Help me decide?

[Romans5.8]

Contour+2 is said to be a really good camera. The video quality is comparable with the GoPro and Drift, but the battery life is far superior, and has an input for a microphone.

I don't have the +2 but I have the Contour Roam. Its so lightweight, I actually forget its on the helmet. It also has a big switch on the top, so it can be switched on and off while out and about. Great for long distances and tours

Just a quick correction. The +2 has a 2-2.5 hr battery life. The drift Ghost is almost 3hrs. So the battery is not that superior. The video recording specs are the same as the ghost. The only feature the contour has that might be cool is the GPS deal for tracking your travels.

At $400 the contour +2 is at the same price point as the GPH3B and Ghost. It still comes down to what you want. The contour does not have an LCD display so you can't see what your doing without the mobile app. The Ghost has a built in screen and has a vastly superior image capture sensor. Contour +2 is 5MP, the Ghost is 8MP, and GPH3B is 11MP.
But pure MP resolution means nothing compared to optic quality.

Optic quality is what counts. It's 1080p (under 2MP) when I'm filming. Pixels help, as they give you room to crop a picture. But I'm not cropping a picture, but rather filming.

I went with the Drift HD. The price point is good, has decent features. We'll see how it works out. I didn't want to spend a ton. I'm honestly not even sure if I'm gonna really do any vlogging, I just wanted to record some of my rides for myself. But I may post them to YouTube and talk about them if there are folks out there who would actually be interested.

 

[Romans5.8]

Well, my Drift HD is here! I still think the GoPro has better quality video. For one, in most YouTube videos shot with the drift the sky is blown out, wheras with the GoPro it is correctly exposed (without underexposing the subject). The video is a little soft, but it's plenty adequate. What really sold me is the price point. $200 for the camera, sure, but additional mounts, batteries, remotes, accessories, etc., are all much MUCH cheaper. AND, it uses a standard 1/4-20 screw for the mounts instead of that weird proprietary stuff, so I can use a number of other mounts with just a 1/4-20 bolt or a tripod head.

For audio, I'm using my bluetooth intercom I already have, paired to my iPhone, and recording audio on there. Allows me to have two audio sources, with the Drift mic set to medium/high gain and volume turned low in post, to give a clear and undistorted voice, AND a clear and undistorted road/engine sound. Should be able to have time to really get a good ride in and give it all a good trial run here soon!

Thanks for the help folks.