Need some suggestions for buying a helmet cam
 

I really don't know anything about helmet cams - but I want something that is halfway decent and fairly compact. I'm not looking to spend any more than 400 bucks, but I'd like to keep it around 300 if at all possible. If anyone has experience with helmet cams and has any suggestions I'd appreciate them. I'm looking to mount this on a rail system for an airsoft tournament so the smaller the better- but I don't want to sacrifice video quality too much, and recording time is fairly important.

Thanks

i do not think an helmet cam will fit your need.
helmet cams are mostly video composite as output signal, they have no recording device, no autofocus,no zoom, no shutter, give poor result in low light. they are slow to adapt to change of light.
you would find a small DV camera with all these feature for less than 400$ easily.
with lanc you could remotely operate start/stop/ zoom and focus and with a cheap pan and tilt head, follow the action easily.
if you need wireless connection, you can find the wevi system for as low as 400$
and set a wireless remote camera using wifi with this
http://www.trackercam.com/TCamWeb/powerpod.htm

This is a bit out of my price range, but has anyone had any experience with this?

http://www.vio-pov.com/

it is a nice gadget, but nowhere near what you get from a simple DV cam.
especially if the cam is moving, the mpeg4 compression does not deal very good in such situation (macroblock)
the cable from the recorder to the cam is a special one.
if your goal is to record to solid state (memory card) in mpeg4 (or mpeg), you can find cheaper.
(the price of this device is twice the budget you mentioned first)
for the one who needs an all-in-one solution, it is a really nice tool.
Getting a separate camera (sony has dozen of high end model) and a real recorder will give you a better picture.