The MOHOC Elite Ops Camera is a military-optimized camera developed with a specific form factor designed to be mounted to the top of a helmet. In addition to 140 deg FOV capture of 1080 full motion HD video, the 12 MP camera will also take stills. In fact, you can capture stills and video simultaneously. Additionally, the lens rotates so it will remain horizontally oriented regardless of where it is mounted.
The MOHOC has been drop tested to 2 meters and is waterproof to 10 meters. Finally, the MOHOC not only contains a Lithium Ion power cell (2 hours) but will also accept two CR123A batteries (~6 hours).
The MOHOC is expected to begin shipping this Summer. An IR Greyscale variant will also be available.
That’s pretty slick. Go-Pro on steroids
Any hint on MSRP? I’ve been seeing this thing around but no one will say how much.
I think we are looking at mid-500 for color and mid-700 for IR.
Can the lens be rotated so it can be mounted to the side also?
its says “Additionally, the lens rotates so it will remain horizontally oriented regardless of where it is mounted. ” so yes you can mount it any which way and it will still work
derp
Seems to me its basically one of these in a slightly different shell for 5x the price…
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/996553-REG/contour_1801k_contourroam2_americas_black.html
I’d agree with you.
But a minor point of contention. Other than both being helmet cameras they’re nothing alike.
How are they nothing alike? The contour has a better field of view (170 degrees), the lens can also be turned to mount in different positions( 270 degrees), both are 1080p full motion, both are waterproof, both can take still pictures.
Sure there are differences, but when I can buy one of these and have $400 for ammo or other gear, I dont see THAT big of a difference.
I own a Contour Roam 2 and just by reading the stats of the MOHOC, they are nothing alike. The Contour can’t take video and picture simultaneously and is only waterproof up to about a meter, whereas the MOHOC is 10m. Also, Contour went out of business, which is probably why that Roam 2 is very cheap.
Contour is in business. Look it up.
I prefer the narrower field of view. The wider the FOV, the further away the subject of filming appears. If its something getting shot at, it is probably not terribly close to begin with. Artificially making it look further away is not what I want. In addition, the wider the FOV the more fisheye effect the lens produces.
I really like the 123 option. I always have those, I dont always have time to charge a battery when I want to film.
Does it have any tie-down points?
Yes at the back.
Sold.
Will the IR variant be dual role in that it toggles between day and IR?
It always collects In the IR spectrum so it is always grey scale.
i saw this in the Ops Core catalog as well – but hasn’t the onus been towards reducing the vertical profile, hence products like the Norotos Lo-Sto series of mounts, etc.?
What’s the front/lens impact protection for jumping out of an armored vehicle door?
Granted – it looks like it’s not too much taller than a set of stowed NVGs – but then, especially if there’s an IR variant – what happens if you end up transitioning to white light, and flipping your NODs up?
The write-up says that this is “military-optimized,” and “developed with a specific form factor,” but did an end-user organization ask for this?
If they did, I’m sure they did so for a specific purpose, and it may well work very well – for that specific purpose – but I’m having a little bit of trouble seeing the broader application at the $500-$700 price point the way it is designed to be mounted.
Granted, I like the idea of a low profile, military use- hardened helmet camera especially with an IR capability, but I will admit to being a tad confused about the execution? Am I missing something?
Mount it to the side.
SSD – I get that that is a work around – but i suppose my point is that, as you mentioned, it was “developed with a specific form factor,” and the acronym “MOHOC” is pretty clearly intended to be spoken as “mohawk,” why was it not optimized to be side-mounted in the first place?
While it could be attached elsewhere, the bottom of the unit appears to be pretty specifically contoured to mount to the top.
Once again, I like the idea, and I certainly haven’t designed and marketed a helmet mounted camera, but the immediate execution of the “mohawk” idea just seems extremely odd to me, which is why I’m asking if I’ve missed something.
There’s not a lot of real estate on the side of fully-equipped modern helmets. Comms\earpro, work-lights, SSE-level lights, IR illum, and so forth have priority. The space required for swing-mounting comms\earpro conflict with running larger objects above the rail, unless they are small enough to run farther forward (ie. single-cell IR illum, watch-battery work lights).
The top of the helmet may or may not have a multi-function IFF unit; but fewer things will be jostling for space with a camera. NVGs have priority for the frontal area.
Are you actually a Captain?
I am.
I like that it has the option to use CR123s. Hopefully it’s durable, at least more so than the Contour. The tie down points are a huge plus.
Contour is not out of business, I don’t know who keeps spreading this rumour. It’s true that Go-Pro has the majority share in the action camera market, but contour is the only real competition. If they went out of business, someone would have jumped on it as soon as possible to grab the rights.
I would like to see a helmet camera with an ANVIS style setup where the lens is mounted forwards (perhaps in the traditional countour position on the side of the helmet), and the power supply, memory, and general “guts” of the unit, to include the controls are located on the back, and attached by a heavy duty, replaceable Mini-USB or something like that, possibly with a locking connection. Of course, retention is probably on the minds of just about everyone who uses these things seriously, so both components would have to have solid retention points. I don’t know how tough you can make a lens though!
Contour went out of business, and then reanimated. They are currently in business, but were not for a period of time.
Darrel – COntour WAS out of business, but was re-started pretty quick.
http://contour.com/contour-returns-pov-camera-market
I agree. I’d love to see someone make something akin to the Wilcox MHRS but with a much more realistic price point.
I’m tossing up some fast video in a bit on this from MarSouth today…it was the hit of the show for some guys…but that price is a touch steep unless you are related to Uncle Sugar.
I got to play around with one of these a few days ago and really liked it. Really solid build…meant for military application, not just repurposed like GoPro or Contour. Footage was effortlessly streaming to an iPhone. It had a great, tactile feel to the buttons too with strong vibration confirmation of which mode you were in. Was solid on the helmet that it was demoed on. These guys did an excellent job and certainly hit the niche and purpose much better than GoPro or Contour. As someone who develops gear in this space, I was very impressed. And although I only met one of the 4 cofounders, really good dude. I left feeling “Wow, I’m so happy for these guys and what they’ve done.” Quality work…can’t wait to see what they do here.