Adding Functional Camera to Mk VII Helmet

[N8TEBB]

Hey - You guys were talking about perspective / point of view.
It might be worth suggesting that you make the mount something you can pivot on the fly-I'm really happy I could.
I noticed with mine that I was initially pointing a little high and getting a lot of ceiling and chopping off legs in my frames.
Maybe worth mounting your phone on your forearm or like a TacPad so you can remote into the camera liveview to make adjustments.
View attachment 371811

I did not make it adjustable unfortunately. After years of practice putting this GoPro on my head I'm just going to hope the angle is ideal. Not a bad idea at all though. I think I may be able to get a bit of adjustment by moving the camera inside the attachment instead of the attachment itself, but not a whole lot. If it's really bad, I can make use of the GoPro's full sensor- using the 4:3 aspect ratio gets a taller frame which can be cropped in to 16:9 afterwards.

As for the tac pad- it's not something I'll do on my suit but it is a good idea. The GoPro has an app so I can get a live preview on my phone which I keep in my pocket at all times at cons. Not as convenient as a tac pad but still easy to access.

A cool feature about the camera and app is it allows you to "highlight" time stamps as you record. So I'll definitely be keeping the app at close reach to remind myself when the eventful things happen. If I don't feel like reaching for my phone, the camera also has voice commands to add highlights and start/stop recording.

 

[celmor1785]

The Fascinator attachment is peak and my personal favorite, I think this is gonna be really cool and I can't wait to see it work out!

 

[N8TEBB]

UPDATE

Helmet is now sanded and painted! Testing how I'm going to power it... I think the least intrusive way is through the camera's charging port using a cable with the housing removed. Helmet mounting system and other electronics will be worked on in the coming weeks. Progress is good!

Sanded and primed helmet

Painting in progress...

Unweathered helemt

New helmet vs. old helmet

Camera in helmet with power cable

Camera power cable​

 

[N8TEBB]

UPDATE

All other electronics have been installed! I added a hearing assist system, fans, and voice amp just as I did last time. See electronics schematic here: N8TEBB's Mk 7 Build!!!!!

The camera is not connected to the rest of the electronics and is on it's own battery.

All the electronics before they went into the helmet. I used shielded cable to reduce mic interference

All the beautiful electronics

Electronics on right ear.
You can see the voice amp transmitter switch, the battery for the electronics, as well as the hearing assist system volume knob.

Electronics on the left ear. You can see the battery behind the ear piece as well as the switch for the fans.

The GoPro is behind that ear piece too

View from the front

From the side

And yes the cat ears are magnetic



And now... the moment we've all been waiting for... raw video form the camera!

Keep in mind I've done no colour grading and this was filmed at night in a dim room, so this picture is worst case scenario. Resolution has been lowered to upload to forums, but the camera is capable of 2716x1524 (4:3). I'm stoked with how it looks!! The angle is ideal! I'll film in 4:3 to crop for horizontal or vertical in post. I'm really happy with how the test video works!

I'll be sure to give a full review after I try it out at a con.

Right now the only drawback I can think of is that the helmet is much heavier now than it was before. Adding a camera off to one side and another battery adds quite a bit. Nothing unbearable, but It's a lot more noticeable on my head than the other helmet.

Still have to figure out a solution for recording external audio, although the built in mic on the camera pics my voice up quite nicely!