11-30-07 // Previewed: Twenty20's New VholdR

Text by Chris Lesser
Photos by Anthony Smith

Watch the video that Anthony Godoy and the Bike mag crew made HERE.

About a year ago, Jason Green and Marc Barros, owners of Twenty20 helmet cameras, paid a visit to the Bike magazine SoCal Romparoom. They were checking up on their video camera unit that we were testing for last year’s March issue, but they also came to tease a new product in development—the $350 “VholdR”.

At the time, it existed only on a piece of paper. Actually, it was a shoddy photocopy, but it had a lot of promise: an integrated, single-piece helmet camera and digital data recorder in one.

The all-in-one helmet cam

A year later we finally got to see one in the flesh. The very first working sample. By all accounts, the wait seems to have been worth it.

Anthony Godoy, a video production guru who Twenty20 hired to help with the new unit, came by with company’s first two working units for a little show and tell.

The heart and soul of the new camera is its compact, comprehensive design. There are no entangling cables, no external recorders, no remote controls. Just stick the thing onto your bike or helmet, toggle one big ol’ switch, and you’re recording.

The whole shebang weighs just 4.8 ounces. That includes a cell-phone style battery and a MicroSD card. Most people are familiar with standard SD cards, and MiniSD cards have been out for a while too. MicroSD cards, however, are stupid small, about a quarter the size of a standard SD card. The MicrosSD cards the VholdR we used held two gigabytes on a card the size of a pinky nail.

One thing the unit does lack is a screen. The biggest competition for Twenty20’s new VholdR, as it’s called, is VioSport’s POV.1, which has an LCD screen for trailside review and editing.

To make up for that, the unit has two lasers positioned on the lens. Hit a button on the back of the unit and you can use the two laser pointers to make sure the camera is positioned correctly and, almost as importantly, to make sure your horizon is going to be level.

Because the lens and capture card are connected on a swivel, the unit can be mounted up and then you can rotate the lens up to 192 degrees and sight it in with the lasers to make sure you have a level field of view.

Additional lenses are reportedly on the drawing board for Twenty20. A fish eye adapter would be nice. As is, the standard lens serves up a 90-degree field of view.

This front view shows the VholdR's compact size

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Reader Comments

Posted Mon Apr28, 2008, 6:49 PM — By killer

you guys are full of crap this cam is not worthy of plugging the shit hole it came from. 90% of the users have problems with software and the cam itself, dont blame MAC

Posted Sat Oct18, 2008, 5:55 PM — By Freakhead

Yes this is the worst buy i've ever did. The cam is totaly useless. The sound sucks, the encoding sucks,just nothing good comes out of that cam. I strongly suggest NOT buying this crap.

Posted Thu Dec25, 2008, 2:47 PM — By Tom

Mine works just fine, no issues. Great video quality.

Posted Thu Jul16, 2009, 4:46 AM — By raaz

plz softwears page open

Posted Wed Sep 2, 2009, 7:24 PM — By Nick

Looks to me like competitors have people defaming the vholdr, you'll see baseless comments like the 2 above on youtube too - I'm tipping Tachyon; low low low. Check out reviews from legit sites like this, not comments from random anons. If you search youtube for vholdr heaps of people are using these things successfully.

Posted Fri Sep11, 2009, 4:45 PM — By Dallas

I agree with Freakhead. I bought the Vholdr and its a total piece of crap. Video shakes so bad it gives everyone who watches it a headache. I have had to modify the mic (cover it with tape) to decrease the wind noise but even still all you can hear is a constant howl. I bought it due to the higher res than the GoPro camera (which a buddy of mine has) but i wish i could reverse that decision.....now it just sits in a closet DONT BUY ONE YOU WILL REGRET IT!!