Had a very bad close call today with a driver purposely trying to run me and my group off the road, he came within inches of hitting us. This convinced me it was time for a camera, because nobody got his license plate.

So what are the verdicts? GoPro, Virb, some other brand Im not aware of? Im not looking to create youtube videos or anything, I just want good battery life (3-5 hour rides), and clear enough picture to read things like plate numbers. Not looking to break the bank either.

I just got an Ion Speed Pro camera for that purpose -- to record rides for safety/documentation purposes. It wouldn't have been my first choice but the sale price (under $70 this week at Amazon) and Sunday same-day Amazon delivery made it tempting. Haven't used it yet, I had to charge it first this afternoon.

I'll report back this week after using it a few times. Based on my experience with other video cameras -- not "action" types -- I'd expect the best results from 60 fps, regardless of whether it's 720 or 1080. With my other video cameras 1080/30 fps had too many blurred frames to reliably record license plates, while the slightly lower resolution 720/60 fps showed better fine detail because there were more opportunities to snag at least one clear frame without motion blur.

My first impression about the Ion Speed Pro:

• The camera itself feels very well made, with an aluminum body and good fit and finish.
• With an outboard battery (not included) it can be used and charged simultaneously, extending the run-time beyond 2 hours.
• It's larger and heavier than I'd expected. I probably wouldn't choose it for helmet mounting. And it didn't include a helmet mount.
• It included a fairly complete mounting kit for bicycles, motorcycles and cars, but no helmet mount.
• I'm not crazy about the handlebar mount, especially the plastic ballhead. I already had a plastic ballhead mount that was larger and stronger, and it still transmitted too much vibration. I'm not sure whether any metal aftermarket mounts are adaptable to the Ion Speed Pro.
• The micro-SD cards are tiny and fussy and possibly unnecessarily small for a camera this size -- a regular SD card might fit, if they'd eliminated the HDMI port.
• The few controls seem simple enough, but the instructions and user feedback indicate the Ion may be fussy to set up -- it seems to require a computer for initial setup, so it's not quite usable straight from the box.

If I'm not satisfied after a week or so I may return/exchange it for the similarly priced Contour Roam 3 or Polaroid Cube -- although both of those models have their share of fans and critics. But for well under $100, these all seem pretty good.

Don't have one yet, but I like the features of the Fly6 integrated rear camera and tail light. Normally it over writes the oldest record on the memory card so you never have to manually erase it after uneventful rides. But if there's an indication of an accident (impact plus bicycle angle) it'll continue recording for a short period (30 min?) and then stop so that it'll preserve the record of the crash even if you're incapacitated or forget to turn it off.

A few friends and members of my bike club have them and seem pleased with their performance.

Yup, the Fly6 seems to have many satisfied users for rear-facing cameras. I know of a guy locally whose Fly6 somehow popped off and was already crushed by a car by the time he returned to find it. But he's getting another because he was satisfied with it.

My notion of an ideal commuter/safety documentation video camera would include:

• On-the-fly ability to set markers for important or interesting video segments. Just a button that can easily be pressed to indicate "Mark this segment for review".
• Programmable options to set margins for those marked segments -- let's say, preserve 60 seconds on either side of the marker, even if the rest of the media card is erased or overwritten.
• The ability to auto-erase/reformat a card as it fills. If we record nothing interesting on the ride, why bother even reviewing it? My rides aren't interesting enough even for me to look at, let alone upload to YouTube.

These features may already exist in some higher priced cameras. But not in my budget range.

Fly6 is the only thing I know of that has that kind of battery life. It's rear facing though so in many states won't capture a plate. But it's great for what it is.

I've owned about a dozen cameras. My current one is a Contour Roam3. 3 hour battery life, unfortunately not interchangeable batteries. It'd be awkward but probably possible to power externally.

Getting over 3 hours battery is tough. You'll probably have to settle for interchangeable batteries and carrying a spare.

The Drift Stealth is another decent front cam with a 3 hour battery life, but again, not interchangeable batteries.

The Drift HD and Drift Ghost do have changeable batteries but are $$$.

GoPros have interchangeable batteries but at best 2 hours battery I think. Also they're the most awkward thing ever invented for mounting, and for the money you're not really getting much. If you're going to go with that form factor I'd look at SJCam cameras - look and act exactly the same, cost about 1/2 to 1/3 as much.

I've almost jumped into a camera buy a few times, but then I ask myself, "Since the states around here do not require front license plates, what's the likelihood they'll be able to track down anyone who hits me?"


Is there a difference between front and no front license plate areas for camera utility?

Were you thinking that your only camera would be rear facing? Most people start with front facing, for which you need rear plates for most incidents.

I think you need front and rear cameras regardless of license plate. If you don't have both, you don't have the whole story of what happened. I bought a rear camera after an incident where I realized that with only front video, the video evidence would actually tell a false story that made it look like I would have been at fault had I been hit.

Front facing. I was not even aware that rear facing ones existed. I live in a state with only rear plates, so rear facing would be kinda useless for my purposes. Thanks for all the replies though.

Fly 12 for front recording purpose. Has a 400 lumen LED light comboed as well. I will be attaining a Fly 6 for the reasons stated above.

I'm thinking that if I get hit hard enough, that front facing camera will be facing just about any direction by the time the rear plate is visible. I'm afraid even Abby Sciuto won't be able to pull a plate off the resulting video, which is likely to be recorded as the camera is swinging around fast, blurring any image that might catch the offending vehicle. That's why I think mostly about mounting a camera on a rack or seatpost facing the rear -- it has a chance of catching a picture or two before any impact.

Update on the Ion Speed Pro. Not sure why this model isn't mentioned more often since it seems to perform comparably to the Contour Roam -- although the Contour seems better suited to helmet mounting than the Ions.

The Ion Speed Pro price was appealing now at $70 through Amazon. I wouldn't have bought one at the original MSRP of nearly $300. I'm betting this model has been discontinued. I'd hope that Ion will update the same basic design with a better sensor, longer battery life or interchangeable batteries.

Feels rugged -- solid feeling aluminum tube. Supposedly weatherproof as-is. Decent accessories and versatile mounting kit, although it lacks a helmet mount. The cylindrical shape could easily be farm rigged to fit most road helmet vent cutouts.

Only two rides so far, one late daytime, one night.

Good basic bike camera for daytime. 1080/30fps and 720/60 fps both look good, capture license plate detail.

Good auto exposure, leans toward slight over exposure so road and trail are well exposed but sky is blown. Adapts quickly to changes in light and shadow on shady trails, underpasses, etc.

Decent flare resistance considering 180 degree FOV. Reasonably low veiling flare, some ghosting flare with piston artifacts.

Almost useless at night. Blacked out shadows, whited out license plates, heavy mesh screen noise artifacts. Very old school sensor performance. If I was in an accident it would only help identify the basic vehicle type.

My Ricoh P&S digicams record better night video with good dynamic range, but only at low rez. My Nikon V1 would make a good nighttime bike camera but I don't want to shake the lens to pieces. I wish Ricoh and Nikon would enter the action/cycling camera game.

Battery runs right at two hours. There an odd break every 40 minutes, but fairly seamless transition to the next file. Supposedly Ion Speed Pro can run extended off an outboard USB battery. Haven't tried that yet.

Lessee, other stuff...
"stability on bumpy road?"
Seems okay, typical for the genre. Good on smooth roads, okay on chipseal and gravel.

"night time recording?"
Meh. Get a Go Pro if this is a priority. Or a dash cam and rig up a weatherproof housing.

"sound quality?"
Okay when I'm not moving. Totally wiped out by wind noise in motion. But there's an external mic jack and another reviewer says the sound is good with the right mic. Can't figure out where the opening is for the built in mic or I'd try a wind screen.

My Nikon V1 records very good audio in motion, and I've farm rigged wind screens over the built in stereo mics.

I'm disappointed in the Ion's nighttime performance, and at the original MSRP of $300 I'd have returned it pronto. But at $70 I'll probably keep it.

I'll upload samples to YouTube this week. Trying to edit down to a reasonable length.

And I'll add some screencaps from my test videos to this post later. But I'm off for a bike ride this morning before it gets too hot.

You don't need to capture the plate to show what happened. In fact I don't really worry much about capturing plate numbers these days since few cameras can do it reliably anyway.

I started riding with rear facing one day when after a close incident I realized that front facing video would have made it look like I was at fault.

I was riding right of the fog line on a very wide shoulder over a freeway overpass. There was an emerging right turn lane carved out of the shoulder on the far side. As I got well into the onramp lane (still to the right of the traffic lane) I looked in my mirror and saw that the car behind me was moving to the right, and was about halfway off the lane and into the onramp lane. I assumed he wanted to get into the entrance ramp, so I moved left into the traffic lane.

Then the idiot looked up from his phone, realized he had drifted way out of his lane, jerked back to the left, then laid on the horn at me for being "in his way"

I realized that if I had been hit, the front video would have shown me moving left into traffic lane and then getting hit, clearly not the whole story.

That's when i started looking for a rear camera.

Aldi is supposed to have an action camera (a GoPro knockoff) on sale next Wednesday for $40 if I recall correctly. If I can snag one I plan on giving it a try. Might be an option to consider. Battery life may be comparable to GoPro, so not ideal for long rides, but for my commute of 1.5 hours it is worth it. Would love to try the Fly12, but $350 is a bit too much for my budget. I have a Fly6 and like it. Easy to operate and records decent video at 720p. In my neck of the woods, cars do not have front plates, but I figure it will leave my widow with some evidence if I was not at fault.

Almost none of the camera's have a 2+ hr battery life. So if you really want a camera running continuously for a 4hr ride, you either need an external battery or a Fly12.

The other option is something like a GoPro Session that you can quickly turn on. For example, if you're being harassed by a driver.

Yup. I've ridden a few times with the Ion Speed Pro and it gets just under 2 hours -- usually between 1:45 and 1:55, depending on temperature and whether I run it continuously or intermittently.

Same with the Ion Speed Pro and similar Ion models. Very simple, no-look operation. Two buttons: a push-button, which is almost superfluous (mostly for taking still photos or turning the camera off rather than using standby); and a slider for record and stop. There's a palpable vibration (not very audible in most conditions) to indicate operations. It's weatherproof (Ion claims waterproof down to 30 feet), so you don't need to wrestle with a clumsy housing.

I may add an external USB battery pack for handlebar mounting, since I already use a pair of small pouches on the handlebar for holding my phone, P&S camera, etc. But a USB external battery pack compromises the weather seal. The Ion uses a locking rear cap with an O-ring that must be removed to access the USB port and other controls.

The Ion Speed Pro is a good value for $70 or less now on Amazon, but mostly as a daytime camera. The nighttime performance is mediocre, far inferior to the better GoPro models. I've used it on the handlebar and helmet. While it didn't come with a helmet mount it's easy to homebrew with some velcro straps. The cylindrical shape fits snugly into a cutout vent in my helmet. Much lower profile than any GoPro, or any helmet mount that uses a ball head. The ball head adjustment isn't necessary with the Ion with some helmet designs, and the 180 degree FOV compensates for minor aiming error.

I have the Fly6 and added the Fly-2 recently. Love them, but they are a bit expensive. Then again, I see them as an investment.

It's a camera, I don't think it really minds if you point it front or rear facing. Some may have specific mounts but many are just universal, mount and point it wherever you can.

Useless? What if a driver rear ends you and a rear facing camera would have caught him looking down at his phone or something like that? The only thing the license plate would be useful for is helping to identify a hit-n-run. Even then I've heard in many areas if there is no bad injury they still will not pursue the license plate if you don't also have a positive ID of the persons face on the camera too.

Yup, law enforcement may not pursue reckless driving if it's too difficult to identify the vehicle or driver. A couple of weeks ago I video recorded a driver swerving across the road to drive the wrong way down the bike lane directly into my path. No license plate on the front of the vehicle driving toward me in the bike lane. I was forced out of the bike lane into the vehicle lane, just as a motorcyclist whizzed by at double the speed limit. And within a few minutes a similar incident occurred involving two SUVs.

I emailed the police with a short video clip showing both incidents. They said only that it wasn't illegal to park in the bike lane. They didn't seem unsympathetic. But without more information or a more egregious violation involving an actual collision rather than just a near miss, they weren't going to get involved.

So we're pretty much on our own.

And don't count on the notion of a ubiquitous surveillance state with video cameras everywhere. It ain't really happening in most of the U.S., and most of those video cameras are of such poor quality they're almost useless. Recently I've watched many surveillance videos of armed robberies and hit and runs, posted by local news outlets. About the only thing you can tell from those videos is that, yes, it appeared a human being committed a robbery; or, yes, a vehicle appeared to hit a bicyclist and not stop. The vehicle might have been a pickup or SUV or car, but you can't really see much more detail.

was browsing camera threads and saw this. similar happened to me Monday but I could see his directional in my mirror so I knew I was good to move left

I bought the Fly6 about 1.5 years ago. It's ok as a rear-view camera. Unlikely it would capture the face of a driver behind the wheel due to windshield glare.

I was a Kickstarter backer for the Fly12 and got mine in June. The one sent to me stopped working about a week in. Cycliq has excellent customer service and sent me another pronto, even before receiving the defective unit. The second Fly12 has been running like a top.

The Fly12 is too large and heavy to mount on a helmet, so its on the handlebars. Helmet mounting is better in my opinion as you can pan the camera to take in more surroundings. Road vibration is not an issue but uneven pavement is a problem for clear video (this is normal for any camera).

Both the Fly6 and 12 have excellent battery life. My longest ride to date was 5.5 hours and the batteries were at approximately 25%. That's using flashing light mode for both. The microphone is not much to be desired on ether the 6 or the 12.