A good helmet camera?

[Rezillo]

Well, my Ebay AS10 arrived today. Brand new factory sealed box and all appears to be working ok but I won't get a chance to use it on a bike for a few days. The case will screw directly onto my existing bar mount as that uses a standard camera mount screw.

Couple of things that immediately impress - picture quality, especially 720p which is streets ahead of the Contour+, and the ability to set a 120 or 170 degree field of view (might interest Gaz in view of his comment above). Steadyshot sets it to 120 degrees regardless. I'm going to try 120 without steadyshot but I suspect I may get some rolling shutter effect on a bar mount.

Youtube vids have some rattles on audio which seemed to be blamed on the case. I put the camera in its case and shook it - there was a small but noticeable rattle. It was actually the battery rattling slightly in its cradle - a couple of pieces of soft insulating tape on the side of the battery facing the cradle stopped that but I don't know yet how the audio will be for sure.

 

[BSRU]

Well, my Ebay AS10 arrived today. Brand new factory sealed box and all appears to be working ok but I won't get a chance to use it on a bike for a few days. The case will screw directly onto my existing bar mount as that uses a standard camera mount screw.

Couple of things that immediately impress - picture quality, especially 720p which is streets ahead of the Contour+, and the ability to set a 120 or 170 degree field of view (might interest Gaz in view of his comment above). Steadyshot sets it to 120 degrees regardless. I'm going to try 120 without steadyshot but I suspect I may get some rolling shutter effect on a bar mount.

Youtube vids have some rattles on audio which seemed to be blamed on the case. I put the camera in its case and shook it - there was a small but noticeable rattle. It was actually the battery rattling slightly in its cradle - a couple of pieces of soft insulating tape on the side of the battery facing the cradle stopped that but I don't know yet how the audio will be for sure.

Best thing for me is the low light performance, especially this time of year on roads with little or poor street lighting.

 

[gaz]

Spectacam - two way helmet camera

 

[cloggsy]

Well, my Ebay AS10 arrived today. Brand new factory sealed box and all appears to be working ok but I won't get a chance to use it on a bike for a few days.

I for one would be interested in seeing the results; especially in low light conditions...

 

[Rezillo]

I for one would be interested in seeing the results; especially in low light conditions...

To avoid monopolising this thread with one camera discussion, I've done a first impressions post in the Reviews section and hope others will join in. I'll try to post some links next week to some (very brief) raw clips. At the moment, all my footage is from very dull days, which is not ideal.

http://www.cyclechat.net/threads/the-sony-action-cam-as10-as15-review-and-users-thread.117359/

 

[Kookas]

Anyone heard of Google's upcoming smart glasses? They have a camera in and support for live streaming. Think they would make for a pretty good cycle cam.

 

[gaz]

A duel recording camera from Oregeon Scientific (this means it's crap)
http://gizmodo.com/5960519/a-sports-cam-with-eyes-on-the-back-of-its-head-captures-twice-the-action

 

[Miquel In De Rain]

Internal battery is always a bad idea unless it can easily be replaced.
Waterproof also.

 

[Recycle]

Spectacam - two way helmet camera

That may be quite a good concept for a recumbent if you could create a rigid bar style mount above the headrest. I don't know how well it would work on a helmet because the head orientation may direct the front facing cam where you want, but you may not get the footage you want from the back facing cam.

 

[Recycle]

There are a few lowlight comparisons between the Sony & the Hero 3 Black on YouTube. The GoPro appears to come out tops on image quality but the Sony is tops on lowlight. I'm leaning towards the Sony. IMO lowlight is more important, especially on a winter commute and the Sony image quality is pretty good anyway.

 

[cloggsy]

IMO lowlight is more important, especially on a winter commute and the Sony image quality is pretty good anyway.

+1 Looks an awesome camera!

 

[benb]

Review of a camera called the "Foolish".
Would like to know what the low light footage is like.
http://road.cc/content/review/70700-nilox-foolish-hd-camera

 

[Recycle]

Review of a camera called the "Foolish".
Would like to know what the low light footage is like.
http://road.cc/content/review/70700-nilox-foolish-hd-camera

Yes, good point. I left a comment on their website.

 

[Recycle]

This is a question for those that have both front and back facing camera's.
If one camera produces a lower quality image, in which direction would you face the the camera that records the higher quality?

Intuitively I would say forward to film the direction of travel, but I'm not so sure. Most of my incidences seem to be close passes and a rear facing camera may be better to capture the lead up to the pass. Also, if the pass results in contact, the forward facing camera may not get anything if you are knocked off the bike.

 

[gaz]

The importance with a rear facing camera is getting part of your bike in and getting a good solid fixture to the bike. So choose the one which is best to fix to the frame and gets either you or your wheel in the picture.

Having part of your bike in the picture gives context as to how close people get to you.