Best bike cameras
- Thread starter Daninplymouth
- Start date
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Arjimlad
Tights of Cydonia
- Location
- South Glos
I've been using an Aldi Maxtek combined rear camera and light for some years now. Whilst the footage is not great, it's adequate for bad driving from the rear. The vehicles inevitably get close enough for it to pick up the registrations, although with night-time footage a frame by frame analysis is sometimes needed to get the number right.
The difference between the front & rear footage stands out in this video, I think.
View: https://youtu.be/0KqPY3Cr1DM
The ETC Watchman rear light/camera gets poor reviews due to image quality, but I don't mind lesser quality rear footage personally.
The difference between the front & rear footage stands out in this video, I think.
View: https://youtu.be/0KqPY3Cr1DM
The ETC Watchman rear light/camera gets poor reviews due to image quality, but I don't mind lesser quality rear footage personally.
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DiggyGun
Active Member
- Location
- Buckinghamshire
Video quality looks good. Ordered one of these yesterday from Amazon and delivered today. You do get a lot of goodies with it, i must admit. Just charging the batteries up as I write.
One question, how stable is the bike handlebar mount, as you seem to need to use a number of components for this.
BoldonLad
Not part of the Elite
- Location
- South Tyneside
I have mine mounted in a water proof case, using a “out front “ mount, I bought off e-bay. If you didn’t want the water proof outer, you could still use the same mount and the camera holder. I just thought the water proof outer gave more protection.
Attachments
BoldonLad
Not part of the Elite
- Location
- South Tyneside
the mounts off eBay, look like this:https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Aluminum...p2349624.m46890.l6249&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0
DiggyGun
Active Member
- Location
- Buckinghamshire
Thanks for the tip and I will be using the waterproof case. I’ve ordered a more discrete mount than the one that came with the kit, which will allow me to take it off without tools as I don’t want to keep it on the bike all the time.
kingrollo
Guru
Got a feeling the Fly 12 CE is only available from cycliq themselves directly. I even think it may have been discontinued.I'm in the market for Cycliq Fly12 front camera, as nothing else seems to tick enough of my requirement boxes. But there is no stock anywhere in the UK, (or anywhere for that matter) which is really annoying. I've also mailed Cycliq direct and they have no idea either, which is really helpful!
I had the first generation rear Fly6 camere/light which served me well. Then I updated to the Fly6CE, which was even better and well worth the upgrade from the original. But I see now that they have released V3 of the Fly6, which if what I'm reading is correct, it has a lower capacity battery and half the lumens of either the last two versions? Okay, its lighter and smaller, but at what cost, less bright and less battery life
I have the original fly 12 which once you get used to it's quirks has been good. I did have the fly 12 CE which I thought was rubbish - it came with the most feeble bracket ever for a £250 light - and mine had a particular problem that is never turned completely off hence wouldn't hold charge overnight.
Have researched new cameras and it comes down the ghost drift XL and teentok on Amazon. Both get mixed reviews.
mjr
Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
- Location
- mostly Norfolk, sometimes Somerset
Never had much success with those mounts or versions of them with either fixing bolt section breaking or at least one of three connecting bits breaking off. The actual Go-Pro one was one of the worse. Currently using a KlickFix mount https://www.merlincycles.com/klickfix-cam-on-gopro-camera-mount-144963.html
baby-boop-boops
Active Member
A work around for the date and time reset, is to have a little power bank with you, and plug it in the camera before you take out the battery, put new battery in then unplug the power bank the date and time stays correct this way. It might sound a bit fiddly but it works for me.
BoldonLad
Not part of the Elite
- Location
- South Tyneside
Great idea. I never thought of that! Thank you for sharing, I will try that.
baby-boop-boops
Active Member
you're welcome
just make sure the red charging light is on the camera when its connected to the power bank, otherwise when you take out the battery the date and time will be lost.
Magpies
Senior Member
- Location
- Cambridgeshire / Singapore
Update to this old thread in case it helps anyone.
I've been looking for years - and tried several including the most-advertised products without success - before I recently found this (relatively) inexpensive rear-facing light + camera a few months ago .....
<https://www.tooocycling.store/> (also available from several other sellers)
Reviewed here: <https://www.t3.com/reviews/tooo-cycling-dvr80-review>
My experience= Footage is clear in daylight and at dusk - I haven't tried at night - even though there is no video stabilization. Construction seems robust, IPX5 water resistant, easy to mount, 8+ hr battery life, 2 year warranty. >1000 min recording with a 64Gb microSD card, automatically overwrites earliest segments when card is full.
One glitch is that there is no dedicated app, so you have to edit and upload a .txt file to change the date/time, or reset video frame rate and other options. The instructions are fine and I had no problem doing it, but some may find this control mode bothersome.
I just replaced my six-year old Fly6 with one of these. The Fly6 now has poor battery life and doesn't last a single commute, there are YouTube videos showing how to disassemble and replace but I charge my light at work sometimes and I don't want to plug in anything I've modified myself.
First day- OK. No more difficult to set date and time than the Fly6 CE. Didn't record the whole commute on the way in- I reformatted the card (it wasn't a new one- I took it out of the Fly6) and now it's fine. Narrower than the Fly6 but takes up about the same amount of space on the seatpost. Comes with two mounts so I can add one to the two bikes I use most regularly. Ease of use about the same as the Fly6- probably easier as there's only one button. The Fly6 CE light is better but in the winter I have an additional rear light anyway. Haven't done a battery life test yet- will try next week. No issues connecting to my Windows laptop at work and my MacBook at home.