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I was just wondering if anyone could recommend any bike/helmet cameras for filming with? I've seen a few websites that do them but a lot of them seem to be just the camera lense that you buy and you are required to plug it into a 'recording device' that is usually a normal camcorder or something similar. I would rather buy a full system if you know what i mean, with the camera and something for it to record onto, instead of buying the camera and then also spending £300 on a normal camcorder that I have to stow somewhere on my bike.


Oh and it has to be fairly decent quality :) anyone got any suggestions or websites I can look at?


Cheers

Chris

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I am quite pleased with the Oragon 4k I got. Its a rather decent VGA sized picture. Did well on my snowboarding trip too as its waterproof and looked quite steady as I went 40mph+ strapped to a plank of wood hurtling down the mountain. Only really good in good light though as seems to be the limitation of most head-cams.


It's a good amateur option at about £80. If you are looking for a more professional quality you will need to get separates.


It's quite hard to get a good idea of the quality of the various cameras when watching videos on the net as the compression algorithms that are used tend to cause them to look worse than they really are.

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yeah especially examples on youtube as youtube just rapes the quality of any video. I always add the old &fmt=18 onto the youtube URLs to make them high quality but even then they are not always great...

I just found this 46kam website though - http://www.4kam.com/bike_camera_motorcy ... ckages.htm that looks rather promising :) I do like video filming/editing so i think i'd rather pay a bit more to get a better quality one, plus they do solid state recording devices which is always handy when its going to be carried around on a bike getting bumped around all the time.

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yeah especially examples on youtube as youtube just rapes the quality of any video. I always add the old &fmt=18 onto the youtube URLs to make them high quality but even then they are not always great...

I just found this 46kam website though - http://www.4kam.com/bike_camera_motorcy ... ckages.htm that looks rather promising :) I do like video filming/editing so i think i'd rather pay a bit more to get a better quality one, plus they do solid state recording devices which is always handy when its going to be carried around on a bike getting bumped around all the time.

 

I had a good look around 4cam the other day and it looks good. There's also http://www.dogcamsports.co.uk who do similar packages and I think Dan can recommend them.

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yeah im just looking at the dogcam ones now, they are a bit more expensive but then the example videos do look a fair bit better... hmmmm decisions decisions. I guess I had better buy the important things first though like a back protector and a chain+lock :) then I'll worry about which camera to get :D

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I'll sort out a full quality upload from my Oregon cam and you can see what it's like. To be honest, I think it's quite good. VGA is sufficient for most video applications. Will grab it back from a friend who borrowed it for a formula 1 experience thing recently and take it on the bike. Be back in a few days with an example...

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thanks for the example Dan. I did a few calculations and it looks like i should be able to afford a back protector and a camera setup this month :P so i just ordered the dogcam dv500 setup :D I was going to go for the 4kam package as it was a bit cheaper but then i saw 3 or 4 reviews that each said they had problems with the video skipping and being generally low quality, even on the £200+ systems they provide ... so i figure its worth spending a few extra bob on getting a setup that I know will be decent quality.

So, hopefully have some videos up soon of my CBR600 when i get it at the weekend :D

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Right Steve, as requested:


http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f40/mysafpics123/CIMG1122.jpghttp://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f40/mysafpics123/CIMG1123.jpg


4 pole Jack plugs into DVR. Yellow plug is camera, white is audio.


http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f40/mysafpics123/CIMG1124.jpghttp://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f40/mysafpics123/CIMG1125.jpg


http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f40/mysafpics123/CIMG1127.jpghttp://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f40/mysafpics123/CIMG1128.jpg


In my hand, currently wired into bike, power lead, remote cable and camera plug.


Any questions m8, or want more pics, gimme a shout.

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cool yeah post the summery footage up when its edited :) all this talk of cameras has got me wanting to make another video... my last one was a bit limited as it was raining so it was all in my garage.

Here's the last one, but im off to go make another quick one as im bored and its sunny for once!

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Fantastic mate!!


Ok... If I have the DVR, and a camera, can I plug a seperate mic in?


Also does the camera require it's own power lead, or can it work off the power of the DVR?


What I want to do is have a seperate microphone. Power is not a problem, but I am just not sure if I need to have power to the DVR, mic and camera, or if it all runs off the DVR....


Cheers mate.

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Camera requires a seperate 12v feed. Mine has a battery pack or a power lead. (forgot to photo that sorry). Power lead in picture is for DVR from on board power supply. Got some wee transformers mounted under pillion seat, one 5v for DVR, and the camera feed..


Microphone feed, must depend on the DVR I imagine. Mine does not have a seperate audio input.I have a seperate cable with the mic, that goes between the camera and the DVR. A lot of faffing about in my book, plus you end up with a trailing wire...


So, power is required 1) to camera 2) to DVR. Video and audio feed in one cable.

Edited by Anonymous
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dont wana lob a spanner in your work guys but you should check out the GoPro Hero cams i got the 5mp wide one which has a 170 degre view from its fish eye lens and is meant to be 200 nicker most places but from amazon its 140 notes and the footage shown on youtube is pretty dam fine.


no wires shock proof and water proof to 30 meters (i`ll be taking mine to on my hols) takes stills and video all on SD cards and they are all AVI files so no messing about convertiong owt.

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Guest philgale

footage looks quality on that dan, baz looked at those on amazon the quality looks good just a bit big really


fancy one on the track bike, will try and get one sometime

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