Product Review: Contour Roam3 action camera

Contour's Roam3 camera offers a basic but excellent option, which is exceptionally rugged, waterproof and easy to use, with good footage quality. Review by Kris Hodgson

We’ve been running the Contour Roam3 for over a year now, and it’s a great value action camera for anyone looking for easy fitment and adjustability, as well as a rugged overall design. I commonly use mine for recording my commutes, and it has recorded hundreds if not thousands of hours of footage.

Our Contour Roam3 has been used for the majority of our YouTube content

In fact most of our YouTube on board footage is taken on a Contour camera, as the helmet fitting and adjustment really lends itself to motorcycle use, and once setup you can rely upon getting the footage you need from your helmet every time.

The one caveat to this is don’t let anyone mess around with the mount or your helmet, with it mounted, the mount has a release button that lets you adjust the angle of the camera, and in my experience the first thing most people do is push the button and totally screw up all your adjustment!

The Shoei RYD helmet fitted with an Adaptive Transition visor and Contour Roam3

Helping with the adjustment itself is a laser line, which you can activate with the rear button and which you essentially just make sure is pointing where you are looking. Set it up in a dark garage so the laser line is highly visible and you’ll have it working in no time.

The other form of adjustability is that the lens can be turned up to 270 degrees to modify the orientation of the footage, which is great for ensuring everything is level. You may need to adjust this slightly after checking the footage if you don’t find the laser line offers enough adjustability.

Recording toggled on, on the Roam3

Activating the camera is as easy as sliding the top button, with a loud activation noise letting you know when recording starts. There’s also a different tone for when you turn the camera off, with a warning tone if for some reason the camera isn’t able to record. That normally means your card is full.

Visible to the rear of the top button are SD card and battery icons, which let you know at a glance whether the camera is charged and has space, while an old school USB2 cable is used for charging.

Footage quality isn’t on par with the GoPro Hero5 Session that we’ve recently been testing, however with that said, the quality on 1080p (1920×1080, 30fps) is still good enough for most uses, particularly if you’re taking footage of your commutes or weekend rides.

There are some limitations such as no removable battery and video quality, but neither are a deal breaker

Without a removable battery there is the limitation of the battery life, however we’ve found it generous enough to offer two hours of recording, which covers a general two way commute, or quite a bit of recording while out testing a bike. This can also be overcome with a battery pack and a USB2 charging cord, but you would need to be careful as USB2 does have a tendency to come loose.

One downside is that when the camera splits files it isn’t always a clean split, which happens as it reaches 4gig or 15 minute increments. This can mean if you’re recording a continuous section – particularly with audio, there’ll be a slight hiccup at this point, although I’ve only noticed on rare occasions.

An easy locking point fixes securely to your helmet and offers good adjustability

Audio is quickly overwhelmed by wind buffeting on the bike at speed, so expect to have to split the audio off the video in these situations, as you normally won’t get great audio mounted to a helmet. Mounted directly to a bike, depending on the orientation, position and airflow, you can have better luck in some situations.

Footage quality as night is also good, without being amazing, and riding in the rain or mist will require frequent clearing of the lens to ensure you’re getting good footage, although this is of course a common problem. Riding along dusty tracks also requires reasonably frequent clearing of the lens, which is easily accomplished with a gloved finger.

After extensive use the Contour Roam is also like new, and has really proven an extremely durable option. It’s very easy to use, and remove from the helmet. An extra provided tether ensures you won’t lose the camera should it somehow come off the mounting system, which would most likely be a user error situation, when installed correctly,

MicroSD slot and USB2 charging port are protected behind a rubber booted end-cap for waterproofing

Taking MicroSDs is the standard, and while the USB2 cable is older technology it does the job and are a common and easily purchased item. Charging has also proven reliable and there’s no sign of reduced charge or recording length so far, despite the heavy use.

Overall, for the price, at just $199.95 RRP it’s really hard to beat the Contour. The only area it suffers in comparison to more expensive options is in the video quality, however if you aren’t looking for absolutely exceptional quality, or even higher resolution like up to 4K as is offered by some other cameras, then this could well be the choice for you.

In some ways it is basic, but the overall design has been very well thought out and as mentioned if the video quality is good enough for your uses, you can’t really go wrong. If you are looking for absolutely top notch optics, then it’ll be worth looking at something a bit more expensive.

Contour’s Roam3 action camera

Contour Roam3 features:

• Waterproof up to 30 ft. without a case
• Quick Photo Mode (5MP)
• 270° Rotating Lens
• Laser alignment
• Long Lasting Built-in Rechargeable Battery
• Locking Instant On-Record Switch
• 8GB Memory Card Included
• 1080p HD Video @ 30 FPS
• Still Photo Mode
• 170° wide-angle Lens

The Contour Roam3 is available for $199.95 RRP and are imported by Moto National Accessories.