Right, here’s a quick look at the Contour Roam, courtesy of Ben and Ted.

Dirt’s work experience lad Ben and his old mate Ted have a quick look at the Contour Roam helmet camera, in what we might call “Ben and Ted’s excellent adventure”.

Words and photos: Ben Winder

The Contour Roam has a selection of video modes; 1080p, 960p and 720p, which all record at 30FPS in .MOV format. It has a 170° wide angle lens (which also rotates, see image below), an internal microphone and it records to a Micro SD card. Additionally it is waterproof up to 1 metre.

The Contour Roam, is very easy to use when you are out riding and you just want to record, because of its one-step-record function. Just slide the switch forward to record and back to stop. Simple, even with gloved hands. It also appears to be very robust, after taking a good few hits (this was due to the use of Dirt’s selection of wacky booms and extenders). I also made use of the rotating lens, which allows you to mount the camera in different orientations and still have the lens level…this all helped to save loads of time editing!

I had a few issues with the mounting system. Though they have been dramatically improved over the early versions there’s still a slight bit of ‘freeplay’ in the system which resulted in a small bit of wobble in the footage. A bit of gaffer tape sorted everything out so no great hassles. Also the laser is a nice idea, but in reality you need your surroundings to be very dark for the laser to show up!

http://mpora.com/videos/3ZwF6Eyh8
More Mountain Biking Videos

In comparison to the Go Pro it is about the same price around the £200 quid mark. The contour is just under 60 grams lighter and has a sleeker fit on the helmet. But would I buy a Contour over a Go Pro? Not sure.

Check out www.actioncameras.co.uk