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Canon 5dmk2 Mounted to Downhill Mountain Bike Helmet
Two of the guys I work with at a Boston television station joined me for a “business meeting” at a New Hampshire ski mountain. But we would not be skiing! We will be taking a “Daycation” (one day vacation) from work to have some fun with gravity. Over the next two days, I am working with a World Cup downhill mountain biker to shoot a short documentary on the 17 year old kid and his riding. I am planning on using the Canon 5dmk2 and the Sony EX1 with Letus Ultimate to shoot the entire doc with prime lenses. TJ and Jon asked if they could come up a few days before the shoot and ride whilst I tested a few pieces of gear for the weekend. I agreed as long as I was able to capture the entire day from my point of view…the Canon 5dmk2 DSLR bolted to the side of my head!
The Canon 5dmk2 easily mounts to a mountain bike helmet with just a metal angle bracket. I used an old Anton Bauer Hytron 50 for counterbalance. This battery did not power anything. Before you watch the video, a few things I must add: 1. I set the aperture on the film lens (16mm f2.8 fisheye) to f8 or f11 to open up the depth of field. This was the first time I actually wanted a deep DOF to see everything from the first person point of view. 2. The exposure is a problem. I found that using Auto ISO works well in the sun, but when I travel into the shade, it just does not respond well to patches of bring sun all around. It is very dark. My way around this is to shoot the sunny open single track and the dark woods sections separately and with manual exposure. 3. I found the shutter to best work at about 1/100. Any faster and the shot is way to jittery. Plus with a slower shutter, you get a little motion blur and that seems to play well. 4. Wind noise. The Canon 5dmk2 does not have a windscreen on its built in mic. All the sound you hear on the video below was captured with the onboard mic built into the camera. I found that by placing a small piece of foam (from a Pelican Case) on the little mic holes in the camera body helps out a bit. It is very windy when you are going close to 50 miles an hour down a mountain! 5. Weight. This thing is heavy. The counterbalance weight spreads it out, but it kills the neck. I found that this old helmet is lacking proper padding to begin with, so the added weight makes it hurt even more. 6. Clearance. It is so easy to clip a tree with these things (expensive camera equipment) protruding off the side of your head. If the fisheye hits the bark at full speed whilst I’m leaning into a berm, it is game over! So wish me luck tomorrow! I have no idea how I am going to keep up with a professional mountain biker. Should be fun tho.
27 comments to Canon 5dmk2 Mounted to Downhill Mountain Bike Helmet |
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Copyright © 2010 Tom Guilmette - All Rights Reserved |
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tom
that was freaking awesome. there is no way i could do that anywhere as fast as you went down that hill. i love the blog, check it everyday for some new stuff. btw, i watch sportscenter simply to see red sox highlights and see your left field shots.
Nice! I don’t think Philip Bloom could have done any better. : )
Hi Tom
During the video you say that the helmet is heavy and unconfortable. What will you do for the video of the pro rider? Use this helmet with Canon 5D M2 or use the Twenty20 ContourHD ?
I’m making now some downhill video in HD 1080i and I would like to know if i can use the Contour HD. Because the Sony is very very expensive !
Thanks
Nathan
i now have the contourHD camera! i did not have it for the shoot with alex, so only i wore the neck busting rig. the video is up, check it out.
Nice biking skills Tom! And Actually i am surprised of the smoothness your helmet construction is getting!
The only thing im asking myself is: Where do you want to get your sound from? Or is the mic you got at the 5D that good?
all the best
that is the sound from the 5dmk2. i added a bit of pelican case foam over the little that house the mic and that acted as a wind screen.
Hey Tom, i recon i’m on to you, that footage looks very much from the ContourHD, i can tell by the color. Have you put it into a 5D2 mock up case to look good in the shadow it cast.
Come on, fess up. By the way the ContourHD jello is better than the 5D2 and the wide angle matches the ContourHD.
You might fool Bloom but not me…..hahaha
Rambo
funny! i will soon be testing the contourHD. it came in the mail tonight! wish i had it for the alex mtb film shoot. that 5dmk2 is heavy!
Thats a 5dII alright. I pressed record
Ok I’ll give you guy’s the benefit of the doubt, that is one crazy thing to do putting a 5D2 on your head for a POV cam especially after just having hot pixel surgery at Canon repair center. Then again i have seen Hasselblads in waterproof cases on the back of surfboards.
Roll on part3 .. this is getting interesting.
Cheers Rambo
yea, glad i did not have to send it to the canon repair center in twenty pieces!
yes you did. you have some skill on the mtb my pizza and coke drinking newly promoted friend.
Well i think there would be no reason to fake this rambo
And why can you tell something “by the color”. And why should the wide angle match the contourHD? He was using a 16mm f2.8 fisheye…
So, Tom, can you tell us a bit about this mountain biking place?
They have an Alpine slide, which is cool, and ski lifts to get you to the top of the mountain. So, is this a ski resort in the winter?
At around the 8:00 mark there are houses along the left side of the trail. Those are ski lodges? Do people live in them? What I mean is, will Granny be out there tending her flowers while you zoom by at 50mph?
Do they rent bikes? I love riding, but my 10yo Schwinn would fail me horribly.
What is the name of this place?
the place is called attitash. you can find it at attitash.com. they provide both winter fun (skiing/boarding) and summer adventure (alpine slide, rock climbing, mt biking).
yes the ski lifts take you up high on the mountain, even in the summer (you dont think i push my bike up that do you? LOL)
Those houses can be rented in both the summer and winter. yes, people are at the BBQ while i send a big cloud of dust their way at 50MPH.
yes they rent bikes! cannondale and ironhorse full suspension and cross country bikes.
Sascha, i was assuming Tom was playing another one of his little jokes like the “Calling Card in the Brief Case” episode. I didn’t say it was a Fake, just that i thought Tom was pulling the wool over our eyes. The footage from the 5D2 above looks very similar to the ContourHD footage i have seen a lot of and that’s high praise indeed for the little HD Cam. It also has a wide angle perspective similar to the footage above.
What if the cams were indeed switched and everyone is saying how good the footage looks, then Tom lets us in on the joke that it was actually from the HDContour, would that not make the HDContour look good?? Any way i have already said above i give the benefit of the doubt.
When Tom receives his HDContour, i think he will be very happy with the footage from it as a BikeCam, actually i recon it will out perform the 5D2 in that situation.
CHeers Rambo
we will soon find out! i have the contourHD in my hands right now at 1 in the morning. hmmm…what to shoot….
yea, i will soon figure out how wide the contourHD gets. i betcha it is not as wide at a nikon 16mm f2.8 fisheye (i scratched it on that alex mtb shoot…darn)
Great footage. However I must be getting old, I was worried that if you fell off the bike or slide that the extra weight of the camera and counter balance would break your neck, not in the funny way but the literal wheelchair/casket way. I knew it didn’t happen as then who would have posted the movie. But still a concern.
yes, i would have broken my neck. i am not that smart, but sometimes i do anything for the shot. that will hurt me someday!
Really great that you try a DSLR on helmet where most never would dare to risk that
If the video would come out more sharp and detail it would be really nice HD helmet Video.
btw. i see you ride really good but besides that and you great video skills you seem to be also good at showing off
Safe racing
i am not good enough on the mt bike to show off! really!
i only show off my insane camera skills.
RAD
cool video, what mountain did you shoot this at?
attitash mountain in bartlett, new hampshire. website here.
Hey, did Jon go to Fitchburg State? I think I know him.
not sure. perhaps he can answer this? i know he visits this page often