Contour camera out of business

[mike g.]

Just an FYI.. don't buy one... the website and support are shutdown.. and everyone who had videos up there lost them.

I'm sure alot will be showing up on ebay and cl for cheap... Mine was unreliable; while cool tech, now that the website is gone you can't share your videos with the GPS stream (which was the only real cool thing).

[Scootin159]

That's a shame - I liked their housing profile and record switch setup much better than the GoPro's. However, I do have to admit to them being somewhat unreliable. I've made mine work much better by jamming a small piece of plastic behind the battery hold down (to keep positive pressure on the battery terminals) - but the power button is still somewhat a pain to use.

Either way, I've been on the fence about picking up a GoPro black for a while now or a new Contour (mine's got four years of abuse on it and due for replacement) - looks like the decision might be made for me.

[johnannz]

I had the same experience and had to jam the end of a plastic zip tie to secure the battery. The best part is when I called customer service they told me to mount the camera on my helmet because it was not designed for severe vibration. Really????

They should have sold something to jam in to the battery with the kit. We figured it out, not sure why they didn't (or did not admit to it).

great idea, poorly executed.

[terryeaton]

Interesting I was at Sears point yesterday and there was a Contour booth selling them. Not good.

[formulasuper]

Interesting I was at Sears point yesterday and there was a Contour booth selling them. Not good.

Were they selling them as a going out of business sale?

[Modo]

cud care less, but i need to configure the camera in 1080, can anyone help??? Sears Point, can't be that bad, nice camera, welll, tell us when u get it together, I'm sure someone will back u, the link to storyteller doesn't work, can I get a copy from someone or where to get it would help so I can controll the camera

[mike g.]

use the storyteller config app?

[rydawg011291]

I'm truly not surprised only because GoPro's are really an amazing camera. Yes they have their problems but when a company like this has got a huge sale in the market its hard to compete with that.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles...ontour-cameras

heres an article from Business Week

Ryan

[DanW]

That's too bad about contour. I have had mine three years and its been completely reliable and easy to use, just push the switch forward to start at the 3 minute mark on grid.

[Thomas Copeland]

The deal with having to jam things in to keep the battery in place is a common situation with all these POV cameras, in fact pretty much all digital cameras with a battery compartment. Almost all of these cameras can withstand a shock of around 2G's+ without any issues. This works fine for normal sports use; skiing, scuba, surfing, whatever.

The type of vibration shock you get from a formula car is much different.

What you will find is these cameras are built with a manufacturing tolerance in the battery compartment. The harmonic vibration that you get from a formula car will cause the battery to shake within the battery compartment and most likely it will lose contact with the battery at some point which will cause the camera to shut off.

By inserting some object, plastic, paper, foam, whatever into the void between the battery and the battery door prevents the battery from moving, and thus maintaining contact.

I've done a lot of testing with the Neo Sport Camera against the GoPro Hero3 and found that this issue only occurs on formula race cars. Video tests done on sedan cars like Ferrari challenge cars there is no issue. It seems to be something that is only an issue when mounting these cameras onto formula race cars.

The GoPro Hero2 had it's battery contacts orientated horizontally so had less of an issue than the Hero3 with losing battery connection. I haven't done any test with Replay or Contour other than compare video between the Replay and the Neo. But have heard of issues with the Replay on formula cars.

[anthonywill3]

Bummer, we have had good luck with ours (on a kart), always been reliable.

[formulasuper]

The deal with having to jam things in to keep the battery in place is a common situation with all these POV cameras, in fact pretty much all digital cameras with a battery compartment. Almost all of these cameras can withstand a shock of around 2G's+ without any issues. This works fine for normal sports use; skiing, scuba, surfing, whatever.

The type of vibration shock you get from a formula car is much different.

What you will find is these cameras are built with a manufacturing tolerance in the battery compartment. The harmonic vibration that you get from a formula car will cause the battery to shake within the battery compartment and most likely it will lose contact with the battery at some point which will cause the camera to shut off.

By inserting some object, plastic, paper, foam, whatever into the void between the battery and the battery door prevents the battery from moving, and thus maintaining contact.

I've done a lot of testing with the Neo Sport Camera against the GoPro Hero3 and found that this issue only occurs on formula race cars. Video tests done on sedan cars like Ferrari challenge cars there is no issue. It seems to be something that is only an issue when mounting these cameras onto formula race cars.

The GoPro Hero2 had it's battery contacts orientated horizontally so had less of an issue than the Hero3 with losing battery connection. I haven't done any test with Replay or Contour other than compare video between the Replay and the Neo. But have heard of issues with the Replay on formula cars.

I'm guessing the formula car (and probably sports racers also) vibration problem is caused by having our engines hard mounted to the chassis, no rubber engine mounts as used in most production cars such as the Ferrari.

[RussMcB]

I liked my Contour. It was way better than the GoPro cameras I tried to use in the past, especially in terms of ease of use (easy to start and stop while belted in, with gloves). I've since replaced mine with the Replay HD, only because it can be automatically started by my TraqDash DA system, and the TraqMate (TraqStudio) software integrates the data with the video. It will even show you the Best Theoretical Lap in video by splicing together the best segments.

[Bruce]

I just went on the web site and there was no notice of a going out of business. I was still able to see my videos and others as well. Where did you get your info?

[mike g.]

Bruce,
I discovered it when I went to send a video to someone - http://contour.com/videos/watch/spin...g-road-america

No play :-(

[Bruce]

Thanks.

[mmi16]

Bruce,
I discovered it when I went to send a video to someone - http://contour.com/videos/watch/spin...g-road-america

No play :-(

That highlight my aversion to having data in 'The Cloud' - when the cloud goes bankrupt your data goes poff!

[Modo]

And at some point I hope they take the 'infrastructure' off the internet n go private

[Formula2]

I liked my contour way better than the gopro. That said the gopro is still ticking my contour died after 6 months.

I could see this coming.

[scorp997]

there is another company that licensed the Contour technology
http://www.nflightcam.com/
They have started marketing stuff for GoPro and iPhones recently, but their main product started off with modified Contours.
https://nflightcam.zendesk.com/entri...er-Application


Their products are used for pilots, but they have a pretty cool app that works with a Contour GPS (Plus, and the other models with GPS capability). It tracks your 'flight' and gives you a crude dashboard. You do have to 'lie' a little about your departure/arrival areas... Maybe they would be interested in taking up the motorsport portion of Contour's customers?

[swiftdrivr]

I had 2 GoPros, neither worked, the mount failed, and GoPro stiffed me, refusing to honor their warranty because "I failed to tether the camera," which is not designed to be tethered, has no place to tether, and has no instructions suggesting I needed a tether. My contour has been flawless, and actually records video WHILE THE CAR IS MOVING [Something GoPro NEVER accomplished]. Sad to see them go.