{"id":44371,"date":"2009-11-18T18:20:25","date_gmt":"2009-11-18T23:20:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crunchgear.com\/?p=124321"},"modified":"2009-11-18T18:20:25","modified_gmt":"2009-11-18T23:20:25","slug":"review-contourhd-wearable-1080p-camcorder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/44371","title":{"rendered":"Review: ContourHD wearable 1080p camcorder"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.crunchgear.com\/2009\/11\/18\/review-contourhd-wearable-1080p-camcorder\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.crunchgear.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/contour-002-620x408.jpg\" alt=\"contour  002\" title=\"contour  002\" width=\"620\" height=\"408\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-125429\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<strong>The Short Version:<\/strong> The ContourHD 1080p is a capable, semi-rugged, conveniently-shaped HD camcorder that&#8217;s great for all kinds of sporting and active events where a full-size camera isn&#8217;t practical. The 1080p video has admirable still image quality, but skew and compression mean it&#8217;s more of an <em>enthusiast<\/em> tool than a professional one. But for $330, it&#8217;s a great little tool for documenting your rides, falls, and so on, and putting the results up on the internet.<br \/>\n<span id=\"more-124321\"><\/span><br \/>\n<strong>Features:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>1080p max resolution<\/li>\n<li>Water-resistant<\/li>\n<li>Compact casing<\/li>\n<li>Variety of mounts<\/li>\n<li>MSRP: $329.99<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Pros:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Small and lightweight, can be taped or mounted to nearly anything<\/li>\n<li>1080p image quality is good under the right circumstances<\/li>\n<li>Much more resilient than your average HD camcorder<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Cons:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>No LCD means it&#8217;s hard to frame shots<\/li>\n<li>Skew in fast-moving video<\/li>\n<li>Aside from start\/stop, peration isn&#8217;t really intuitive<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We&#8217;ve seen the ContourHD camera in a few guises before: first as the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.crunchgear.com\/2009\/06\/23\/crunchdeals-vholdr-wearable-camcorder-for-99\/\">VHoldR<\/a>, then as the ContourHD proper, and now the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.crunchgear.com\/2009\/06\/17\/feet-on-with-the-vholdr-contourhd\/\">ContourHD <\/a>1080p. Does a resolution bump really necessitate another post? Well, it&#8217;s a cool gadget and there&#8217;s no danger of running out of <em>internet<\/em>, so why not?<\/p>\n<p>Peter demonstrated the ContourHD on his skateboard, and I&#8217;ve done the same on my bike. Throwing caution, traffic laws, and my hair to the wind, I raced (-ish) from the top of Capitol Hill (15th) to Cafe Vita on Pike Street. Then we taped this sucker to my friend&#8217;s shoe and went for a walk in the park. That part of the footage is nauseating, so I&#8217;ve kept it to a minimum. Check out the video below; my comments on quality, exposure, and so on are embedded.<\/p>\n<p><object width=\"620\" height=\"349\"><param name=\"allowfullscreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\" \/><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/vimeo.com\/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=7675027&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color=00ADEF&amp;fullscreen=1\" \/><embed src=\"http:\/\/vimeo.com\/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=7675027&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color=00ADEF&amp;fullscreen=1\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" width=\"620\" height=\"349\"><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n<p>[One correction: I say 640&#215;480 in the video, but it&#8217;s actually 848&#215;480. There&#8217;s also a &#8220;tall HD&#8221; mode, 1280&#215;920, which is handy if you&#8217;re working in 4:3.]<\/p>\n<p>I had the camera stuck to the frame of my bike with one of the included flat-surface mounts; we also attached it to a headband-mounted flashlight but the end result was too ridiculous to wear in public. The ContourHD comes with a sticky mount for putting on a helmet or, say, car hood, and also a goggle strap attachment that took me a while to figure out. You can order additional mounts and replacement sticky pads from the site for a reasonable fee, or you can just wrap the thing in gaffer&#8217;s tape like we did in order to get it on something new.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Build and usability<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The camera itself is small, as you can see in the pictures; I tried to have some objects in there for scale (the candy corn was <em>not<\/em> wasted). I put its weight at about a quarter of a pound, and upon checking the specs&#8230; yes, 4.3 ounces. I&#8217;m really good at ballparks like that. It&#8217;s heavy enough that you&#8217;ll notice it on your goggles (or shoe), but light enough that you don&#8217;t have to worry about it flopping down or peeling off its mount. It&#8217;s mostly aluminum on the outside, and it feels sturdy but not exactly rugged. I&#8217;m sure it can survive being banged about, but I wouldn&#8217;t trust it in a more punishing situation. It&#8217;s water-resistant, as you can see when Mike jumps in the puddle there. The lens has a plastic protector over it, so you don&#8217;t have to worry <em>too <\/em>much about what you wipe it with. The rear door just has a power button on it and the record slider above, but it&#8217;s quick and easy to pop it up and switch out the MicroSD card or change shooting modes.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.crunchgear.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/contour-001.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.crunchgear.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/contour-001-620x357.jpg\" alt=\"contour  001\" title=\"contour  001\" width=\"620\" height=\"357\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-125428\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The device is meant to be set up beforehand and simply <em>activated <\/em>on-site. The switches and flashing lights aren&#8217;t exactly user-friendly, so keep the user guide handy if you want to be sure you&#8217;re doing it right and not trying to record to a full card. Basically you can switch between two recording modes and either record or stop recording. Beyond that there&#8217;s nothing to it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Video quality<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You can activate a little laser level, which is kind of cool, but not really a precision instrument. The two dots, which indicate the horizon of the video, are no more than an inch apart, so if having a really level video is important, be sure to do a test before doing the actual stunt or race. In fact, due to the lack of any kind of feedback or monitor on the device, it&#8217;s probably a good idea to do a really quick video every time you set it up, to make sure you&#8217;re in the right mode and have the thing pointed in the right direction. My bike video has a lot of sky because I didn&#8217;t think to tip the thing down a bit.<\/p>\n<p>Video quality is a mixed bag. Obviously 1080p is the star of the show here, so that&#8217;s what I tested. At that bitrate it&#8217;ll fill a gig in about 15 minutes, which is perfectly reasonable. Its max file size is, I think, only limited by the file system the MicroSD card is formatted in. It&#8217;s encoded in Ambarella something something, &#8220;minimal&#8221; quality, basically an H.264 .mov file. I was pleasantly surprised by image quality, at least during calm moments and still shots. Fast motion, as is the case with every low-end camcorder sensor, leads to skew and jelly effect. You may notice it in quick turns and during bumpy parts of the ride above: objects sort of distort or stretch briefly. Strangely, it also has a fast exposure speed, as evidenced by the individual drops visible when I ride through the mud puddle after entering the park. Slow sensor pull but short exposure&#8230; a strange combination. But it ends up looking fine, and certainly no worse than comparably-priced camcorders. Watch the video above to see how it performs in different circumstances, and <a href=\"http:\/\/drop.io\/CGdropbox\/asset\/file0004-mov\">click here to download a full-res, unprocessed movie file<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.crunchgear.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/still.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.crunchgear.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/still-620x334.jpg\" alt=\"still\" title=\"still\" width=\"620\" height=\"334\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-125434\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Looking at stills from the above-linked video, it&#8217;s clear that the compression hits the wall in areas of intricate detail or very high contrast, and the lens loses a lot of detail at the very edges. That&#8217;s really to be expected, though; remember, this is a compact, fixed-focus camera. Compared to, say, the Sanyo I like so much, it&#8217;s got nothing to be ashamed of. Exposure is remarkably even throughout; even when I&#8217;m pointing the camera more or less into the sun, it retains some shadow detail.<\/p>\n<p><strong>A camcorder for all seasons<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The ContourHD 1080p is a handy little camera. The question is whether it has $50 worth of advantage over its friend the ContourHD &#8220;original flavor.&#8221; I&#8217;d say that if you&#8217;re already working in 1080p, the extra dough is justifiable. That said, the physical limitations of the sensor size and lens clarity mean that you&#8217;re not really getting that much more detail. It comes down to what format you prefer to work with. And it&#8217;s certain that 1080p downrezzed to 720p will look better than the &#8220;plain&#8221; 720p. As for the camera itself, if you are willing to accommodate the spartan controls, this little guy will be handy for lots of projects. Since it&#8217;s pretty resilient, you can put it in situations you might hesitate to put something like a Flip or a nicer 1080p camcorder.<\/p>\n<p>Like the high-speed Casio I reviewed a while back, the possibilities really open up once you have the thing in your hand. I&#8217;d recommend the ContourHD in either of its forms to any amateur videographer looking to expand their oeuvre a little.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/vholdr.com\/contourhd\/helmetcam\">Product Page: ContourHD 1080p<\/a><\/p>\n<p>P.S. If you&#8217;re already a fan of the device, you can vote for it in the <a href=\"http:\/\/crunchies2008.techcrunch.com\/\">Crunchies<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/feedads.g.doubleclick.net\/~at\/rjs7wN0LlevNJOLQT6s2j4A1iBY\/0\/da\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feedads.g.doubleclick.net\/~at\/rjs7wN0LlevNJOLQT6s2j4A1iBY\/0\/di\" border=\"0\" ismap=\"true\"><\/img><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/feedads.g.doubleclick.net\/~at\/rjs7wN0LlevNJOLQT6s2j4A1iBY\/1\/da\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feedads.g.doubleclick.net\/~at\/rjs7wN0LlevNJOLQT6s2j4A1iBY\/1\/di\" border=\"0\" ismap=\"true\"><\/img><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"feedflare\">\n<a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/crunchgear?a=Wc0BMwh6sRY:CnIDJe8dorg:V_sGLiPBpWU\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/crunchgear?i=Wc0BMwh6sRY:CnIDJe8dorg:V_sGLiPBpWU\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/crunchgear?a=Wc0BMwh6sRY:CnIDJe8dorg:F7zBnMyn0Lo\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/crunchgear?i=Wc0BMwh6sRY:CnIDJe8dorg:F7zBnMyn0Lo\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/crunchgear?a=Wc0BMwh6sRY:CnIDJe8dorg:yIl2AUoC8zA\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/crunchgear?d=yIl2AUoC8zA\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Short Version: The ContourHD 1080p is a capable, semi-rugged, conveniently-shaped HD camcorder that&#8217;s great for all kinds of sporting and active events where a full-size camera isn&#8217;t practical. The 1080p video has admirable still image quality, but skew and compression mean it&#8217;s more of an enthusiast tool than a professional one. But for $330, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44371\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}