For Mina Yoo’s entrepreneurship 370 class, our group chose to do a study of Twenty20, a local company that makes wearable action sports cameras. Their products are becoming more popular and can often be seen in use on the slopes. Marc Barros, co-founder of the company, was kind enough to meet with us to answer some questions and agreed to let us use 2 of their ContourHD cameras for a month. We had a lot of fun using the cameras and getting footage to use in our presentation.
The cameras are very easy to use. The whole top of the camera is a sliding switch which makes it easy to toggle recording with thick ski gloves on. The laser alignment system allows you to twist the lens so it is horizontal relative to the ground. We were very impressed with the video quality, as it exceeded our expectations for the size of the camera.
Twenty20 lent us an attachment to use on bicycle handlebars but unfortunately, my road bike handle bars are far too thick to work with the device.
We used the goggle attachment as well as the flat surface mount and found both to work equally well. I have heard from someone in a lift line that the goggle mount produced sub-par results because the goggle strap would move and flex when he skied, and thus the video was shaky. However, my goggle strap was tight but comfortable and the video seemed to be steady relative to my helmet.
The camera connects to a computer using a standard mini-USB cable and shows up as removable storage. It is as simple as drag and drop from there.
The build quality was very solid. The camera is built of aluminum and has a solid feel to it. I was never concerned with hurting the cameras because I felt they could take a good beating if I were to fall.
The usability of this camera is so simple, I can’t imagine the competing GoPro Hero could be a better option for the average action sports enthusiast looking to share his/her adventures. I would strongly recommend this product to anyone looking for a quality, simple solution to shoot POV HD vidio.
