Santon Downham Singletrack

A section of single track familiar to everyone who rode WS3. This is further footage of my camera mount test. I have edited this quite heavily to fit into the space available (500MB). I think it shows off some nice trails and some decent riding from my mates, especially as they dropped me quite comprehensively!

There is more to come from this ride but it might have to be back to YouTube and their horrible compression if I am to get it all on before it is time to start filming again!

More footage from Sunday’s ride

Just a short clip from rougher terrain and slightly downhill from the top of Santon Downham to the car park. A bit more of a test for the new mount. Don’t forget you can watch it in 720p!

Thetford Forest – Tightrope

I have about 2 hours of raw footage to edit, export etc and it will take me quite a while so I thought I’d post up a clip of Tightrope for you to have a look at. Resolution is 720p but YouTube does not do it justice. I will put the final file(s) on Vimeo. The film was shot with the Contour 1080p using a prototype handlebar mount a mate built up for me. As you can see it is steady as a rock particularly when you consider the test rig was my rigid Swift. We rode over rougher terrain too and it showed no sign of camera wobble there either.

Contour HD1080p Camera – handlebar mount

I fitted this to the Swift yesterday and took it out for an inaugural try out. I didn’t go far, down the road, along some very lumpy fire road and back. Despite riding a rigid bike, the picture was very steady with no sign of wobble at all. I’ll be going out to Thetford this morning, probably over to Santon Downham side and back via the Gay Trail (don’t ask) which will cover almost every type of terrain. This will be the best test yet. I’ll post some clips on this entry later in the day if I get time.

Oh yes, yesterday for the first time, I noticed the slight fish eye quality to the film that others have spoken of. No big deal when you get used to it but a little weird ar first!

I am in the middle of downloading the video clips to iMovie so it will take several hours before i can even start editing but having watched  the raw footage I can confirm that the image is very stable with no sign of camera wobble at all. I rode on fire road and some very lumpy single track as well as some really buff trails (currently in perfect condition). I didn’t want to give the camera or the mount an easy ride so I fixed it my rigid 29er with a reasonable amount of pressure in the tyres. Rich and Dan were my riding companions and both have the legs on me at the moment though I don’t doubt I can edit the footage to show me on their tails all the time! I think the experiment was a success and with the camera mounted low-ish you got a really good impression of the speed we were riding at whereas mounted higher up, the impression of speed just disappears.

Contour HD1080p prototype mount

After my films of the locale taken at an “interesting” angle, I decided to buy a handlebar mount. A quick look online and I spotted that almost every review was negative -ish. Too much wobble being the predominant comment and many people returned the mounts to the retailer as not fit for purpose. I mentioned this to a friend of mine who promptly came over to my house, grabbed the camera and helmet mount and said he’d be back in a day or so with a solution. True to his word he popped over yesterday with a handlebar mount fashioned from a billet of aluminium. The clamp was measured up to fit the bars exactly and it fits as snug as a bug in a rug. Designed so the camera is slung underneath the handlebars it is unobtrusive (i.e. it doesn’t get in the way) and is easy to aim at the target.

At this stage it is untested and very much a prototype. I’ll take some photos later and post them up. The proof of the pudding however will be in the film quality. Anyway, if it works and can be refined to make it marketable he’ll be prepared to make them for less than the official mount. Watch this space!

As I said this is very much a prototype to test the principle – will it give a rock steady platform, how easy is it to use etc? If it works then we’ll start to refine it – starting with slimming it down, taking off the sharp edges etc. My bike is really due to be stripped down and have the shocks serviced, new headset, new cables etc etc but I’ll see if I can’t take it out for a run with the camera on to see how it works before i start spannering.