Best Price VholdR Full HD ContourHD 1080p Helmet Camera

Splendid Camera for the Price
I bought my camera in May of 2009 and used it for over a year attached to a motorcycle. For the price, the video quality was excellent in bright daylight, in shade during bright daylight, and at dusk. I did not try it at night. This camera was used under very punishing conditions, high heat (mounted near the engine of a high performance motorcycle with over 1000 cc displacement), high speed jolting, and high direct speed (up to 130 MPH). It always performed flawlessly. It's ease of use--the easy-to-access on/off switch--was particularly important as I had to turn it on and off while I was wearing leather gloves and managing the motorcycle at speed.

Although the software for download is not really the best, once you figure out which format you want to use, it's simple to use. Whether in HD or regular speed, the image quality is excellent. Battery life was never an issue for me and I believe I kept it going for at least 2 hours at a time without failure.

I dropped it several times but it had no effect on performance afterwards. I did cause a problem otherwise with the machine myself, but I was able to get help from the VholdR tech people via e-mail. They were incredibly responsive, polite, fast, and helpful. I contacted them on several questions and issues and every time they were fantastic. They absolutely get an "A" for quality customer service. My most recent contact was in August 2010 and they were fast and thorough.

I cannot speak to the failures others say they experienced. All I can say is that with over a year of hard duty on mine, it never failed and always produced quality videos. My only complaint is that wind does affect the microphone. Once you exceed 30 MPH, the wind noise predominates the audio. However if wind noise is not an issue for you, the audio quality is actually quite good. It will easily pick up someone talking in a normal tone at 30 feet away.

I thought so highly of this camera that I just bought a second one (August 2010) because my son often wants to use it. So far, that one is just as good as the one I got in 2009. Given the prices and the configurations of the nearest competitors, I think VholdR is the best for the price, and the best even for a higher price given its robust durability and ease of use.

Serious disappointment
I bought the camera to record some of my flights in my plane. Something was wrong with it right out of the box. The computers that I have were not able to recognize it. The video's while nice were not able to be viewed without Quick time, Since the camera could not be seen by the computer there was no way to edit without buying Quick Time Pro which was a pain all by itself. I could get the video edited, but could not get Quick Time to upload any music, from anything, CD's Files, nothing. All in all a royal pain in the butt. I declined to return it for repair, and just returned it. Amazon was nice enough to allow me to return it.

Initial Failure and Over Priced
Keeping the two topics separate..(performance and initial failure of my camera)

BLUF: Camera is equal to Go Pro, sexier than GoPro but has poor mounting options. Think carefully about mounting before selecting between the two. If you want mounting versatility at no additional/ hidden cost the Go Pro is a better choice by giving you lots of mounts for the same dollars as the Vhold's single mount.

More detail:


Aside from my initial product failure.. the overall performance and quality seems good, I would ding the design of both cameras for

1) not providing a standard camera screw mount on the bottom
2) not providing an LED visible from the back of the camera to indicate that the camera is off/on/filming this could be done with a simple 3 mode LED


The Vhold unit worked for a week but now only records about 3 minutes and shuts off.. I have 2 batteries and the unit fails to operate with either battery

I bought the Vhold and my brother bought the GoPRo

The VHOLD has only one mount and does not have a standard camera thread. For the same price the Go Pro has equal picture performance and has a variety of mounts that are very versatile including a weatherproof system and a suction cup.

I have spent 50 dollars extra on a mount and shipping now.

The picture quality is equal.
The Vhold has a sexier form factor

But Vhold is I think about 75 dollars over priced.

I would recommend Vhold include mounts and some extra memory or drop the price by 75 dollars to be competive


BTW the customer service to handling the repair has been excellent. Very responsive and cooperative... here is hoping you do not need that part!

I look forward to having a good performing (over priced) camera in a month!


here is a link to a video using the Vhold
[...]


and one with my brother's Go Pro for comparison

[...]


Good luck!

Eric

lens quality is mediocre
Overall camera design is good, especially big sliding button is very convenient to deal with, when using gloves.
However, the most annoying fact for me was blur on the left and right screen edges.
I've bought both ContourHD 720 and ContourHD 1080 models, and both went to trash can for the same reason.
Seems that lens quality is mediocre even for that cheap camera. That's the main "no-no".
And I'm not the single upset person with similar complaints on lens quality, if you go to vholdr support site, you will see plenty of other poor sods with similar issues.
Blur is either at the center of the screen or at the screen edges easily see at at any videomode.
Bought GoPro HD, which is less convenient and more fragile at handling, but at least has non-flawed image quality.

Not happy, lots of distortion
I purchased the 1080P contour for an event at Laguna Seca. Everything arrived ontime and was all set for the event. After the event I setup the software for playback and every video I took had horizontal lines distorting the picture! Needless to say I was pretty upset. I called Amazon and explain the problem and it was very easy to get a replacement 1080P and memory card. I received the replacement units the very next day! Excellent service by Amazon.

I charged the replacement unit and tested it by taking a video of my son. It had the same exact distortion as the original unit! There is no distortion when it is perfectly still but as soon as you move it around with your hand it would have these horizontal lines that made the picture completely unwatchable.

I returned this unit as well and have not purchased another camera since. Very disappointed with it.