I’m thinking about purchasing an action camera so that I can record some of my ebike activities. Does anyone have experience of these? What accessories would be needed to record a typical bike ride?
Action cameras
- Thread starter StrawHatMan
- Start date
if you get a cheap gopro copy they pretty much come with everything you will need mount wise.
i put mine under the visor on my new helmet but here is a vid with it on my old one.
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i put mine under the visor on my new helmet but here is a vid with it on my old one.
Unless you can afford a high end model be careful at the lower end its a minefield of crap. Some are basically toys with terrible results and others for similar money can be very good. Try to get the best sensor and chipset in the action camera you can, these dictate the quality of the results.
Lots of youtube videos that give the best models, search for best budget action cameras of 2020 etc.
Lots of action cameras give false specifications i.e. they claim 1080p 60fps but are really upscaled 720p 60fps or they claim 4k 30fps but in reality they are only 4k 15fps but double each frame. So basically you can't always go by the stated specification.
A very high quality action camera is the Yi action camera. It has a very high quality 16 megapixel sensor and decent Ambarella chipset and people have done custom firmwares for it. It doesn't have image stabilisation but you can get a true 2k 30fps out of it and can use image stabilisation software on a pc to take this down to 1080p 30fps for smoother video.
I've bought a couple of these for as little as £20 each. I think even the latest gopro model only has a 12 megapixel sensor so at least for still images the little yi camera can beat it. Of course its more about the video.
A key feature to look out is the ability to charge while recording so that you can run it from a powerpack or your main battery, otherwise you need one with a good battery life. Also, 1080P is an absolute minimum, though you really need 2K or 4K to be able to see car number plates more than 10ft in front of you. The cheaper ones don't have any image stabilisation, which is no good if you mount the devicen on your handlebars. One I bought at the Bike Show a few years back has internal GPS so as well as the video, it records the GPS data in a separate file and has a special app that puts a map next to the video that shows speed ans other stuff on the map while you watch the playback.
Image stabilisation can be useless on some low end cameras. When you turn the electronic image stabilisation on the picture just turns to rubbish. Lets say you choose 1080p 60fps with image stabilisation the cheaper cameras record a 1080p image but then stabilise using about a two thirds window of that image so instead of being 1920x1080 its now 1200x 600 or similar and then they upscale it back to 1920x1080 afterwards so you basically lose a lot of image quality when the camera stabilises the video. Of course you also lose a high amount of the field of view. What was a 170 degree view is now down at 130 degrees because of the stabilisation. Even the good cameras that record at 1440p, 2k or 3k so they can stabilise at 1080p still lose the viewing angle but the video quality is still good. Above that you have gyro sensors being used for stabilising the video which can still give a wide view of view and great quality stabilisation. Those sort of cameras are normally £100 plus.
The first action camera I ever bought was a wimius which was based on a sunplus chipset. It was £13 from amazon about 3 or 4 years ago. It did have electronic image stabilisation and this worked well in certain situations but because the moving window within the image frame was quite large it could get caught out quite easily but for example if you put it on a washing machine it would stabilise the video perfectly because the movement was so uniform and easy to stabilise and it still worked well on a bicycle for minor movement.
Again the cheaper Chinese action cameras might state gyro image stabilisation but in fact are purely software with poor results.
There are always lots of videos on youtube showing how most cameras work and whether the features work properly or not. Just remember who is reviewing the action camera, if its a keen photographer they will often be more critical of the failings of the camera where as others may be easier to please. You need to almost review the reviewer.
The first action camera I ever bought was a wimius which was based on a sunplus chipset. It was £13 from amazon about 3 or 4 years ago. It did have electronic image stabilisation and this worked well in certain situations but because the moving window within the image frame was quite large it could get caught out quite easily but for example if you put it on a washing machine it would stabilise the video perfectly because the movement was so uniform and easy to stabilise and it still worked well on a bicycle for minor movement.
Again the cheaper Chinese action cameras might state gyro image stabilisation but in fact are purely software with poor results.
There are always lots of videos on youtube showing how most cameras work and whether the features work properly or not. Just remember who is reviewing the action camera, if its a keen photographer they will often be more critical of the failings of the camera where as others may be easier to please. You need to almost review the reviewer.
I use the firefly 7s, low end but gyro stabilised. I am happy with a decent record time of 2hrs at 720p 60 fps or 1hr at 1080p but only 30 fps on a high speed SD card (C10 HC U1). I also carry a dual 18650 battery pack for fast(ish) charging at 1a, the cam has about 45 mins run time per battery. There's plenty of comparisons on youtube.
The fake gyro stabilised Chinese action cameras are more like £25 or less. Normally the first gyro stabilised cameras kick in about £40 maybe with a novatek chipset, not sure and then the really top end stabilising cameras, gopro level of stabilisation kick in about £100 but I'm sure there are many cameras that break those rules that have been heavily discounted.
Yer I went through about 2 cheap cams before I did some research, the firefly S8 is not a bad model when I last looked into the replacing my S7 however I managed to replace a ribbon cable in mine and fix it - the S7 gyro works but is not ideal, it stops the rattle from steady cruise or some slightly bumpy ride and I've had some good footage from canal path at speed however for semi-professional youtubers and serious terrain a £100+ model would be good starting point. I think the firefly series start out life as an entry level mountable gyro cam for early drones and initially had no screens. I also believe the gyro is not software based but its been a while since I did my research. I would prob look at £100+ maybe a used but warrantied gopro from cash converters if I was short on funds.
Gyro stabilisation is a good feature or what is called optical stabilisation on normal cameras I think but where as high end cameras have the optical sensor on a sort of tray like a compact disc laser that moves with the gyro sensor information I think on action cameras and cheaper digital cameras the gyro sensor data is used to move which part of the fixed image sensor is used. So if the sensor is 12 megapixel and the video requires 4 megapixels that gives you 3x the area to move about to generate the image but the image has no compromises it's not processed. However I seem to remember a forum posting where the sensor had a dead pixel in one area so on that faulty camera a dead pixel would keep appearing and indicate how the image was being moved to stabilise the video.
The very cheap action cameras often have low end 4 megapixel sensors (omnivision etc) so they simply don't have a good enough sensor to do gyro stabilisation well even if they have a gyro sensor. Some action cameras do seem to have a gyro sensor but the other components simply aren't good enough to provide decent image stabilisation, maybe the SOC is too slow or the sensor is too low resolution. However my point about the fake gyro action cameras is they simply fake it with software image stabilisation as the field of view and resolution drops massively.
The very cheap action cameras often have low end 4 megapixel sensors (omnivision etc) so they simply don't have a good enough sensor to do gyro stabilisation well even if they have a gyro sensor. Some action cameras do seem to have a gyro sensor but the other components simply aren't good enough to provide decent image stabilisation, maybe the SOC is too slow or the sensor is too low resolution. However my point about the fake gyro action cameras is they simply fake it with software image stabilisation as the field of view and resolution drops massively.
Many thanks for your helpful replies to my enquiry. You’ve set me on the right path to find what I’m looking for.
Oh don't forget FPS should be on the list - my next cam I'll be looking for at least 1080p 60fps - 60FPS min helps with editing and allows fair to good slow mo.
this is the one i have but it can just do an hour in 4k 30fps
it sounds like im on a rocket because it is on the handlebars why i now have it on my helmet.
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it sounds like im on a rocket because it is on the handlebars why i now have it on my helmet.
Cool - I noticed 1080p 60fps - I totally forgot mine does actually do 1080p@60fps - Do you have that in a waterproof case on your helmet? I had to put holes in my case to allow air otherwise it would steam up lol, its still covered from summer showers though!
Sound muted though awful road noises - these roads have been resurfaced since the make of this film...
Some good info already posted here. One thing I think hasn't been mentioned is night time sensitivity. Some cameras are rubbish in low light conditions. At this time of year with the long nights, the ride home is often in the dark, so having something with good dark capability can be important.
The OV4689 sensor in that camera is only 4 megapixels so its impossible for that camera to be 4k which needs at least 8 megapixels to do 4k at 4:3, you might need 10 or 12 megapixels to do 16:9 4k and also even some 8 megapixel sensors can't do 4k as they can't generate the required bitrate of data. So some might only be able to do 4k at 15fps or 10fps, a slideshow basically.this is the one i have but it can just do an hour in 4k 30fps
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it sounds like im on a rocket because it is on the handlebars why i now have it on my helmet.
I've got cameras like that myself and its quite common. You need to work out the true best resolution of the camera and use that as letting the camera upscale wastes cpu power and therefore battery power and if you are going to upscale the video its best done to a higher quality on pc software rather than allow the camera do a poor job of it. You also benefit sometimes from a higher bit rate image so a 1080p video can end up looking better than the fake 4k video because the camera couldn't generate a high bit rate video and upscale at the same time. It also benefits from the fact you can store more video on the memory card and may cause less artifacts in the video caused by a slow memory card, 1080p is less demanding of storage speed than 4k even upscaled 4k. Some cameras do a fake 4k but have a true video resolution around 2.3k to 2.7k. The omnivision 4689 sensor has 2688 x 1520 resolution so anything above that is upscaled and that includes still images. There are cheap action cameras with only 1.3 megapixel sensors (also typically found in low end webcams and children's digital cameras) but they do fake still images up to 12 megapixels. That's how awful some chinese action cameras are.
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I'm also in the market for an action camera. However, anything but a GoPro (at a minimum) looks terrible, particularly for stable footage and for low light performance. I may simply mount an old Android phone to my helmet with something like this (delivered from the USA):
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Camera-Adapter-Tactical-Helmet-Cellphone/dp/B07HQGHBGB/
If you already have a compatible camera/phone holder, you can just order a fixing screw, (alleged UK delivery) - I'm not sure that the geometry of the fixing bolts would match my bike helmet, but I could always attach it to something simply constructed which does:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tactical-Helmet-Accessories-Bracket-Camcorder/dp/B078Y3D45N/
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Huenco-Tactical-FAST-AF-M88-MICH-Helmets-Accessories-Front-Bracket-Mount/383820933790
Or add this phone holder part to the fixing screw:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Yoogeer-Universal-Smartphone-Attachment-Adapter/dp/B07G4TLRSL/
... I have an old Motorola G5 I could use (I'm not risking my main phone, these things look flimsy - use of all such phone holders seem to be accompanied by moments of frantic phone slipping, juggling horror) and attempt to stabilise the video in software... and then buy a secondhand GoPro.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Camera-Adapter-Tactical-Helmet-Cellphone/dp/B07HQGHBGB/
If you already have a compatible camera/phone holder, you can just order a fixing screw, (alleged UK delivery) - I'm not sure that the geometry of the fixing bolts would match my bike helmet, but I could always attach it to something simply constructed which does:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tactical-Helmet-Accessories-Bracket-Camcorder/dp/B078Y3D45N/
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Huenco-Tactical-FAST-AF-M88-MICH-Helmets-Accessories-Front-Bracket-Mount/383820933790
Or add this phone holder part to the fixing screw:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Yoogeer-Universal-Smartphone-Attachment-Adapter/dp/B07G4TLRSL/
... I have an old Motorola G5 I could use (I'm not risking my main phone, these things look flimsy - use of all such phone holders seem to be accompanied by moments of frantic phone slipping, juggling horror) and attempt to stabilise the video in software... and then buy a secondhand GoPro.
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some older sony phones had good stabilisation, as for low light I think an 8000lm front will do nicely
Some budget action cameras are brilliant, they are based on a fantastic sensor and chipset. The older yi action camera has a great sensor and decent ambarella chipset. Awesome quality video with only the lack of stabilisation letting it down. It can produce higher quality images and video than many of the gopros as the sensor is better. You could record in 2k 30fps and stabilise to 1080p digitially or you could mount them on a gimbal or it may just be used somewhere which doesn't need to be stabilised, maybe a head mount or chest mount. I'm not going to deny the superiority of a gopro's though. Some of the sony action cameras are really good and certainly better made and more abuse-able I think.
Third party cameras always seem to be playing catchup with gopro's but you often get a situation where an older gopro like 18 months old can't compete with a good budget action camera with higher spec components and yet that gopro still costs more. If you want to have the best action camera you have to buy the latest flagship gopro model don't think last years or the model before that is still good value as they are often surpassed by the best budget action cameras.
No doubt we will get budget action cameras use a similar 24 megapixel sensor to the new gopro soon maybe around the £150 to £200 price point.
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