Camera Recommendations

[Nachodaddy]

I have studied "Itchy Boots" videos to learn how she uses her camera equipment and get some idea of what she is using. I am pretty sure she has a 360 with a bar type mount that she can mount on the front of her bike looking back at her and it is designed to keep the camera from "seeing" the bar somehow, so it looks like the camera is riding in front of her bike as she rides. Nice touch. It is also apparent that she uses a drone for brief overhead shots. There are drones that can "follow" you, but obviously not at 80mph on the Santa Monica Freeway. I think she may use the drone in a place where she can stop, set it up, ride a short distance recording, then stop and retrieve it. My daughter has glasses that have a camera in them and she wears them to record sports events, like basketball games. They give good video, but aren't much help if you need to wear prescription lenses, as they come with a non-prescription lens. Remember, editing is done in real time, so the more you record, the longer you have to sit and watch it to get what you want out of it.

[Tev62]

Camera choice is just the start of it, there is more to consider. Go cheap to start with a non 360 camera paying attention to how you can connect a cheap lavalier mic which can be permanently fitted in your helmet. Batteries are the Achilles heels of any camera so look for ones that allow you to attach a power brick for days worth of battery power. Getting a helmet mount camera is the easiest way to attach a microphone, if you fit it anywhere else you are not going to get any audio apart from wind noise unless you run a microphone all the way to your helmet.

The GoPros have a good reputation but are expensive, you really want the media mods for audio connections etc to make them more useful on a bike. I currently run an old GoPro 4 Black which reliably records 1080P/60FPS connected to a €5 mic in my helmet and a €12 power brick in my pocket. The video output is perfectly watchable on a large screen TV, nothing more is required. I have a 360 camera and they are good but personally I think they only add a dimension to a video and should not be the primary video source. If you do want to make it your only camera you will need a separate audio recorder with a mic in your helmet, its hard to run a mic from a 360 camera on a pole!

Then you have to process the video, your PC wants to have decent processing power, an Intel i7,16GB memory and a decent screen is a minimum to my mind, anything less and your video processing is very cumbersome.

You have to be careful of falling into the trap of hours and hours of video of you and you bike going down the road, no matter how nice the scenery. Very few people find it entertaining and even you will not want to watch back two hours of yourself driving down a road, you want to have a subject matter and be commenting. If you are not talking about something stop recording, save you battery and camera memory. Video files are large and processing a 2 hour video for 5 minutes of content is very time consuming.

[GoldOxide_imp]

... remote stop/start button is handy to avoid long, dry riding flicks.


Although, they might be useful when you are expired from riding and drooling in your rocking chair. Long riding videos of daze long gone could be just the ticket to get it up again. (someone will have to set-up the video for you though )

[deltamark]

Wow, thanks everyone for the excellent input! Will also take a look at the Eken.

[mvk24_imp]

Can you set up a gopro to run like a dash camera where it will contiue to overwrite the oldest file? So you can just let the camera record constantly in the event something happens you weren't expecting but if nothing happens you dont waste space on the memory card

2014 CB1100, 1981 KZ440 LTD, 1993 Yamaha XJ600 Seca, 1994 Yamaha XJ600 Seca

[GoldOxide_imp]

Can you set up a gopro to run like a dash camera where it will contiue to overwrite the oldest file? So you can just let the camera record constantly in the event something happens you weren't expecting but if nothing happens you dont waste space on the memory card

2014 CB1100, 1981 KZ440 LTD, 1993 Yamaha XJ600 Seca, 1994 Yamaha XJ600 Seca

I believe the later models can do that.

Certainly, many non-GoPros can, and in particular, high-definition body cams.

[Gone in 60]

I've gone through the menus on my Hero 8 looking for a looping/overwrite mode. If it can do that, it's not easy to find. Not an issue for me, as I'm recording 40-45 minutes of daily round-trip commuting and wiping the SD card unless I want to save something interesting.

The Garmin Mini 2 dash cams I put in our cars overwrite, unless you verbally tell the camera to save something or save it on the app.

[Tev62]

I've gone through the menus on my Hero 8 looking for a looping/overwrite mode. If it can do that, it's not easy to find. Not an issue for me, as I'm recording 40-45 minutes of daily round-trip commuting and wiping the SD card unless I want to save something interesting.

The Garmin Mini 2 dash cams I put in our cars overwrite, unless you verbally tell the camera to save something or save it on the app.

My old GoPro 4 Black has looping. Available intervals for Looping are 5, 20, 60 and 120 minutes. For example, if you select a 5-minute interval, only the previous 5 minutes is saved when you stop recording. The menu icon is the video icon with an arrow wrapping around it.

[mvk24_imp]

I've gone through the menus on my Hero 8 looking for a looping/overwrite mode. If it can do that, it's not easy to find. Not an issue for me, as I'm recording 40-45 minutes of daily round-trip commuting and wiping the SD card unless I want to save something interesting.

The Garmin Mini 2 dash cams I put in our cars overwrite, unless you verbally tell the camera to save something or save it on the app.

My old GoPro 4 Black has looping. Available intervals for Looping are 5, 20, 60 and 120 minutes. For example, if you select a 5-minute interval, only the previous 5 minutes is saved when you stop recording. The menu icon is the video icon with an arrow wrapping around it.

My old GoPro 4 Black has looping. Available intervals for Looping are 5, 20, 60 and 120 minutes. For example, if you select a 5-minute interval, only the previous 5 minutes is saved when you stop recording. The menu icon is the video icon with an arrow wrapping around it. O awesome cause im pretty sure I have looping on the Hero 4 I use for my drone. I just didnt put 2 and 2 together to realize that was overwriting.

2014 CB1100, 1981 KZ440 LTD, 1993 Yamaha XJ600 Seca, 1994 Yamaha XJ600 Seca

I've gone through the menus on my Hero 8 looking for a looping/overwrite mode. If it can do that, it's not easy to find. Not an issue for me, as I'm recording 40-45 minutes of daily round-trip commuting and wiping the SD card unless I want to save something interesting.

The Garmin Mini 2 dash cams I put in our cars overwrite, unless you verbally tell the camera to save something or save it on the app.

Yea my Vantrue dash cam does that unless I press a button to save to previous 3 minutes.

It also has inertia sensors so if it detected someone hitting my car or something when its parked it will save that footage.

2014 CB1100, 1981 KZ440 LTD, 1993 Yamaha XJ600 Seca, 1994 Yamaha XJ600 Seca