The camera only has two real controls. The button on the rear displays
the memory card and battery status, as two LEDs coloured green, amber
and red, and to start recording you just slide the switch on the top of
the camera forwards. This also exposes a red recording light, so it's
easy to see the camera is capturing video. A flap at the back of the
camera slides up and flips open to reveal the Mini USB socket, microSD
card slot and format button for the memory card.
There's a downside to this ease of use, and that's the lack of
controls for any of the camera's functions; if you want to change
recording modes you need to plug the camera into your PC, install the
Contour Storyteller application (which also requires QuickTime) and
change settings from there. It's unlikely you'll be changing video modes
all the time, as most people will leave the camera at the
YouTube-friendly 1080p and 30fps, but having to plug the camera into a
PC to turn on sequential still image capture is annoying. You can
capture still images at intervals of 1, 3, 5, 10, 30 or 60 seconds, and
switching to 720p video means you can record at a smoother 60fps.
We're fans of the Roam2's mounting system. Mounts slot into the
grooves at the base of the camera, and this keeps it rock steady. The
different mounts available for the Roam2 hold the camera at various
angles, but the lens assembly rotates to compensate, locking into place
at each 90-degree point with a clunk. Pressing the status button on the
camera's rear will also turn on the alignment laser; this is a
horizontal laser line which helps you get the image just straight, and
is very useful considering the number of different ways you can mount
the camera.
The camcorder comes with a pair of mounts as standard; one with a
square base that rotates through 360 degrees and locks into place with a
slider, and a non-moving rectangular mount. Both have 3M VHB material
on the bottom, which is incredibly sticky. You can buy a further
selection of mounts for the Roam2, from the £17 headband mount to £35
suction mount and various types of mount designed to attach the
camcorder to a helmet.
During our off-road tests with an HPI Racing Bullet MT
radio-controlled car, the Roam2's rigid stand stood it in good stead
when protecting against wobbles. Thanks to the lack of play in its
mount, this camera produced some of the steadiest footage we've seen; it
wasn't up there with the smooth footage from the Sony HDR-AS15, but
neither did it paint the sky a strange shade of turquoise like the Sony
camera.
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