CommuteCommando

Ive had two bike cams and was disappointed with both.

Vivtar 785 hd from WallMart was given as a gift. Image quality was so-so, and it stopped working after less than eight hours of recording.

Contour Roam. I received delivery of this the same day it was announced that the doores of Contour HQ had been shuttered. I used it and liked the results better, but started having reliability issues with it, and it still functions intermittently. Now that Contour is up and running again, I have sent inquiries about service, but get no response.

I have looked at several and have narrowed it down to;

JVC - Adixxion GCXA1BUS. This seems to give a lot of bang for the buck. I like the form factor, and the fact that a big old outfit like JVC is not likely to fold out from under me. One feature I would like is the ability to run it while connected to an external battery extender. I believe this camera has that capability. I would really like to record long rides, then edit them down for highlights. Really long rides like centuries I would carry a spare sd card.

Sony Steady Shot. More expensive than the JVC, but from the reviews better image quality. Again from a company that is likely to stick around.

Drift Ghost S. The priciest of them, but from my research an awesome camera. Aside from the price, I an a bit nervous about laying down that kind of coin for a product from a company that may do a "Contour" on me.

I have read a bunch of reviews on a lot of cameras and I have learned one thing from the negative reviews. Reliability is the biggest cause of negative reviews, and they all get some. Most of these are good products, but occasionally a bad one makes it through QC. It has become pretty important for me to go with one from a company I know will be around to support it.

Thanks for your input.

ItsJustMe

I have owned a few generic cameras as well as a GoPro Hero3 White, a Contour Roam and a Sony ActionCam.

I've sold them all and here is what I'm running now:
Techmoan - Techmoan - SVC200 is the best £100 action camera I've found (So*far).

I think it's at least the equal of the three I mentioned, costs a lot less, and has features that not all of the others have. If nothing else, the screen is nice to have, and the Contour and GoPro do not have it. I'm considering buying another for rear facing - right now I'm using an old RD32II rear facing, which is OK but battery life is a bit short and it's a bit more involved to turn on.

zacster

I agree. Read through the Techmoan website and you'll find a few cameras that don't cost much that are as good as the expensive ones. I bought an SJ1000 and have not regretted it.

aidzbelty

I used to own a TCL-SVC200 as well but then it was too big and night shots were getting grainy (not sure if I just had a faulty model), so I sold it and got a Mobius camera instead.. Especially now that I got the waterproof case from joovuu I'm all set for an all-weather bike cam..

Cyclosaurus

I'm considering the Polaroid XS100. Anyone have any experience with this cam?

GaryPitts

I come from a long line of Drift cameras. Currently have both the Ghost and the Ghost-S. In between my HD170 Stealths and the Ghosts, I used a GoPro Black Edition. Definitely don't get the GoPro! One of the nice things about the Drift line is the battery life. You get 3+ hours on a single battery. That means a lot on a bicycle as you're not stopping every hour to hour fifteen to swap batteries as on the GoPro. Another great thing is the rotating lens so you can mount the camera in whatever position and then rotate the lens to get the image upright.

I haven't tried any of the others, but Drift is #1 in my book. If you can get by without 1080P 60fps, buy the regular Ghost and save the $. I do record my rides in 1080P, 60, but I'm not really sure why. I guess because I can The downside is the larger file size and both 1080P60 and 1080P30 look great.

TrojanHorse

Have any of you heard anything about or used the panasonic wearable cam?

Amazon.com: Panasonic HX-A100 Wearable HD Digital Camcorder (black): PANASONIC: Camera & Photo

seems like you could strap the controller to your arm or put it in a jersey pocket and the camera part would be much smaller/lighter if you wanted to wear it on your helmet.

THey were originally $300, I see it's down to 200 now. Much better.

ItsJustMe

I'm not a fan of GoPro either. Admittedly I only had the White, but the thing was ridiculously picky about memory cards - I have about a dozen and all of them work fine in every other device, but when I had the GoPro, only 2 of them worked at all. There were several firmware bugs that were clearly bugs, not me doing something wrong, and I could repeat them. Whenever I called GoPro they were super snotty, and blamed anything that was wrong with the camera on me using cheap cards. However, even after going out and buying a SanDisk Ultra, which is what they recommend, I had the same problems.

I just sold the thing and bought the SVC200. As aidzbelty says, low light performance is kind of grainy, but apart from that I really like the cam. None of the cams I've owned do well in the low light anyway. I may try a mobius at some point, they do seem to be amazing cams for the money.

rumrunn6

anyone know a camera that records a file that will play on a MAC?

Lanovran

I've been looking at the Garmin Virb recently. The Virb Elite has lots of cool fancy features which sync up GPS data with sensor data from the bike to create different overlays in videos and such. I don't need all that, though, so I'm only interested in the regular Virb.

CommuteCommando

TCL-SVC 200 - I went to the website and was not impressed by the site. I am not someone who consumes massive quantities, and have no interest in buying dozens of cameras. I really want one that will last. I am really tired of stuff that lasts for weeks. If it has issues, I want to be able to get it serviced. There are a lot of players in this market, and I suspect that more will suffer the Contour fate. TCL's website does not instill a lot of confidence.

HX A100 - I love the form factor. Unfortunately after contacting sales support I determined that it will not run on a USB battery expander.

Sony - Good camera, but there have been numerous reports of heat issues, and their website even acknowledges this. They down play it by saying "Well it has a temperature sensor and will shut itself down" Yeah. Right as I think I'm getting that million dollar shot? No thanks.

Drift - On features alone this one probably wins. Price is an issue, and I don't have 100% confidence if a $400 camera starts acting up, Drift will be around to honor a warranty.

I'll probably go with the JVC. At $150 It is a pretty good value. JVC is unlikely to go under this year, and it will record while being powered by an external power supply so I can take it on longer rides, only needing to take a spare SD card.

Thaks all for the inputs.

ItsJustMe

I don't think that's too big of a problem. The SVC200 certainly will. I've heard that a few cams like the RD32II that record AVI, you have to scrub the files through a utility first before OSX will behave properly with them. Anything that puts out MOV files with h.264 encoding should be fine.

rumrunn6

didn't see a file type listed on Amazon for the SVC200

only camera I know of that saves a .mov file is an iPhone

edit, may have found 2

this one saves a .mov file but finding that info was torture
https://www.amazon.com/Mobius-Action-...+Action+Camera

this one saves a mpeg4 file and finding info on mac compatibility was disappointingly difficult
https://www.amazon.com/Polaroid-Extre...+Action+Camera

zacster

My SJ1000 saves files as .mov and they play fine on my mac. I can put the microSD card into the full size SD adapter and stick it into the slot on my MB Air and it plays directly. As long as my Air is plugged in it plays smoothly. Without the power, the processor steps down to a slower "power save" speed.

dmhaero

I've been using a JVC Adixxion 2 for six months now and it has performed great. It has some improved features over the first generation such as 1080/60fps but the price is higher. $150 sound like a great deal. My only problem was with the JVC handlebar mount, it sucks. Got the Sony mount and it works great. Good luck.

rumrunn6

thanks

rumrunn6

after looking at 3 mac comptible models today I couldn't resist, and bought myself a b-day present

Polaroid XS100 Extreme Edition HD 1080p 16MP Waterproof Sports Action Video Camera With Full Mounting Kit Included

Amazon.com: Polaroid XS100 Extreme Edition HD 1080p 16MP Waterproof Sports Action Video Camera With Full Mounting Kit Included: POLAROID: Electronics

ItsJustMe

Many cams save MOV files these days. heck, even $30 keychain cameras save MOV files.

I just checked, my SVC200 saves MP4 files, which also should be completely OK on the Mac.

rumrunn6

perhaps, but it was a concern of mine because that info isn't always readily available on advertising web pages. also 3 years ago I bought a Toshiba Camileo H30 digital camcorder without even thinking about asking the question and was disappointed that it saved avi files. fortunately we have a couple windows machines in the house so we're still able to enjoy using it.

I'll be interested to discover the technique(s) for recording an entire ride, that file must be enormous? not bigger than 32 gig? and I guess we have to manually delete the file before recording the next ride?

Do any units automatically just save a file after 10 minutes and begin a new file? Do they automatically overwrite the oldest file when the card is full? I wonder how frequent users, like commuters, handle these logistics.

CommuteCommando

That $150 is for the Adixxion 1 at Best Buy. The "2" does have more features, but for my needs, probably unnecessary.

zacster

My SJ1000 will save files in 3 minute chunks if that's what you want, and then will delete the oldest file when space runs out.

Phillipm1

Hi, I was wondering if anyone here has had experience with the SVC200 and an external mic. I get this scratchiness and beeping on the audio track when using an external mic (see the video in the link below). I have tried the mic on other devices and the mic works fine. I have also sent the SVC200 back for replacement and the new one they sent me does the same thing. Does anyone here have the same issue?

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...pleFootage.mov

Robert C

I have a WVD5000 (a gopro WiFi clone), it is reviewed by technoman here. I will spoil the review by telling you how t ends; he doesn't like it because he feels that WiFi adds cost with no added utility. I happen to agree. I have never used the WiFi feature. However, when I got it the WiFi version was cheaper than the non WiFi SJ4000.

To address your question; I have had no trouble viewing the files that the camera generates on a Mac.

rumrunn6

thank you Robert C, I see they both record MAC native ".mov" files. I have since purchased and making the most of a
[h=1]Polaroid XS100 Extreme Edition[/h]https://www.polaroid.com/xs100

it records .mov files and does not require an additional waterproof housing