The VholdR, made by Twenty20, is a great all-in-one helmet camera; very simple with a user friendly design. Most importantly, the video footage I took while skiing and snowmobiling looked great! The VholdR is an All-In-One system, and provides some significant advantages over typical “all-in-one” or “wireless” systems: it’s super light, and it has laser pointers that give the user an idea as to what they are capturing in the picture frame. Last but not least, the price is right. At $279.99 (with free shipping) the VholdR is an affordable system that functions great! Twenty20 VholdR Helmet Camera: it looks cool, and it is cool. It should also be mentioned that Twenty20 has been doing a great job at customer service. Some highlights of the Twenty20 VholdR:

• All-in-one unit (no wires or separate components)
• MPEG4 AVI Compression, 1GB at 640×480@30fps = 50 Minutes
• Compact size: 95mm x 53mm x 34mm (3.75 in x 2.1 in x 1.35 in)
• Lightweight: 136 g (4.8 oz)
• Removable Lithium polymer battery
• microSD card storage (up to 2GB), 1GB microSD card is included, USB 2.0 connectivity
• Includes VholdR Desktop software for organizing/sharing videos to web

• VholdR Documentation
• What You Get
• The VholdR Camera Unit
  • Pros
  • Cons
• MPEG4 Codec Settings
• Sample Video Clips, RAW and Unaltered
• Sample Video Frame Grabs
• Recording Capacity
• Battery Time
• Warranty and Support
• Software
• Summary and Recommendation
• Pricing
• About HelmetCameraCentral.com
• Review Change Log

The in-depth VholdR manual is available for download here. Included in the box, you will find the following, in addition to the compact VholdR camera unit:

• Helmet Mount with Leash
• Battery
• 1GB microSD Card
• USB Cable
• Quick Start Guide
• VholdR Desktop Software CD
• MicroSD Card Reader

Pros What we really like about the VholdR has to do with usability and… workability. “Workability” meaning all the claims about what the unit supposedly does come through. Remember people, there’s a big difference between saying and doing… especially in the helmet camera market at the present time. According to my own testing, the LED’s indicating SD card space remaining and battery life remaining worked well. The recording LED did its job to reassure me that the unit was still recording. All the scheduled beeps, which help to eliminate frustration and guesswork as to what the unit is up to, worked every time. As far as usability, the camera has two buttons that allow one to STOP/START recording, turn ON/OFF unit, check battery life, check SD card storage availability and turn on the laser beams to verify the camera’s line of sight. Four different LEDs allow one to check the unit’s status (whether it’s charging, fully charged, recording, and what the remaining SD card or battery life is). Audible beeps notify when the unit is turned on and successfully booted up, as well as when it has powered off. The record button is big and slightly grippy and worked every time during our use. The slide style “button” is more manageable with gloves on than a traditional ‘Soft Key’ would be. For helmet mounting situations, the audible beep notifies one when recording has been initiated. The LED can indicate to your partner standing next to you (barely) that the unit continues to record. The manual instructed me to hold down the back button for TWO seconds to boot up or turn on the unit, for THREE seconds to turn it off, and for one second to illuminate the LEDs and check the battery and SD card storages space left. It did exactly this, and during the beginning, the one or two beeps helped me get my timing down for on and off button pushes. While nothing beats a small video screen on the recording unit to see exactly what the camera frame is capturing during recording (a feature found on many higher end helmet camera systems), the all-in-one design of the VholdR can’t afford the size and weight that this would require. To compensate, the VholdR substitutes two laser pointers to assist in determining if the camera is orientated correctly in both the X and Y planes (whether it’s level and pointed straight ahead). The lasers are VERY cool in that they are a totally novel concept in the ever evolving helmet camera market, and they seem to work great (don’t blind the dog). The idea here is to check the camera mount to see that it points the camera appropriately before one starts recording . Unlike the camera’s LEDs, the laser dots are fairly bright and easy to see. Although, in bright conditions they cannot be seen beyond a distance of about 4-5 feet. In very bright sunny conditions, the laser dots are a bit harder to discern, so it might be wise to check and adjust the mounting alignment back at home, rather than in the field. For helmet or head mount situations, one can reach up and press the soft key button on the back of the unit “on the fly” to briefly illuminate the two red lasers. It’s worth mentioning that when pressing the button on the back of the unit like this (or when sliding the record switch forward to initiate recording) one needs to be careful not to inadvertently slide the whole unit off its rail mount. A bit about mounting now… shall we? A recommendation on how to avoid mounting headaches. Stick the mount to the side of your helmet, not the top. The VholdR slides onto a rail system which has a very well designed hook and loop connector on the back, which attaches to the actual curved plastic helmet mount. This, in turn, attaches to the mounted surface. Make sense? The hook and loop connector bond is very adequate in terms of strength and is further fortified by 360 degrees of indexed “teeth” to make the camera-mount connection very strong, but at the same time, possibly serving as a breakaway point in a hard crash. The idea being that the hook and loop would give way before the plastic rail system were to break. A short, thin, yet strong nylon “leash” connects the camera to its mounting base should it get pulled off its mount in a crash. A small, but sturdy buckle makes for easy attachment/detachment. Furthermore, the camera probably won’t get ripped off the mounting rail (causing damage to the somewhat vulnerable plastic construction), because their is a breakaway velcro attachment (the stiff plastic velcro, not the ‘fuzzy’ kind) that is also meant to lessen the impact on the camera itself in the event of a fall. More importantly, the hook and loop/indexed teeth attachment also allows one to make adjustments to the camera’s angle. For this reason, the VholdR is better suited for a (helmet) side mount, be it directly to the (helmet) surface or using the goggle mount accessory. If one were to mount the device to the top of a helmet, he or she would need to get the fore/aft positioning of the sticky mount just right, or the camera could be pointed excessively low or high. The side mount also allows one to make adjustments for different recording situations. Cons The main cons have to do with wireless, all-in-one systems in general, not the VholdR specifically. See the Battery Time section for info on battery limitations. As for mounting options, the one standard mount that comes in the box stuck to my helmet fine. In an effort to make a mount that would stick both to a flat and a rounded surface (like a helmet) they came up with something that does good job of sticking to both. Basically, it’s just barely curved enough for the adhesive patch to get enough surface area to stick to on a helmet surface, and barely flat enough to stick to a flat surface. Actually kind of clever, come to think of it. The VholdR wearable camcorder now has additional mounts available: Goggle Strap Mount, Handlebar Mount, and a Vented Helmet Mount to help you solve these mounting puzzles as they come up. Another aspect of the overall design that could have been engineered a bit better is the recording status LED indicator light. It is barely visible in regular outdoor lighting conditions (almost all helmet cam systems seem to have this problem). Twenty20 has noted this, and plans on improving the LEDs in the future. The result is that the audible beeps (one for start record, and two for stop record) are the best method to keep track of the recording status. The VholdR audio quality is great, until it is seriously compromised by any type of wind noise or vibrations (snowmobile engine). Some electrical tape over the microphone, which we are unable to visually locate, would probably help. Swimming anyone? Not with your VholdR. One feature that is nice to have with these all in one systems is a certain level of water resistance. Both the camera and the recording unit are exposed to the recording “environment”, which in the case of the VholdR, better not get too wet. Scuba diving, snorkeling, kayaking, surfing… sorry. Fishing, canoeing, spring skiing, road biking in a drizzle, muddy mountain biking, heavy powder snowstorm… not a problem! Basically, the unit cannot be submerged at all, and shouldn’t get anything more than a splash (it might survive a shallow dunk after drying thoroughly, but it would most likely shutdown for sure). Keep in mind when using the VholdR that beyond the hatch door is the SD memory card, battery, and USB port. Take care with alignment when inserting the SD card, battery, and USB cable. The same precaution applies to the complete hatch door itself. Overall, because the of VholdR’s simplicity it is lacking control over some features that would be nice to be able to configure such as different microphone settings, external microphone jacks, sleep mode settings, or video resolution settings, etc. Although, with some simple Computer->USB->VholdR communication, things like that could be configured without additional buttons or jacks on the actual VholdR. It should also be mentioned that the VholdR does not come with AV out cables for television playback. The basic codec settings for the VholdR are as follows: Video: MPEG-4 @ 640×480 @ 30 fps @ 1457 kbps Audio: PCM Audio, 8000Hz, 128kb/s, (single channel) Click the thumbnail below and you will see a screenshot of the video compression codec details for the VholdR from the GSpot Codec Appliance.

Coming Soon…

The VholdR uses MicroSD media and is currently limited to 2 GB capacity. In the future, a firmware update may allow the use of higher capacity cards. You can expect recording times somewhere near the following: 1 GB card – 50 minutes 2 GB card – 1 hour 40 minutes Wireless systems are naturally prone to shortened battery run times when outside temps are approximately 45F degrees or less. The unit and its batteries are fully exposed to air temperatures, plus the super cooling effect of wind chill as well. Battery run times during our outdoor winter test were as low as 60 minutes per charge. This is in the somewhat mild Sierra Nevada region (25F/-4C ). But, on a fast moving snowmobile, even those odds might not be favored. Note: For those sled-neckers reading this, do not worry… you may simply want to stick one or two hand warmers right on the unit itself. When I took the unit back-country skiing it had no problem recording the five runs that I enjoyed, without hand warmers. Just to make sure the battery didn’t get cold, in between runs I put it into a warm pocket. You might want to consider having some open hand warmers in the pocket, as well. This is easily done because the unit is so small, and it seems to be a quite effective technique to get longer run times in cold conditions. For cold weather users and/or real high speed users, an extra battery might be a convenient, if not just plain necessary, accessory (April 2008). The wall charger accessory (April 2008) will help alleviate this problem, as the USB port charging system seems to take forever (VholdR’s manual claims 2 hours, but testing shows 3 to 4 hours. Perhaps it depends on the computer, not sure). Check back with Helmet Camera Central’s online retail site for more cool charging options coming soon! The VholdR has a 180 day warranty. Repair service will require the product owner to ship it back to Twenty20, pre-paid. The warranty does not cover accidents, mis-use, or exposure to elements beyond what it was designed to handle. Helmet Camera Central is here to assist with any issues that may arise with any products that have been purchased by us. The packaged software CD includes the FFDshow codec pack, along with a link to the latest downloadable version of VholdR Desktop. VholdR Desktop allows you to download, organize, and share your recorded videos. I encountered no problems using their software, save perhaps that it is a good idea to boot up the unit before plugging it into the USB port. Failing to do so created the classic failure when the computer is not able to recognize the VholdR helmet camera as an external drive. Recap: Turn the VholdR on, wait for the beep, connect to computer! Twenty20 has developed a ground-breaking product at a very reasonable price. The team here at HCC is really excited about the VholdR! It’s a well thought out design, ultra-compact and lightweight packaging, and great video/sound quality, we highly recommend the VholdR. Helmet Cam Central Price: $329.99 + Free 2GB microSD + Free Shipping (Order Here)

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Some history on us, the blog, and The Shop.In the Fall of 2005, Helmet Camera Central was born as a result of our helmet cam experiences from our video consulting business Two Brothers Video. Helmet Camera Central is a simple resource designed to help people find objective and pertinent information about helmet camera systems. Over the past few years we have tried to review helmet camera systems with an unbiased and objective point of view. Generally, we focus on the functional and usability aspects of helmet camera systems. We have run the gamut of helmet cam systems and know what works and what does not. The type of reviews we produce are a by-product of our day to day experiences with helmet cam systems. Ease of use, reliability, and quality are at the top of our priority list. The helmet camera systems that we chose to Recommend and Sell at The Shop were chosen for a very good reason: They rock! If a review seems biased, it is only because we strongly feel that particular product is worthy of our bias! There are quite a few systems out there, and the ones we recommend generally provide the most elegant solution and the best return for your investment. We are always here to answer your questions and help you purchase a helmet camera system that meets your needs. If one of our recommended systems is a fit for you, we hope you will find that The Shop is a trusted storefront to supply your helmet cam equipment. If our recommended systems do not fit your needs we will not hesitate to put you in contact with the right vendor to find a solution.