WTF. Contour went under?

Dammit.

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Self-righteous douche canoe

old news, apparently?

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-08-21/three-lessons-in-the-wipeout-of-contour-cameras

Definitely a bummer. GoPro still has a handful of features to rip off of their competitors, but their market penetration means they're not going anywhere any time soon - even with a mostly inferior product. (Yes, most reviews still pick GoPro as the best video quality - and I suppose that's important for a camera...)

We were talking cameras at our last rallycross, and a regular gopro user was marvelling at some of the features of my co-driver's Drift Innovation camera. ("It comes with a remote?" "You don't have to mount the camera itself right-side up?" ) Even said he'd probably pick one up.

Same thing he said about mine (older model of the same camera) 2 years ago...

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KF7RWG
http://www.utahrallygroup.com

Yeah, seems like it happened in August.

I've got nothing against GoPro - their cameras are boxy but they will take a helluva lot of abuse. I just liked the Contour better for inside the car. Little things like the Bluetooth aiming and huge easy-to-use switch made me happy.

Meh.

Time to build my own.

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Self-righteous douche canoe

we have a contour. quality is good. it gets really hot in the car and battery life sucks. there is no easy way to run 12V adapter unless the back is off of it.

Bummer.
AFAIK, they were the only ones to support grassroot rallying in the US. Essentially gave us six cameras to use for filming MaxAttack as sponsorship. Guess they shoulda been humping Ken Block instead.
Personally, I'm not much of a fan of any of them, but I've always been of the belief (correct belief FYI) that audio is what is important, not video. I'd take low resolution with killer audio over high resolution with shitty audio every day.
My favorite camera for onboard footage is still my trusty old Sony D8. I can even run external mics and lipstick cams and use it to record the footage if I want. For Pikes Peak 2005 I had an external mono mic into one channel and the Peltor into the other. Then in post production I mixed the two and was able to fine tune the codriver volume. Car was so loud had trouble finding a place to pick up audio without massive clipping but okay.
Sony D8




GoPro (just try to watch more than a few corners. I can't, boring!)
http://www.streetfire.net/video/elkhead-flats-on-board-from-rally-colorado-merku_186617.htm

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Grant Hughes



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/24/2013 06:38PM by NoCoast.

Yeah, Contour battery life does suck, but I picked up a couple extra batteries and we'd swap 'em at service. My only real annoyance with them was that their external audio feed was mono-only, and I liked having a split feed with one channel being the ambient car and the other being the intercom. Then I could mix them down in post-production, same as Grant. I just finished building an small mixer so that I could get that same effect by presetting the levels in the car and then recording them live as a mono, but wasn't happy with that and was considering just doing some digital conversion and interlacing two digital channels onto a a single audio track, and then pulling them out later.

Right now I don't know what I'm going to do. Maybe I'll go back to bullet cams and use a Raspberry Pi. My old ChaseCam system died and ChaseCam is a PITA to deal with for RMAs.

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Self-righteous douche canoe

Sony has an action cam for $200 that includes wifi (View, start, and stop from phone) that caught my eye. Has an imput for external mic. Never got around to checking for reviews but could be worth looking into.

The drift HD ghost was one that got some great reviews.

Agreed on the audio thing.

The new GoPros have a 3.5mm audio input ---- I only have an old one so have never tried it.

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____________________________________________________________-

One. Class -- 2WD

www.quantumrallysport.com

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/Quantum-Rally-Sport/281129179600?ref=nf

I am looking at the new Garmin Virb Elite that is expected to ship soon. I had bad luck with GoPros though my Countur was also a little hard to get to work right.

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In the long run reality always wins.

Quote
aj_johnson
Sony has an action cam for $200 that includes wifi (View, start, and stop from phone) that caught my eye. Has an imput for external mic. Never got around to checking for reviews but could be worth looking into.

The drift HD ghost was one that got some great reviews.

They just came out with a new smaller one that has onboard GPS too. I have the slightly older one without GPS but with wifi. To keep it short:

Pros:
-Nice big power button, one click start up
-Image stabilization is brilliant
-Case mounts with standard 1/4" screw
-Can use my phone as a viewfinder/remote
-3.5mm audio input
-Great battery life, replaceable so swap when dead or run off usb power

Cons:
-Start/stop record sound is quiet, power LED is small and hard to see
-Can't easily mount without waterproof case on (similar to gopro)
-Can't plug audio in or power in without (easily) modifying case (sony has a new one that fixes this)
-Sony mounts suck. I ended up getting a GoPro to 1/4" stud adaptor made by Drift to use GoPro mounts.

Considering if does everything the top shelf GoPro does except 4k video, and its half the price, hell ya its awesome. I'd like to get another...

All about the Drift here. Mounts at any angle, built in LCD, with a DC>USB cable, 32gb card and audio patch to the intercom I can record an entire days rally even if I forget to hit the remote to turn it on/off. Caught every single stage of Targa Newfoundland 2011 with it without missing a stage second.

If the Ghost were $50-75 cheaper it would be a no brainer, but its a bit too spendy right now.

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Atlantic Canadian Region Rallysport: http://www.rallyeast.ca - Ledwidge Lookoff Rally http://www.lookoffrally.com
2000 Impreza 2.5RS CARS P4WD (Sponsored by Rally-Tech, Great North Performance)

honestly i hated the one in adam cranes car when i was codriving with charles. the button on the rear wouldnt work so you couldn't turn it on and off.

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First Rally: 2010 First RallyX: 2004 (a bunch)
Driver (0), Co-Driver (7)
Organizer (3), Volunteer (3)
Cars Built (2.5), Engines Blown (2) Cages Built (0) # of rotations (3.5)
Last Updated, Apr 9, 2023

But, Wait! theres more!

Investor plans to revive Contour after winning bid to buy GoPro rival for $1.9M

With a bid of $1.925 million, investment company Clarke Capital Partners has emerged as the prevailing bidder for the assets of Contour Inc., the Seattle-based action-camera company that abruptly closed its doors in August in the face of tough competition from its larger rival GoPro.

The sale, which resulted from a competitive auction by a court-appointed receiver, has been approved by the court but still needs to be finalized by the parties.

Clarke Capital is an existing Contour investor. Assuming everything goes through, Clarke Capital plans to bring back the Contour business and brand, confirmed James Clarke, the CEO and managing partner of the Utah-based investment company, speaking with GeekWire via phone this morning.

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Enablers, All of you.