Keyfob camera....

[simon the viking]

Anyone using one?

I can't justify over a hundred quid for a reasonable head cam (I'm still saving hard for a carbon) and the £30 to £40 quid ones seem to have limited battery life (not enough for an average commute) and very mixed reviews and 40 quid would be annoying to waste however a tenner for a fob camera and sd card would be an acceptable gamble.

I was shown some footage a year or so ago and it seemed ok. (not from a cyclist though)

I thought the fob loop could be cable tied to helmet for security and then velcro'd in to position. I know I would have to cover it up the wet.

Any body using one or tried to use one and failed?

 

[HLaB]

Im pretty sure there's reviews of them on youtube along with sunglasses cameras, muvi clones etc all similarly priced, reasonable quality (compared to my old ATC). As said the battery life is poor and there are reports of them failing prematurely; I guess you pays your money, take your chances. I got a muvi clone for about a £10 with various mounts and silcon sports pack but cant comment on its quality as I hardly ever use it but its certainly better video/sound quality than the ATC5k in a 10th of the package but batteries only lasted (when new a 1/4 of the time).

 

[cyberknight]

I have tried similar cameras in the past , being the md 80 clones that run the same battery and lens and TBH they are ok to play around with but the camera is no good in low light conditions, the batteries are cheap so they do not hold their charge after a number of charge cycles .
In short if you want a camera get a decent one rather than the £10 hong kong specials.I ran 2 for a while so i could record my commute both ways and i sold them in the end as they just got worse and worse .

 

[compo]

Do a You Tube search for Techmoan who has done in depth reviews and demos on a lot of these cameras.
I have bought several cheapie ones and they have all ended up in the bin. Not that they didn't work but invariably the battery life was abysmal.

 

[gaz]

Waste of money imo. Better to save up and buy a proper camera which records decent footage at night, has a good battery life and plenty of mounting options.

 

[compo]

is this the same youtuber....

https://www.youtube.com/user/Techmoan

Oops, yes that's the one. I have edited my post.
Thanks for pointing it out.

 

[simon the viking]

Thanks for input folks. I will watch that link cheers... I thought battery quality would be main issue.

 

[compo]

If you are really looking at the budget end get a camera that runs on AA or AAA batteries. A couple of spares in your pocket will keep the camera going for a while (but not while they are in your pocket, before some wag comments).

 

[Matthew_T]

I bought one of these a year ago with the intention of using it as a rear facing camera. You can see footage from it in this video at the 0:57 point:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyLRJANeh7c

I also bought a Sandisk 4Gb card which means about 2.5hrs of continuous footage.

The quality is acceptable if you are only looking for something cheap but I wouldnt use this camera as a helmet cam as I suspect it would wobble about too much. Its a good camera for the money though.

 

[simon the viking]

Might risk one of the muvi clones at £9 quid with mount and if I get the bug for it invest in something better, Hopefully my boss wont realise I check cyclechat, Strava and then view video footage every morning

 

[simon the viking]

Okay folks rightly or wrongly I've ordered one of the camera Matthew T suggested, so will let you all know what battery life's like and quality etc

 

[rockyraccoon]

Okay folks rightly or wrongly I've ordered one of the camera Matthew T suggested, so will let you all know what battery life's like and quality etc

let us know your thoughts on it

 

[simon the viking]

let us know your thoughts on it

Will do, I'm not expecting miracles in the reliabilty/longevity stakes, the reviews don't knock the quality of the footage just the quality of the product

 

[rockyraccoon]

Will do, I'm not expecting miracles in the reliabilty/longevity stakes, the reviews don't knock the quality of the footage just the quality of the product

I am interest in the quality of the footage

 

[logrus]

I just bought one of the keyfob 800 ones that techmoan recommend, i realise the battery could be an issue but the profile of the device is ideal for helmet mounting. This is one of the cameras that can charge and record at the same time, so i have also bought a phone external battery that comes with a mini usb cable. The whole lost cost less than £20. Will see how it works once it arrives. The battery itself is very light and slim so should be easy to carry in a rear pocket.