GoPro HD Helmet Hero review

Build quality is excellent. The buttons on the polycarbonate housing work reliably, and the housing itself protects the camera from knocks and scratches. Spares are easily available, as are other types of mounts.

Thanks to a wide-angle f/2.8 lens with fixed focus, image quality is very good. Colours are accurate and detail levels were far superior to the Contour GPS. We found the default 1,280×960 setting the best, thanks to a massive 170-degree view. The only disadvantage is the huge amount of barrel distortion, but you see far more of the scene than in the 720p or 1080p modes which don’t have much distortion. Audio quality is less impressive, so don’t expect a soundtrack that rivals a standard camcorder.

GoPro claims the Li-ion battery lasts almost 2.5 hours, and this was borne out in our tests. You can buy a second battery that plugs into the proprietary connector for around £50. A spare battery is cheaper at around £20. Annoyingly, there’s no mains charger, so you’ll need one – or a handy USB port on a computer. The Hero will carry on filming while charging, but you can’t transfer files from the SD card.

Although it isn’t cheap, the Helmet Hero’s great footage makes it the best action cam we’ve seen. It may not have a built-in GPS receiver like the Contour GPS, but we’d far rather have decent image quality.