Helmet cams in London
 

Anyone here do this?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12330181

Paul

I've been sorely tempted to get a helmet cam and post on youtube. I've been waiting for the price to come down.

http://www.tachyoninc.com/xcmicro_2010.php

I originally had a mount for my hand-held camcorder, but decided not to continue and risk ruining it. Anyway, took me a while to find something inexpensive and durable, but I think this one will fit the bill nicely. Lots of positive write-ups and reviews. Around $112 with shipping. It's even waterproof!

Hope it gets here soon because a taxi driver buzzing me at around 90 mph is just begging for exposure all over the 'Net.

If I was on the road more on my commute I might think about it. But there are only about 2 places where I run into any problems so I don't figure it is worth the aggravation to use a camera.

A friend of mine lives in Cambridge and rides with a cam sometimes. He's got a GoPro HD. I don't think he's turned anyone in to the cops though.

I've played around with cheaper cameras. I don't think I'd do it seriously without going to HD; you can't reliably read plate numbers or identify individuals from any distance with standard def.

Just watched the video. I like how they pixellated the license plate at the end, when it was tiny and probably would have been unreadable, but not right after the guy hit him when the plate was huge and perfectly readable.

It seems like in many cases the main function of video footage would not be to determine who was involved, but instead to determine exactly what happened. Usually it seems like the problem is that both people involved in an accident have differing versions of how the accident occurred. In that situation, video footage would probably be sufficient even if the quality wasn't great. But if you're trying to ID someone in a hit-and-run scenario, then, yes, the better quality video you can get the better.

The super-cheap way to go is to use 808 keychain camera. This video shows one in use, and it looks like there are times when you could get identifying info from it, but times when you could not, although it's not clear to me how, if at all, uploading to YouTube might affect the quality:

Lots of info on the 808 keychain camera here.

I was just saying to my wife this morning after seeing a news article on network cams as baby monitors. We now live in a world when everything we do anywhere can be captured on video. Every person that has a cellphone has a camera/camcorder. Gopro cams are on bicycles and in cars, we have traffic cams,bank cams,security cams on public facility's and private homes. I myself have a gopro HD camera that I love. I think as these network cams become cheaper the more we are going to see. A gopro is down to $300 us and that is what any decent camera cost. I think it is a double edged sward in the respect that we give up some privacy but I tend to see it as good thing more than a bad thing.