luddite_68

I have a Cateye light affixed to the top of my helmet. On many occasions, situations on the road with motorists have de-escallated quickly when they see the light and think it is a camera. I now think that I need a real camera. It seems to me that a helmet mounted camera would have less vibration than a bike mounted one and be more obvious to motorists. I would like one that can run a long time on one charge, can loop video when it gets full and has image quality such that it can read license plate numbers. For those of you who ride with cameras, which ones do you use and which would you recommend?

bmthom.gis

I don't have a specific one, but I would think about a 360 degree camera. That way if you are hit from any direction where the camera isn't pointing, well, it is pointing in all directions. Garmin maybe??

mcours2006

You actually have that many incidents? Either you're going out of your way to engage or you live in an area where there's some major hate on cyclists.

In any case, I'd prefer to have the camera mounted on the handlebar. The angle is much, much better and constant than having it on your head. Having said that, I do have mine mounted on top of my helmet, but only because the mount bolt socket was plastic and broke leaving me no choice but to mount it on my head.

Mine is an ION Lite. The resolution is pretty good and I am able to get license plates easily from it with the 1080p picture quality. It's waterproof, and apparently shock proof for up to 35 km/h, which was the speed it feel off the handlebar mount.

luddite_68

A fair amount of hate here that probably stems from bad traffic & a complete lack of awareness. What is the battery life like on your camera?

BobbyG

I'm on my 2nd Contour Roam, and it's on my helmet.

FlamsteadHill

I haven't read a single response yet, but.... what???

i have yet to have a situation "escalated". Have you ever considered that maybe you are a contributing factor?

mcours2006

About three hours. I am charging it daily. It's a hassle, but I go over the footage anyway, and reset the memory card.

sdmc530

I got an old school gopro. Its fun to mess with and i can get about 4-5 hours out of it onthe low quality settings. I don’t run it constant but always when on a road and when i get the “gut feeling”. Can catch some fun stuff too.

luddite_68

No, and your response has nothing to do with cameras, but I am happy for you.

luddite_68

Do you think you could read a license plate on the low quality setting?

luddite_68

That's is a contender. How is the battery life?

BobbyG

I got 4.5 hours on a ride last January.

FlamsteadHill

Au contraire; it has to do with the NEED for cameras.

But if your exceptionally high rate of incidents has nothing to do with your behavior, then I truly feel sorry for you that you live and ride in such a place.

Please don't read anything into my posts that was not written in Black and White (or their screen driven equivalents).

Troul 

If I were in the market for such a camera, I'd opt for a GoPro.

sdmc530

Yes. Depending on vehicle and bike speeds you could. Its not HD but they are impressive. Newer models may have a better battery life too. It suits me good though.

FlamsteadHill

You know you can just hack into ECHELON, right?

noruckus

I use a Fly6, Cycliq, rear mount camera tail light, the tail light has 3 different light levels and records off a sd card on a continuous loop, comes with a 8gb card that gives you 2 plus hours of video, you can move up to a 32 gb card giving you 6 plus hours recording on continuous loop, it has a safety feature that records for 1 hour after a 60 degree tilt for more than 5 seconds and contains all previous footage also. They also sell the fly12 a front mounted camera headlight capable of the same qualities.

dksix

I have a GoPro Hero 3 Black Edition. I get right around an hour on a battery at 1080p, never tried it on lower settings. I use OEM GoPro batteries, have hear mixed results on after market batteries. I was just curious how one of the knock offs would do compared to a real GoPro so I ordered one straight out of China. I actually find it better equipped and easier to use, bought it for $28-$32 IIRC (I can look through my eBay purchases if you want an exact cost or link). The knock off weighs maybe half what the GoPro weighs, I don't know why except that the batteries are lighter in the knock off but a 4 pack of batteries for it cost about what 2 GoPro batteries cost.

How long is you commute? If less than 50 minutes the knock off may be something you may want to try. Change the battery before and after your ride to work in the mornings. The one I bought did 4K at 15 FPS, 2.7K at 30 FPS down to 720p at 60 FPS. I came with a bunch of mounts and straps and stuff. If I wanted to carry one on the road bike I'd try the knock off to test battery life.

Like I said, if you want likes, let me know and I'll look it up.

jefnvk

We really don't know what his rate is or what sort of escalation is involved. I don't spend all that much time on the road, but I probably get someone yelling at me every month or so. I've even gotten it off the road from folks on the road where a trail crosses twice. Nothing frequent or predictable enough to actively want to mess with a camera, but at times I have thought it would be amusing to have one to capture idiots acting as such.

Slightspeed

I have an old GoPro Hero2. It feels top heavy on my head, and makes other riders look like clowns riding toy bikes due to the wide high angle. It is smother and has less vibration up there. There is an annoying internal rattle when I mount it on my bars, not so much on the helmet. For charity rides, I usually change it back and forth from helmet to bars each SAG stop to get a different angle. One funny thing happened a couple years ago. I was on the Solvang Metric Century. Solvang has great scenery, but the roads suck. I mistakenly put the camera on time lapse instead of movie setting, so I got a million or so still shots. Later the ride sent me a survey on how they could improve the ride etc. I mentioned the bad road quality. I got an email from the local highway maintenance person, who wanted to know about the potholes. I dug up stills of several of the worst looking roads I could find from the ride. One road was so bad that several of us rode the dirt shoulder because the pot holes were 2 or 3 inches deep. I haven't been back, but I've done 18 of these rides over the years, and the roads almost never get better. I don't know if the pictures worked or not. Sample photos attached.

Troul 

those roads look better then most around by me... Toss in some construction barrels with a wheel cover laying randomly nearby & it'd resemble perfectly..

Gidgmom

I bike commute with a GoPro on my helmet, because:

1) don't have to re-position the bike to video what you want to (such as someone causing problems from a car next to you).

2) the camera is prominent and I think it is a deterrent to some jerks -- who may not wish to star on your YouTube channel.

3) don't have to take time to remove it from your handlebars when you park your bike in public.


As for charging, I plug it in at work a couple times a week. Recently acquired a second GoPro and a seat rail mount so may begin filming the cars behind.


.

BobbyG

I run my camera at 720 vs. 1080 to take up less memory. And while I primarily have it to record any real trouble (none in 3 years) I do like to share my bike videos with family and friends (and on bikeforums).

Bike Rides/Commutes

WNCGoater

I have one like this I've used on my Mtn. Bike and snorkling. Great camera, good quality. Though mine is several years old & was only about $115 at the time, I believe it is the same one. Not sure it is available any longer or maybe it's been replaced with the Polaroid Cube.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Polaroid-...&wl13=&veh=sem
I don't use it on my road bike. Not sure where I would want it. Unless it's pointed toward the rear, it wouldn't record any useful info if I was hit from the rear. In NC there is no front license. May be able to see the make of vehicle that hit me but little else.
And if it were facing forward, I could record the license plate, but not if I had been hit. Maybe a close call but what good is that. So unless I have on facing rearward and one facing forward, there is a pretty good chance there wouldn't be any useful identifying video. And then there is the side view.
Meh, hardly worth the trouble.

As an example, the Natchez Parkway hit and run. Good thing the rider had a camera facing forward. It clearly shows the motorists hit the cyclist intentionally, and certainly eliminates his various excuses to police including the cyclist "threw his bike into his vehicle". On the other hand, had the rider with the camera been hit from behind, it would have shown nothing of the vehicle that hit him.

dksix

Which GoPro and how long does a bettery last at what resolution and frame rate?