Monday, January 30, 2012

Impressions of the Contour Roam



I used the Contour Roam seriously for the first time this weekend. As this piece of gear is still new to me, I'm working out the bugs but here are some of my initial impressions:
Cons first:

  • The beep that tells you its been turned on is too loud. You can turn it off or on only by plugging it into the laptop. So that is inconvenient. You can not adjust the volume on it either, its either you have it beep or don't. No other option is available.

  • You can not view what you record instantly as there is no display screen. To view you must have your laptop with you. Since I generally don't bring my laptop on my outdoor excursions I can not know if I'm pointing the camera in the right direction or need to make any other adjustments such as mic sensitivity, fixing lens angle etc.

  • Wide angle lens are good for up close but not so much for distance. The covey of quail that flushed 40 or so yards ahead of us were not able to be seen. The pair that flush just at my feet were hard to see, the only one that can be see flew with the sky in the background. Also if you wear a ball cap you'll be block part of the view as the bill will be seen. The video I post you actually do not see my bill because I wore the head mount too far back and didn't get a real good perspective of what I was seeing.

  • Loading takes along time to upload video on Contours site. Since I technologically retarded I'm not sure if that's on me or the gear.

    • The Pros:

    • Its relatively cheap. At one point they had a sale for $89. I bought mine of $150 and retails for $199.

    • Its light. Stored in my pocket or on my head with the headmount I didn't notice it

    • Its easy to operate. Just slide the on button and your ready to go. It turns on relatively quick too.

    • It's too bad the hunting season is over so most of my use now will be while fishing. Hopefully I'll get all the kinks worked out during that time and my hunting vids next year will be much better. I honestly believe the videos would be much better if hunting ducks in a blind or for pheasant hunting. The reason the shots tend to be closer and the birds are much bigger so they most likely will be caught on film much better.

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