Camera
 

OK I decided to start to commute to work again, I quit due to traffic, and I would like a camera to capture my ride if something happens. I dont care about using it for anything else but I am sure my son will have fun with it. How are the contour cameras?

It's really easy to put a Gopro on the bars- very elegant little brackets.

I have an old Contour, I like the shape but as a company (and in tech) they are .. meh.

Look at the Garmin Virb and Cycliq Fly12 too.

I've been using my ContourGPS now since 2011 and I like it.
The bullet shape makes it easy to mount anywhere(helmet,
handlebar, rear triangle, frame,etc.); no special mount for
each place. I just use strips from an old inner tube.

In this video; I mounted the cam on the seat post and fork:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jea4...6zPoymgKaIoDLA

In this one; I had the cam recording in a heavy downpour at night:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7jf...6zPoymgKaIoDLA

Contours are OK but I sold mine. I just did not like the inability to change modes, erase the card, or really do anything but turn it on and off without connecting to a PC, since there's no screen at all (may not be true of all the cams). Also shorter battery life and no replaceable battery.

I do like the long/thin form factor for helmet mounting. The worst cam to mount IMO is the gopro style (SJCams, etc). I have an SVC200 but those are getting into the close to $200 range these days, and for that money you can do better.

If you're going to go into the "close to $200" range, I'd probably look at a Sony cam. They're very good and about $200. The Drift HD Ghost is about $190 and is also very good. They have a Drift Stealth which is smaller and cheaper but no color screen and a fixed, non replaceable battery - up to you.

Personally here is my wishlist:
2+ hour battery life (3+ is even better)
Waterproof (no keychain cams)
Replaceable battery (so you can just swap in a new battery and keep going)
Loop recording
At least SOME kind of screen that at least allows mode changes, card formatting, etc from the cam. A full color screen is nice - I've read of cops watching video on scene and immediately writing a ticket to the other guy. This is worthwhile IMO.

I can waive some of those if the camera is excellent in some other way; I just bought a Fly6 which does not have a replaceable battery, but it's so good in other ways and has a 6 hour battery life that I decided it doesn't really matter in this case.

I have the SJ1000 and Mobius camera.

Both have excellent video quality even in low light.

The Mobius is perfect for mounting on the helmet.

The Mobius has excellent features for its price, but what about battery life? It's less than an hour right?

I have a couple of 808 keychain cams and I've been thinking about trying to design a case for 3D printing that will take one of them and will also hold an 18650 cell and a standard LiIon microUSB charging board. I just can't find the time to do it.

80 minutes.

You could also purchase the 820mAh battery (I believe fit it in yourself) and get around 2hrs of recording time.

I have three Contour, one GoPro, two Sony cams. The ones that get the most use are the Sony's But battery life will always be an issue if you want to go small and light. I have followed the rather long and very complete Mobius thread over at RCGroups (the flight guys love this cam) and it has some really nice features for the price. Probably doesn't help the OP much but it does show that there are options.

Try this GoPro one , it might help you , a stylish one , can be attached to cars, boats, motorcycles and more

http://www.revzilla.com/motorcycle/gopro-suction-cup

I got an SJ4000 off Amazon (sort of). It is a knock off of a GoPro, so we call this one a FoPro. Delivered, on a slow boat from China, it was $125. Video quality is pretty dam good. Still pictures are ok. I say "sort of" because I ordered the SJ4000 after watching some reviews and reading some as well. I did not receive an SJ4000 WIfi sports cam as ordered. I got a knock off. So a knock off of a knock off. I was a little mad for not getting what I ordered, and in the end all of my money was refunded, and was told to keep the camera. "We are an honest company, really!" I can't argue with free, so I unboxed it and gave it a whirl. It does what I want it to do, and will do the job you want it to do as well. Good luck.

The SJ4000, SJ5000 and M10 (compact version of the SJ5000) are good cameras if you like the GoPro form factor (I do not). I suggest going to TechMoan's website or youtube channel, find the review for the camera, then find the buying links for your country and buy from one of those. He does a good job of finding people selling the legitimate cameras.

I've been looking at Rideye cameras.

I have a Sony Actioncam and I must say that it has a really nice picture. Hopefully this works, this was a little test from my recumbent trike mount on a nice day. I sped up the vid a bit, this was 20 minutes of battery life condensed.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaS41aFOMHM

I've had the Contour Roam since it came out, I like it. Have it mounted hanging down below my bars, can't hardly see it. Most people don't even know what it is, maybe thinking it's a light it's so small and round. Water resistant if I get caught in the rain as well. Just updated the firmware to the Roam2 to get 60fps, and it works great.

I've been checking out cameras too. The Contour Roam 3 looks good - I like that it's waterproof and that there is bar mount with a quick release, in case I want to take it out and point it at a different angle (eg. a car off to the side).

Was doing some research and came across this cool gadget, basically mounts to any pair of glasses
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=464950

I got a Garmin Virb Basic last Christmas as a gift from my wife and I've taken it on all my rides this year and sometimes it's fun to review a ride and make a video with the gauge overlays. The Virb Elite just came down in price to $190 so I decided to buy it and now I can mont a front and rear for some even better video footage ability. The neat thing is one Virb can be the "Master" and be controlled by my Garmin Edge 810, the other Virb is the "Extended" one and the control is tied to the main camera so basically when I start a ride on my Edge, both cameras start recording.

The Elite has a few other features like its own GPS and it can link directly to my sensors so perhaps the video sync will work better than it has been with the Basic version which I have to upload the GPS file from my Edge and try to sync them. The syncing works great in the first video clip but if you ride longer you'll have several clips and I can never seem to get the GPS synced on the subsequent clips correctly. It's frustrating.

The Elite also can show video through wifi connected to your smart phone and you can control it as well. However the video stops showing on your phone once you start recording.

Someone mentioned in another forum that the Virb stops recording when you come to a stop so the usefulness of a rear camera to monitor accidents is diminished. This doesn't seem to be the case with either of the cameras, they continue to record even if my Edge pauses at stops. They only stop when I press stop on the Edge or they run out of batteries.

I haven't tried the Virb Edit software to see if they can put a "picture in picture" effect so you can see the action both front and rear. I don't think it does but I'm sure there's other editing software I could use that would do this.

Here they are on my ride...

http://i.imgur.com/osQZqwi.jpg

The reason I returned my VIRB is that Garmin does not understand why we want loop recording.

They think "5 minute" or "30 minute" loop recording means to record 30 minutes, then erase that file and start a new 30 minute recording. This is the worst thing they could do. What they're supposed to do is to record 30 minute clips until the card fills up, then erase the oldest files on the card to keep recording. This is how literally every single other camera on the planet does things.

They way they do it, you're almost guaranteed to lose your evidence in a crash unless you can go turn the camera off immediately.

They clearly have built this to be a sport camera for taking "rad" youtube videos, not as an evidence camera.

For rear cameras, the ONLY cam that I have found that is actually well thought out as a bike camera is the Fly6. It records for 6 hours on battery, does proper loop recording, and if it goes over I think 15 degrees from upright for more than 5 seconds, it assumes it has been in an accident and goes into "incident" mode - it records for one more hour then shuts off, so that it gets the aftermath of the incident and stops before there's a chance of overwriting the incident itself. Also it shuts itself off it it doesn't move for 15 minutes.

I have the loop feature turned off and it records constantly but in 30 minute segments. It doesn't overwrite the previous segment when loop is disabled. I have a 64gig SD card so plenty of room for recording.

Well sure but it still requires to to mess with it every few days. I'd prefer to just turn it on and off and charge the batteries, not make excuses for why they decided to put in a feature but implement it in a way that makes it useless for any purpose, even though the cheapest $25 keychain camera does it properly.

I've had my issues with Garmin and their shoddy software, believe me. But your analysis of this particular feature is off base. I don't have to "mess" with the settings every few days. It has worked flawlessly since I've had them. It does exactly what you want it to do just not in the "loop" feature. This camera therefore is just as good for accident recording as anything else. The integration with the Garmin head unit is a huge bonus in my opinion too. For example, I can have both front and rear cameras snap still photos if I need to. They'll even do it in Burst mode.

I've complained a ton about Garmin before so I'm no fanboy just being honest.

It does introduce a thing that I have to remember to do, and if I forget, it fails to work without warning (if the memory card fills up). This is no good for a device that sits there functioning for months and months and you never look at the output from it until one day you desperately need it.

This is similar to computer backups. You go through the motions every day for years, and one day you really, really need the output. If it turns out it hasn't been working for some reason, you're screwed.

I typically either download or delete my recordings after each ride or so. Or at least once a week. But I understand what you're saying. If you just want something that will continually loop without you having to download or clear the previous clips then correct, the Virb is not doing what you'd like it to do in loop mode.

Correct. I just replace batteries and turn the camera on and off.

Actually I'm not sure that Garmin's loop mode is doing what ANYONE wants to do. I guess the only excuse for it would be if you are out doing stuff, and every time you do something that you want to preserve, you stop the camera and restart it?

But even then, unless I'm misremembering how it works, if your timing is bad it might have JUST passed the 5 minute mark, erased the clip, and all you get is a video of you reaching for the camera to push the button.

I've been doing a lot of research on bike cameras, and I'm getting discouraged. I like the features on the Rideye and Fly6, but some reviews are not too flattering. Reviews from the Rideye say that the mount is too weak leading to it bouncing around. The Fly6, which I had been considering more has reviews that consistently say that the mount is too tight leading to easily breaking it. It also can only be mounted to a seat post. Three reviews said that they died within 6 months. I have no intention of spending that kind of money to have it die on me.