Video Camera who uses one?

[Boognoss]

Speaking of cameras, are any of them any good at night? Come winter a lot of my commute will be in darkness and there's probably not much point having a camera if it can't film anything.

In my experience the Otek isn't great but with close shaves and helmet-mounted Ayups I usually can light up the rego plate, etc. Night time and raining is appalling though (for the camera and the rider).

[Oxford]

Good lighting will help any camera setup, if you have a look at my YouTube channel there is a video from 11/06/2010 that is night time. The camera was an MD80 spy cam, helmet mounted. It performs OK except that the numberplate was washed out so I am yet to identify the driver unfortunately. I'm not an expert but I understand that DVRs with CMOS processors work better in low light conditions, maybe Nate can shed some light on this discussion (sic).

[Nate]

have a squizz at my reviews page: http://www.rigidmount.com/camera_reviews.html
Oteks are good, Eagle Eye great, Kodak ZX1 horrific.

its going to be VERY difficult to get a plate at night - unless its lit up to just the right amount.
It'll most likely be underexposed or overexposed.

[GraemeL]

I am going for a ride tonight, I will take some footage and post put it up later on.

Graeme

[Boognoss]

Speaking of cameras, are any of them any good at night? Come winter a lot of my commute will be in darkness and there's probably not much point having a camera if it can't film anything.

In my experience the Otek isn't great but with close shaves and helmet-mounted Ayups I usually can light up the rego plate, etc. Night time and raining is appalling though (for the camera and the rider).

Here's an example from my dark outbound commutes in the cooler months last year. Best night shot is at the 1:50 mark when I get cut off in the middle of a roundabout. Note that this was with ghetto-mount BEFORE I became a Rigidmount customer. Now my video is rock solid .

[GraemeL]

I am always at a loss to understand these idiots. If only they realised, that the 5 seconds of stupidity may end up being 5 years in jail.
Anyway that camera isn't to bad at night.

Graeme

[GraemeL]

Ok here is my night test using the GoPro HD.
I have tried to include different lighting, from some shops to the side streets and a main road.
For those that are curious, the lights we are using are,
Front: Nitelight Illuminator 900 Lumen mounted on our helmets, A Knog mounted on the bars.
Rear: Two planet Bike Super Flashes and two Fibre Flares.

We start out at around 6:45 as the sun is going down....



Graeme

[Marto]

Calibration of video cameras on bicycles for car passing distance

It is hard to know or even guess how close a car passes a bike, even with a camera recording the incident. It has been stated in this forum that calibration of bike videos is needed to be more certain how close a car passed. I couldn't find any calibration description, so I made one up.

I recorded with a handlebar mounted video camera whilst passing a stationary car at marked distances. These distances were: 0.25m, 0.4m, 0.5m, 1m, 1.5m and 2m. These were marked out with sticky notes (photo below shows markings for 0.5m, 1m, 1.5m, and 2m).




I did all this on a street looping through a property development at early stages. The camera was an Otek 126, mounted on the handlebars 6cm right of the mid point of the handlebars, 89cm from the ground. The videos were not cropped or zoomed, but they were resized.

I took snapshots from the videos at the point where the rear wheel of the car is lined up with the right hand edge of the video frame. A few features may be used as a measure of distance to the car. These ones immediately apparent are: where the bottom right corner of the video frame passes on the car (ie: wheel arch height/half way up the car wheel); and the proportion of the right hand edge of the video frame is filled up with the car. The most consistant dimension among cars is the wheel+tyre size. Most car wheels are 15-16 inches with 60 aspect ratio tyres. The car in these pictures has 16 inch wheels, and 55 aspect ratio tyres (lucky me!). The wheel+tyre height is 62cm, and the wheel arch is 68cm at its highest point.

To compare with calibrated images, the video camera has to be in the same position and angle as it was when making the calibrated images, and the resulting video shouldn't be cropped in any way.

My hope is that cyclist may use these photos (where appropriate), or make up a set for their own camera or other vehicles (ie: Commodores, utes, or trucks). Then in our day in court, or in a police report, we can make a good estimate of passing distance based on a calibration of the video system. This gives more credibility (I hope).

I want to put videos up of each calibration distance (running forwards and reverse), but I need to learn to remove (ie blur) the number plate of the vehicle used...

You can see in the following snapshots where the bottom right corner of the video passes on the car.

25cm pass (handlebars touched mirror (very slowly!)):



40cm pass:



50cm pass:



1 metre pass:



1.5 metre pass:



2 metre pass:



As an example, a still from one of my posted videos seems most similar to the 1.5 and 1 metre calibration images (it's not the same car ). This is based on the point on the car that lines up with the bottom right corner of the video frame:

[Aushiker]

Hi

On the subject of night use of cameras, this is video from a Contour HD1080 at night.



Andrew

[Aushiker]

Calibration of video cameras on bicycles for car passing distance

Thanks Marto.

Andrew

[uncle arthur]

I'm a recent camera convert, having bought myself one of these:


I've dodgied up an older handlebar light mount so that I can zip tie the camera on to it - it looks very similar to this:


I tried it out on the Friday bunch last week. Apologies for the watermark - I'm still trying to find a simple free video editing package, but here's what I get.




In this one towards the end of the clip you should be also able to see the fool in the beverage fan who tried to run us over - it doesn't look as close as it really was because I am at the back of our little group.

[Oxford]

uncle arthur, go to RigidMount.com and check out the video editing section with regard to software, VirtualDub is absolutely brilliant. I have the same camera and would highly recommend the Torch Mount from RigidMount, it fits like it was made for it.

[GraemeL]

Is the Camshot water proof?

Graeme

[Oxford]

Is the Camshot water proof?

Graeme

Yes, I bought them for that reason, just wanted them to be rain proof, but waterproof is better, except that the microphone does not pick up much low level noise. So if you talk to it, unfortunately it may not pick up what you say.

[GraemeL]

Is the Camshot water proof?

Graeme

Yes, I bought them for that reason, just wanted them to be rain proof, but waterproof is better, except that the microphone does not pick up much low level noise. So if you talk to it, unfortunately it may not pick up what you say.

Thanks, I was wondering if it would be suitable for a rear camera. I am not bothered about the audio.

Graeme

[Aushiker]

Thanks, I was wondering if it would be suitable for a rear camera. I am not bothered about the audio.

Same here. Pretty much convinced now.

Andrew

[GraemeL]

Thanks, I was wondering if it would be suitable for a rear camera. I am not bothered about the audio.

Same here. Pretty much convinced now.

Andrew

Yeah I might order one and see how it goes. I wanted to buy another GoPro for the wife to use and was just going to use that from time to time. But if the Camshot turns out to be ok then I might just get 2 of them.

Graeme

[Oxford]

As a rear camera its not bad IMO, nice and compact, unobtrusive and of course the video is damning and compelling at the same time.

[Oxford]

Marto, those camera calibration ideas are great, must try that myself as it would be good to be able to determine where a car actually is by video evidence.

[Aushiker]

As a rear camera its not bad IMO, nice and compact, unobtrusive and of course the video is damning and compelling at the same time.

Hi

Looking at Torpedo 7 it seems that there "Camshot" camera only takes 8 gb cards and has a battery life of 1.5 hours. Does this match your camera?

Andrew

[Oxford]

As a rear camera its not bad IMO, nice and compact, unobtrusive and of course the video is damning and compelling at the same time.

Hi

Looking at Torpedo 7 it seems that there "Camshot" camera only takes 8 gb cards and has a battery life of 1.5 hours. Does this match your camera?

Andrew

yes, they say 1.5 hours, but mine will run for nearly 2 hours, most I've recorded for is about 1 hour 50 minutes before I came to the end of the ride, so never really actually gone beyond that. an 8Gb card will hold about 4 hours of riding so plenty for me, I usually format them everyday after taking whatever footage I need via VirtualDub.

[Nate]

uncle arthur, go to RigidMount.com and check out the video editing section with regard to software, VirtualDub is absolutely brilliant. I have the same camera and would highly recommend the Torch Mount from RigidMount, it fits like it was made for it.

*passes bag of money to Oxford quietly*

For audio... if you're capable...
Open it up, find the microphone & drill a hole through the casing where the Mic is.
Then cover it with sticky tape.

That should let the sound in but keep water out.

[waynohh]

I got the DVS550, it's got the same resolution sensor as the 1080p contour. The 720p contour is blurry as hell next to it. Overpriced POS.

[geoffs]

I have bought a Contour HD which takes great quality video. So long as it's mounted the correct way up.
It came in useful yesterday on the DHBC slowies ride. The link is here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ggFFZSjWFU
or search youtube for AF89AG
. Video has been shown to he police and moron will receive tickets for around $600

[Oxford]

I have bought a Contour HD which takes great quality video. So long as it's mounted the correct way up.
It came in useful yesterday on the DHBC slowies ride. The link is here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ggFFZSjWFU
or search youtube for AF89AG
. Video has been shown to he police and moron will receive tickets for around $600

Wont he get a nasty little shock. Absolute Gold.

How many tickets will he get?