I picked up a "Tony Hawk's Helmet Cam" about a year ago with the idea
that it was cheap enough to risk breaking it in a cave or dropping it
in a pool of water. It has survived a handful of caving trips,
including a thorough beating against the sides of Robber Baron cave.
Here's one for $25:
http://www.compuplus.com/i-Digital-Blue-Tony-Hawk-Helmetcam-1011956~.html?sid=6d9v35b715u3v12
For dropping a wide pit lit by daylight like Devil's Sinkhole, it does
a reasonable job: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_8H2ewVOd4
In a cave at a range of 2-3 feet with the 2nd brightest setting
selected on a Princeton Apex, it does a reasonable job:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7G83DLfvW8Y
The video quality is about what you'd expect for a camera in its price
range: 320x240, 15fps, heavy compression artifacting, and poor
low-light response. For your average stumbling through a cave, the
results are mixed from poor to unwatchable, usually because they are
too dark, but sometimes because of a weakness inherent in any helmet
cam: it's attached to you helmet, which is in turn attached to your
head. Our sneaky little brains play a very neat trick on us where in
shifting our focus from one point to another, we perceive a smooth and
seamless transition. Watching *videos* of the same transition, from
almost the same perspective, our brains don't know how to perform this
smoothing, and the result is violent and almost nauseating. A
helmet-cam operator needs a great deal of focus and discipline to
overcome the natural instinct to turn his head at a normal speed for a
human, and this is a talent I do not have! Overall, it's a fun toy
that can shoot some crappy video that's great for your local grotto's
recruitment purposes, if nothing else.
~Alan Blevins
On Thu, Jul 17, 2008 at 1:10 PM, Matt Turner wrote:
> Yeah we've had a few people bring these on our beginner trips and normally
> all you really get is a low quality video of hands and dirt. They only
> capture well where your head lamp is pointed and only then if it's decently
> bright. Truthfully though as with most things it probably just takes some
> tweaking to get the results you want out of it.
>
> Matt Turner
>
> "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought
> without accepting it." - Aristotle
>
> "Empty pockets never held anyone back.Only empty heads and empty hearts can
> do that."- Norman Vincent Peale
>
> - Original Message
> From: "Minton, Mark"
> To: nmca...@caver.net; txcaver
> Cc: "jcbr...@alum.rit.edu" ; yd
>
> Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2008 9:06:59 AM
> Subject: [Texascavers] Helmet Cam
>
> Now you can get a good deal on a waterproof helmet camera to record
> all of your caving and other exploits. Mountain Gear has one on sale for
> only $100.
> <http://www.mountaingear.com/pages/product/Search_Results_Endeca_New.asp?N=0&Nu=p_rollup&Ntk=s_search&Ntx=mode%2Bmatchallpartial&Ns=p_name%7C0&Nty=1&Ntt=Oregon+Scientific>
> It doesn't say how well they do in low-light though.
>
> Mark Minton
>
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