Cheapest..... and possibly most lethal helmet cam ever...

[wildstyle]

I was bored at home the other day looking at helmet cams and came to the conclusion that if i bought a video camera, i would never use it for anything except biking and skiing helmet cam stuff. The camera i wanted to buy was £450 / $750 plus £170 / $225 for the helmet cam kit. Thats a lot of €€€€

My pentax OptioS5z has a great 30fps / 640x480 video mode on it that i have used a few times skiing with great results. I also have a few mini tripods and mini/ultraclamps for photography work and started looking at those. I managed to attach the ultra clamp the the outer shell of my helmet on the left or right side with enough room to mount the Optio on it.

Cost of Clamp = $40

I have tested the mount by thumping it pretty hard and whacking it with a hammer . It refuses to detach which is reassuring. I've inspected the inside of the helmet and the section on the interior of the helmet shell is well padded/protected from the skull.

I was also debating attaching a small plate to the exterior of the helmet for the mount to attach to, to put all sections of the camera and mount on the outside of the helmet to improve the safety. In a major crash this would detach taking the equipment with it.

I am aware that it looks like crap and i'm more than a little concerned about crashing with that kit on the helmet and the equipment rearranging my cheekbones.

Does anyone here have any experience of attaching a helmet mount like this for a camera.

[hop]

I think you'd be better off with one of those mini REI ultrapods taped to the top of your helmet than that thing on the side. I'm sure you can find a suitable alternative in Europe.

[Parvo Pup]

Check skydiving sites or stores - sorry at work so don't have my favs list - although I do remember Square1 having some camera mount equipment.

There are a lot of helmet mounts used in the skydiving sport - some allow use of a non-digital SLR combined with a bite release for shutter control. Others are set up for DSLR or videos.

I know that there are also side mounts and mini mounts available.

[wildstyle]

I think you'd be better off with one of those mini REI ultrapods taped to the top of your helmet than that thing on the side. I'm sure you can find a suitable alternative in Europe.

I've actually got one of those but theres nothing to attach it to on the helmet. The ultraclamp was the only one that i could get to attach to the helmet .

I'm going to trawl the skydiving sites i think.

[hop]

umm, duct tape?

[BakerBoy]

Shitty mini-DV cam off ebay is under $200, lipstick 480 line cam or even lower res is around $150 tops... that's $350 USD, which is way less than what you initially were looking at, and is worth it to not look like such a retard.