Cameras

eoinkildare

Hi lads,

I would like to get a camera that will record my biking. It would be mainly in case some f*cker pulls out in front of me so that I can prove I was in the right etc, but also as I am hoping to go on a few trips this year on the bike and it would be nice to have some video to look back on.
The gopro series of cameras seem to be fairly unbeatable for quality but the battery life might not be great for extended riding. They're also too expensive for me at the moment to be honest.

I'm looking for recommendations please...

Also, does anyone know of a camera that would plug in to a 12v connection and just keep recording non stop while you have it on? Obviously it would have to write over itself once memory was full.

Thanks lads,

Eoin

Wonda-Boy

So many cams to choose from, I was gonna say get something cheap and cheerful just to record if some one hits you. But if you are going on trips to Europe etc you will want something good to record in nice HD with crisp sound (I know I would)

The 2 best cams on the market as you know are the GoPro series and the driftHD cams, personally I dont think the GP cams are worth the extra money but the quality is uber good. I have both and the drift is a great cam for the money and does everything well for less money.

You can get a few others on ebay but I would not trust them for a trip around europe.

Also the higher the res. the shorter the battery life and the better the memory card you will need (TRUST ME)

eoinkildare

Cheers Wonda. How long can you record with the drift on the battery?

Wonda-Boy

eoinkildare wrote: »

Cheers Wonda. How long can you record with the drift on the battery?

Depends on how much you wanna spend on the SD card. The bigger the card the longer you can record. Same for all cams, if you are stuck lower the res and record for longer. On my GoPro the batter goes before the cards are full.

But you must buy a class 10 rated card or equivalent. As in a very fast data transfer rate...other wise you will get black screens with sound as the card cannot cope with the huge amounts of data been fired at it from the device.

BlackWizard

I get about 3 hours on my GoPro. I also bought a few spare batteries on ebay which are great and really cheap.

I can leave the camera on standby for nearly the entire day. So I just record things that I think are interesting. So with lots of cheap spare batteries your only problem is buying fast memory.

Also if you can buy an external charger you could charge the other batteries while you ride. http://www.ebay.ie/itm/GoPro-Hero-3-Camera-Battery-Charger-With-UK-Mains-Plug-Car-Adapter-/141063955398?pt=UK_Camera_Batteries&hash=item20d81123c6 (Requires Cig socket but they seem easy to setup)

Richard tea

Youtube is your friend for different camera reviews. I ended up going for the Sony HDR-AS30V recently. Ive only played around with it in the house and have yet to try it on the bike but so far im delighted with the quality. As for battery life, you will be best off buying a few spares as mentioned above for long trips. Ill mainly use mine for my commute which is about 45 mins so battery life aint a worry so far. As for where to purchase your camera, make sure you check out amazon.uk .de .it. fr as there could be up to 50 quid in the difference between them.

Pique

I have a Contour Roam. You can get it delivered for £122.60 to Parcel Motel (+€3.50) from HERE
Waterproof to 1M and you can rotate the lense (and make sure it's level with the built-in laser levelling light).

Compared to an equivalent GoPro, it's just as good and at that price, it's a steal.

Wonda-Boy

Pique wrote: »

I have a Contour Roam. You can get it delivered for £122.60 to Parcel Motel (+€3.50) from HERE
Waterproof to 1M and you can rotate the lense (and make sure it's level with the built-in laser levelling light).

Compared to an equivalent GoPro, it's just as good and at that price, it's a steal.

It might be a great cam at a great price (and it looks the part too) but its no where near the spec of the GoPro. Lets give accurate answers here lads so the OP can make an informed decision.

The GoPro can record 4K res. if you want it to. Most people myself included are recording at 1440 res. You can also record at 240fps with the Go Pro. I suppose this is were the extra money is going....also the wifi on my unit is very good too. You can also shot time lapse and 12m still photos. Unit is 100% waterproof too with the incld housing.

The maximum res. the contour records at is 1080p (according to the website)

Just so people know that not all the cameras have the same specs.

Pique

Wonda-Boy wrote: »

It might be a great cam at a great price (and it looks the part too) but its no where near the spec of the GoPro. Lets give accurate answers here lads so the OP can make an informed decision.

The GoPro can record 4K res. if you want it to. Most people myself included are recording at 1440 res. You can also record at 240fps with the Go Pro. I suppose this is were the extra money is going....also the wifi on my unit is very good too. You can also shot time lapse and 12m still photos. Unit is 100% waterproof too with the incld housing.

The maximum res. the contour records at is 1080p (according to the website)

Just so people know that not all the cameras have the same specs.

I did say the 'equivalent GoPro'. The one I linked is the first Gen Contour and that's why it's that price. Great for recording bike trips, not for x-games stuff.
Also, buying a £400 helmet cam is insane IMO unless you intend doing serious work with it, post production and uploading. Slo-mo is great for the cool stuff, not so much for the daily commute
Also, bear in mind that the Hero2 is pretty much lauded everywhere, whereas the Hero3 seems to have a lot of problems with Quality Control.
You can pay for the top of the range Contour too if you want to match the GoPro Hero3
Check out this review comparison.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFBwuvBRdoU

YMMV

EDIT: It seems Contour are out of business!! Therefore, unless you get a bargain on one, don't buy as you could be spending money on something that doesn't work and with no warranty.
Damn shame that, as GoPro need competition but Contour were bought up and may be coming back. Until then, DriftHD is the only decent 'other' camera out there.

Wonda-Boy

Thanx fook the one I got is perfect.....I got the Go Pro Wifi jobbie in the sale up in Crossans for a bargain. It was about €100 cheaper only reason I got it.

Vikings

This guy reviews all the cameras he can get his hands on, http://www.youtube.com/user/Techmoan

A lot of cheaper options available for what you want, spend a few hours watching his reviews and it will not be wasted

eoinkildare

Vikings wrote: »

This guy reviews all the cameras he can get his hands on, http://www.youtube.com/user/Techmoan

A lot of cheaper options available for what you want, spend a few hours watching his reviews and it will not be wasted

Thanks lads, some good info here. There are refurbished cameras available on Amazon so might try one of them or a second hand gopro.

It will be a while before I make up my mind I'd say

Pique

Anyone still interested ?

Seen a BA for Argos of all places.
GoPro Hero 3 Surf Edition for €287

There's a few around too according to CheckArgos

It costs £289 on Amazon

Big-Mac

Is there any for around €50-€100 just to use for commute?

Big-Mac

Big-Mac wrote: »

Is there any for around €50-€100 just to use for commute?

http://adverts.ie/2875514 is this any good?

eoinkildare

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9R9KPqyMQk#t=15

I think this is exactly what I'm looking for. Writes over old footage so you can leave it recording until something happens and then save the relevant footage. Can be wired to the bike battery for constant recording and seems to have excellent video quality too

Sputnik

webbikeworld also reviews cameras from a bike point of view:

http://www.webbikeworld.com/motorcycle-video-camera-reviews/reviews.htm

Richard tea

Sputnik wrote: »

webbikeworld also reviews cameras from a bike point of view:

http://www.webbikeworld.com/motorcycle-video-camera-reviews/reviews.htm

Great site

Richard tea

Used the cam for the first time today. Just a 10 min spin to the garage and back. On the way tho the garage i have the cam point to far down so i can mostly see my clocks. On the way back I adjusted it but not enough:o Gona have to find its best position. Dont really have time to play around with it now but it looks like my pc is not great for playing back footage at 1080p 60fps:mad: I was gona upgrade the pc if GTA 5 becomes available but looks like ill have to upgrade sooner. Delighted with the footage that did play though. First time I sat on the bike since Oct so I was a stiff as a blank:eek:

Pique

So which one did you get?

eoinkildare

I went ahead and got the RoadHawk Ride bullet camera from amazon.co.uk and fitted it to my helmet.
Brought it out the other evening for a trial run and i'm quite happy with how it performed. I'm trying to upload a video from it now just to show you all the footage.
It records on a constant loop writing over the oldest files if you don't turn it off and it can be powered from the bike battery directly or using a 12v power supply like the one I had fitted the other day conveniently enough!
It also has an internal battery for standalone use.
8gb card that comes with it stores around 2 hours of footage which is loads really but I also have a cheap 32gb card which I've tried in it and that works well too.

Richard tea

Question for anyone with a camera that comes with a sealed case. I need to order some anti fog inserts for my sony action camera. Bit ****ing ridiculous that the camera doesnt come with them in the first place as they are a necessity. Anyway i can pick up 2 inserts from Sony that's supposed to last 200 times per insert for 20 quid. Or im looking at these http://www.ebay.ie/itm/50-Piece-Pads-Anti-fog-Inserts-For-GoPro-Actionpro-Drift-/141207398964?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_205&hash=item20e09dea34

Im just wondering if these inserts can be cut to size. Or would cutting them damage them & render them useless.

Also, has anybody with a gopro or similar have an experience with the fog problem??

Wonda-Boy

Richard tea wrote: »

Question for anyone with a camera that comes with a sealed case. I need to order some anti fog inserts for my sony action camera. Bit ****ing ridiculous that the camera doesnt come with them in the first place as they are a necessity. Anyway i can pick up 2 inserts from Sony that's supposed to last 200 times per insert for 20 quid. Or im looking at these http://www.ebay.ie/itm/50-Piece-Pads-Anti-fog-Inserts-For-GoPro-Actionpro-Drift-/141207398964?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_205&hash=item20e09dea34

Im just wondering if these inserts can be cut to size. Or would cutting them damage them & render them useless.

Also, has anybody with a gopro or similar have an experience with the fog problem??

I have two doors for mine joe a sealed waterproof one that does fog up and a non waterproof one with a cut out that never fogs. Maybe drill a tiny hole in the case and save yourself a few bob. Its not like you will be going diving with the camera.

Richard tea

Wonda-Boy wrote: »

I have two doors for mine joe a sealed waterproof one that does fog up and a non waterproof one with a cut out that never fogs. Maybe drill a tiny hole in the case and save yourself a few bob. Its not like you will be going diving with the camera.

Spot on Gary. After researching for a while I decided to drill some holes. I could have forked out for a new door with vent but its near 50 quid so scrap that. Ill just have to cancel my deep sea expedition off the coast of bray now

Wonda-Boy

Richard tea wrote: »

Spot on Gary. After researching for a while I decided to drill some holes. I could have forked out for a new door with vent but its near 50 quid so scrap that. Ill just have to cancel my deep sea expedition off the coast of bray now

Dont go mad Joe with the drilling its not oil you are after....get a really small bit and a high powered drill. You will only need one, two at the maximum..as the more holes the more noise.

Zascar

Op id say get a cheap one for daily use and a Drift or GoPro for making actual movies. I dont think there is one that does all.

That drift looks great, I have a GoPro 1 but its clunky to use - I like how the drift has a screen which would be very handy, and a lens that swivels too

thecivvie

Wonda-Boy wrote: »

I have two doors for mine joe a sealed waterproof one that does fog up and a non waterproof one with a cut out that never fogs. Maybe drill a tiny hole in the case and save yourself a few bob. Its not like you will be going diving with the camera.

I got some non OEM fog strips delivered via parcel motel for half the price of the originals. Double the amount as well, never had problems with them