Motorbike Camera

[leener]

So, what cameras have you got, and what is great about it?

Do you have a socket fitted to charge it?

I am looking to buy a camera asap.

I have two cameras in my car and I put the worst footage up on Dash Cam Footage (on Facebook), but no cameras on the bike. The amount of times I wish I had a camera on me on the bike is unreal. I see so many instances of bad driving each day.

It's hard to find a good one on eBay because, unless money is no object, you don't know if you are getting a bargain or a piece of cheap slop.

[Mr Fro]

I put the worst footage up on Dash Cam Footage (on Facebook)

 

Why would you do that?

[fastbob]

Why do you need to film bad driving? Its not very interesting.

[Guest]

Dash cams are fine for evidence in accidents but why dwell on what you see? I guarantee your driving/riding won't be perfect and you'll have done things on the road that others will have found annoying or considered to be poor driving. I know I certainly have, everyone makes mistakes occasionally no matter how much training or experience they have. Life has enough stressors without dwelling on such things.

[someone]

What camera to get depends on your budget, where you want to mount it, and what features you want.

Personally I have an SJCAM SJ4000 which I mount on my bars and record all my rides. But I only use it as a learning aid, which nowadays means to review specific incidents, if there are any, where I think I missed something or made a mistake. The only time I have ever shown any of my footage to anyone else has been following an accident to get advice on what I did wrong.

So fantastic quality is not that important to me, although for a very cheap and now quite old camera it is still pretty good. And I carry a bag of batteries around with me, which depending on the brand last between 90 minutes and two hours at 720p30. And being a GoPro style block shape I would not want to mount it on a helmet, but you may not be bothered about that.

But I do want to upgrade, mainly to get something with image stabilization and I am not sure what to get. I believe the new GoPro with stabilization only records at high bit rates even in the lowest modes, so will use a lot of disk space to store, and quickly fill a memory card. The SJ4000 is 100MB per minute at 720p30, it also offers 1080p30 but I have never needed that.

The Sony cameras have a elongated shape which makes them better for helmet mounting, but offer fewer resolution and frame rate options than GoPros despite similar capabilities. They just offer a number of preset options rather than letting you pick any combination, and they also are regarded as having a truly awful interface, but they do have higher and lower bit rate mode options.

The new Drift camera I automatically ruled out simply because it does not have a removable battery. Unless you are buying a dedicated bike mounted camera system, like the Innovv, they having it powered by the bike means losing waterproofing. Which is fine so long as it does not rain.

Sadly, at least for me, they all seem to have one major deficiency that makes the choice difficult.

[Scoot65]

I put the worst footage up on Dash Cam Footage (on Facebook)

 

Why would you do that?

 

These type of youtube vids and the associated outrage at other people's driving are voyeuristic crap. I always think that the posters are holier than thou prats. ......Remember we all have our stupid moments when driving / riding on the roads.

[leener]

I put the worst footage up on Dash Cam Footage (on Facebook)

 

Why would you do that?

 

These type of youtube vids and the associated outrage at other people's driving are voyeuristic crap. I always think that the posters are holier than thou prats. ......Remember we all have our stupid moments when driving / riding on the roads.

 

It's actually rare for me to post any clips.

It's good to have a laugh at some of the mild stupidity, but most importantly to take away the awareness of certain situations that might unfold. It's good to educate by means of sharing clips during certain encounters, where some inexperienced drivers might benefit from seeing. That's the only reason I would upload any. I have seen a lot on some clips that drill home just how quickly, and unexpectedly an accident can occur - especially on 2 wheels. You'll see a situation unfold on a clip and think, "I'm glad I saw that. I'll remember not to ever position myself there on the motorway in future".

But, you are right - the majority are "holier-than-thou" morons who somehow think they are posting up a clip to shame someone, when it turns out that THEY are usually in the wrong. And, to add salt to the wounds (because they do get very verbal), the cam-vehicle is usually hogging the middle lane - that gets pointed out the most. People usually just upload the clips for attention, but it backfires, and triggers a wave of abuse - which is why I would rarely post anything.

The better ones are people who post up their own clips of mistakes they make, like turning down a one way in the wrong direction - that sort of thing. If anything it is educational... but you have to be pretty bored to watch most of it.

I won't bother putting them up on youtube - there's bikers all over there filming their riding, screaming at drivers, having a riot. Personally, my only purpose for the bike cam will be insurance - because you damn well need one. My rides are usually boring, and I can't be bothered to take the memory card out to take off a clip, unless it's serious. It would be a couple of hours of me riding along, a bit of filtering, and the sound of wind. Not good TV. Half of the stupid stuff I see is common as old muck, so it would have to be something spectacular before I would even consider showing anyone the clip.

[leener]

What camera to get depends on your budget, where you want to mount it, and what features you want.

Personally I have an SJCAM SJ4000 which I mount on my bars and record all my rides. But I only use it as a learning aid, which nowadays means to review specific incidents, if there are any, where I think I missed something or made a mistake. The only time I have ever shown any of my footage to anyone else has been following an accident to get advice on what I did wrong

 

Cheers - I'll check out some more cameras. The most important thing is battery life, memory size, and picture quality. I have two in my car that are pretty poor quality. I do at least 2 hours a day on the bike, so the memory and battery need to be fairy beefed up.