VholdR All-In-One Video Camera
I was excited to get my hands on the VholdR All in One Camera. The camera body is small, fits in the palm of your hand. The camera does not include a memory card so I had to run out and pick up a micro SD card, currently the VholdR does not support SDHC cards. TIP: When formatting the memory card be sure to use FAT32 like the quick start suggests. Once I had the card formatted I was ready to roll video.
My first attempts with the camera didn’t go quite like I had hoped. I ran into problems that I later chalk up to user error for the most part. For example, when you turn on the camera it needs to “boot” up. This boot up process can take 10 to 20 seconds, but if you are familiar with an instant digital satisfaction world, like myself, you might not be patient enough. When I didn’t hear any beeps when I turned it on I would start pressing more buttons and I think I froze it up. Speaking of patience, I didn’t give it enough time when I engaged the record. It too takes a few seconds to kick in. If you’re expecting it to instantly start recording (which is indicated by a single beep) then you’ll need to be patient. Once again when I didn’t instantly get the beep I started pushing buttons.
On my first time out with the camera I didn’t stop recording, actually I think I had the play/stop reversed so while I was riding I had it stopped and while driving home I had it in record mode. In this instance the resulting file got corrupted. I have 2 theories as to what happened, because the recording kept going and filled up the memory card the file was not properly closed, thus corrupting it. My next thought is that the resulting 1.4 GB AVI file is problematic. I know a few years back when working with video files we wouldn’t create AVI files bigger than 1 GB so they wouldn’t get corrupted. One thing I do while riding for extended periods of time is I stop and start recording every 20 to 30 minutes. This results in a new AVI file being written to the memory card. It is somewhat of a hassle to stop and start the recording, but it beats somehow getting a corrupted file and losing the entire ride compared to only losing 15 minutes of a ride.
The VholdR is not going to have the instant feedback I’ve come to expect from my digital camera or my DV camcorder. If you go into it with this in mind than you should be pleased with the device. Speaking of DV quality recording the VholdR is not there. The optics for the device are built for size and recording size. If you want DV quality recordings, then strap on your DV camcorder to your bike. Personally, I’m happy with the results with the camera.
The camera includes a flat surface mount that sticks to your helmet that the VholdR slides into. Looking at the surface options I had for my helmet it didn’t seem conducive to attach the mount to my helmet. Plus, I’m not fast enough to show up at a group ride all geeked out. Even if I don’t have the camera mounted it’s a drop me sign just waiting to happen. Other mounts from VholdR aren’t in production yet, their website says Coming Soon… and reading the forums the mounts are still in preproduction. What I ended up doing was building my own. I bought a cheap Bell bike light (Dawn Patrol), $9.00. The platform is wide enough to accommodate the mount. I took the top portion of the light off, just leaving the bottom platform. I stuck the VholdR mount to the bottom platform. Now I can take the camera on and off very quickly.
The software that comes with the camera allows you to transfer the files from the camera to your computer and then to upload the files to VholdR’s video sharing site. The video sharing site is a YouTube of sorts for their camera owners. At the time of this post they don’t have a Macintosh equivalent but uploading your video to youtube works fine. The VholdR software just uploads your videos it does not include any editing functionality. I’d like to point out using their software to transfer the videos from the camera to your computer is not necessary either. Your computer should recognize when you plug the device into your computers USB port and you can interact with it just like any external storage device. TIP: Turn on the camera before plugging it into your computer’s USB port. This was another frustration I ran into my first day, the camera will not show up and you won’t be able to pull off the videos otherwise.
In conclusion I’m happy with the product. I’ve been able to get it to record. I haven’t had any issues beyond my initial user error problems. Hopefully the handlebar mounts will be out soon as there is wiggle from the vibration on the flat surface mount that hopefully would be eliminated or reduced using their handlebar mount.
Sample videos:
http://www.roadbikerides.com/ride/view/limecreek_climbing_repeats/179
http://www.roadbikerides.com/ride/view/rachel_ridge_to_arboretum/494
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May 14th, 2008 at 4:46 am
Looks slick. And I”m sure once you get past all the idiosyncrasies of it will serve you well. But it’s a bummer you have to go through all those growing pains to get it to work well.
May 14th, 2008 at 7:42 pm
Maybe this is just the thing we all need to keep those unruly drivers off our tail. Maybe if some of our unlucky brethren had cameras mounted to their bikes, they wouldn’t be held to blame for getting run down by some car or truck.