Decided to get one of these cameras on a stick everyone seems to be sporting (i.e. a GoPro).

Can any experienced helmetcammers share advice they learned the hard way? I'd love to get good footage the first time, and not lose the thing.

Speaking of which, is it necessary to tie off the camera? Is the concern the adhesive coming off the helmet, or the helmet popping out of the mount?

Thanks!

Use some sort of light solvent to prep the area before you attach the mount, a clean surface will adhere better.

Thanks everyone! Some other noob questions:

Do you carry extra batteries? Extra SD cards? How many should I expect to go through in a long day on the water?

On longer runs, do you usually just turn the cam on and forget about it, or try to conserve by turning it off during boring parts, in eddies, etc?

Helmet cams are awesome. I'm pretty stoked about all the footage I've accumulated over the last year.

I'm pretty active turning the camera on and off as I go down the river. I like having the action without the inbetween. Maybe it's because I don't have a fast enough computer to want to spend time editing. That means I usually use the gopro the most when I'm paddling fast.
I've gotten good at turning the camera on and off without looking at it, there's a learning curve and you will miss out on footage occasionally (or have to be that guy constantly asking "am I blinking?")

Even after a year, my camera will film for at least an hour on one charge. Therefore, I've never bothered with a spare battery, and I've never came remotely close to filling a 32gb card in even an entire weekend. Whether you need spare battery or memory depends on how many hours of filming you plan to do.

After tons of crappy droplety footage, I've been getting better stuff lately:
-Make sure the lense is not scratched. Buy a replacement lens immediately if it is.
-Spit on the lens above every rapid. Mucus, phlem, sputum, whatever you want to call it, works. Saliva does not. RainX is way too short term to be useful on a river trip. Maybe if you had a little bottle and could reapply it regularly.

Thanks again for all the advice in this thread. Figured out a couple other things over the last couple weeks, and figure I'll post them here for anyone reading this in the future:

- GoPro batteries don't come fully charged. I forgot to charge mine before leaving and ended up not being able to film on the first leg of the trip.
- Needs a real charger. My solar charger works great on iPods, etc, but couldn't put a lasting charge on the camera.
- I've heard of people putting silica gel packets in the housing to prevent fogging issues. I had bad fogging on my first use. Pulled the camera out of the housing and left both sitting in the sun for a couple hours and it's been fine since.
- Once fully charged I get about 1hr film time, too. Works out to about 2 charges per 16gb card or 4 per 32gb card.

I'm still trying to figure out the water droplet issue. Ben, snot works great but I'm finding if I'm paddling anything worth filming, I forget to reapply. Am going to see how RainX before putting on works out.

Useful info, thanks. Where exactly did you tie the tether? The GoPro housing doesn't really have much in the way of tie down spots. BTW the new models have this rubber lock-system with a rubber locking bracket that also attaches to the GoPro attachment stem, but it seems that a separate tether is still wise and necessary.

Well, they say it's supposed to protect against the clip popping in a sharp impact. Its meant to keep the arms from being forced inward, allowing the camera to slide off.

But yeah, if we're talking about plastic breaking that's not gonna do anything.

Blair, did you tie off to the little exposed bit of hinge? Really thin cord?

What Dave said last about tie-off seems better way of explaining it because that's how mine is tied off.

Dave can take a picture and post it.

You guys sayin there ain't no eyelet for a lanyard (old maritime terminology for "tie off")?! Lame.

Seems like a basic thing to mold into the housing. All other cameras and flashlights, knives, and practicly any small object being used in an adventure has some eyelet to attach a lannyard or tether.

I almost lost mine on lower brush creek past where you usually hike out. it was hanging on by a plastic thread after a particularly bad shallow incident I should have portaged. Had to buy new housing. But the mount stayed on. They suck in low light. Overcast and rainy days to not make quality footage. They take great stills in good light. Make sure it's set to shoot video rather than stills before you head out, if that's what you're after. Take off your helmet and do a visual check if you want to make sure you are recording as their feedback is weak. Read the instructions several times - two buttons do about 50 functions (at least on my model). After a good wipe out make sure the angle hasn't been adjusted for you. Filming the sky above or your skirt below is disappointing. Make sure the back is completely latched. GoPro sells an anti-fog insert and should sell their own brand of Rain-X. After a couple years the novelty starts to wear off a little and you'll realize how incredibly time consuming it is to edit video and find unlicensed music and add text. Mine runs on lithiums which are crazy expensive and only last for a few hours. I used to get disappointed if my batteries ran out (mine has no warning) or I pressed to stop filming when I thought I was starting filming.. now I just feel like it's a bonus if I get any footage and set my expectations at rock bottom. But I still wince when I think about missing out on filming thunder crk b/c the camera was turned on(not filming, just on) during the 4 mile hike in. I ran something twice one time b/c the first time my batteries were dead. Kind of a bad way to make that sort of decision I admit.

A hit? hmmm, never thought about that.

In that article it says there are pros and cons of using a leash; con is it could be a snag hazard. What!? That's ridiculous! It is a tiny leash and something would break off in a snag event. Plus if it didn't, how hard is it to unsnag something so small an weak.

Btw, I didn't attach mine there.

I've had mine tethered since I lost the first one. The tether saved my Go Pro 3 times now. The little grooves in the mounting bracket break off. It doesn't take much of an impact either. Guess I would rather have the mounting bracket fail than have the camera housing destroyed, but still attached.