Mini Cam as a Helmet Cam

[passingthru]

I've been looking at the Sony TG1/TG3 or Sanyo DMX-HD700 for helmet cam use. Both are small enough to be attached to the side of a helmet.

Obviously, either camcorder would have to run with the viewfinder stowed. I can't find out if these camcorders will run with the viewfinder stowed. Anyone know if they will run with the viewfinder stowed?

[A n d r e w]

Another thing to query is whether anyone with a CMOS camera has tried this. CMOS can act a little weird around mid-frequency vibrations i.e. internal combustion engines.

I don't know if this is a problem for either of the cameras you've mentioned, but worth checking up on.

Andrew.

[Solidstate]

Check these skydiver's experiments with making a helmet holder for the TG3.
http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/foru...d;;page=unread - check the second post from Cookie for a picture of a good looking prototype casing.

As far as the viewfinder - just flip it round and flush to the camera body and turn off the backlight to save on power as in this picture

[passingthru]

Thanks for the feedback. It's going to be used in a sailplane, so the enviornment is not nearly as hostile as in freefall or biking. It's possible I could work up some kind of strap mount to the side of my head.

At present, I'm using a Sony DSC-W90 cam in mpeg movie mode. It shoots 640x480 4:3 video in mpeg2 format, with about 40 minutes of video available with an 4GB flash. I mount it on top of the bill of a baseball cap. It works pretty well, but the anti-shake is not very effective, and of course the video quality leaves something to be desired.

Any feedback regarding the merits of the two cameras I mentioned will be appreciated. Clearly, the TG1/TG3 is the better camera, but there are price issues too.