Questions I often get~ Where have you been? You don't have one of these yet?I know show me some footage you say! You must check the site for some great videos people have made from just quick clips some with no editing at all to full on short movies. I recommend that because there is not enough room to describe how cool this wireless and very light camera is to use but I'll try! I'm a customer not an employee... and "i am pc!"
Camera is so light and versatile I've used a basic piece of Velcro strapped to my cap visor during golf, stuck it to my bike frame, velcro'd to my motorcycle kickstand, strapped it to ski pole to check a wasp nest, and of course it serves great as a plain ol' helmet cam too.
Someone even stuck it to an RC Plane. Even on their dog for a dog cam view. yup! Set yourself free!! no wires means you will not have to worry about much except wiping out while catching your buddies on film.
With the flick of the glovable slider on/off switch and audible sounds and aiming lasers you are able to basically use it with your eyes closed or even place it where you can't see it during filming. Its got a supermic as well it will pickup a pin dropping ;o) All which can be adjusted when you edit/censor your movies even add music.
The build quality is very durable and can take impact. Trust me ;o)and the adhesive with supplied mount is semi permanent you may have to use a crowbar to take it off but you do not have to worry even at well ~ unsafe speeds. Basically you can be creative on where you place this camera knowing it will film for over an hour+ of footage at a time. Battery life will last about 3gb or more of video on a good charge.
Package comes with microSD card but Sandisk premier 2gb card is best to use with this unit. This battery should be charged by separate charger which seems to super charge the battery, usb charge by a pc is not going to help you get out there filming quick enough. Specially, when you need 2 batteries for a full day of mtn.biking, or Snowboarding so you still have juiceafter you warm up and stop wiping out. The packaged items that come with camera is a good starter kit with a mount, cam, sd card, battery you have software(which VholdR updates with cool new features every so often) which assists you in producing your video to the VholdR.com site for sharing. Yes, they have a producer hub for you to share your videos.
Oh yah, the desktop software also supports _mac now. of course "I AM PC!"
My VholdR carry along always ready ALLDAY bag contains: 2 batteries and 3 2gb sd cards since camera software does not yet support larger sd cards. Which really is not a problem because 2gb cards are cheap. Cabela's #2 scope cover for lens, extra stick on mount(never know where you might be)
Quality of video for this unit is not HD but captures quality STABLE videos when moving fast. At slow captures like walking or filming a party its just like any other camera. Some lighting issues may occur depending on where you are filming at high speed, i.e. Night time, shadow/bright light changes.
640x480 is still a fine size which uses less space on SDcard, it sure would be nice to be able to toggle resolution WHEN larger SDHC card support is there.
My VholdR has been thru rain, mud, dirt and has so far over 4months has been such an enjoyable experience i can easily recommend to others.
VholdR receives additional "way cool marks" for providing Desktop Software to help with managing movie uploads. Software updates and firmware updates prove they are not just a camera maker. Oh did i mention a cool site to share your movies for free?
Overall experience is that this is not just a camera so two swollen thumbs and two purple toes up for this gem of a camera from me!
Ok enough typing... check for yourself get out there and shoot its almost snow season get your angles dialed. Where you been?
my best examples would be ~ thatsMOCKFOO on VholdR website btw, i have no idea who that nut is!
~ go get some videos people!VholdR Wearable Camcorder (Black)
My only negatives are,
* 2gb max microsd support(not a big deal) after cutting up videos i find smaller clips are easier to manage anyways.
* When the battery dies if you are still in ON mode your video is not closed so the last video clip could be corrupt. So I changed my habit until that is figured out.
* Making shorter clips is easier to manage I've found. Just accept turning it off then on about an hour into video or gauge your battery life like a gas tank. You can check how much battery and sd card is left by pressing the button btw.
* Lighting changes from super dark shadows transition to super bright sections of trail may take a short while for focus depending on where camera is mounted. Not many cameras can handle this anyways.
These are minor negatives but prevent a 5 from me.
Still a super camera for a such a light wireless and reasonably priced for good action video camera that i won't mind thrashing a bit filming in the elements. This is a rugged camera which you can capture action in ways you may not with your bulky thousand dollar HD camera. Like strapping it to your snowboard or your motorcycle kickstand, or how about your mountain bike pedal? Escape from the paradigm of the helmet cam.
my first action camera was the atc2k, which i still own.
i loved it since it was small, durable and i could make videos from the coolest angles.
this camera is pretty much the same, with a few improvements and a few drawbacks compares to the atc2k. it all depends on what you want to do with it.
1. size and weight great. small, light. perfect for what it needs to do.
2. controls i like the big record button. quick. comfortable. perfect for those "i gotta get this shot" moments.
3. lasers and rotating lens AMAZING! i love this! one of the most annoying things in the atc2k is the fact that you cant rotate the lens, and need to edit the video and flip it after you are done. the lasers help you align the camera. cooool!
4. mount much easier than the atc2k, but the drawback is you cant put it on your handlebar or your arm. only a helmet or a flat surface.
5. comes with a memory card. sweet!
a few other missing things that would make this product a 5 star:
1. waterproof. resistance means nothing.
2. option to change video quality and such
3. a screen to replace the confusing LEDs that tell you the battery status and memory card status.
so if you want to take videos of crazy rides on your bike this is the one for you! perfect!
anything more "all around" get the atc2k but remember that all around things always have drawbacks.
Buy Contour Wearable Camcorder (Black) Now
The Quick Take: It's pricey compared to the competition, in some cases twice as expensive. Video quality is OK, not outstanding and not HD. It is not waterproof but can get splashed on with no ill effects. Memory has a 2GB limitation (other cameras have 32GB capability!). Battery life is not exceptional and uses a proprietary lithium ion battery. vHoldr software is not that useful and is buggy on the Mac platform. My 13 year old nephew though it was awesome, I thought it was OK but way too expensive for what it offers.The vHoldr is one of a number of video cameras in the "sports cam" or "helmet cam" genre. It is intended to be used in action situations, such as extreme sports, where capturing video using a conventional video camera or video capability of a point and shoot camera would be difficult if not impossible.
The vHolder box contains the camera, a 2GB microSD card, a 15-inch USB cable (which may be OK for laptop use but is far too short to be useful with a Tower computer that's on the floor), Lithium Ion battery, helmet mount with leash and manual. The vHoldr software for PC is included on the microSD card and is also available from the vholdr website. A Mac version is finally available.
Some people strap the camera to their dog to get a first person point of view. Other people use them to capture video of various activities such as skydiving, motocross, bicycling, snowboarding, etc. The usage of a camera like this is limited only by your imagination.
The vHoldr is a fairly compact design, measuring about 3 3/4 inches long and about, 1 1/4 inch wide and about 2 1/8 inch tall. The casing is made of aluminum with plastic side rails which are used for mounting the camera onto a variety of pricey optional mounts, such as a handlebar mount, or the included helmet mount. The camera has a fixed focus lens and a 90-degree field of view (which is great.)
There is a simple control system consisting of a large sliding recording on/off switch on the top and a small push button on the rear of the unit to power it on and off. The sliding switch could be made easier to use if it had a ribbed area to create a more grippy surface. Its quite likely you might have gloves on your hands and the ribbing would provide a better tactile experience when turning recording on/off.
The rear (back) of the vHoldr slides up and then down and out to reveal the microSD slot, Lithium Ion battery compartment with plastic locking arm and USB port. The battery locking arm if of questionable durability and it wouldn't surprise me in the least if it snaps off one of these days.
There are three LED's that provide various indications: power on, charging state (only visible when rear door is open) and memory usage. The LED's change color between red, yellow and green. For many color blind individuals, discerning the color change of the LED's will be impossible thereby limiting their usefulness.
There is also an LED at the front of the vHoldr that, when lit, indicates that power is on. The vHoldr also incorporates two laser indicator lights to help you orient the camera by adjusting the lens orientation and mount positioning during the power on sequence.
Video is captured at a resolution of 640x480 and the quality is acceptable in moderate to bright light outdoor situations. In low light the quality diminishes greatly. There is no image stabilization so depending on the method of mounting the camera, you may not be happy with the constant jerky movement of the video. However since the field of view is so large, essentially a wide angle lens, the jerky effect is less than it would be otherwise.
The microphone is extremely prone to picking up wind noise making it mostly useless for situations where wind will be an issue. Covering the microphone hole (located on the bottom of the vHoldr) with tape is an option but doesn't help much.
The software provided is abysmal. It provides no way to export the video except to "share" it on the vHoldr website and only once it is shared, are you able to email a video somewhere. If you don't really want to share a video, you're out of luck. Of course, you can pull the video file right off the memory card but on a Mac, you can't view the video in Quicktime since the codec used by vHoldr is not compatible with QuickTime at the time of this review. On a Mac, you can use the Open Source software VLC to view the videos produced by the vHoldr. On my MacBook with 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, I had constant problems with the vHoldr Desktop software crashing, freezing up and generally misbehaving.
The bottom line is that this camera captures video of average quality. It's not HD. It performs pretty well in lower light situations. There is no way to format your memory card in the camera. In fact, you can't really format the card unless you purchase a microSD adapter and a separate card reader that hooks up to your USB on your computer. In addition, for people with large hands, getting at the microSD slot to insert or remove the card is quite a challenge in dexterity. You can't download video to your computer if the vHoldr battery is depleted even though the USB cable provides power to the camera. The Camera must be "ON" and connected to your computer to enable downloading. It's ridiculous because if you've just spent several hours capturing video, you're probably going to have a dead battery and you then have to curb your enthusiasm for watching the video until your camera can charge the battery enough for you to transfer it to your computer. And vHoldr does not even provide a wall plug USB power adapter so you have to let your computer USB charge your camera.
I feel this camera is overpriced and does not present a good value particularly when you factor in the exorbitantly priced mounts and adhesive pads. There are similar products, notably the ATC5k Oregon Scientific ATC 5K Waterproof Action Cam Flash Memory Video Recorder with 1.5-Inch Color LCD Screen, Still Image and Web Cam Capabilities (Blue), the ATC3K Oregon Scientific ATC 3K Waterproof Action Cam Flash Memory Video Recorder with Web Cam Capabilities (Black), both by Oregon Scientific and the Tachyon XC (which takes up to 32GB memory cards and comes with a remote control) by Tachyon Inc., that cost half as much as the vHoldr while providing similar video quality. By the way, forget about getting spontaneous videos quickly because the vHoldr takes a full 23 seconds to boot up before it is ready to capture any video.
Pros:
Aluminum casing is durable but scratches
Captured video is adequate.
Decent low light performance
Very wide angle of view
Cons:
Expensive
Extremely short USB cable
No image stabilization
Difficult to access microSD card
Not waterproof
Expensive accessories such as additional mounts
Memory capacity is limited to a 2GB card.
No built in way to erase or reformat memory card
Microphone is subject to extreme wind noise during movement.
Takes 23 seconds to power on and boot
Power adapter is not included
Other cameras to consider
ATC5K by Oregon Scientific
Tachyon XC by Tachyon Incorporated
UPDATE 1/2/2009
I felt compelled to update my review because my satisfaction with this camcorder has diminished from what I wrote. Two main issues are the ability to easily or conveniently mount the camera to anything and the other issue is the difficulty formatting the memory card. Formatting the memory card cannot be done in the camcorder. It must be removed and mounted via a USB memroy card reader to your computer. Yeah...if you don't have one you'll have to buy one. Big hassle. And concerning the mounting of the camcorder; because of it's odd shape with the "rail" system, it is extremely difficult to fashion any sort of homemade mounting solution. About the only thing I've been able to come up with so far is to attach a piece of velcro to the cylinder of the camcorder and attach it to the matching velcro on whatever you want to attach it to, It's not totally secure and can wiggle a bit but at least it gives you a bit of flexibility other than buying their expensive, single use mounting discs. I would honestly have to rate this only 2 stars at this point.
UPDATE 7/10/2009
OK, vHoldr has now introduced a new model thus this model has been reduced in price to $129. I still would not buy it since it has so many issues which I've already documented. But many people will find it attractive at the new price point. It does provide a pretty good value now at $129.
Read Best Reviews of Contour Wearable Camcorder (Black) Here
I have strapped VholdR on my dog, using tape, in order to demonstrate the camcorder in action. The video is shaky, especially when Savannah runs, but I think the results are brilliant. Obviously the results would be better if taken by a person on a bike, skateboard, ski etc. to eliminate shaking while walking. I think VholdR is a fun gadget and I will be inventing new ways to use it. However it is not a replacement for a regular camcorder.
Software would not install properly on my Vista, but it is not necessary, as files can be uploaded directly via USB. To those who are frustrated with charging via PC, you can get an USB charger adapter for faster charging.
Want Contour Wearable Camcorder (Black) Discount?
One word comes to mind ... WOW!This is a very well thought out unit. There are some CONs which I will get into later in this review, however I wish to focus more on the PROs. This little gem is small, light and very easy to use. The laser aiming gave me a perfectly pointed and level video, right out of the box. I purchased this to record what I was doing while in a Kart in the hopes of helping my driving capabilities. Only after one use, I am now seeing and hearing (for the first time) mistakes or lack there of, through every turn and down every straight-away. I also used it as a hand held video recorder to capture some of the action of another heat from the sidelines; a bit cumbersome but still very useable.
I must say I have no experience with other types of helmet cams, but unless you want wires to route, remote recorder and batteries to hide or a bulky looking box sticking out of the top of your head, I think this might be the perfect solution to capture the action. I do wish it had the capability of a remote microphone so as to be able to make comments during the video recording. You can yell with a full face helmet and not hear it on the video.
When I was first "getting to know" the cam, I found references to wind noise problems (in my case it does not cause problems) but the cure is to place a piece of tape over the microphone. This would not usually be a problem, but where is the microphone?!? I could not find anything that even remotely looks like a mic and could not find anything in the user guide or online to point out where it might be hiding (just in case).
If you decide to download the video via the USB port, be prepaired to go and get a cup of coffee or beer ... it takes almost as long to down load through the camera USB as it did to take the video. Use a reader to transfer the videos, much faster (only a few seconds for 20 minutes of video).
The vHoldr Desktop is a nice piece of software for viewing and very limited editing but if you want to do anything even remotely creative or burn to DVD you will need to get some extra software that converts .AVI correctly. Windows Media player does not (in my case) even show the video correctly.
In any event, if you decide to get one, you will probably need a few extras ... BUT ... Enjoy it! It is fun!!
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PROs: very light and unobtrusive, close to 2 hours of video on 2 GB storage. Battery 2.5 hours, but memory and battery both replacable at the track, or the slope, in just a few seconds.
CONs: resolution could be higher, memory not capable of more than 2 GB, not remote microphone capable, online problem support limited to news groups and some Q&A's, supplied video editing software great to watch but could use improvement. AVI format causes problems sharing video with friends.
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