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Elmo SUV Cam

Posted by Kenn Stamp
Tuesday, 04 November 2008
Click above to watch the video To truly see what this camera can do check out the Youtube version and click on "watch in high quality". By Kenn Stamp Motorcyclists love to shoot video. Whether it is video of the bike, a day at the track, or just some footage of their favorite road, we love to shoot and share. There are many different options on the market for both experienced and newbie film makers to choose from. Some of those options are relatively cheap while others are not. The Elmo SUV cam certainly fits into the "not cheap" category (retails for around $900) but does provide a couple of things that really make it stand out. Since you can buy a "wearable" camera for a couple of hundred dollars and up, what makes the SUV cam so special? Read on and find out. When I first received the SUV cam from Wilco Imaging it impressed me right away. I opened the box it was shipped in to find a bright orange genuine Pelican case. For those of you not familiar with Pelican cases they are basically ballistic, military grade containers that come in various sizes and are pretty near indestructible. As an added bonus they are also waterproof; in short, if there is ever a nuclear holocaust the only things that will survive are the cockroaches and the Pelican cases they'll be living in. The next thing that really caught my eye, and the reason I wanted this camera, is the display screen. How many times have you taken your wearable camera, attached it to your helmet, rode around and then downloaded the video only to find that you managed to get great footage of either the sky or the ground? Don't fret, it's not your fault, it's the camera's fault for not giving you an indication of what it was going to be recording. Of course you are the one that cheaped out and bought the least expensive camera you could find so I guess maybe it is your fault after all. Don't worry though as you can correct this lack of judgment on your part and buy something better. There are 2 ways that I know of to, if not eliminate, then at least reduce the chances of taping ants or birds. One way is to have a viewscreen and the other is a laser alignment system like on the VholdR camera that Mirage tested. The viewscreen idea is my personal favorite as it gives you real-time feedback of what the camera is looking at. The actual camera head on the Elmo SUV cam is about the size of a lipstick case and can be mounted just about anywhere; helmet, handlebar, tank, fairing, etc.. you name it you can probably put the camera portion on it. There are only two drawbacks; 1) You are limited to the length of the camera cable leading back to the control unit, and 2) There really isn't a lot of mounting hardware out there to use so you have to be a bit clever. The SUV cam was sent to me with the longer 150cm camera cable (just shy of 5ft) so I can actually mount the camera head just about anywhere on the bike I want and have plenty of cable to mount the control/recording unit safely out of harms way. I have mounted the camera head on my helmet and put the control unit inside my leathers and I have mounted the camera head on the nose and tail of a bike and attached the control unit to the gas tank. One thing you want to be sure of though is that the camera head and the control unit on attached to the same "part". The last you want is to have the camera head attached to you and the control unit attached to the bike or vice-versa; in the event of a "separation" the camera cable would be violently removed from the control unit. Since the cable screws in, this would probably destroy the entire SUV cam. In future models they may want to consider a quick disconnect or other way of securing the cable to the control unit. This brings up one of the drawbacks to the Elmo SUV cam; not with the camera itself but the lack of aftermarket or factory mounting hardware. Duct tape will become your best friend when mounting both the control unit and the camera head (the control unit does come with a screw-on belt clip). I actually took some thick rubber and a heater hose line and epoxied them together to give me something to sit the camera head in to keep it level while I taped it down. Now the duct tape doesn't really bother me as I tend to tape things down even when they have a mount as I'm paranoid about having an expensive piece of equipment fly off. I've also found that the lack of real mounting hardware actually makes me more creative in where I want to mount the camera. I guess since I don't have anything telling me where I can mount it (handlebar mount, etc..) I think of new and possibly crazy places to mount the SUV cam. The SUV cam is a snap to operate with an easy one-push-to-record button. A drawback to to system is that if you can't see the front of the control unit you won't know if the unit is recording or not as there is no beep or other audible alert when the button is pushed. Once you are recording though you can lock the the buttons and not worry that you will accidentally shut-off the unit (this is important if it is somewhere close to your body or wedged in somewhere on the bike). One of the Elmo SUV cam features that is either a boon or a bane is the ability to adjust the camera's focus. Most wearable cams have a fixed focal point and you have to live with that while recording. The SUV cam has an adjustable focus point that allows you to focus the camera up close or far away depending on what you want to record. The issue with it is that it can be very hard to see if the camera really is focused and the picture completely clear using just the 2.2" QVGA display on the control unit. I learned very quickly that messing with the focus feature for close-up video shots just wasn't worth the time and frustration of getting it back to something that I could use while riding. This is one of those things that some people will love and others (like me) will learn to leave alone. If you do mess with the adjustable focus and need a bigger screen to check and see if you have focused the unit properly you can use the included RCA plug to port directly into your TV and use that as a giant monitor. The camera head is waterproof (up to a depth of 132ft) so if you place the non-waterproof control/recording unit inside your waterproof jacket and mount the camera head to your helmet, you can shoot even in the rain. The battery charges relatively quickly (figure about an hour from dead to full) and last for about 2 hours of recording time, which is about when a 2GB SD card (the largest you can use/not included) will run out of recording space. The control unit has a built in microphone (monaural) and also a jack for an external (monaural) microphone as well as a jack for a set of headsets. Being only 2.25" wide X 3.5" tall X 7/8" thick it is small enough to comfortably fit in a pocket yet large enough to not feel like a toy. While the SUV cam by Elmo is certainly not cheap it does offer you instant feedback on not only what are going to record but what you just recorded. For someone that is serious about recording high quality video, having the ability to know what you just recorded without having to download the video to a computer is invaluable. Oh and one more thing; the videos are saved as an .ASF file and I couldn't get Windows Movie Maker to accept them without downloading new codecs. Once I switched to Sony Vegas 7 to do my video editing I had no issues.....but boy did WMM and I go 'round and 'round at first. To find out more about the SUV cam by Elmo and for your other video capturing needs browse on over to Wilco Imaging. You can also see a PDF file on the specs of the SUV cam by following this link. For further information go to our Elmo SUV cam forum and discuss, ask questions, or comment about the SUV cam, videoing in general, or maybe talk about your favorite camera.

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