessor, the Hero Wide, but it's still impressively small and light. Even with the new 1,100mAh rechargable cell installed it's such a featherweight that it almost feels flimsy in the hand, yet still gives a sense of quality, with a nicely rubberized coating and solid buttons. That said, the boxy design won't win any awards for asthetics, particularly when affixed to a helmet. The smooth contours of a modern lid contrast directly with the boxy HD Hero, a distinct problem for those conerned with aerodynamics -- or style for that matter.
We were sent a slew of attachments of various types to test out, the primary ones relying on two-sided 3M adhesive pads that smell awful but grip fiercely to any smooth surface. Also provided was a Panavise-sourced suction cup mount that's part of the Motorsports bundle, good for windshields or fenders, and GoPro was kind enough to send along a strap enabling it to be affixed to vented (i.e. bicycle) helmets and even a harness for strapping the camera to your chest. They all rely on the same hinged attachment point used in the earlier Hero cams, allowing mounting that is easily adjusted but, as you'll see below, somewhat less than secure.
Mounting the camera requires use of a clear plastic case with the receiving end of the various mounts molded into the bottom. The camera slots in and the rear door latches securely shut, providing a waterproof seal and extra protection for little guy inside. However, that water-tight seal foils the effectiveness of the internal microphone, in the previous models resulting in only muffled suggestions of what was going on outside the case. The HD model ships with a second rear door with two large cutouts that allow the sound through. Of course those cutouts also let the water through, so you'll have to choose between audio fidelity and moisture survivability.
Controls and hardware
The HD Hero has just two buttons, a shutter release on the top and another on the face for tweaking things. Via these two you'll cycle through settings and, of course, start recording. There's a tiny LCD display on the front showing the number of recordings you've made, the amount of battery life remaining, and what video mode you're in. Helpful stuff, but we usually found ourselves wishing that display was on the back.
High-def video modes range from 720p30 all the way up to 1080p30, stopping at 720p60 along the way and a 960p30 mode that offers the best combination of pixels, frame-rate, and viewing angle -- if you don't mind the 4:3 aspect ratio. The camera's internal menus are a bit confusing (take that manual along) but allow for quick changes between modes and exposure settings.
Videos are written to an SDHC card, which is not provided, and the works are powered by that new 1,100mAh battery pack. It's charged via a miniUSB port that can only be accessed while the camera is removed from its plastic housing, meaning no recharging while recording. That said, we filmed over an hour of video over a few days and didn't even knock a bar off the charge indicator, a big improvement over the previous Hero models.
Mounting and testing
We tried a few different scenarios for our tests, focusing on motorized applications as that's the primary intent the Motorsports bundle we received. Camera charged, we used the Panavise suction mount to throw it inside and outside a car and take it for a spirited spin on some of our favorite roads. Here it performed well; the chunky design not an issue when behind the windshield and the mount pivoting in every direction and allowing easy adjustment -- though with no sort of viewfinder we were making educated guesses about where it was pointing. At a very minimum a set of molded-in gun sights on the top would be nice.
Next up was a trip to the kart track for some rather more intense testing. We took one of the concave adhesive mounts and stuck it onto a Shoei then applied one of the flat ones to the front fairing on the kart itself. We started with the fairing mount, slotting the camera in, inserting the threaded screw onto the side, tightening it as much as we could with our fingers, then heading to the grid. With the camera mounted on the front of the kart we could quickly hit the record button, make sure the light was flashing, then jump in the kart and take off. The results can be seen below -- the camera lasted about five seconds before flopping forward and spending the entire session flat on its face. Lovely.
Try as we might we couldn't tighten the mount any further by hand, but with with a screwdriver we were able to crank it down another few turns, much more than we liked and making us wonder when the plastic would give and the whole thing fly to pieces. That it didn't do, holding on for a subsequent test mounted on the helmet, providing a good picture and good audio... though we realized later we'd aimed it little too low. We really were guessing as to where the thing should be pointed, and having to make sure you always have a screwdriver handy is a real drag.
We also had problems getting it to record. At the track you need to be suited up and ready to go well before you actually hit the track; that means helmet and gloves on. From here it's impossible to see the indicator lights and to tell whether the camera has started recording. Indeed in multiple sessions we pressed the button but not hard enough, so no recordings were made. The camera does emit some beeps when it starts and stops, but they're far too quiet to be heard with a helmet on and any sort of din in the background.
Stacking up
The first competitor for the GoPro HD is either of the older GoPro models, the original Hero or the Wide. Against these two there's only one reason to choose either over the new: cost. The Wide can be had for $139, less than half the new one, but for the extra money you get markedly improved video quality -- and we're not just talking about more pixels. See for yourself in the video above.
The HD Hero produces bright and clear images at 1080p with little if any visible encoding noise. You'll need a good sized memory card to back that, though, at about 100MB of footage per minute at 1080p, with 720p60 videos not taking up much less. But, invest in a 16 or 32GB SDHC card and you'll be good to go for most of the day, and the quality is worth the consumption.
The HD Hero produces bright and clear images at 1080p with little if any visible encoding noise. You'll need a good sized memory card to back that, though, at about 100MB of footage per minute at 1080p, with 720p60 videos not taking up much less. But, invest in a 16 or 32GB SDHC card and you'll be good to go for most of the day, and the quality is worth the consumption.
On top of that there's the issue of audio quality, or the lack thereof in the original models. The vented rear door on the new case (and surely some internal tweaks) results in impressively good sound. Even at speed only a modest amount of wind noise muffles the experience. It's a huge leap forward and the best we've yet heard on this type of camera.
Which takes us to the next competitor: the ContourHD 1080p we tested a few months back. One of the biggest complaints we've had with the ContourHD line of cameras has been excessive wind noise at speed and, while the 1080p addressed that somewhat by allowing for reduced microphone sensitivity, it's still far more intrusive than on the Hero. That said, there are plenty of reasons to like what it has to offer, the primary one being design. It is physically larger and a bit heavier, but still far easier to use.
The main reason for that is the glove-friendly sliding record button on top that lets you quickly feel whether you're recording, even when camera is stuck to the side of your head. Rotating internals means you can mount this at nearly any angle and still get video that comes out level; the Hero allows recording upside-down and right-side-up, but nowhere in between. Finally, dual lasers on the front of the ContourHD tell you where it's aiming and, with a little practice, help to ensure proper framing, and we've never had a problem with the cam's mounting solutions failing.
That said, we do like look of the video from the Hero a little bit better, though it's a very minor difference. Both support the same resolutions and frame rates, the Hero seeming to offer slightly better color while the ContourHD footage looks a bit more clear. See which you like better:
Conclusion
The GoPro HD Hero is an absolutely massive step forward from the old model in terms of visual and audio fidelity. There's simply no comparing the footage you'll get from one of these to the footage from the originals and, since the design has stayed more or less the same, those upgrading will still be able to use all their old mounts. That's something of a shame, though, because we wish the company had thrown them all out the window and started with something fresh, something with teeth, and something that doesn't require a screwdriver to get clamped down in place. We'd also love a more helmet- and glove-friendly set of controls.
That said, this isn't a bad choice among all the action/POV cameras out there. If you're going to be mounting it to a location where you can easily see and access it while recording (to make sure that it is, indeed, recording), like inside a windshield or the front of a snowboard, it offers stellar video and audio fidelity in a small package. However, for mounting to a helmet or use with gloves on, we preferred the ContourHD 1080p despite its poorer audio quality. It's a little bigger and, at $329, a little more expensive, but that $30 extra gets you a 2GB starter storage card, solid mounts, and a much more reassuring interface. That it doesn't look like a little toaster sitting on your helmet isn't a bad thing either.
Update: We received a note from GoPro that they apparently shipped some defective mounts that could have been the cause of the failure we captured above. We spoke with other GoPro users who reported similar issues, so if you're having problems getting a stable connection contact the company for your replacement. We're awaiting ours and will post another update with the results.
Update 2: Rather unfortunately the updated clamps didn't result in a more secure mounting for us; we were still able to move the device in its mount when clamped down as tightly as we could by hand. That's not to say that it was loose and flopping around, we're sure that for most applications it'll stay in place, but for situations where there is a lot of vibration or a lot of wind resistance it could be an issue. That said, if you're having problems we'd recommend contacting the company about getting an updated clamp.
Update: We received a note from GoPro that they apparently shipped some defective mounts that could have been the cause of the failure we captured above. We spoke with other GoPro users who reported similar issues, so if you're having problems getting a stable connection contact the company for your replacement. We're awaiting ours and will post another update with the results.
Update 2: Rather unfortunately the updated clamps didn't result in a more secure mounting for us; we were still able to move the device in its mount when clamped down as tightly as we could by hand. That's not to say that it was loose and flopping around, we're sure that for most applications it'll stay in place, but for situations where there is a lot of vibration or a lot of wind resistance it could be an issue. That said, if you're having problems we'd recommend contacting the company about getting an updated clamp.
I think I will stick with my $60 Mini DV from Deal Extreme...
as usual with a small shite sensor and no useful lense, image stabilization it looks like crap...
and I dont want to shell out $$$$ just to have a dash cam...
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.26602
How's the helmet mount for that DV cam?
I dont know as that model costs more with the helmet mount. its $76.. I'm cheap and I need it as a dash cam, but I can clip it onto my backpack front strap when I use my bicycle...
this one comes with the clips
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.27257
but dont get it now as they are out of stock...
but the demos from Youtube are good.
POV taken to a whole new level
Preordered this thru a Motorcycle vendor (the Motorsports HD one) for $200 shipped. It delivers next week, cant wait!
Why did this post disappear earlier?
contour hd seems much better till you here that wind noise, holy crap. no wonder people put music over their helmet cam vids.
This is me not posting in the stupid iPhone app story above this one. I won't be clicking the link to it either. Maybe if everyone ignores that crap it will stay on TUAW where it belongs.
Hey engadget, we don't need to hear about every freakin app that hits the app store. There's a site for that.
(I like the camera in this story, btw)
Way to be a jackass by bringing your stupid comment somewhere that it doesn't belong. How is this better than Engadget posting stories that hurt your feelings? Oh yeah, it's not. The difference is, some people WANT to read those stories. Nobody wants to read your post. Hypocrite.
I posted in here because 1: this post has VERY few comments so I'm not interrupting anything 2: I didn't want to click in that stupid story and pad the stats, thereby justifying more of the same.
I did however want to spread the word for everyone else to do the same, but I see the boycott concept is beyond the comprehension of the normal engadget reader. Carry on with your mindless downranking and enjoy many more posts about insignificant 99 cent ipod applications, dolts.
You're an idiot. GTFO.
No, you.
rc car company traxxas are marketing the same thing for their rc cars. i considered getting one, but didn't know if the quality was up to scratch...
The Las Vegas Traxxas TORC (real-life off-road trucks) race that was on ABC a weekend ago used these for their in-car cams. Video looked OK. Was a night race so a dark truck interior vs. stadium lighting didn't make for great images, but they seemed to be pretty decent.
The Contour HD 1080p is a far superior design. I have used many of these types of cameras now and the laser assisted alignment and glove friendly controls are not to be underestimated.
I have never had any trouble securing a cam to one of the flat mounts - I have one at the top of my windshield for autox. It has never fallen down on me once and I've never needed a screwdriver. I have no idea why you guys were having so much trouble.
After seeing the comparison though I MUST upgrade my Hero Wide. The sound quality improvements alone make up the difference in price. Even going 20-30 mph in autox yields absolutely horrific audio.
Thank you for the videos and review! Extremely helpful.
As someone who enjoys documenting mountain bike rides using a GPS and (recently) by posting my trips up to Everytrail.com, I was looking for a better way to snap action pictures than by using a hand-held camera.
What intrigued me about this particular camera was its mounting options (both helmet and bike frame), the ability to shoot a picture every few seconds for the duration of the battery life, and the HD video option. I caved and made a pre-order directly from their site a few weeks ago and am looking forward to a 11/23 ship date.
Timely review.
To me it's all about the mounting brackets. I have seen Contour HD in use and the mounting brackets are very flimsy at best. It took a lot of home ingenuity to get the camera nice and tight with no wobbling. I've see all the accessories the Hero comes with and would hope they're better quality.
When do these things actually get useful and we get "webcam" features and streaming (never mind crappy resolution)?
They're incredibly useful if you're in the market for something like it.
If you just want an HD webcam to stream video, you're looking in the wrong place.
Looks pretty good, but I just bought a non-HD helmet cam.
http://shop.helmetcameracentral.com/HC-DRIFT-X170.html
Sounds like it's pretty good too.
looks like a blu-ray player in a VCR housing!
how can you have such nice tech in such a 1980 housing
"That it doesn't look like a little toaster sitting on your helmet isn't a bad thing either." Pretty funny kind of reminds me of a teletubbie. So my questions is about the wind noise. Is the noise reduced on one because of the case if so wouldn't it be the same as putting a piece of tape over the mic. I guess it doesn't bother me that much because I don't get these types of camera's for a studio audio sound. I just put some music over my vid while i'm editing
no underwater footage? i was hoping to see some pure underwater footage to see what its like. having no viewfinder could be a big problem though if youre doing it handheld style.
maaan... the contour is a way more sleek design IMO. the gopro looks like something you'd get out of a gumball machine for a quarter. LOL the toaster comment hit it head on!
@ssjchar: If you want to look through a viewfinder, the GoPro isnt for you. It's designed for extreme sports / motorsport.
@ j4r3dp375y: Functionality ALWAYS triumphs over flashy design for niche products like this.
Totally valid statements of course! Viewfinder would be handy for lining up the perfect angle you; and also a sleek look never hurt anyone :)
I pre-ordered the MotorSports hero and it is meant to be shipping today (according to the GoPro website).
If anyone is trying to decide between the contour and the gopro.. just go to the gopro website and watch some of their user submitted videos. Nothing short of amazing.
I use a traditional lipstick cam from Helmetcamera.com plugged into a craptastic Aiptek SD camcorder. The video quality has been better than the hold GoPro cameras, but the mic being out in the wind gave massive wind noise. I encase the mic in painters tape and it still doesn't help. Next time I'm going to try stuffing the cam and mic in my leathers to see if that helps.
This is a vid recorded with the lowest spec 380-line helmetcam. I've since upgraded to the 520:
http://vimeo.com/6575866
Oh, I would love to have this for skydiving!!!
would love to see a comparison between these and the Tachyon XC, i just got it this past weekend and was pretty happy with the results. best yet it was pretty cheap
@simblor - i'd hardly call the contour's design "flashy".... i'm simply intrigued by it NOT resembling a miniature microwave.
and deciding between gopro and contour would also warrant a valid viewing of the vholdr community videos... which are amazing in their own right. not to take away from the gopro, just trying to stay fair and balanced here, right? ;-)
I use my Sanyo VPC-CA9 , not a real helmet cam, but I mounted it on the side of my helmet on a swiveling mount. (call it a cheap ass one-axis steadycam). It's a bit more heavy and only does 720p, but it has some features I didn't found in my previous helmet cams:
- lcd screen: you have to see what you filmed. Otherwise you come home with a whole day footage of sky or snow. I used a self mounted laser on an Oregon helmetcam, but is hard to see on snow.
- better sensor: light/dark changes really do matter
- broad use: i can use it as a family cam to
- I almost forgot: waterproof out of the box, no casing needed
I put up some samples on my site http://www.ferket.com/blog/?s=sanyo
The Countour HD is not really a competitor to this camera. Maybe when running the Hero at the lower FOV 1080p mode, but at 720p, the 170 degree fish eye footage @ 60fps is its killer feature.
It surprises me that the differing optics wasn't even grazed upon in this face-off, when that is simply the most major difference between the two cameras.
The two main features that were missed in the comparison against the ContourHD, the GoPro is waterproof, where the Contour is only splash proof. Also, they do NOT have the same recording modes. 90% of the consumers using this video will be for fast-paced action shots. 60fps is the key stat. GoPro does 60fps in 720p HD, and ContourHD only does 60fps in 480p SD. Big difference. I shoot wakeboarding videos, so those two stats are the reason why I'll be choosing GoPro.
Honestly, there are tons of devices that do 1080p @ 30fps (including point-and-shoot cameras, and consumer camcorders). That really isn't that big of a deal, in my opinion. Try to find a device that shoots 720p @ 60fps under $1500. It's hard to do.
@mclinmike, the ContourHD 1080p most certainly does to 720p60 in addition to 1080p30. However, as you pointed out, it is not waterproof.
Ah, I didn't realize they upgraded the ContourHD to a new version (ContourHD 1080p). You are right, the new one definitely does do 720p/60fps.
I really would have liked to have seen a 60p showdown in your videos.
Finally, a substantive review without the tiring fluff just recited verbatim from press releases and marketing fluff.
I'd like to see your impressions in low light with a head to head.
Re the GoProHD. The toaster form factor doesn't particularly bug me for biking as I use the chest mount for looking forward shots. For skiing though the chest cam doesn't work with the GoPro as powder chest shots plug the lens up quickly. I don't particularly like wearing the toaster on the head and am not crazy about the head band method as yet either for skiing with just the hat for a couple of reasons: a faceplant can knock the GoPro off; and a tree branch can also knock the mount awry.
Also for skiing when its windy the GoPro's on-off noise isn't very audible so you have to take it on and off if you want to check that its actually going as opposed to the ContourHD's on-off slider switch. Just minor quibbles I realize. Going to ski more to see how I feel about it. I wrote something about the GoPro HD vs the older ContourHD (NOT the 1080 version) for biking Obviously would prefer to compare 1080p cams head to head but that'll have to wait till I have access to the Contour HD 1080 but this will do for now.
here it is with comparison videos in different light conditions and on different trails http://www.nsmb.com/3367-gopro-hd-quick-review
I had a chance to test the ContourHD1080p against the GoPro HD Helmet Hero last week using the two demo cameras we received.
I decided to film in the 960p (1280 x 960) mode. This mode gives the widest 170 FOV and offers most vertical viewing area which seems to work best for body or helmet mounted applications.
Here are my fist impressions including comparison videos uploaded in raw format:
http://pointofviewcameras.com/blog/povca/article/gopro-hd-hero-vs.-contourhd-1080p-comparison
Now that we started shipping both cameras I can't wait to see some user generated videos. Keep them coming every one :-)
Found this review of the Gopro HD vs the ContourHD 1080p shot at 960p. It was done last week, before Engadget's review.
http://pointofviewcameras.com/blog/pov/article/gopro-hd-hero-vs.-contourhd-1080p-comparison
I have been shooting for over a year with these sports camcorders, having started with the Vio Pov and moving to the standard def Vholdrs and Gopros. I have now just switched over to all the new HD 1080p versions of these cameras.
One thing that people never mention is the compression used when comparing videos. To get sharp, clean HD video to display on video sharing sites you need to record at the best quality possible on the camera before uploading. This goes for file exporting after editing in your software too. Sites like Youtube and Vimeo add their own compression even though they show in "HD". If you send them a crappy, highly compressed source video it's going to look like crap even though the sites may display in high resolution.
That's why you see these so called reviews of these new HD sports cams on the web that look blotchier and worse than videos shot with the last generation of standard definition cameras. While it may be true the reviewer shot at 720p or 1080p, if the video is set at a high compression setting during recording, the resulting 1080p image is just going to look terrible and not show what the camera is capable of. Resolution is not the only criteria for image quality.
Here's an example. Take a photo from your digital camera shot in good light and best quality setting. Open it up in Photoshop. Looks great, right? Now save it in jpeg at zero quality setting. No so pretty anymore is it? Same image, same resolution.
Also, some of these amateur reviews, (not Engadget) don't tell you whether the compression bitrate is the same for both cameras they are reviewing so sometimes one will look comparatively much worse than the other because their compression is different. It would be much more meaningful to users if these sports enthusiasts followed a bit more methodological approach to their testing and reviewing.
These HD "wearable camcorders" have come a long way in video quality since I started using them over a year ago and I am amazed at how good the videos turn out if you take a bit of time to learn how video recording works.
Now that the manufacturers have the resolution boosted to the max of what your HDtv can handle, what they really need to concentrate on is the sound quality. While the Gopro HD Hero has the better noise cancellation, there still remains a lot to be desired in audio quality from all manufacturers.
The other feature I think these cameras need is some sort of image stabilization. Being sports cameras they're going to be jostled around a lot and the mfg.s can throw in all the resolution they want but all the quick moving around is just going to give you high resolution blur instead of a clear image.
Deka - that's all very well but remember that most people are just file-sharing videos over the web. Correct me if I'm wrong on that.
Just as a benchmark, GoPro's 1080p video @ 15 mb per seconds resulted in a huge file (~ 124MB) for a 1:26 file. Now I'll present that raw output in my review for consumer edification. However, if a review is geared to consumers that web-share video (and I submit that's what most people are going to do); then rendering some 1080p output using a H264 codec and compressing to say 3.6 MB per sec is fairly representative of what most people are going to do.
We make camera mounts for GOPRO and other cameras. http:www.kwmachineworks.com
Well These are very good POV cameras but i personally like (for Dirt biking) the Stealth Camera (http://www.epicstealthcam.com) teh mounting brackets are easy yo use and theres one for almost any application and the buttons are user friendly
I have not used the Epics. They seem to be one of the lightest cams on the market. The action sports cameras arena is really heating up with a lot of different manufacturers. The problem I see with the Epic and some of the other standard def cameras out there is that the market is breaking up into 2 segments.
One is the standard definition cameras like the Epic, the original Gopro Hero, and the original Vholdr.
The second is the HD cameras like the Gopro HD Hero, Vholdr ContourHD and Vholdr ContourHD 1080p.
The standard def market is becoming much more of a lower end, price sensitive commodity market. Where the camera technology is obviously going is HD and most of the other mfg. are playing catch up to both Vholdr and Gopro in this area. Even the once venerable Vio Pov's do not have an answer to these new HD cameras from their competitors.
For an extra $50 to $100 over standard def you get much higher resolution, improved sound and other improvements. All my friends are upgrading to the HD versions as soon as they are in stock.
To give you an idea where the market is heading, Vholdr has discontinued their standard def cameras and now only sell HD cameras with their low end at 720p and 1080p at the top.
What SDHC card did you use in your review? I have an ATP Pro Max Class 6 150x 32GB card and I can not get it to work with the GoPro HD Hero.
@projectbrown It's a Transcend 16GB Class 6 card.
@TimStevens
Has anyone been able to get the HD Hero to work with a 32GB card? If so, what was it?
both the GoPro HD and ContourHD are on sale with a discount coupon at
http://www.actionvideocams.com