Originally Posted by
noglider
What do you typically have to do to turn these things on and off? Swinging my leg over the bike is already involved enough these days.
I'm not sure about other cameras, but the Ion (and rebadged Polaroids made by Ion) have two controls: a large slider and a pushbutton. Very distinct so they can be operated on a helmet cam without looking. The pushbutton is multifunction, with long push and short push modes that do different things.
Also the Ions vibrate to confirm any switch movement. This is usually palpable by hand even with thin gloves on, and sometimes through the helmet or even on the handlebar, depending on road vibration, etc.
There's an LED light, red for record, green for on but idle.
There are other miniature controls and ports under the rear weather-sealed cap, but don't often need to be switched in position. The cap needs to be removed every time to recharge the battery, and to either transfer/delete the recordings, or to remove/reinsert the media card.
Overall it's pretty simple for no-look helmet use. With a fully charged battery and enough room on the media card it'll run continuously until the battery is exhausted (usually 90-120 minutes), or the media card is filled. With an empty 16 GB media card the battery will run out first, unless an external battery pack is used. Probably not necessary for most commutes.