My Contour Roam 2 has died so looking for a replacement. It has been awhile since I was in the camera market place so have lost touched with the developments hence this post.

No. 1 Requirement: Looking for helmet mount as I swap bikes a lot;
No. 2 Would be nice: To be able to use it as a rear camera on my commuter so being able to easily mount/dismount for other usages.

Suggestions most welcome

I have a GoPro Session. Great camera! I use it on the rear of my bike.

My setup for use as a rear camera:



In that photo you can see I am using a seatpost mount similar to the K-Edge Go Big mount. I run a USB cable from the camera to the saddle bag where I have a USB battery pack. As you can see in the photo, the USB cable running from the camera to the saddle bag is almost invisible.

The Session will only get about 1 hour and 45 minutes of recording time from it's internal battery when set to 1080p and 60fps. With my battery pack I extend that to about 8 full hours of run time.

Does the Session you have loop the recording? Most of my rides are in the 3 or so hour range so I assume I need a camera that either loops a recording or will take a large storage card?

I'm using GoPro by mounting it on the handlebar. I've never used Contour Roam 2, so I can't compare what's better.

No it does not. I use a 128GB SD card and that will gives almost 12 hours of recording time. Before that I was using a 64GB card and that gave like 5 hours and 45 minutes. Both of those times are at 1080p..


I also ride about 3 hours a day. Every 3 or 4 rides I just delete everything from the SD card and start over. If there is a video I want to keep, I just transfer it to PC.

Thanks, the form factor is right. The Session Hero 5 has a couple of upgraded features (video modes/stabilization) that might be useful, but for everyday rides to document any happenings, the Session should be fine.

I've used an Ion Speed Pro since July 2016. Good for the money. Same form factor as the Contour Roam -- solid cylinder. Weatherproof as-is, with the rear cap in place. It's held up fine through several rainy rides.

Good daylight performance, but mediocre nighttime performance -- high ISO noise, poor dynamic range.

I'd rather have less of a wide angle lens. The near fisheye effect is best suited to action cam use at close range. For traffic documentation I'd rather have something closer to a 24-28mm lens on a 35mm/full frame digital camera. The ultra wide lenses don't capture enough fine detail at the periphery so even in daylight it doesn't always snag full license plate details. A higher true native resolution sensor would help but that increases the cost.

Runs 90 minutes. If I need to run longer I'll hook up an external battery. That requires removing the rear cap and compromising watertight integrity, so it's usable only on dry rides.

While I have run the camera with a small USB battery attached to my helmet, it's heavy and awkward -- I used rubber bands or elastic ponytail bands to strap the small battery to the Ion Speed Pro. Usually I run a small pouch Velcro'd across the handlebar with a USB cord running to the camera, mounted on the handlebar on my hybrid or stem on my road bike.

Not the most elegant solution if you need more than 90 minutes run time. But the Ions cost well under $100 and are tough,reliable and weatherproof.

...and you can reduce the file size/increase the card capacity by capturing at 1080/30.

Thanks [MENTION=182364]1nterceptor[/MENTION] for the suggestion of Polaroid Cube. DCRainmaker (I cannot find the quote now) was not to positive about it so would be interested in your experience.

I have an earlier model GoPro which is reaching the end of its useful life. I was never that excited about it and at the time didn't like using it as a helmet cam due to its profile.

Maybe time I re-thought this and had another look at it.

Thanks for the suggestion. Off to investigate them.

With my main rides (Surly LHT and Salsa Mukluk) going handlebar mount is a bit of a hassle due to use of bags but maybe I should re look at this.

There's a lot of cams and reviewers around. So you'll want a cam reviewed in the same way you'll use it.
Polaroid cam comes with a magnet at the bottom & strap mount. Never actually used the strap, even though
I have one still in it's box. i just use strips of rubber from an old tube.

I already posted how the CUBE looks helmet mounted(your 1st requirement). Here I pointed it backwards(your 2nd requirement):
Bonus, frame mounted
BIKE FRIDAY PAKIT TEST RIDE PART2 by 1nterceptor, on Flickr

BTW, the Polaroid labeled camera that's cylindrical in shape appears to be made by Ion to Polaroid's specs. Should be as good as the Ion.

The cube shaped Polaroid cameras appear to be a proprietary design not sold by any other company. It generally gets good reviews and the discontinued models are steeply discounted so they should be good values.