Camera recommendations, please.
 

What's the "best" camera on the market today? I was interested in maybe capturing my Century ride, but after having run a quick search on here and Google, it seems as though many of the cameras either have a short battery life and/or don't support a micro SD greater than 64GB. If I'm riding for 6+ hours, will I have to rig something on my own? Meaning, would I have to go through the trouble of bringing either an extra battery for the camera, a charger for non-removable batteries, and extra memory cards (i.e. however many 64GB cards it would take to record the entire ride)? Or is there a high quality (video stabilization, waterproof, 4k video, etc) and compact camera out there with long battery life, that supports 128GB+ memory cards?

I assume you mean a video camera. Realistically, no one, even you, is going to want to watch hours and hours of video from one event. My advice is to get a camera that is easy to turn on and off while you are riding your bike. If something interesting is happening, turn the camera on for a few seconds or a few minutes at a time.

Yea', that's true. I've seen people upload their Centuries on Youtube and it's been stuck in my head ever since. I guess it's not necessary, but I think it might be nice to just set it and forget it, without having to turn it on and off every time something comes up. Might have to just settle, though. We'll see.

p.s. What the heck happened to all my posts?

Do any of you guys have any experience with the GoPro Hero 5 Session?

Check out the Cycliq Fly12 (front) and Fly6 (rear) cameras. Designed for "incident protection", they are waterproof, integrate lights, are USB rechargeable, and have a long battery life. They're not inexpensive, but they're worth it.

what I use may not fit the bill but these threads are always interesting to follow

Check to see if it can be configured to a lower resolution to save on memory usage. I had my camera set for high resolution and high frame rate, but when I went to send a 12 second long video file by e-mail I found that the file was too big even though it was only a fifth of a minute long. My mistake for not realizing first how the resolution and frame frequency settings impact file size.

I wouldn't worry too much with memory capacity. Cards are cheap and tiny; get/carry a few.
I usually don't run my cam(s) the whole time I'm doing a century. It's off most of the time; I
switch it on if something interesting is coming up/happening:
Experimenting with this cam right now; 4K/ultra HD capable, waterproof, lots of mounts included,
comes w/ 2 batteries:

I use several cameras, depending on what I want to capture...

Samsung Gear360 360deg cam mounted on a 1ft selfie stick on a mount from Amazon. This shoots 360 video, fairly decent resolution. Fun to watch, more of a novelty vs. a serious video cam. It also will live-stream via. my phone, which is pretty cool...haven't done that on a ride, but might be pretty cool.

Olympus TG5 mounted on a mount from Amazon (the mount is solid aluminum and clamps down tight) - This is my goto action cam. It shoots unbelievable video or stills; great image stabilization. I use Garmin Virb video editor, its a bit of a process to convert the video from the Olympus to integrate with the telemetry from my bike computer, but its worth it.

GoPro Chinese knock-of, it shoots real 4K video. This thing is tough, takes very nice video (not as nice as the TG5), battery doesn't last more than 30mins (not a problem...read on). Has its own stabilization, but I usually tune it up with the GoPro software in post.

All these cams I power with a very large usb battery pack (3 usb ports and I use 6ft usb cables), I can shoot video for several hours with all but the 360 cam (it tends to overheat after about an hour).

The last set are my cheap Chinese dual action cams, just ordered it so I don't know how its going to work out...https://www.ebay.com/itm/253820338228. I'm not concerned with quality, I want two things...high tech rear view mirror as an addition to the low-tech mirror and full time video in the case of an accident. This setup will stay on the trike, perminently mounted, powered from the power pack. I ride a trike, low to the ground, hard to be seen, even with several flashing lights...never know what might happen. This cam will get powered from a usb port on my 36v17.1Ahr battery for my motor.

Memory, just make sure the memory speed matches/exceeds the cam capability and desired frame rate. Bigger is better, strike-zone is probably 128, 256Gig in terms of pricing. Most of these cams will only record 4Gig per file, but depending on frame rate/resolution you can fill 4Gig in 10-30minutes. This isn't a problem with most of the video editing software, they will combine the files for a continuous video.

Time-lapse shooting is kinda fun to watch, I usually setup one cam for full video and then a time-lapse cam just to whip through when nobody wants to watch a full video.

Ron

I did look into them before I posted on here. The Fly12 seemed to have better image quality than the GoPro4, but I wanted to see a comparison with the 5, but no comparison videos that I could find online. Thanks, anyway, for the recommendation.

Will do. Thanks.

Yea', I guess I may not have many other options beyond turning it on and off. And I'll check the links following this post. Thanks.

Thank you very much for your detailed reply. I really appreciate your help. And yea', I love time-lapsed videos as well - especially driving ones. :)

Just one more thing...the cam is important, but the mount is REALLY important...get good mounts.

I just got back from a ride, with my cheap GoPro knock-off...I used the clear waterproof housing (rarely use it, but it was wet out), rather heavy...every bump in the road I had to re-adjust the cam angle. I didn't bother to go back in the house an get my good mount...

ron

delayed gratification
 

Yea, your century ride video will be good, on your laptop,
to re~live a summer ride
while you are in the garage on your trainer , in mid winter..

I do.

Handlebar mounted. I grab 30 secs every hour on the hour when touring + occasional captures when the landscape is interesting. Battery will last for several days. Card can hold close to a lifetime of touring (128G). Extremely simple to activate and stop (one button press). Good image quality and stabilizer works well.

AFAIK you can connect your Session to an external power source while capturing images. A decent powerpack would have you going for a century

I use VLC media player to review my videos and the screen capture feature to snag stills of whatever I want. No need to mess with switching modes on the camera. I do occasionally carry a compact digicam -- usually an Olympus Tough Cam -- for handheld stills or videos. Mostly I just use the action video camera on the bike or helmet and snag screencaps as needed.

I rarely keep videos unless something really noteworthy happens -- an eventful group ride, dangerous or obnoxious driver, etc. If nothing interesting happened I just delete 'em without reviewing. Especially nighttime videos since my Ion Speed Pro has poor dynamic range and high ISO noise at night -- it's just good enough to identify the type and color vehicle, but rarely any details in license plates.

I use a Vivitar DVR 783 from walmart. $30 and worth every penny lol. It takes 64gb micro SD and runs 30 mins with the stock battery. I added an outboard plug to run add on batteries and can get to run 2.5 hrs on a 1000mah battery($10 hobby shop). It will run longer but 2.5 hrs is at full 720p which works fine for me. Not sure how cinematic you want to be, but I use mine for a what if camera during my commutes. Reads license plates pretty well and records decent audio. Lots cheaper than a Go-Broke...

The Hero 5 Session shoots great video but the audio isn't nearly as good as my old GoPro. Battery doesn't last super long but you may be able to recharge while riding from an external battery (top tube bag?). One touch recording and no more rattling buttons is very nice. Get a good mount like K-edge or something.

The Hero 5 session is a fine camera but the short battery life limits its use. You can always get an extended battery attachment, but that would negate much of the function of its small size.

Again, it depends on what you need it for. If its to capture video of events to share the Gopro Sessions is fine. But if its used primarily for incident recording than a Gopro would be overkill. There are much cheaper cameras that can do that for a much less. You don't need to spend a lot for basic incident recording. Generally speaking, want to record at the cameras highest quality rate. You can always compress the file afterwards if you need to send it to someone later.

vivitar
 

I've noticed that camera, but figured image stabilization was probably an issue, etc. Does it have an internal battery that can not be replaced, or is it something that snaps on? I'm looking for something only to record the pretty parts of rides. The Gopro is probably overkill for the number of times I might film I'd guess, but no point in buying something that only works once either..... I've read review on amazon of some of the knock offs, and mostly people find that they stop taking a charge, and then might as well chuck them, even if they are less than 3 months old. Presuming I'd need to invest in better mounts than what it comes with?

The internal battery is a cheap 440 mah lipo but the good news is the case opens very easily and a add on lead can be soldered to the terminals. A lipo 1000 mah battery can be had for cheap at any hobby shop and plug into the lead. Easy charging and on the fly switchable. The batteries found in the model aircraft section are far more reliable than what comes with it. To mount said battery, I just use a strip of velcro.
It doesn't have image stabilizer but on a decent road I haven't had much issue. If it was on a helmet mount it would be perfectly smooth.

Sorry for the super late response, guys. Had a lot on my plate recently and totally forgot that I'd even created this thread. Thanks to all of you for your input and help. I really do appreciate it.

Did you decide on a camera?

OK then, looking forward to the videos/photos.

Trust me, no one wants to watch a full video. Especially a 6-hour century ride.

Absolutely nobody. Even if it's a time lapse. BORING.