Helmet cams and rear camera's for bike

[HiAsAKite]

Having had one or two near misses by cars pulling out on my whilst on the roadbike, or doing stupid things like overtaking then immediately stopping in front of me, I'm looking at getting a helmet camera, plus potentially something rear facing on the back to.

Keen for something as unobtrusive as possible (e.g. like the bullet camera's), plus something with a useable image (so I guess to be useful will need some image stabilization as its fairly bump on the bike - especially if the rear camera is mounted on the bike. Needs to be waterproof.
.
Would like to spend at little as possible, but appreciate it might be a couple of hundred.
Lots of stuff on amazon etc, but difficult to tell if its pure cack, or whether it actually works/gives a useable image/has some longevity

Appreciate thoughts - what have you found has worked?

[Your Dad]

Rear camera - I use a Teentok camera (purchased from Amazon, also available on eBay), it's similar to an older Cycliq.

The mount it comes with is crappy plastic so I purchased an alloy mount to use instead. Fits nicely on seatpost or frame depending on which bike I'm using. Image quality is good, even on bad road surface it's possible to pick out the VRM of passing vehicles. Battery life with LEDs flashing is at least 3.5hrs, I've not been on a ride longer than that with it to see when it dies.

[ED209]

We have one of these which is ok.

https://www.chilli-tech.com/action-cameras/action-...

[HiAsAKite]

Thanks folks.

YourDad - like the look of the rear camera. Have added to my amazon basket

ED209 - what is the image quality like/is there stabilisation? e.g. can you read number plates?
- looks nice and compact. Have seen a few APEMAN's on amazon but they look huge when on the top of a helmet.. much prefer something more snug and low profile

[HiAsAKite]

Your Dad said:

Rear camera - I use a Teentok camera (purchased from Amazon, also available on eBay), it's similar to an older Cycliq.

The mount it comes with is crappy plastic so I purchased an alloy mount to use instead. Fits nicely on seatpost or frame depending on which bike I'm using. Image quality is good, even on bad road surface it's possible to pick out the VRM of passing vehicles. Battery life with LEDs flashing is at least 3.5hrs, I've not been on a ride longer than that with it to see when it dies.

Thanks - have ordered - where did you obtain the alloy mount from?

[Your Dad]

Amazon - HSU bike mount for GoPro

[Sensibleboy]

These stem mounts are great for GoPros. No wobble and doesn't stand out like a camera on a helmet.

Edited by Sensibleboy on Sunday 23 May 22:01

[Gareth79]

I have a DJI Osmo Action on my helmet. It's probably not going to be great in a crash, so my plan is to relocate it to the front and probably fit a 2nd camera on the saddle rails. A front-facing static camera is going to catch enough of most incidents, but a rear one could be useful to add to a close pass.

One advantage of an obvious camera is that I think it makes drivers think twice, although it won't stop some of the most dangerous stuff, eg. idiots who overtake without even slowing or observing.

[HiAsAKite]

Ok, to update I've got hold of one of the TeenTok rear cameras.

Not worked out what to do in terms of helmet/forward facing camera's yet.

I've run it at claimed 1080HD (not convinced it actually is!) and 720p.

Number plates are definitely clearer at 1080, but framerate is halved.

Main gripe at the moment is that it "locks" videos if it senses g-forces to prevent them being overwritten.
However with the vibration from my road bike, every video so far when actually cycling, is showing up as locked, which is a bit of a pain as I need to removed the memory card to delete them manually/

Footage from running at 720p: https://youtu.be/47VGyqUCtPo

[Gareth79]

I'd be interested to know what plates are like in low light and/or rainy conditions. I've had a few cases where a plate is only visible on my helmet cam in a few frames, the rest are blurred due to the vehicle's speed. A still frame of a "perfect" shot is below (DJI Osmo Action, nothing major, just caused the oncoming car to brake hard and swerve)

Edited by Gareth79 on Monday 31st May 23:37

[Your Dad]

HiAsAKite said:

Main gripe at the moment is that it "locks" videos if it senses g-forces to prevent them being overwritten.
However with the vibration from my road bike, every video so far when actually cycling, is showing up as locked, which is a bit of a pain as I need to removed the memory card to delete them manually/

Make sure you've got the latest firmware installed, and then change the settings to lower or turn off the shock setting.

[HiAsAKite]

Your Dad said:

Make sure you've got the latest firmware installed, and then change the settings to lower or turn off the shock setting.

Thanks, got to say, I couldn't see any obvious way to disable shock setting when using the RICAM phone app (and not sure want to disable per se, just desensitise it if possible..

There is a settings file on the SD card, which I suspect I could try to decipher and edit directly, but I'd rather not mess about with that as it is working ok :-)

Also I was unable to do direct data transfer using a USB cable to a laptop, have tried a couple of "known good USB data cables" (hence resorting to pulling the SD card out) - did you manage to get this to work, or have you been using the phone app/SD card to pull files from it.


Similarly, where did you get the firmware updates from? - the "support" link just points to a facebook page for a guy in China...

Edited by HiAsAKite on Tuesday 1st June 10:47

[Your Dad]

HiAsAKite said:

Also I was unable to do direct data transfer using a USB cable to a laptop, have tried a couple of "known good USB data cables" (hence resorting to pulling the SD card out) - did you manage to get this to work, or have you been using the phone app/SD card to pull files from it.

I take the card out, I don't think you can attach the device direct to a PC and use it as external storage to read from.

HiAsAKite said:

Similarly, where did you get the firmware updates from? - the "support" link just points to a facebook page for a guy in China...

The guy in China is the support bloke. If you look at his posts on Facebook there's a post on 12th Jan with the firmware to remove the lock setting.

[HiAsAKite]

HiAsAKite said:

Ok, to update I've got hold of one of the TeenTok rear cameras.

Not worked out what to do in terms of helmet/forward facing camera's yet.

I've run it at claimed 1080HD (not convinced it actually is!) and 720p.

Number plates are definitely clearer at 1080, but framerate is halved.

Main gripe at the moment is that it "locks" videos if it senses g-forces to prevent them being overwritten.
However with the vibration from my road bike, every video so far when actually cycling, is showing up as locked, which is a bit of a pain as I need to removed the memory card to delete them manually/

Footage from running at 720p: https://youtu.be/47VGyqUCtPo

I've added an example of footage running at 1020p/30fps https://youtu.be/XUX9v2ElNEk

[yellowjack]

HiAsAKite said:

HiAsAKite said:

Ok, to update I've got hold of one of the TeenTok rear cameras.

Not worked out what to do in terms of helmet/forward facing camera's yet.

I've run it at claimed 1080HD (not convinced it actually is!) and 720p.

Number plates are definitely clearer at 1080, but framerate is halved.

Main gripe at the moment is that it "locks" videos if it senses g-forces to prevent them being overwritten.
However with the vibration from my road bike, every video so far when actually cycling, is showing up as locked, which is a bit of a pain as I need to removed the memory card to delete them manually/

Footage from running at 720p: https://youtu.be/47VGyqUCtPo

I've added an example of footage running at 1020p/30fps https://youtu.be/XUX9v2ElNEk

Elvetham Heath at 720p, and Bourley Road/Wellesley Road at 1020p... and is there a prize?

[Evanivitch]

Gareth79 said:

I'd be interested to know what plates are like in low light and/or rainy conditions. I've had a few cases where a plate is only visible on my helmet cam in a few frames, the rest are blurred due to the vehicle's speed. A still frame of a "perfect" shot is below (DJI Osmo Action, nothing major, just caused the oncoming car to brake hard and swerve)

Edited by Gareth79 on Monday 31st May 23:37

Do you record sound? Call out the number plate as they pass.

[HiAsAKite]

yellowjack said:

Elvetham Heath at 720p, and Bourley Road/Wellesley Road at 1020p... and is there a prize?

There is indeed - don't crash into me ;-)
Well spotted though!

Edited by HiAsAKite on Friday 4th June 21:21

[HiAsAKite]

Gareth79 said:

I'd be interested to know what plates are like in low light and/or rainy conditions. I've had a few cases where a plate is only visible on my helmet cam in a few frames, the rest are blurred due to the vehicle's speed. A still frame of a "perfect" shot is below (DJI Osmo Action, nothing major, just caused the oncoming car to brake hard and swerve)

Edited by Gareth79 on Monday 31st May 23:37

For vehicles heading towards me - its just about ok.
For those heading away, very difficult to pick out the plates.

Not tried out in low light, and unlikely to do so in the near future.
there was slight rain this morning, but only very slightly when I was out