This is from the pair of Replay XD cameras shooting 1080 30p. Kind of the ultimate vibration test on my Ducati! The forward facing camera is clamp mounted to the frame and I'm pretty happy with the results. The rear facing is mounted to the bodywork with a 4" suction cup. The bodywork flexes a bit so vibration caused some of the footage to jello. The cameras are super easy to use and having the hdmi out to a monitor to frame the shot is great. I'll be running some tests with the mic input to see how that sounds. I think these are good enough cameras to add to the mix of GoPro and Contour. They are much smaller and the mounts are all aluminum. The lens cover is replaceable and there's a bunch of video and audio tweaking parameters accessed through a simple text editor that make this camera a little nicer IMHO. The hdmi out can also send to external recorders which is cool. I have run them into my Matrox and it's a big improvement over the internal compression.
More as I dig deeper with them!

Ducati 848 Dual camera on Vimeo

Looks very good. I was hoping for a wheelie or donut but traffic is good to. (you may have I didn't finish the clip.) LOL. Overall do you like the cameras, do you have gopros to compare to? I have a little kodak play sport I use in 1080i60 and I think your clips are much nicer.

LOL...if I'm doin a wheelie....get out of my way cause something's gone terribly wrong!

I will be borrowing a friends Gopro to get a comparo. I have used Gopros before and to my recollection they look very similar.

The things I like better at this point are the size and shape (much smaller than the Gopro) and the hdmi out which can go to an external recorder for much better quality.

Looks very good. How is the battery life?

Haven't measured exactly but I think it's around 90-100 min. It may be longer.

Robert, do you have a small uncompressed file from the HDMI capture of 720p 60fps or 1080p you could upload to a file host like mediafire, just a 5sec clip will do. Thanks.

Will do once I get back to the studio!

Here's off the card...

be just a bit longer for the HDMI

Thanks, just want to compare the compressed with the uncompressed HDMI.

Here ya go!
Camera settings were the same. Had to compress to h264 to post but I double checked the original files vs what you are seeing and I can't tell any difference so what you see is what the cameras did.

Robert...

Would you be able to shoot a couple of identical scenes with the Contour, GoPro and the Replay?

I'd like to see a comparison of field of view and image characteristics: dynamic range, contrast, saturation.

Thanks!

Want to send me a gopro and contour? I only own the replay and an older 720p contour. My friend has been doing a bunch of work with his gopro. Promise I will do a side by side with those two once available.

I thought you had a GoPro to compare. I'd send my GoPro except there might be some need for it this weekend.

I got a ContourROAM, only to discover that it's a "crippled" version of the other two cameras. The ROAM does not allow camera characteristics (white balance, sharpness, exposure, etc) to be set by the user. It's just slightly less contrasty than the GoPro but not any better in terms of customization.

The audio is also weaker than expected.

When it comes to audio, the GoPro is the equivalent of being profoundly deaf when used in its waterproof housing. The ContourROAM, even at its highest audio setting, is about the same as having a severe hearing loss. You can hear something at least, but it's not going to record usable conversation-level audio at normal working distances of 3 to 6 feet.

I'm hoping either B&H or Contour will take the ROAM back and let me pay the difference to upgrade to the Contour+.

Ahhh forgot that I need to test the audio as well...it has a mic in which I'm assuming would work with a lav. Hopefully it will be really good!

I sent the ContourROAM back to B&H Photo.

And after reading the comments on Contour's user support site, I decided that the Contour+ has some significant disadvantages when it comes to reliability and weather resistance.

To top it off, seeing how Contour handled (or failed to handle) the misleading information about user-configurable cameras on their website, I decided that any other claims they make about their products to be suspect.

So I decided to get a Replay XD 1080 instead.

The reasons:

-- It's $200 less than the Contour+.

-- Smaller and lighter. I'm planning to put this on a small radio-controlled helicopter and need to keep everything as light as possible.

-- Better low-light capabilities. Hot Rod magazine's comparison of four POV cameras clearly showed the Replay to be far beyond the others in the dark.

-- Weather resistant. O-ring seals on a cylinder is about as good as it gets. The Contour+ doesn't seem like it's sealed all that well, especially if there are several complaints about moisture intrusion.

-- HDMI Out. I can use a portable LCD monitor to align the camera with complete confidence. The Contour uses Bluetooth to send a video out to an iPhone or similar. Very handy, but the HDMI out from the Replay should be almost as good for that purpose. You also have to pay extra for the app that allows the link to the camera.

-- No GPS. I don't need that info, and less gadgetry means less power expended on functions not related to capturing picture and sound.

-- Speaking of sound, there are two capsules that allow the built-in mic to be used in quiet or noisy environments. The ContourROAM's audio was a weak point. The other cameras in that line had similar negative reports. Don't know how the Replay XD 1080 would fare, although the claim is that it can capture conversational sounds.

-- There are some very rugged mounting options made out of milled aluminum that grip the cylindrical camera body. Compare that to plastic mounts that slide onto the slender plastic rails of the Contour series.

-- 37mm threaded lens. Opens up the possibility of adding supplementary lenses for a wider field-of-view.

Drawbacks:

-- Built-in battery. Can't swap it out to continue recording. May require sending it back to the factory for replacement in a few years?

-- Field of view isn't as wide as the Contour series. But being able to fit a standard 37mm-threaded wide-angle adapter might solve that problem.

Dean, where did you buy the Replay XD?

Charles... I ordered it directly from Replay. It says it's "in stock" now.

-- Smaller and lighter. I'm planning to put this on a small radio-controlled helicopter and need to keep everything as light as possible.

What size heli are you planning on mounting it to? Do you think a 400 series electric would be enough?

Thanks,

-gb-

What size heli are you planning on mounting it to? Do you think a 400 series electric would be enough?

Thanks,

-gb-

Hi Greg... It's going to be mounted on a T-Rex 450 SE V2. I had a GoPro with the housing mounted on it, and was able to fly it a bit, although I could tell that it was getting to the max payload capacity.

Here's an initial test flight. GoPro test 1.mov - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWE9ojnOC_4)

Mine is on a TRex 450 as well. Just keep your mOunt as light as possible and you'll be fine.

Mine is on a TRex 450 as well. Just keep your mOunt as light as possible and you'll be fine.

Could you post a picture of how you mounted it? I have an idea that uses the existing Replay mount but haven't even gotten my hands on it yet. So I'm just taking a guess at how it could be done.

Also, is there any test footage?

Well, mine is probably overkill but seems to work well, It's 2 sets of small airplane landing gear with some lightweight crossmembers and wood dowels for skids.

I will be tweaking this a bit as the camera plate flexes enough to induce some camera shake. The biggest thing this design allows is easy removal of the camera (1/4-20 camera screw from the bottom. And it also allowed for a slight downward tilt to the camera which looks better when in a hover.
Once I solidify the mount I will be taking some test footage at a local park.
I'll post as soon as that happens. Finally starting to get below 110 deg here!

That's clean and simple.

Here's what I HAD set up with the GoPro. Since this photo was taken, it's been stripped down, the GoPro has been removed and things have been moved around.

I'm going to put the Replay in the same location as the GoPro but with a different mount. I might also try to see if I can come up with a way to isolate it from vibrations with a type of adhesive gel strip.

I'm trying to keep the camera as close to the main rotor shaft, and as close to the CG as possible. My theory is that the closer it is to the center, the smaller the amplitude of vibrations imparted to the camera.

The battery goes underneath, and I've extended the skids with tubular foam. It's lightweight and lifts the helicopter 1/2" to provide better battery clearance. It also provides me with a better sense of orientation since there's no canopy.

Below the camera is a real-time "FPV" camera to let me see what the heli sees in real time.

110 degrees??!!

Yup! Phoenix sucks during the summer and we had the hottest on record topping out at around 117 but averaging about 112!!

Yours looks cool to. I wanted to keep the camera directly below the main shaft for the CG reasons you mentioned. It required no trimming during hover testing which means it should fly just fine in forward. We'll see!!

Good to know that the 400 size electrics will lift a GoPro. The one mod I would want to implement is flat bottom or at least, semi-symmetrical rotor blades, trading 3D performance for more lift.

Thanks for the info, Dean. Very helpful.

-gb-

Very windy day and also first true flight out of a hover. It's faster than I thought...even with all the extra rigging for the camera. Will do more on a calmer day to show what it really can do. Plus I need to shake the cobwebs off my thumbs! Haven't flown a heli this small in a few years!

TREXReplay Test 2 on Vimeo (http://www.vimeo.com/m/30250628)

You seem to have most of the vibrations tamed. Pretty good.

I'm doing something a bit different. The helicopter will be "split" between the frame and the skids. I made a special battery tray that's connected to the skids and the camera will also be mounted to the front end of that.

The whole assembly will have vibration isolating mounts... easier said than done. I have to design the mounts.

I might just make a stack of VHB tape. That stuff sticks REAL good when it has to, and very likely can replace bolts for this kind of application. The key is making it adhere to "high energy surfaces" such as metal. Aluminum is especially good, according to 3M's information.

Very curious to see how the iso mounts work. I have mounts for my motorcycle and the trailer hitch of my car. What i found with a bit of trial and error was that the hard mount worked best. Any looseness amplified vibration.

The other simple thing I could try with the heli is one of my shotgun mic iso mounts which the replay happens to fit in. Could be cool! Got a bit more testing to do with the current setup then I will change things up!

I think I'm also going to put the camera back to level rather than downward tilted. The lens is so wide it should be just fine.

Good to see I'm not the only tinkerer out there!

Very curious to see how the iso mounts work. I have mounts for my motorcycle and the trailer hitch of my car. What i found with a bit of trial and error was that the hard mount worked best. Any looseness amplified vibration.

Here's a before-and-after test I did. One is with the Replay 1080XD hard mounted. The other with a vibration isolation setup I cobbled together.
Vibration test, T-Rex 450 and Replay 1080XD - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Hp75d924cc)

After re-doing the mount and centering the camera, here's another test flight.
Test flight, T-Rex 450, Replay 1080XD - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-tEgaZHL0g)

And there it is! Awesome stuff Dean! You nailed the vibration issue and the footage looks great! Congrats!