Cycle Cameras / Helmet Cams (GoPro, Drift, Veho, Contour, Fly6, Fly12, SJCAM, Apeman, 1080p, etc.)

Does anyone have any recommendations for cameras that can handle low light while maintaining clarity? I’m still using an old Contour HD 1080p, which is pretty poor at night and unable to really capture detail, such as number plates, when something does happen unless you are up close and not moving. From looking at reviews, it seems like the newer Contour Roam 3 has improved on low light performance, but I don’t know how substantive this change is. I’m more into the “bullet” type camera than box type, but open to suggestions if an example of the latter is superior in result.

I've found the gopro hero session (not the newest one) struggles with recording plates legibly in both 30 and 60 fps 1080 in the dark. Don't know if the new hero session is any better.

Cheers. It may be the case that, as per the generic action cam advertising video, they intend their cameras for the use of exciting people in glorious, sunlit leisure pursuits rather than in the dim twilight of the winter commuter.. I'd have thought that given the expansion of use by commuters that this capability may have got on the radar since I got the Contour many years ago...

You're gonna need a bigger lens.

Looking for a helmet mountable camera with at least a 90minute battery life at a decent res (just enough to cover my ass against drivers with the blood lust) for commuting around the £100 mark. Tried to do a little research myself but the market seems so saturated with cheapo knockoffs now I'm getting nowhere. May have to go down the refurbd/secondhand GoPro route if there's nothing better out there on a budget. Any suggestions?

Gopro session will likely be close to your budget soon. Quality is fine and battery life is about 2hrs at 1080p 30fps.

https://driftinnovation.com/collections/cameras-new/products/drift-stealth2

The only let down, is the lack of cyclic recording.

Looks good but I'm not sure what you mean by 'cyclic recording'? When the memory is full it stops capturing footage?

Yeah, just overwrites instead of stopping.

I use a mobius V2 (500mAh battery) for my commute with a waterproof case. It manages the 45min ride in plus the 45min ride home, but I tend to give it a bit of a zap during the day to be sure it lasts. It does the loop recording mentioned above as well as timestamping, and the footage quality has been great.

Looks like you can now get a newer V3 model (820mAh.. '2 hour' battery) for £70 with the waterproof case included here

Woah talk about value! Good range of mounts too, will look into these more. Cheers!

Now that spring is hopefully here I'm going to be putting the winter helmet away.

I've always ran my GoPro session on side of the helmet but I am thinking about a handle bar mount.

Are there any issues with vibration affecting the image quality?

Thinking standard GoPro mount or one of the Kedge mounts.

I have a hero5 session on a handlebar mount and the software stabilising does a decent enough job for me. I just have a cheap crappy plastic job from ebay - it just clamps around the bar and doesn't stick out like the kedge ones

No issue at all, I ride a towpath each day with a bar mount and I get a smooth image.

700/23 tyres

All,

I'm in the market for a new camera but I'm caught between a handlebar-mounted or body camera.

The downside with bar mounted cameras is that when you're being abused by Johnny Scumbag, you need the camera to face him which means potentially moving the bike round to an awkward position. But do body cameras stay on your clothing or do they drop off under duress?

Decisions decisions. What do you do?

Go pro on a chest harness?

I find handlebar footage a bit too shaky in low light. I prefer helmet as it records my POV as I like to look these scumbags in the eyes but a harness would be similar however I've never used one.
I would get the gopro session 5 as its's smaller than the hero (better for helmet) and has image stabilisation then experiment with what suits you.

What happened to Cyliq? They're not available at Wiggle and their website is throwing errors. Did they go kaput?

Had a couple of arseholes to deal with last night, not helped by my mental state given recent news and I reckon a camera might save the inevitable conflict and let me get straight to reporting arseholes to the coppers.

Got an Olfi last week. Really simple to use and shoots good footage.

olfi.co.uk/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JuDUxnxBRk&feature=youtu.be

Do you know if there's any difference between that and the SJCAM M20? They look exactly the same, but the SJCAM M20's £50-odd cheaper

Yeah. Looks the same to me.

@croft my gf got an olfi for travelling, agree that video quality is great, but man is the app SHIT

How are you getting on with the Fly12?

its great, really clear footage.

only problem is i don't understand how to reduce the size of video clips to upload them but haven't been inclined to do much research

What's the budget camera of choice these days? ~£100

Preferably a couple of hours' battery life and self-overwriting/rewriting