Bike Cameras

[Tubamanandy]

With technology improving all the time, can anyone recommend a reasonably priced bike-cam that works well ?

 

[Eaglerider]

I have an F9 Mini camera. Cost £40 including internal battery, charger, and various brackets. I've tested it many times and it seems to work really well. The battery life is around 1.5 hours continuous filming. For the money, it's brilliant.

 

[Aushiker]

What is reasonably priced?
What do you want to do with the footage? For example do you want to capture number plates? Do you want to use it simply as a safety camera or as an action camera?
What sort of battery life do you need?
Also what operating system are you using? This comes into play if you want to edit the footage as some formats do not play nicely with Macs for example.

A good source of quality product reviews and advice is Techmoan. Worth taking a look to get started.

Andrew

 

[Geebee]

If you dont want to capture number plates but what happened then this is the entry level http://www.banggood.com/MD80-Mini-DV-Camcorder-DVR-Video-Recorder-Camera-Spy-Hidden-Webcam-p-935320.html $7.36 aud
Records audio so you can call out number plates.
Otherwise http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/threads/helmet-cameras.17495/#post-218770
And search will find more.
Andrews link is a good one.

 

[Aushiker]

I have an F9 Mini camera. Cost £40 including internal battery, charger, and various brackets. I've tested it many times and it seems to work really well. The battery life is around 1.5 hours continuous filming. For the money, it's brilliant.

Techmoan didn't seem to impressed ...

I've nothing of note to add here - this is just a quick video about an unimpressive camera, and I'm sorry to say that despite this camera's mediocre performance, it's still probably the best of a bad bunch when it comes to cheap bullet-style helmet cameras (from the ones I've tested).

Andrew

 

[axolotl]

Anyone know of a camera that'll do 2 hours plus between recharges? That's what I'd need for commuting both ways. In my case, I'd been wanting it purely for safety purposes, so it'd have to be good enough to identify licence plates and faces at a reasonable distance.

 

[jackhandy]

I bought the Svc200, about a month ago, purely on the strength of Techmoan's claim that it's the best £100 action cam.

I'm delighted with it even though I had to buy a micro ST card as it comes with no memory whatever - Bit like me, really.

Battery's a standard removeable Nokia clone & mine lasts about 2 to 2 and a half hours: Found a spare in an old phone, so that was good.

Only downside I found is that the mounting is near the front of the camera body & allowed it to shake quite a bit when on the bike's bars - Sorted that with a bit of stainless angle, cut & bent + a soft rubber pad - Simples.

 

[axolotl]

Looks like a nice bit of kit, jackhandy. Personally, I could do without the screen though.

 

[newboater]

like this one myself ,I would probably go for the helmet mount ,I think it comes with it

 

[jackhandy]

Looks like a nice bit of kit, jackhandy. Personally, I could do without the screen though.

Must admit I don't make much use of the screen, other than making changes to the settings - Much better than waiting til it's hooked-up to a computer.

What is a very useful feature, though, is the remote:
I keep mine attatched to the strap of my backpack & use it to take still photos while the camera's taking video.

I always use it in the waterproof case, too - Much rather replace that than destroy the camera, should it ever hit the road.

 

[Aushiker]

For those interested in cameras more generally DC Rainmaker takes a look at the Shimano CM-1000.

Andrew

 

[NZgeek]

I got an ebay special... SJ4000 - looks a bit like a go-pro ripoff, but they're actually pretty good! There are comparisions on you tube between different camera models, that are sometimes worth checking out.

 

[pdarnett]

I've got the sj4000, look at techmoan on youtube for the review. Its as good as a gopro and you get all the mounts plus a waterproof case.

 

[pdarnett]

Example footage here

watch in hd for full effect

 

[Aushiker]

Example footage here ...

I was going to say, cool bridge, then I read your comments ... whoops.

Andrew

 

[pdarnett]

Yup it's a bit pointless. It was heralded as making Bradford more bike friendly, but we have no bike lanes within a 2 mile radius of it. Plus the bridge they demolished to make way for it had just been declared as structurally sound for the next 15 years and had had a load of refurbishment work done to it! Oh well looks nice.

 

[pdarnett]

Same bridge today, blew horn, shouted. Whatever.