5. Contour HD: Surf Test Contd.
I was nervous about a wave breaking the mount or knocking the camera off of its base when I first took the camera surfing, but it held steady when medium- to head-high waves crashed on it. Since I could not stop and then resume recording without taking it out of its mount, I let it record non stop for about an hour while surfing.
The camera’s mount is a bit big on a board and it would obviously hurt if you landed head first on it or if it struck you in the face when taking a big wave on the head, but life is not without risks. You would obviously probably lose the camera if you broke your board in half, but that is just part of the game, isn’t it.
It is impossible to review recorded video with the Contour HD in real time as you record unless you use an accessory that streams video to an iPhone or to an Android phone, but I did not test these options. After surfing, I took the camera home, plugged it into a PC, and used Windows Explorer to access the .mov file with VideoLAN’s VLC media player without a hitch (the Windows media player did not recognize the file).
The video quality is indeed high-definition. However, the camera’s focus is too close, so that my face is too near the camera while paddling, although the distance is okay for those few seconds when I stood up or fell off the board. Positioning the adhesive pad back a bit could have helped, but since the adhesive pad was already fixed, it could not be moved. Since the camera is positioned in the mount sideways, the video is sideways and requires editing (I use Adobe Premiere Elements) to put it right-side up. But besides these drawbacks, the video quality was good.
- 1. A New Generation of Sport Cameras: Did Someone Say Adventure?
- 2. Contour HD
- 3. Contour HD: Confusion and Destruction
- 4. Contour HD: Surf Test
- 5. Contour HD: Surf Test Contd.
- 6. Contour HD: Driving
- 7. Contour HD: Sailing
- 8. Contour HD: Rugged Bike Test
- 9. GoPro Hero
- 10. GoPro Hero: Almost Lost and Destroyed
- 11. GoPro Hero: Surf Test
- 12. GoPro Hero: Driving
- 13. GoPro Hero: Sailing
- 14. GoPro Hero: Rugged Bike Test
- 15. Kodak Easyshare Sport C123
- 16. Kodak Easyshare Sport: Surf Test
- 17. Kodak Easyshare Sport: Sailing
- 18. Kodak Easyshare Sport: Car and Bike Test
- 19. The Ultimate Sea and Sand Abuse Test
- 20. I Want All Three, and Yet...
GoPro's surf kit comes with a leash that attaches to the camera to the board. If you don't have that kit, just attach some braided fishing line or something to it. The leash point on the camera is at the center of the steel pin that hinges the housing's door, you'll see the location if you look.
Even though the wave was hardly waste high, it managed to knock the adhesive mount and camera off my board.
Uh, don't you mean "waist"
My Conotour HD waterproof case let's you turn the power on and off on the back and there is a slider on the top to start and stop recording. All purchased in 2011. So, I'm not sure why you thought you had to remove the camera from the waterproof case.