Comments on: Samsung head cam: Good idea, needs improvement

A spy cam is something we all want, but it needs a few improvements.

[SeriesZ]

VHoldR Comparo?

Michael, you really should be wearing a helmet when you ride. Then you could mount a VHoldR, a new wearable camcorder that should send Samsung home in tears.

http://www.vholdr.com/

[evilc1971]

Flawed idea

The VHoldR form factor is fundamentally flawed.
Without a reference camera on which you can watch what you are shooting as you shoot it, it can be very hard to line the shot up, especially if you do sideways sports (eg snowboarding). The VHoldR appears to have dual lasers to help with this. Not convinced. I tried using a laser with my ATC-2000. Try seeing where a laser beam is going in bright sunlight - they would have to be real powerful beams and I doubt regulations would mean that you could set the beams to on without holding a button. Thus, for example, with snowboarders, when using the lasers to line up the shot - you would have to be holding a "normal riding position" with your hand on your head holding a button - you won't get a natural position and the shot will be framed badly. Plus, no screen means you cannot review clips in the field and free up space on the SD card by deleting uninteresting footage.
Then there is an issue of weight. Why wear the power source on your head?

[evilc1971]

Riddled with inaccuracies

This review is pretty rubbish.
A couple of weeks and he didn't figure out how to take a still and thought one of the buttons "Did nothing".

"Positioning the lens takes practice. The first few movies I took were of the sky--the camera was set too far back on my head. Subsequently, I got some good shots of the ground five feet ahead of me. You can check what the head cam is seeing through the camera's built-in LCD, but when you're biking or running, that's not practical. Still, after about six tries I got the hang of it."
What an idiot. Of course you can use the screen to help set up the camera positioning. Just do it while stationary. When you have it all lined up, then start running / cycling / whatever.

Then, he failed to understand that the recording format is normal divx, just with a fourcc of SEDG instead of DIVX. You do not need to "convert" it. You just need to use a hex editor or a program like avic to change 4 bytes in the header, and viola, it is a divx AVI. Yes, it is annoying that samsung decided to use that fourcc, but not the end of the world. Then there is that gripe about having to install a codec. Oh boo hoo, that's so inconvenient.

"With the Sports Camcorder, I missed a few shots because I had it on play rather than record. I also inadvertently shut it off once." Again, due to stupidity. The light clearly tells you what state it is in. I have never done this.

"With a Samsung device, do not leave the house until you have these functions committed to memory." Do you have problems programming your VCR? I was able to work this thing fine within seconds of picking it up.

"Third, resolution. It films in 720x480. Thus, the clips look OK on a PC, but it's not for every screen."
You sir, are a moron. It is for EVERY SCREEN, that's the point. Because EVERY TV SCREEN (Standard definition ones that is) in the USA IS 720x480!! That's NTSC resolution!

Kindly learn a little about the field you are reviewing about or get another job. OK, the camera isn't the best camera in the world, but it is noticable as being the best standard definition, standard framerate, but tapeless all-in-one solution by a major manufacturer. Sure, you can assemble a package of, say, an archos hdd recorder + bullet lens, but it will weigh a lot more, will not have so good a remote system, will probably need extra battery p acks and most of them will not do full res 720x576 PAL (They all do like 480 line for NTSC).

For the price and the seamless integration of components, this is a great product at a great price.

[evilc1971]

Oh, and also

A 2GB card will hold over an hour of video from this camera on the highest quality setting. Well it does on my PAL one, and NTSC should theoretically be able to fit more as PAL's spatial resolution is higer (720x576x25 is greater than 720x480x30), although I suspect that the data stream is a Constant Bit Rate irrespective of format.