INNOVV H5 Helmet Cam Review [Video, Photos, Sound]

July 10, 2023

INNOVV created the H5 motorcycle helmet camera for continuously capturing video of the rider’s perspective with the ease of one-handed operation. Where a traditional motorcycle dash cam is fixed in its field of view, the helmet mounting of the H5 records what you look at, what you find interesting, and what got your attention on the ride. The INNOVV H5 is easy to operate, records up to 4K resolution video, and the free INNOVV H5 app works well with Android (7.0 and newer) and iOS (8.3 and newer)—sorry, Windows Phone users.

It is important to emphasize that the INNOVV H5 is a continuous recording device, like a dash cam. You turn it on, and it records; you turn it off, and it stops recording. There is no Stop/Start button, only a glove-friendly On/Off/Photo button. This is a helmet-mounted camera with some action camera functionality. You can use the mobile app to start and stop recording, as long as your H5 has an active WiFi connection to your phone. However, even after setting the H5 WiFi to “never off”, as soon as my iPhone 14 screen saver blanked my screen, the WiFi connection ended. This is a set-it-and-leave-it helmet cam.

The new INNOVV H5 helmet camera is the latest innovation of Rock Liu, a Chinese entrepreneur who started INNOVV 10 years ago, initially the C1—a small action camera. INNOVV graduated to dash cams a year later with the C3.

The H5 is an under-five-ounces aerodynamically shaped camera that attaches to your helmet via a very adjustable, yet stable, stick-on mount. It will record up to 4K at 30fps in continuous loop recording or straight record mode until you run out of space on a 512 GB microSD card you purchase separately. While recording up to 24 hours on a swappable 512 GB microSD card, you can snap all the 20-megapixel still photos you want with a quick touch of the single, glove-compatible button. Rain or shine, the IP65-rated INNOVV H5 stays dust- and water-tight.

Recording resolution and frame rates are user-selectable on the smartphone app when connected via WiFi. The Sony 4K sensor has five recording resolutions/fps combinations, starting at 720p/60fps and going up to 4K/30fps. There are selections for slow and fast motion, plus special effects such as Black & White, Negative, and Contrast recording. You can see what the effects do immediately in the app. Because there is no display on the H5, your live or playback views are on your phone via the app. From the app, you can transfer videos or photos from the H5 to your photo gallery. If you want to view or edit multiple gigabytes, taking the microSD card out of the H5 and downloading it to your desktop computer or laptop is easier.

I mounted the INNOVV H5 to a Sena Impulse modular motorcycle helmet, which has built-in Bluetooth. The helmet’s Bluetooth controls are on the left side, so I mounted the H5 on the right. Because the H5 has only one button and records continuously when powered on, I wasn’t concerned about having to take my hand off the throttle to control it. The only reason to touch the single control button while riding would be to take a still photo. The button is easy to locate and press, so any time off the throttle will be momentary. A single long press turns on the H5, and the unit vibrates twice. When on, a single tap takes a photo and vibrates once. Press and hold to turn the H5 off, and you will feel a single long vibration from the unit.

Finding the right location for the INNOVV H5 took just a few moments of looking in a mirror and watching the live video feed on my phone. A great deal of adjustment is available on the H5 mount, so you need to use the mobile phone app for optimal angle and view.

To start, I assembled the entire mount and held it to the right side of the helmet. The Sena Impulse is a modular helmet, so I made sure the chin bar or my movement raising the chin bar would not conflict with the H5. The mount does stick out almost three inches from the side of the helmet, so the 120-degree field of view does not have any of the Sena Impulse helmet blocking it.

Riding with the INNOV H5 is notable in that I didn’t notice it while underway. Even when standing up on the Ultimate Motorcycling Yamaha Ténéré 700 Project Bike in a 70-mph freeway wind blast, I did not notice the H5. It weighs under five ounces with the battery attached, and even less with the five-volt USB adapter attached. It didn’t catch any wind or make any noise from the ambient wind hitting it. However, it is good at picking up conversations at a gas stop. When I wanted to take a still photo, a quick jab of the button snapped the shot. It is a turn-on and leave-on device, so no fiddling with it or the app is required while riding.

Above: Off-road video demonstrating wind noise above 20 mph

Hanging out in the full force of the wind, the built-in microphone is overpowered above 20 mph. I tried the boom microphone adapter, which requires using a different five-volt USB connection than the one in the basic $268 MSRP kit. The boom microphone is a $30 upgrade included with the $298 MSRP complete kit

It was a bit weird having two microphones inside the Sena Impulse. One for the Sena Bluetooth system and another for the INNOVV H5. The boom microphone has decent voice pickup and good noise cancellation for voice recording while riding. Because the H5 is always recording, you can say as much or as little as you want into the boom mic. However, you will have to use an external five-volt power source such as a battery in your pocket or a five-volt USB port on your dash for power. You can hear my sample recordings in the video below.

Above: Microphone Test #1 on Freeway

The INNOVV H5’s battery is good for five hours of recording before the helmet cam turns off. Plugging into a five-volt power source and recording at 4K/30fps after 12 hours on a 512GB microSD card, the mobile app showed 293GB free; it used less than half its storage space in 12 hours of recording. That equates to over 24 hours of high-resolution video from a 512GB microSD card. If you use the H5 as a continuous loop recording dash cam, a 32 GB microSD card will loop record more than two hours of video and leave plenty of room for still photos.

The H5 clips into its mount solidly—two C clips snap-fit into detents in the H5 body—and is designed to break loose if the helmet cam hits something. It snaps in place with a firm

longitudinal twist and separates from the mount with a firm grip and twist. I had immediate confidence it wasn’t going to leave the mount unless it got slammed by an immovable object.

On my first ride with the INNOVV H5 attached, I was stopped at a red light and noticed in my peripheral vision some unusually fast movement on my right for a car approaching a signal that had just changed to red. I didn’t move and, fortunately, none of the other vehicles at the intersection did either, as the red light was dangerously run. My INNOVV H5 continuously recording dash cam did its job and recorded the whole incident. My video would have made a great witness to any accident. The Sony sensor doesn’t do well in low light, but the streetlights at that intersection were enough for the H5 to capture the action.

Sometimes we see beautiful vistas or look over at a dilapidated barn. The alpacas that catch our eye, or the horse and foal in the pasture, are all captured by the INNOVV H5 motorcycle helmet cam. The smile memories or the accident truth are all captured in high resolution for later review. The INNOVV H5, with its long-life battery and five-volt adapter, is making it easier than ever to capture every single moment of our rides without any extra button pushing or app fidgeting.