Time for a helmet camera?

guerney

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I would have thought drivers would have to be uber stupid to ignore the florescent PassPixi sign if visible on the back of a cycle or trike.
...and that's why I bought two. They don't work. But of course you are welcome to try them yourself.


I've bought a DJI Osmo 3 for forward facing video of me cycling on trails, and only using it during daylight, so far.
I'd be interested to see how your Osmo 3 copes with recording night footage, particularly of number plates. If you have problems: I imagine if you set the min and max ISO to be selected by the camera automatically, and keep the shutter speed static and high rate, it could do better than my GoPro. The Osmo 3 has a big sensitive sensor and lens, there's certainly potential, if there are enough user-assignable settings available. The Osmo 3 was my other choice, but I was completely put off because it requires online activation using an app before it can be used to do anything at all. The GoPro Hero 7 Black functions as a video and stills camera without the need for online activation.
 

guerney

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Edit: I record at 1080p, 24fps to keep file size down, and use 'narrow' lens.
I record at 1080P for the same reason, 24fps, but I use "SuperView", GoPro's word for the widest angle it's cameras are capable of recording, because I want to squeeze in as much information as possible. The field of view can be narrowed later, but missing information is missing forever, which could turn out to be crucial.


I have several thousand miles of footage now, so I can send a good example along with a report of a bad incident to show the employer what they need to get across to their drivers.
I snip out cherished memories of horrifying road incidents using LosslessCut, to retain losslessly in terms of quality.

 

FastFreddy2

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...and that's why I bought two. They don't work. But of course you are welcome to try them yourself.
Unless something drastic happens (my car gets stolen) I'm never going to try, as I don't use roads. The two rear red lights I bought have never been fitted for that reason.

I'd be interested to see how your Osmo 3 copes with recording night footage, particularly of number plates. If you have problems: I imagine if you set the min and max ISO to be selected by the camera automatically, and keep the shutter speed static and high rate, it could do better than my GoPro. The Osmo 3 has a big sensitive sensor and lens, there's certainly potential, if there are enough user-assignable settings available. The Osmo 3 was my other choice, but I was completely put off because it requires online activation using an app before it can be used to do anything at all. The GoPro Hero 7 Black functions as a video and stills camera without the need for online activation.
I'm happy to demonstrate its capabilities, but I not wholly sure how I can accurately, since I don't ride on the roads. I could sit next to a road at night, and see if registration plates are visible?

Generally, I have the recording set to 4k because footage when loaded up to YT, looks very poor quality if anything less is used. I can try at 1080p and 25fps (or 24fps if you prefer) though I would hope for better results with higher frame rate if the sensor will produce a result with higher frame rates.

Leaning on my photographer background, the big issue is achieving a good exposure with such a high contrast situation. I notice your front light burns out all detail in the image. I expect you have manually set the exposure to get usable footage in the half-lit areas. I would think, this might also blow out the detail of the number plates, even if there was enough detail potentially recordable with regard to frame rates, and movement of passing traffic. I would be inclined to add an LED (flood) sidelight pointed downward and to the right a little. Almost a running light, for want of a better term. If a yellow one was used (a white one with a yellow sweet wrapper), motorists might think it's some kind of foglight. With a yellow light, the rear number plate will fluoresce like it would with a white light, but not bother so many people because it would seem dimmer. (No blue light present.)

The answer is a second camera and a high-speed flashgun, mimicking the setup up used on passive speed cameras. I've often wondered what would be the response of motorists being subjected to these high power (camera) flashes, on road junctions where there is no official camera system, but where motorists often run red lights. Saw it again tonight, a white car in the lane next to me, as I stopped for the red, the driver plainly jumped the red light.
 

guerney

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I use WD My Passport 5TB external USB hard drives for long term backup, one tenth of the cost per GB compared to micro SD cards.
Dyes of DVDROMs and CDROMs break down after mere decades or sooner (I often hear "Where is all my stuff? It's disappeared!" :eek:). M-DISC is certified for billions of years or something.
 
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guerney

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I'm happy to demonstrate its capabilities, but I not wholly sure how I can accurately, since I don't ride on the roads. I could sit next to a road at night, and see if registration plates are visible?

Generally, I have the recording set to 4k because footage when loaded up to YT, looks very poor quality if anything less is used. I can try at 1080p and 25fps (or 24fps if you prefer) though I would hope for better results with higher frame rate if the sensor will produce a result with higher frame rates.
If you don't cycle at night on roads, I wouldn't want to trouble you. Youtube's compression is extremely lossy, Vimeo's much better but their free offering is quite limited - I may sign up to a series of freebie Vimeo accounts. I'm certainly not shooting at 4k just for Yotube: hotter camera, shorter battery life and lifespan.


Leaning on my photographer background, the big issue is achieving a good exposure with such a high contrast situation. I notice your front light burns out all detail in the image. I expect you have manually set the exposure to get usable footage in the half-lit areas. I would think, this might also blow out the detail of the number plates, even if there was enough detail potentially recordable with regard to frame rates, and movement of passing traffic. I would be inclined to add an LED (flood) sidelight pointed downward and to the right a little. Almost a running light, for want of a better term. If a yellow one was used (a white one with a yellow sweet wrapper), motorists might think it's some kind of foglight. With a yellow light, the rear number plate will fluoresce like it would with a white light, but not bother so many people because it would seem dimmer. (No blue light present.)
Video linked on this thread was from my cheapo Crosstour 4K CT9000, and brightened. The GoPro's only function is to capture number plates, and it does that well both day and night. Like Canon DSLR's ISO (Aperture Priority) can be set for the camera to select between a high and low range, and the shutter speed set static... so no adjustment is necessary as day turns to night. Max ISO of 1600 works well.


I would be inclined to add an LED (flood) sidelight pointed downward and to the right a little. Almost a running light, for want of a better term. If a yellow one was used (a white one with a yellow sweet wrapper), motorists might think it's some kind of foglight. With a yellow light, the rear number plate will fluoresce like it would with a white light, but not bother so many people because it would seem dimmer. (No blue light present.)

Well spotted! And that's what I did a couple of days ago, after the recent merry funster incident, when a plate passed too far away (The GuerneySiderating™ Illumimaker™ worked too well :rolleyes: - the funsters used the other side of the road ), and was partially unlit (deliberately I think). 1080P playback is selectable.

I underexpose video, this has been brightened:

https://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/threads/bike-chased-late-friday-night-by-loons.45686/





Running light down and to my right (your left). That one used to be where the new bigger, and tad brighter ("2200lm" vs "1800lm") middle headlight is - it's beam looks a bit wider too, which may help matters. See your plate clearer next time you merry funsters you...


53045
 
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FastFreddy2

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If you don't cycle at night on roads, I wouldn't want to trouble you. Youtube's compression is extremely lossy, Vimeo's much better but their free offering is quite limited - I may sign up to a series of freebie Vimeo accounts. I'm certainly not shooting at 4k just for Yotube: hotter camera, shorter battery life and lifespan.
There's a spot I can ride, where the pavement runs alongside a road. It wouldn't be a big deal to do some footage to demonstrate what can and can't be done with the Osmo. I just need advance warning of some dry weather.

I didn't like the registration aspect of the DJI setup either. It was a once off, and the email address they have (for my phone) is only used on my phone. It proved useful when I bought the extended "Care" warranty. I went through the same minimal procedure with the DJI Mini drone, and it hasn't been a problem so far. The thing I really don't like, is having to have the phones location switched on for the thing to run remotely. I understand it for the drone, but an action camera? That said, the pretty useless Sony remote software won't work without location switched on either. Hobsons choice.

Running light down and to my right (your left). That one used to be where the new biggger, and tad brighter ("2200lm" vs "1800lm") middle headlight is - it's beam looks a bit wider too, which may help matters. See your plate clearer next time you merry funsters you...


View attachment 53045
Any of my Moon lights, will light up a football field. I think the highest rated one is 1800lm, then 1300lm and one maybe 800lm but because it's a focussed spot, I could use it for spotting aircraft during a 1940's style air raid. I actually use it to find the cat when he stays out past his curfew. I have some lower powered Ebay specials with claimed 8000lm but are barely 400lm. I would have to use one of these lower powered units otherwise I would blind oncoming traffic. The Moon lights are not known for "dipped" beams, rather they are better known for wasting power illuminating tree tops. Not a problem offroad of course.
 
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guerney

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There's a spot I can ride, where the pavement runs alongside a road. It wouldn't be a big deal to do some footage to demonstrate what can and can't be done with the Osmo. I just need advance warning of some dry weather.
Experimentation is fun, and that would be an interesting experiment if you have the time. Talking of experimentation, the steel "U" clamp for this GoPro mount (two sizes are supplied) is strong enough to dent my aluminium alloy handlebar...


53051


... therefore possibly sturdy enough to entrust my Canon DSLRs with, if I wanted to adapt NASA's F0.7...

https://petapixel.com/2013/08/05/zeiss-f0-7-you-can-now-rent-two-of-the-largest-aperture-lenses-ever-made/


...and shoot an extremely narrow plane of focus while riding through the town centre past all the nightclubs late one weekend night - the bokeh would look wild, and drooling goulsih faces of funsters being merry would rapidly focus in and out again as they jittered, wobbled and lurched past my speeding bike. Sadly, I don't have that F0.7, but can do F1.4, or F1.1.



the pretty useless Sony remote software won't work without location switched on either.
Really? That's awful. There's none of that with the excellent Canon remote PC programs or phone/tablet apps. I've been tempted to switch to Sony since they got their fast focusing act together, but I don't do event photography often and besides, I'd need to buy a lot of lenses all over again. Also, I like Canon's doped chemical sensor cover/"colour science". Sony's greens are so, so wrong and weird, needing much adjustment - instantly recognisable onscreen when Sonys are used and colours not adjusted enough. I'm sticking with Canon for now. This makes Canons even more useful:



Any of my Moon lights, will light up a football field.
The answer is a second camera and a high-speed flashgun, mimicking the setup up used on passive speed cameras. I've often wondered what would be the response of motorists being subjected to these high power (camera) flashes, on road junctions where there is no official camera system, but where motorists often run red lights. Saw it again tonight, a white car in the lane next to me, as I stopped for the red, the driver plainly jumped the red light.
Both those solutions would blind drivers and get us locked up.
 
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matthewslack

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GoPro have a special offer just now for subscribers (£50 annually, can be cancelled after year 1) of £299 for the latest Hero Black 11.

That makes camera plus subscription same price as the 10.

A secondhand 10 goes for £200+, depending on accessories.
 
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saneagle

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There are a lot of bad reports about GoPro subscriptions. Basically, they're about being locked into subscription and say that if you cancel at the wrong time, you lose the discount you had and they bill you for the full price. Anybody should check the details about that before buying a GoPro.
 
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guerney

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Amazon, Virgin Media, GoPro etc. would love to make subscriptions as hard to escape as timeshares, which descendants can become saddled with:


 

Peter.Bridge

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guerney

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There are a lot of bad reports about GoPro subscriptions. Basically, they're about being locked into subscription and say that if you cancel at the wrong time, you lose the discount you had and they bill you for the full price. Anybody should check the details about that before buying a GoPro.

gopro scam - Google Search
It's nice that GoPro's app works without needing to buy a subscription - simply click past the nag page at app startup. I don't use the app for editing, and I don't want cloud storage. The live remote camera control is interesting, but I haven't needed it yet. Even secondhand GoPros work (my GoPro Hero 7 Black does anyway) without the app, and in any case it's better to edit using a computer. The only useful thing the app has done for me so far, is sync correct time and date, which I could have manually done in-camera anyway.
 
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guerney

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A wise example for us all.






I like competition, will add a few more of these:


53249
 

guerney

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Does anyone know what UK laws I would be breaking, if I wore the same "ARMED CYCLIST" with gun logo jersey? False advertising?


 
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soundwave

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i seen a guy on a penny-farthing today said he made it from scratch
 
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sjpt

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Anyone got an electric penny-farthing?
 

FastFreddy2

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Does anyone know what UK laws I would be breaking, if I wore the same "ARMED CYCLIST" with gun logo jersey? False advertising?


No UK laws broken, provided you weren't actually armed. (And if you were, the police take a very dim view of rifles carried on two wheels. Carrying firearms in a car, you are expected to make them difficult to steal. That's not possible with two wheels.)

All handguns are banned in the UK BTW. Even an air pistol capable of producing greater energy than 6ft/lbs would be considered an illegally held firearm with a potential 5 year stretch waiting for someone in possession of such a pistol.

Wearing that tee-shirt you would get monitored/followed by every police car you passed, and likely the local constabulary would receive at least one 999 call from motorists for every 100 yards you travelled. Regular police don't get involved in firearms incidents usually. Specialist firearms units are called (SCO19 in the Met for example) while you are kept away from the general public. Can take several hours to get one of these units to you, as they don't exist in great numbers (thankfully). They don't have a great safety reputation, and I think it's best to avoid contact with a group who are reportedly a tad trigger-happy at times.




You would be a great deal safer without the tee-shirt sight-seeing around the outskirts of Bakhmut, than wearing that tee-shirt in the UK.
 
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guerney

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soundwave

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No UK laws broken, provided you weren't actually armed. (And if you were, the police take a very dim view of rifles carried on two wheels. Carrying firearms in a car, you are expected to make them difficult to steal. That's not possible with two wheels.)

All handguns are banned in the UK BTW. Even an air pistol capable of producing greater energy than 6ft/lbs would be considered an illegally held firearm with a potential 5 year stretch waiting for someone in possession of such a pistol.

Wearing that tee-shirt you would get monitored/followed by every police car you passed, and likely the local constabulary would receive at least one 999 call from motorists for every 100 yards you travelled. Regular police don't get involved in firearms incidents usually. Specialist firearms units are called (SCO19 in the Met for example) while you are kept away from the general public. Can take several hours to get one of these units to you, as they don't exist in great numbers (thankfully). They don't have a great safety reputation, and I think it's best to avoid contact with a group who are reportedly a tad trigger-happy at times.




You would be a great deal safer without the tee-shirt sight-seeing around the outskirts of Bakhmut, than wearing that tee-shirt in the UK.
wrong you can buy hand guns machine guns and even 50 cal rifles you need a section 1 fire arms license.




tho unless you have a good reason or have ur own land and firing range getting one is hard as it must be passed buy the police commissioner and there is only 1 gun club in the uk that can use 50 cals on mod land, shoot the sheep and band for life ;)
 
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