Filming the commute
 

Just for grins, I thought I'd film my commute. has anyone done this, and what kind of Helmet cam is good? I think I will need a 1 gig memory card to film 35-40 minutes. any recommendations, things to avoid?

I remember seeing a few posts on here this time last year about this and if I recall correctly a few videos posted. Though I'm too lazy to search right now, that and my 11 month old is biting my knee right now so I'm getting off here...

Talk to Noisebeam (posts a lot in A&S and sometimes here). He films a lot of stuff and his videos are quite good considering the simple equipment. No personal experience though.

Well, 40 minutes of raw video (no sound) at 320x240 and 8-bit color will use around 44 gig. After mpeg/divx compression, (i'm assuming the final video will be around 1/100th the size) you will use 442MB. So depending on which camera you get, and what kind of compression the thing does, a 1 GB card should be plenty for you.

I'm not up on all the cameras, but one I've been thinking about is that Tony Hawk helmet cam that is marketed to children. From what I hear, it has a decent video, and should be able to take some abuse. Plus, because it is marketed as a toy, it should be cheaper than a lot of other similar cameras.

There's a post somewhere here on BF by a guy linking to his video of riding to the movies in Amsterdam. Something like "my house to cinema in 12 minutes" if you want to search for it.

Edit: here it is.

Using a digital Camera
 

I just use my digital camera that can take videos also. My camera is limited to 3 mins of video at a time. But a friend has one that will record 45 mins worth of video. With these little cameras you can just mount them to your handle bars. I have pictures of my mount on my blogg here at Camera Mount Also here is what my handlebars look like with everything I put on them Handlebars His camera has 1 gig of memory and that is fine. His videos are about 400meg in size. But the resolution for video is 320x420. Good enough for youtube.

I use ATC-1000, for safety reasons. It works reasonably well - in good light.

There are other cameras, designed to be used with camcorder. Picture quality is much better, but they're also more expensive.

Others may know more though.

I got a Tony Hawk helmet cam from woot.com for $45 shipped. It uses 2 alkiline (not rechargable!) AAAs and a SD card. It films 320 x 240 at 15 fps for up to 15 min a clip until the SD fills up. 15 min = 133MB on the card. I've been able to use some 512MB and a 1Gig card so far.
I had problems with the helmet mount - the video was tilted counterclockwise about 25 degrees and aimed towards the ground. Next I tried fastening to my light mounting off the aerobar. It points straight and true but bounces too much. The effect is a strage wobbling at 15fps that is rather naseous.
I would guess that the camera could be a slight deterent if ponted out to troublemakers or at least be a posthumous witness

I always wanted to do this but was afraid my video would turn up on the web under "Cyclist videos himself getting splattered by bus".:eek:

I have video taped my commute, both alone and on bike-to-work day. I use a helmet cam (Sony, 350-line) connected to a Sony Digital8 camcorder in a backpack. I edit the footage down and usually add a music soundtrack. You can view them on Google Video:

Bike to work 2006

Bike to work 2005

A time lapse version would be really cool..

I did this recently. I found a cheap cam at Target for only $100. It holds 30 min of video, which can be downloaded directly to a computer via a built in USB plug. Its very Similar to this one

I attached it to my helmet with a simple metal bracket (It did require me to put two screws into the foam, but I don't thing the integrity of the helmet was affected).

Here's the Vid I made biking home from a guitar lesson.


Another great site is www.digave.comThis guy mounted a camera on his helmet so film urban messenger races on the east coast.

TreeUnit dont let the VC or safety Ninnies see your vid :P