Ideas for improving bicycle mounted video stability?

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Custom24

Über Member
Location
Oxfordshire
This evening, I saw another cyclist ahead of me almost killed by some stupid/reckless driving. It was a near miss - I spoke to him (the cyclist) and he was fine. I reviewed my video footage when I got home and neither the front or rear camera managed to get a read of the registration plate - it was dusk and there was too much shake in the video.

I have two SJ4000 on my bike, one forward and one rear. The front one is mounted on the stem, the rear just below the seatpost where the stays meet. I use the waterproof cases that come with the SJ4000, lashed down onto some inner tube with a bit of foam inside it for some padding.

How can I do something better? I did find the quality of the video much better when it was helmet mounted, but I don't want to go back to that.

Thanks for any suggestions.
 

deptfordmarmoset

Full time tea drinker
Location
Armonmy Way
I don't own any cameras, be they mounted on the helmet or bike frame/handlebars, but in nearly all of the videos I've seen, the most sure capture of the registration seems to be by voice. This goes for helmet mounted cameras too, even though the body absorbs most of the vibrations.
 
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Custom24

Custom24

Über Member
Location
Oxfordshire
Yes, but the way this incident happened, I had no reason to note the registration when the car passed me, because he seemed to give me enough room, albeit at quite a high speed. He then moved back close to the left despite the cyclist in front of me (and him) and only swerved out to miss him at the last second. By that time, he was too far away for me to read the registration.
 

sight-pin

Veteran
This evening, I saw another cyclist ahead of me almost killed by some stupid/reckless driving. It was a near miss - I spoke to him (the cyclist) and he was fine. I reviewed my video footage when I got home and neither the front or rear camera managed to get a read of the registration plate - it was dusk and there was too much shake in the video.

I have two SJ4000 on my bike, one forward and one rear. The front one is mounted on the stem, the rear just below the seatpost where the stays meet. I use the waterproof cases that come with the SJ4000, lashed down onto some inner tube with a bit of foam inside it for some padding.

How can I do something better? I did find the quality of the video much better when it was helmet mounted, but I don't want to go back to that.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Does it not even pick up the registration using frame by frame in full hd 1080p?
 

sight-pin

Veteran
I bought a Rush hd100w after i was left hooked by lady driver who was pulling into TGI fridays, (i won't go into the details of my rant) lol.
It's mounted on the stem for now as the handlebar mount doesn't fit my bar due to fact they taper, but the video is very clear in full 1080p, trouble is my laptop doesn't support it so i have to view it frame by frame in that configuration, but it also records it in the lower 720p at the same time so i have the option to email the video etc which my laptop can handle, but of course, it's no where near as clear.
 
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Custom24

Custom24

Über Member
Location
Oxfordshire
Does it not even pick up the registration using frame by frame in full hd 1080p?
No. Too much shake, and it was dusk. I think if I could get rid of some of the shake, it would have been fine. I would have got him with the front camera from his rear plate (which is lit up).

Googling the issue, some people have resorted to creative ways of mounting these cameras. I might try some of them. It looks like the objective is to mount the camera as rigidly as possible, and not worry about padding / dampening.
 

sight-pin

Veteran
I was going to mount the camera on my helmet but i don't don't fancy that sticking out like a sore thumb.
This option seems to be working ok for now.

IMG_0812.JPG
 
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