| Motorcycle rides and riders in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, British Columbia | |||||||
| |||||||
 |
| | LinkBack | Thread Tools | Display Modes |
| |
09-03-2008, 01:01 PM
| #1 |
| Slow Eric  | Vholdr camcorders Many people have asked us about the latest the video equipment PNWRiders Racing has been sporting at the last few WMRRA rounds so I thought I'd post up a little review of the camcorders and talk a bit about the company. First, the camera itself. The awesome thing about this camera is that it's totally self-contained, rather than a bullet cam attached by a video cable to a seperate recorder somewhere else. It is slightly bigger than a bullet cam to house a battery and memory card but I still haven't had an issue placing the cam anywhere I want. It comes with a basic mount (I haven't had a need for another yet) but the company is coming out with a vented helmet mount, a handlebar mount and others soon. The whole package is very tough with an all metal body. The front lens element rotates to make lining up the horizon very easy.   Operation is also simple and easy to learn. It is a bit different than a typical bullet cam (there is only two controls) so it takes a few minutes to understand the controls. Once you get that down, a large switch is all you need to start and stop the video recording. Each time you start and stop it, it creates a new file on the memory card, all you have to do is drag and drop the files onto your computer to edit them. I use 2gb memory cards (microSD) that record about 2 hours of video. The main downside of the the self-contained units is battery life (two hours is the most I've gotten out of a charge) but new batteries are under $10 so it's easy to buy a few extra. The videos themselves are pretty good quality. The output is 640x480 and the quality is on par with hard drive based bullet cams (I've seen some bullet cams that record to mini DV that look better but at the expense of having to carry around a full camcorder.) With a little bump in contrast and saturation in editing I've been very pleased with the results. Perhaps the best part of the camcorders is the durability. They've survived two crashes at the race track and the best test so far, one flew off my motorcycle at approximately 120mph on a street ride. It bounced over 1/4 mile down the road, the memory card and battery getting flung out in the process, but worked perfectly after that. These cameras are awesome and anyone looking to capture some motorcycle footage (or skiing, climbing, hiking...whatever...) would love it, especially if you don't want to carry a camcorder on you (racers!) Check out vholdr.com for more info on the camcorders, see videos and check out the company (a local Seattle group.) If you want to purchase one, BHPhotoVideo.com (I've bought a ton of stuff from them) is a good place to go. They have them for $309 right now, here's a link: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...arch&Q=*&bhs=t If you want to see some videos, here's a link to my page with plenty of them on there: http://vholdr.com/users/slow-eric Any questions, just ask. You can also find us at the track if you want to see one in person. |
|
| |
| |
| | |
| |
|
09-03-2008, 02:57 PM
| #6 |
| Superbiker   Joined: Mar 2008 From: Seattle, WA | I have to say that all of these reasons are why I originally bought my ATC2K. And the VHoldR seemingly shits all over it. The ATC2K cuts out (turns off) at high vibration (the memory card contacts lose contact), so you have to be very careful when mounting, and high heat. There is a vertical distortion to the image, when it is working. The mounts are poor strength plastic. Of course, I bought my ATC2K for ~$80 from memory. If I had my time again, I would definitely have invested the moola into a VHoldR. |
|
| |
| |
| ||
|
09-03-2008, 05:30 PM
| #9 | |
| beansbaxter is too lazy to come up with something but he will get to it, eventually...  | 
| |
|
| ||
| ||
| ||
|
09-03-2008, 06:02 PM
| #11 | |
| beansbaxter is too lazy to come up with something but he will get to it, eventually... |
How's your latest opus coming along, chief? | |
|
| ||
| ||
| |
|
09-05-2008, 06:45 AM
| #12 |
| Pit Crew  Joined: Jun 2006 From: barra de navidad mexico Clackamas Or I Ride: zx14 | I've had the VHoldr for about 3 months. I like its ease of use and the quality of video. No way to turn off the microphone, though. While there have been a few issues with the internal design because it is a new camera, we've been very happy with the tech support. Nathan has answered all of our e-mails and the company seems to value customer service. |
|
| |
| |
Linear Mode
