Steve's Mountain Bike Page
Turlock, California

Mountain Biking Video How-To

I now have a new Intel Core 2 Duo (E6700) system with 2 gb of ram and 2x250 meg hard drives. I have also upgraded to Ulead Media Pro 8.0. It now uses single, rather than two track (A/B) editing and I really like it. Sometime soon I'll revise the editing section but it's still basically the same drag and drop. The new system for making titles, my major complaint about the previous version, is great. I have also switched to Windows Media Video format at 640x360, which provides a much bigger picture, yet very little increase in file size. 

Be sure to visit Pete Fagerlin and MTBBill for their takes on this subject. I strongly advise using a digital camcorder if you can afford it. Not only are they smaller, but inputting to the computer and then outputting the results to tape is much easier, and the quality is outstanding. I now have a Sony DCR-HC 90 camcorder, but for quite a while I used a Canon ZR40. There are basically two methods: 

1. Lipstick camera

This method involves mounting a tiny lipstick camera to your helmet and connecting it to a camcorder in your pack. A lipstick cam may be used with any camcorder that has an A/V input. Basically, you mount the lipstick cam to your helmet, plug the A/V cables into your camcorder, start the camcorder, and pack it away. This doesn't sound that complicated but on the trail you'd be surprised at how easy it is to screw up and later discover you shut the camcorder off while packing it and/or bumping around on the trail caused the A/V connections to become loose. It also means you must have a tape continuously running and remember to change it every hour. A LANC control might help with this problem though. Here is my original lipstick cam setup. This system served me well for nearly three years but every few rides I would lose valuable footage due to some unforeseen malfunction. And I would only discover it well after it was too late. Sometimes I'd get to ride an exotic place just once and losing that footage was very irritating. And after seeing the quality of Pete's and Bill's videos, and Winston's 16:9 wide screen format videos I decided it was time to switch to the direct camcorder mounting method.

Do a google.com search on the web for "helmet cam", "bullet camera", or "lipstick camera" and you will find dozens of different types, including complete packages that contain everything you need except for the camcorder (lipstick camera, microphone, battery pack and all cables). Image quality and price were my main concerns. Image quality is measured in TV Lines (TVL), the higher the number, the better the image quality. RF Concepts offers a high resolution unit rated at 480 TVL. Although the image quality from this unit is quite good, I had serious fogging problems with it. I got tired of the fogging so I took off the protective lens. That solved the problem and it also greatly improved the video, particularly the colors. 

2. Mount the camcorder directly on the helmet

Mounting the camera directly on your helmet is generally a bit more expensive but the video quality is outstanding and it is considerably less to deal with on the trail. But it requires a very small camcorder (meaning more expensive) and a wide angle lens (usually 0.6x), and the way most do it, a counterweight (but see my setup below). For nearly my first three years I was hesitant to put an expensive camcorder on my head so I went with the lipstick cam method.

I now use a Sony DCR-HC 90 camcorder with a Sony 0.6x wide angle lens. I tried buying the same camera enclosure Pete and Bill used but fortunately for me one supplier was seemingly out of business and the other said there would be a 12 week wait. So I went with one from Bonehead Composites and I am thrilled with it. It is very light, opens on the top, and most importantly, the back is open, providing complete access to all the controls. You can even use the viewfinder while in the box. Most people mount the camcorder on the side of the helmet, which requires a counterweight and drilling holes into fairly fragile styrofoam. This more than doubles the weight, bringing it up to two and a half to nearly four pounds. I put a three pound weight on my helmet and I found it totally unacceptable. So I consulted my friend Neil, who is quite handy. He came up with a simple lightweight solution that also allows the whole box and/or camcorder to be removed and stowed when not in use. The camera is mounted on the top of the helmet. However, if you ride in dense forests and frequently encounter low hanging vegetation I would not recommend this method. But I ride fairly wide open trails so there is little danger of clothes lining myself.

A thick Plexiglas plate with industrial strength Velcro on top is affixed to the helmet via tie wraps. The complementary Velcro surface is affixed to the bottom of the camcorder case and two Velcro straps are wrapped around the top of the case for insurance. The camcorder case opens from the top and once the top is closed, the camcorder fits so snugly that it can not move. All camcorder controls, and even the viewfinder are readily available. The main advantages are cutting the weight by more than half, being able to remove the camera and case at any time, having easy access to the controls, and not having to drill any holes into the helmet. I just have to be a bit more cognizant of low hanging branches.

This system is not yet perfect. The camcorder microphone is so sensitive it picks up too much wind noise. I am still working on solving that problem. 

1. Here are photos of my setup

2. Capturing video

3. Creating a video  

4. Outputting video to tape - you must have rendered your video in NTSC DV 720x480 (in North America) to output back to a digital camcorder via the firewire port. Once the video is on the digital camcorder connect it to a VHS recorder and transfer it to VHS tape.

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