Nearly knocked off my bicycle - wish to buy a camera to mount on bike

[Morsty88]

Morning all,

Week ago I was riding home from work late at night and I nearly had a collision with some boy racer type who for some strange reason decided the proper lane he should be in wasn't enough and he wanted to be in my lane. As usual I had my reflective jacket on and lights. He nearly collided with me head (he was going way too fast!) if I wasn't lucky enough to do a quick right.

After this experience I am deciding to purchase a gopro or something similar to attach to either my helmet, my front handlebars or my bicycle trailer just incase I may have to use the film footage for something. I was wondering if anyone has any advice/tips as I have no clue in this area of interest. Thank you for your time and help,

Samuel

 

[biggs682]

@Morsty88 have a look at Bar mounted camera any suggestions ?

 

[Nibor]

I have had teh SJ4000 recommended to me as a cheap allternative to gopro and they can be had very cheaply
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/1819...ICEP3.0.0-L&ff14=122&viphx=1&ops=true&ff13=80

 

[growingvegetables]

I've just got a SJ4000 - suits my purposes well. Clear enough definition to read number plates in daytime. Not so good at night - but if you have the camera head/helmet-mounted, just read off the number plate to yourself.

Decent battery life - and you can carry a spare battery or two with you if needed.

Records in 3 minute segments (which I think you can change, but I haven't bothered); makes it easy to find the wee clips want to use, and delete the rest, fast.

Standard GoPro fittings - no problem there; and arrives with a box full of miscellaneous clips, straps, wires and gubbins!

Sound is poor if mounted on the handlebar; but I wear mine on a head-strap, so no probs.

I probably prefer it to the GoPro I had (it got nicked ).

One thing to watch - get a genuine one! SJCAM Genuine Serial Number Check Sort of a back-handed complement to a GoPro clone that it gets so widely cloned itself!

I read somewhere the clue is in the official SJCAM logo on the front (like on this). Or order from SJCAM direct (I didn't know abut this one - hard to imagine it's not legit)? Apparently cloners don't like to go as far as duplicating the logo! (Hmmm - I wonder)

 

[glenn forger]

I don't know much about it but a mate just got this for £38, seems ok but may fall to pieces or explode, I dunno:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00T330Y2O

 

[vickster]

If riding late at night, you'll need a camera that performs well in the dark, which probably won't be the cheapest one

 

[fossyant]

The SJ5000X Elite and Git 2 cameras seem to be very good. SJCam also have a new M20 camera on the horizon

 

[NorthernDave]

I bought a Garmin Virb and had loads of problems, but lots of people think they're great - certainly the image quality was spot on (when it worked...)

 

[gbb]

Alternatively, consider how many days, weeks, years youve been cycling...and how often you ACTUALLY meet a numpty. After something similar to yours years ago I considered doing the same...and then thought, FFS, I only get maybe ONE incident a year where I think it was truly dangerous...not inconsiderate or accident, but actually dangerous.
Then I didnt bother, put the incident to the back of my mind and carried on enjoying cycling.
Just another point of view.

 

[Seevio]

It all depends how much money you have to spend on toys. After all, how often do you ACTUALLY need insurance. Do you crash your car a lot? Does your house get burgled a lot? If you have the spare cash to buy a camera it's not going to be a bad thing unless you are going to go all trafficdroid. If something crops up you'll be glad you had it but really, how often are you going to need it? You decide.

I have no idea how the GoPro range performs in low light. I have a Git2 and the night time performance is adequate at best but then it was seriously cheaper than GoPro. There's only so much I'm willing to spend on these things.

 

[Gasman]

I've just bought one of these to try. At under £6 it's no great loss if I find I can't be bothered.

 

[fossyant]

TBH, a Garmin can be just as much use. I've sent my data off to my solicitor with regards to the accident. It has me on a straight line down the road, then the bike got knocked sideways onto the pavement quite a way from where I ended up.

 

[Banjo]

If you do get a camera Please please don't load the internet with footage of every time a car gets a bit close or whatever.The world cant cope with another traffic droid.

A camera may help with evidence after a crash but is in no way going to make you less likely to be hit in the first place.

 

[spoof]

Hello Samuel
I got the Xiaomi Yi action cam. Cheap N Cheerful with great footage quality. Probably need a power bank for your cam so you can charge and shoot video at same time if you riding greater than an hour

 

[Ron-da-Valli]

If you do get one, under no circumstances should you shout " You're on camera!"