Video Camera who uses one?

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Mububban
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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby Mububban » Sat Aug 05, 2017 11:46 am

Had my first ever problem with the Fly12 today, with it not turning on properly. At 6am for my group ride. Luckily I was able to borrow a small light from someone.

It beeped like it was turning on, showed the green light, but wouldn't let me turn the lights on, or turn the device off again. When I got home the memory card had no recorded video, although it was warm from running its battery on....something.

Had to do a master reset, and I might have to keep a tiny paperclip in my saddle bag:

Image


Also for anyone interested, my first gen Fly6 does allow me to record and use the lights, while plugged in and charging on a powerbank. So hopefully that'll eek some more life out of it as my battery has really been dying quickly in these cold mornings.
However the Fly12 immediately turns off when I try plugging in the powerbank.
When you are driving your car, you are not stuck IN traffic - you ARE the traffic!!!

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outnabike
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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby outnabike » Sat Aug 05, 2017 12:26 pm

MichaelB wrote:OK. Have a Sony HDR-AS20 action cam that I am using on a new water bottle mount. Pic and perspective is pretty good, but there are some vibrations that are evident when watching it back.

Image

Is there a good but cheap (user friendly and by cheap, I mean free) post-processing software that can improve the image ? I'm a real newbie at this, so as long as it's easy to use, then I'm good.

Will be using VIRB to trim it down to a useable size and get rid of the boring stuff.

At the moment, the mount is pretty firm, but there is some ability for it to vibrate relative to the bike - is it recommended to put some firm padding between downtube & camera case to reduce the vibration even more ?

TIA

Michael
Hi Michael,
I have an older Sony for 5 yeas now and still going strong. It is mounted on a metal bracket with no rubber or any thing at all. The higher and thinner the bracket the more vibration you will get. Also the more chance of a fatigue break of the bracket.
The camera has various settings for resolution and I use it on 1080 max resolution.
It has anti shake built in but it doesn't work with all settings (on my model any way). Yours may differ being a later model.

If set on a lower resolution you will get lots more video in capture, say 3 hrs as mine gets 0ne hour in 1080.
I have a solution however and will post it soon, with a dummy battery adapter in the camera and a power pack from office works. I now get 8 t0 10 hours of the power pack.
The annoying thing with the sony is that it will not over run the card when full like a dash cam. The allegedly will not use a 64 GB card (in my cam).

So I reformat the camera every hour and don't remove it unless there is an incident. This is easier than the pain It is to keep installing a spare card.
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Cycleops70
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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby Cycleops70 » Sat Aug 05, 2017 4:57 pm

Mububban wrote:Had my first ever problem with the Fly12 today, with it not turning on properly. At 6am for my group ride. Luckily I was able to borrow a small light from someone.

It beeped like it was turning on, showed the green light, but wouldn't let me turn the lights on, or turn the device off again. When I got home the memory card had no recorded video, although it was warm from running its battery on....something.

Had to do a master reset, and I might have to keep a tiny paperclip in my saddle bag:

Image
I've had a similar issue. Formatting the card & giving it a full charge seemed to fix it.

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Comedian
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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby Comedian » Sun Aug 20, 2017 8:57 am

Help from the brains trust. A friend was nearly hit the other day by a car carrying a van. They kind of passed but then swung over and she had nowhere to go but the grass.

She had a fly6 but unfortunately it was just before dark, and the guy had his plate mounted on the drivers side of his bullbar and I'm really struggling to get a number off it. I've been just stopping it frame by frame in VLC.. but I don't know any better way.

Any ideas?

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InTheWoods
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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby InTheWoods » Sun Aug 20, 2017 9:29 am

Nothing special Comedian, but I've found playing with the contrast&brightness etc settings in vlc player can help.

jasonc
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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby jasonc » Sun Aug 20, 2017 2:51 pm

Comedian wrote:
Any ideas?
What inthewoods said. Plus in future yell out the rego twice!

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kb
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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby kb » Tue Aug 22, 2017 1:33 pm

Comedian wrote:Help from the brains trust. A friend was nearly hit the other day by a car carrying a van. They kind of passed but then swung over and she had nowhere to go but the grass.

She had a fly6 but unfortunately it was just before dark, and the guy had his plate mounted on the drivers side of his bullbar and I'm really struggling to get a number off it. I've been just stopping it frame by frame in VLC.. but I don't know any better way.

Any ideas?
Depends how desperate you are. Theoretically you should be able to take the key frames, do a perspective transform and compose them so all the number plate line up and you have more resolving power. Never tried anything like that though...
Image

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Leethal
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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby Leethal » Wed Aug 23, 2017 1:17 pm

Comedian wrote:Help from the brains trust. A friend was nearly hit the other day by a car carrying a van. They kind of passed but then swung over and she had nowhere to go but the grass.

She had a fly6 but unfortunately it was just before dark, and the guy had his plate mounted on the drivers side of his bullbar and I'm really struggling to get a number off it. I've been just stopping it frame by frame in VLC.. but I don't know any better way.

Any ideas?
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AUbicycles
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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby AUbicycles » Thu Aug 24, 2017 7:06 am

For identifying the car, first is that you should be able to get the make and mode of car and also know it was a P-Plate driver and possibly the car colour. This is useful information even if you don't yet have the actual individual. Technically a number of the surrounding factors can help whittle down the list when the Police run it through their database.

Some or all of the numberplate helps further and some of the ways to help get details:

ONE - SCRUB
With an appropriate video player - scrub the video. With the player head, move the video back and forward. A single frame is not a photo, rather an interpolation or transition between the frame before and after - so the human eye recognises the picture from the movement. When you scrub - certain characters can become more obvious.

As you scrub, write down the characters you identify.. or that are likely. For example, a rounded character may be a C, G, D, O, Q or U but is often distinct from an I or a T. You also have the sequence, typically 3 letters and 3 numbers.


TWO - EDIT
The next option is with an image editing program - Photoshop is good but an open source and free application like Gimp is an alternative. You can run some different filters with the aim to get more clarity and remove distracting noise. Depending on the original image - which you can screen shot from a single frame at full resolution (best is a screen capture in a high quality format - like a PNG or JPG 100%).

Some of the filters you can try, rough sorted in order and also possibly combining:
- Contrast
- Levels
- Sharpness (there are various ones, try them e.g. shake-reduction)
- Noise reduction
- Reviewing individual colour channels (Red, Green, Blue and also a Black/White)


THREE - SQUINT
That's exactly right - do the video scrubbing or view images with different filters and squint your eyes. You know how 'perpetrator' photos may be blurred or pixelated and if you squint your eyes and move your head around while looking, or if it is a video that tracks a blurred or pixelated person... you can actually start to better identify the characters and their features... so by making it harder, it gets easier.

I won't promise miracles, but when the characters are a bit clearer, it can may you differentiate between an O and a Q, or where characters are fairly fuzzy, you may be able to get a better idea of the form.



THE RESULT
If you can get a few matches or some good variations, if this incident goes to the Police it can help them get a match on a cross check between model, make and colour and possible number plates. Also no promise that the Police will go that far, but if you are serious about reporting and ensure that the officer know that you are prepare to take the driver to court - this is important to that they understand it is serious and that you are not a time-waster.



THE ALTERNATIVE
Sometimes it is impossible to get anything out of the plate - particularly where there are lights and the numberplate is reflecting. But if you have an idea of the driver / passengers, you may be able to guess whether they are local and whether they are creature of habit. If you are patience, you could set up camp in the same location at the same time of day / day of the week and see if you spot them again. This is a chance and works best if the vehicle is distinguished and it is fairly safe to say that they are likely to be regular travellers (e.g. tradies during peak time).



A Lesson for next time
It is good practice to call out the number plates of cars that come too close. When you get a shocking pass, it is hard to remember - but you have to do you best to try and get the plate and shout it out so that the microphone can record and you have the reference.
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Mububban
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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby Mububban » Mon Aug 28, 2017 5:34 pm

I ran my gen1 Fly6 off a powerbank for 3 hours on Saturday and it worked fine. Finished the ride with 100% battery of course, and the powerbank still showed 4/4 lights so it's not using much of the powerbank's capacity.
When you are driving your car, you are not stuck IN traffic - you ARE the traffic!!!

HellRaseR
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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby HellRaseR » Mon Aug 28, 2017 10:04 pm

Hey all,

I am looking for someone with good knowledge of electronic and circuits in particular.

Also a 3D Printing wizz to combine it all.

Will be happy if cyclists with expertise or how know someone who can help.

Lets make riding better, safer and affordable!

jasonc
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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby jasonc » Tue Aug 29, 2017 7:21 pm

Unfortunately my electronics knowledge is over 20 years old now so not much use. Sorry hellraser

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Nate
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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby Nate » Wed Aug 30, 2017 1:39 pm

HellRaseR wrote:Hey all,
I am looking for someone with good knowledge of electronic and circuits in particular.
Also a 3D Printing wizz to combine it all.
Go & have a look at the EEVBlog youtube channel, there's a few specific videos about prototyping & inventing.
If its in the video camera thread... ummm sounds like it'll be very in depth & they may need more than "good"

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Mububban
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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby Mububban » Sun Sep 10, 2017 2:54 pm

After initial success running my first gen Fly6 off a powerbank while riding, it's been turning off after ~40 minutes even while plugged in. So I bought a new one. Interesting that it's only ~4g lighter, the original is long and thin and the current model is squat and thick.

Image
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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby Aushiker » Sun Sep 10, 2017 5:45 pm

My second, new to me Contour Roam 2 has died so looking for a replacement (not another Contour). The Contour served as a rear camera and a helmet mount camera depending on the bike. Any suggestions for suitable replacement that could serve both roles and be easily interchangeable.

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tomee
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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby tomee » Tue Sep 12, 2017 10:09 am

Mububban wrote:After initial success running my first gen Fly6 off a powerbank while riding, it's been turning off after ~40 minutes even while plugged in. So I bought a new one. Interesting that it's only ~4g lighter, the original is long and thin and the current model is squat and thick.

Image
the only reason stopping me buying one.
they are massive

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Mububban
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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby Mububban » Tue Sep 12, 2017 4:17 pm

tomee wrote:
Mububban wrote:After initial success running my first gen Fly6 off a powerbank while riding, it's been turning off after ~40 minutes even while plugged in. So I bought a new one. Interesting that it's only ~4g lighter, the original is long and thin and the current model is squat and thick.

Image
the only reason stopping me buying one.
they are massive

I don't mind the depth of the new one, and being black it blends in a lot more with my predominantly black bike and carbon seat post.
Being shorter than the old one makes it less of a squeeze getting it under my saddle bag.
When you are driving your car, you are not stuck IN traffic - you ARE the traffic!!!

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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby jasonc » Sun Sep 17, 2017 8:00 am

check this out. i'm sure cycliq won't be too impressed

Image
http://road.cc/content/tech-news/229329 ... 350-indoor

aldi UK are selling a rear light and camera all in one
If you want to record your ride, whether for recording close passes (hopefully you’ll have none of those) or just showing your friends and family the highlights of your ride, the Camera and Bike Light (£39.99) does all that as well as combining an integrated rear light. There’s 8GB of memory which should be sufficient for recording most of the action.
40 pounds so less than $80....

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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby AUbicycles » Mon Sep 18, 2017 5:54 am

The author didn't acknowledge that the Aldi back camera / light is a Cycliq copy. I wonder if it was a paid post? That's the thing with publishers both print and online publishers, it is not obvious what is paid content and what is not.

On the Aldi / Cycliq rear camera light, two comments:
- The lens in the photo looks like it will add unnecessary distortion - it comes down to the polishing of the metal die (using in the plastic injection molding of the face plate).
- It is not obvious if it is waterproof.

We had an Aldi review of a bike, good value for money and it was not paid. Some of the gear is pretty good and when it comes to copied product, this actually comes down to patents and also if a company will put in a legal challenge for an original design. It can be difficult to challenge the Chinese producers directly though more can be done against their sale in western countries.
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Mububban
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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby Mububban » Tue Oct 31, 2017 10:43 pm

Fly6 worked on my way to work, but not on the way home. I had to back up the folders and files on it (minus the footage, didn't need any of it). Formatted the card, copied the data back onto it, and all good now.
I like having these cameras on my bike for peace of mind, but they do seem a bit buggy.
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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby AUbicycles » Wed Nov 01, 2017 6:09 am

I recommend routine regular formatting, every few months to clear out the cobwebs on the fly12 and fly6, in fact any camera. Issues while writing and with store data can affect the camera and normal functioning.
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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby jaseyjase » Wed Nov 01, 2017 1:18 pm

AUbicycles wrote:I recommend routine regular formatting, every few months to clear out the cobwebs on the fly12 and fly6, in fact any camera. Issues while writing and with store data can affect the camera and normal functioning.
Ive had my Virb for 2.5 years now, and clear my memory card after every commute when i get home.

Its pretty much a routine now, park bike, wipe card, plug into usb charge. Takes a couple minutes at most, helps that its all within proximity of each other, ie bike hanger, usb charger, etc.

Charge my lights as well

Then ill pop back after dinner and they all should be charged by then and just pop them back on the bike.

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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby Cyclophiliac » Wed Nov 01, 2017 7:16 pm

jaseyjase wrote:
AUbicycles wrote:I recommend routine regular formatting, every few months to clear out the cobwebs on the fly12 and fly6, in fact any camera. Issues while writing and with store data can affect the camera and normal functioning.
Ive had my Virb for 2.5 years now, and clear my memory card after every commute when i get home.

Its pretty much a routine now, park bike, wipe card, plug into usb charge. Takes a couple minutes at most, helps that its all within proximity of each other, ie bike hanger, usb charger, etc.

Charge my lights as well

Then ill pop back after dinner and they all should be charged by then and just pop them back on the bike.
Same routine here, I've been using a GoPro Hero3 and 3+ (helmet and saddle-rail) for at least 2 years now, using both for 10 commutes a week (roughly 14 hours total), and the recording almost never fails.

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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby AUbicycles » Thu Nov 02, 2017 7:06 am

The difference is the the Cycliq fly products automatically loops recording. Not sure about the abilities of the newest generation - but a set and forget is a nice option is you are no longer reviewing footage on a daily basis.
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Re: Video Camera who uses one?

Postby trailgumby » Thu Nov 02, 2017 10:14 am

AUbicycles wrote:The difference is the the Cycliq fly products automatically loops recording. Not sure about the abilities of the newest generation - but a set and forget is a nice option is you are no longer reviewing footage on a daily basis.
The other difference - at least from the earlier generation GoPros I was using - is that you don't have the hassle of managing waterproof housings to get to the unit to recharge it, nor do you have to bother with those water-absorbing strips to prevent the housing fogging up. The battery life is a major plus as well - the cameras will last for a full 100km ride.

Would be nice to have 1080p for the rear camera, but it hasn't prevented my getting MSPDL infringements actioned by the police.

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