Contour+ Camera - Anyone have any experience with it?

Started by a2capt, July 07, 2011, 03:30:04 AM

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a2capt

I'm considering getting a Contour+ Camera for a few projects, one of which may be to make training videos of various CAP related things. (Shorts on aircraft radios, DF'er use, etc. )

I'd like some kind of hardened camera that could also be mounted on the outside of a vehicle, and be self contained. The Contour+ will actually stream it's content via HDMI, live so the feed can be used elsewhere at the same time as the camera is saving it. It also integrates GPS metadata.

Has anyone used any of the Contour products, or similar ones, and have any feedback?

One of the things I do is on road trips of more than a day length I tend to setup the camera and upload frames as i'm moving so others can "follow along". Sometimes play a little interaction at gas/food stops, etc. I also save each frame so I can make a flipbook like picture show afterwards. Since the Contour+ can save and stream it's signal, that means I can save all the footage, emptying the camera at various intervals, and continue with the frame grab upload by attaching the output to a USB frame grabber.

... my target in a couple weeks is possibly the whole length of I-70, from Cove Ft, UT, to the parking lot at the eastern end near Baltimore. I'm visiting Kansas City which is the reason for the road trip, and I want to go back to Dayton again, to visit Mendelsons Electronics, (MECI).. a surplus place, and see if I can score some stuff that might be good for a CNC machine I want to build, plus visit the AF museum again, and possibly check out the Wright-B-Flyer replica.  Then if I go that far, might as well go to the Flight 93 memorial that I missed two years ago, and .. well.. the end of I-70 isn't much further, and I could go to the part of the Air & Space Museum at Dulles, which I've never seen.

The week in Dayton for NCC was .. non-stop cadets, calamity and stress. I saved on a haircut at least..  The irony that they gave us propaganda on touristy stuff, yet.. flew us all in there and gave no time (not complaining .. ) is kinda funny. But that was the best week spent at a CAP activity, ever. Hands down. Even if all we were supposed to do was be a 'bus driver'. ;)

..and with a wide angle camera setup to view forward and across the road, then "everything" will be seen at some point.. if this thing doesn't suck. Most of what I read puts it in the well built category, designed for high light situations, doesn't do so well in low light, (-20 lux), and it's own lens blocks IR, so using an IR array won't help.

(it seems like there was a thread on this device here.. but .. search yielded nothing.. perhaps I'm dreaming)

a2capt

FWIW, I got the camera, and its doing as I described.. streaming live frames, and capturing the whole feed:

http://17500mph.com/a2drivecast