Glad the replacement has finally come for you, DarkElf. I've been very pleased with my replacement with no glitches to date. When received it I immediately did the manual update and fixed my settings to how I wanted it.
KonaCommuter wrote:I honestly don't know why any cyclist wouldn't have one. The Jumbo #808's are dirt cheap and to be quite blunt the Contour Roam isn't exactly expensive and nor is it obtrusive as a helmet cam. Whenever I hire a car I have a cam mounted as a dashcam and from this Sunday my wife's car will have a dashcam that records whenever the ignition is on.
Great idea on the rental car dashcam. Can I ask why on the wife's car in particular? Or is it for the same reason as you run one on your commute?
Cyclical recording was what I was after, it hooks up to the ciggie lighter and I've been told starts recording when the car starts. Whilst I would have preferred 1080p, 720p is what I use on my helmet cam and it's sufficient.
The one I bought at Christmas time was from China and it wouldn't record and only turned on sometimes. So I bit the bullet and bought something from a B&M store that I can go back to if it doesn't perform.
Summernight wrote:Glad the replacement has finally come for you, DarkElf. I've been very pleased with my replacement with no glitches to date. When received it I immediately did the manual update and fixed my settings to how I wanted it.
My replacement has also worked flawlessly. I also did the update straight away.
Well, as the BNA Oracles prophesied, the handlebar mount failed on the commute to work today:
And as they also prophesied, the lanyard saved the GoPro from a fate possibly worth than death:
I saw it wobbling at the lights not in time with the vibrations of the bicycle so I touched it and the GoPro fell off in my hand. Lucky the lanyard held it tight and away from anything dangerous so I didn't have to worry about it as I rode the rest of the way to work. The GoPro must have known, as it ran out of battery and turned off just two blocks before.
Chest mount from now on until I get the K-Edge GoPro handlebar mount.
Handlebar mount lasted 4 weeks of commutes (I don't ride on the weekends). This doesn't include the time in which the GoPro was sent back to the factory for warranty replacement - where the mount was on the bike but there was no load.
Moral of the story: NEVER use a GoPro (or I guess any other expensive camera) without a lanyard.
Here's a few clips of the Roam2 from a ride home last week showing sunset to twilight heading west/north west, with audio from onboard stereo.
No incident riverside drive sunset (also have kogan sunnies vision of this same ride to add for comparison)
Same ride further along after sunset, a couple riding less than wisely two abreast uphill to a blind bend cresting of freeway overpass:
Same ride further along before twilight end, guy stopped on path immediately after an uncontrolled crossing out of the street lighting wasn't the brightest choice for checking your phone, pun intended.
(no youtube at work so not sure these links will work)
After reviewing a couple of minor near misses with cars, one anticipated failure to give way, the other surprise right turn from left lane across right lane (me) on one way road, the wide 170degree view doesn't represent the 'naked eye' feeling of time/space so well, just looks like everything is happening at an easy Sunday stroll pace with suspension fork also dampening the footage edginess. The narrow field of view sunglasses cam more realistically showed how it felt by naked eye in those incidents regarding recognition of the hazard and response. A nice combo in fair weather and daylight on comfort ergonomics with higher head position. The slower frame rate makes the sunnies cam blurry at fast head checks and not representative of detail seen by naked eye.
Well, today I bought two 808 #16s (D lens) together with two battery backpacks (thanks to the previous posts with the links to the reviews so I knew which ones to choose).
The idea of buying two being one camera goes on the helmet strap (if it is light enough - without the external battery). The other on the rear chainstay for a back view. These are to complement the front view, handlebar mounted GoPro. Looking forward to playing with them when they arrive in 2-3 weeks!
If the helmet mounted #16 doesn't work out I can always use the extra camera as an in-car camera.
Summernight wrote:Well, today I bought two 808 #16s (D lens) together with two battery backpacks (thanks to the previous posts with the links to the reviews so I knew which ones to choose). ...
Is that the lens that gives it a bigger field of view? If so, let us know how it goes, I was looking at it and decided to get the standard one but am still tossing up whether to get one or not.
Is the standard battery backpack like a black box thing like the one here? If these are the one I purchased with my camera, I've found that when they top up the charge on the camera, it interferes with the signal to my wireless bike computer and it stops recording speed and distance until the top up is finished, but not sure if it's just happening because it's been in a few stacks or what.
Summernight wrote:Well, today I bought two 808 #16s (D lens) together with two battery backpacks (thanks to the previous posts with the links to the reviews so I knew which ones to choose). ...
Is that the lens that gives it a bigger field of view? If so, let us know how it goes, I was looking at it and decided to get the standard one but am still tossing up whether to get one or not.
Is the standard battery backpack like a black box thing like the one here? If these are the one I purchased with my camera, I've found that when they top up the charge on the camera, it interferes with the signal to my wireless bike computer and it stops recording speed and distance until the top up is finished, but not sure if it's just happening because it's been in a few stacks or what.
Thanks for the tip on the wireless interference with the external battery (yes, it looks the same except seems to be specific to the #16) - I will keep an eye on it with my Edge 500. And yes, the D lens is the wide angle (120 degree) one. I liked the look of that angle better than the A (70 degrees) and the B (~78 degrees).
Just also purchased the k-Edge GoPro mounts in red (bought both types of mount to bump up to free shipping on Wiggle). I checked Cell Bikes first because of the exemplary customer service they are displaying on this forum, but with the platinum discount on Wiggle (whoops, been spending a bit too much there. ) it was approx 20% cheaper than Cell and I think there was added shipping costs with Cell on top of that. Sorry Cell.
The reason I bought both mounts is because I actually like seeing my right brifter in the footage as a point of reference, so I want to see how both work with that (I may have bought an extra one needlessly, oh well).
Anyone out there tried using an IR camera or modified video camera for picking up number plates at night? Looks like it'd be pretty easy to modify one, but not sure if the results would be worth it?
I can see myself destroying a cheap and nasty one to find out.
I'd avoid it. The 1080p mode only shoots 10fps. That won't cut it for bike action.
Where does it say that? The only specs I could find either on the DX site page, or in the pdf manual stated 30fps for both shooting resolutions.
EDIT: Me bad, just watched the SJ72 review and they stated the frame rate was 10FPS for 1080p mode. Maybe they've improved it? Also the bike mount doesn't look so nice!
) it was approx 20% cheaper than Cell and I think there was added shipping costs with Cell on top of that. Sorry Cell.
