Description

Mark Schulze wears his video helmet camera invention in Carlsbad, California, in 1988, during a mountain biking cross country race. A San Diego Director of Photography, Schulze fashioned his rig by mounting the first available chip camera made by RCA, to a motorcycle helmet. The camera fed signal via cable to a VCR stuffed into a padded backpack. This unwieldy rig was worn by various mountain bikers and "Mountain Bike Trials" riders to capture POV footage of Trials Champions Ot Pi Isern and Kevin Norton, and mountain bike racers, Jeff Detweiler and Mark Schulze. This footage appeared in 1987's "The Great Mountain Biking Video" (world's first mountain-biking video, first in a series of mountain-bike movies produced by Schulze via his company New & Unique Videos). Upon removing the rig after a particular ride, the wearer would inevitably exclaim, "This thing's HEAVY!" This pioneering hardware eventually gave way to button and lipstick cameras.

Credits

Videotaped by Patty Mooney, Crystal Pyramid Productions
Featuring Mark Schulze wearing his video helmet camera invention

Technical Information

This clip was shot with a 3/4 inch camera in 1988. It was digitized and edited by Patty Mooney. Music by Silver Leaf.

Tags

Helmet cam, helmet camera, inventor, invention, visionary, Mark Schulze, Patty Mooney, innovator, Crystal Pyramid Productions, New and Unique Videos, mountain bike movies