CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
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not a support questionAny recommendations from current users?
I know everyone will put their own one forward, or they wouldn't still be using it - but what are the plus and minus points to look out for?
Resolution, battery length, memory card, ease of fitting and release, ease of use, effect on wallet. Best combination of these as I don't suppose there will be a perfect one out there - or is there?
I won't put my own one forward.
I've got a Veho Muvi. In its favour are that it's small, cheap and robust. That's it.
Not in its favour are that it's unreliable (sometimes it just stops recording or corrupts a file), has a very short battery life and doesn't take brilliant pictures.
Have you seen the reviews on Magnatom's web site? He likes the Contour GPS.
Contour HD. Great little tool with loads of mounting options, simple to use and HD quality or lower. Used on POP28 (go to POP website for 2 short movies from it). ;o)
Contour HD here. Very robust - I've fallen off my bike right over the handle bars and landed on my head right on the camera and it still works fine.
Only complaint is that you'll need to buy a bigger micro SD card as the one it comes with is small.
I've just got (two weeks ago) a Muvi HD 10. I'd had one of the old teeny Muvis in the past, and liked the really wide angle lens, and its performance in the dark (both compared to the ActionCam 2K I had before that) - so when the old Muvi finally died (after being dropped in the road one too many times, and being leant to a courier for a couple of weeks), and my mum asked me what I'd like for my birthday...
Quite impressed so far. Reasonably big rectangular unit (kinda mobile phone sized but a bit thicker), so a bit more obtrusive than the likes of the Contour. The wide angle is lovely, though one thing they don't mention (but which I had seen in a couple of reviews) is that the 160 odd degrees coverage is only if filming in 720p and below - if you film in full 1080p then the angle is quite a bit narrower.
It's an interesting pay-off. I like filming in the wide angle to get everything beside me covered, but the slight fisheye makes everything seem further away, so reasonably close passes don't look as dramatic...
Anyway, it comes with mounts galore. Clips and velcro and elasticated bands and wee swingarmy things to attach to any of them. It's really easy to shift between mounts. I'm not sure about the bike handlebar mount (which you have to buy separately) as it shakes a bit too much (I added my own padding to it to dampen this). But it comes with a helmet mount if you wear one.
I tend to use the big strong clip, and attach to the strap of whichever bag I have (since I carry a camera everywhere) up at my shoulder. This keeps the angle pointed up so when I'm down on the bars it's at the right angle. It cuts down a bit on 'shuddering', although maybe 'swings' more as my body moves (especially when out of the saddle). Chest mounted is funny as the wide angle shows all of the bars and my arms coming down either side.
I'll post videos once something interesting enough happens to put up on YouTube!
I'll add another -1 for the VeHo Muvi VCC-003 as it tried to make up for a lens the diameter of the tip of a pencil with loads of sharpening, rendering number plates unreadable.
@anth What's the number-plate-discernability like on your current model?
Well see the numberplate recognition on this is excellent, but then I read a huge number of numberplates and even bus numbers with the old Muvi VCC-003 in daylight, rain and dark... I'm beginning to wonder if you had a duff one? (or maybe I had an experimental better one!).
Did you have the 'pro' variant which allegedly permitted software tweaking of sharpening/contrast/etc settings by sticking new parameters into a text file on the card?
That would've been way beyond my ken! Nope, basic model. I can only really think of one time, in the pouring rain and night darkness, where I didn't get a numberplate I wanted.
I guess it might just be that I wasn't looking for number plates that often, and got lucky with the ones I did want to be able to see (for instance was behind the perpetrator of some rotten driving at the next red light and so bags of time for the cam to register).
I got a cheapo pair of video glasses off the interwebsbay thing. Think it wsa £16 and does OK for battery life and resolution not too bad either (I could make out registration plates)
The advantage of them being glasses is
The downsides
Minus point - I think they make you look like a dork with one perched on top of your helmet personally
"Minus point - I think they make you look like a dork with one perched on top of your helmet personally"
Hence on the Muvi:
"Anyway, it comes with mounts galore. Clips and velcro and elasticated bands and wee swingarmy things to attach to any of them..."
Can attach to virtually anywhere on you or on the bike.
That said, dorkiness is in the eye of the beholder. :P
anth - could you link to your camera/mounts - sounds like a good camera.
Can't remember seeing anything online that shows it connected with all of its mounts - I'll see if I can remember tonight to get some shots (altough I'm out playing snooker, so it might be a bit later). :)
Pics of the camera and various mounts in this Flickr set.
The camera comes with two 'cradles' that can attach to the barious little clips that attach snugly to the bike mount (the only optional bit, everything else pictured comes in the box with the camera), and the various flat mounts (which are used for helmet mounting or pretty much anything else - one comes with sticky double-sided padded tape to permanently attach to something, another with velcro so you put the other velcro piece and you can then attach and detach easily).
The big 'clip' thing is a snugger mount (the little cradles have a tripod mount screw within them for holding the cam, the clip doesn't, so is more 'robust'), and the clip is really tight and strong.
On the cam itself I'm thinking of switching to recording in the full HD - the wide angle made one very very close pass and cut-up this morning look like nothing particularly poor (will review on the big screen before passing final judgment).
I've got opinions on two cameras; the DogCam Bullet HD Wide, and the Contour+.
The DogCam Bullet HD Wide - was about £130, nice and small, very good picture of 720p, terrible audio. Repeatedly crashed. As in, crashed 75% of the time which you only found out when viewing the video later on. Button to switch on and off too fiddly. Takes a micro SD card so can record loads on it, but doesn't have a battery you can take out, so 90 minutes is your lot before you have to recharge it. I sent it back when it was faulty, and they sent it back still faulty. I did get a full refund though.
Contour+ - unbelievable. In a good way. Expensive; £500 RRP, although you can pick them up for £320. 1080p picture - and so sharp, you can pause it at any point and read the numberplate of the car that just cut you up. It's like it is taking 30 full HD photographs per second. I'm not kidding. Huge range of mounting options, much better audio, different video recording options, removable battery, GPS tracking which you can view while you watch the video. Fantastic. It's bigger than the DogCam Bullet, but nowhere near as stupid looking as the Go Pro on your helmet. Also, it looks awesome.
Summary: You get what you pay for.
ContourHD in battle conditions
OK if you missed it elsewhere here is the link to my commute with ContourHD mounted left side of helmet on a 14 mins ride clipped to just under 4 to show the juicier bits. Spot the various transgressions as well? Sorry about the sound but FB wouldn't allow my nice backing track!
+1 for the cheapo epay video specs. I don't use them that much but they seem ok for not a lot of money.
Following a bizarre run-in [1] a week or so ago, I've given in and picked up a Bullet HD Wide. 90 min battery is more than grand for my utility journeys, audio doesn't matter (it can pick up me talking if necessary, but only with the non-waterproof tail-cap) and no problem with crashes (yet!).
Mounted it for the first time on Friday, and within the day it was generating evidence for a report to First Bus...
Robert
[1] Driver, "Why did you hit my car?" - I didn't, I was indicating right and you drove into my hand. Driver, "Why did you need so much space?", etc... Passenger chips in with, "I want to hit you".
Yep, the DogCam Bullet HD Wide was fine for recording commute journeys, and as you say, the audio is largely irrelevant. I suspect I was just unlucky with mine crashing all the time, I've not seen any other reviewers with the same issue. Does yours line up OK? I found mine tended to be slightly off-centre, despite having it dead straight on my helmet.
One thing I forgot to mention about the DogCam Bullet - the velcro strap that you use to attach it to a vented helmet was superb. Never once did it look like it would come off, and the camera fitted in the elastic straps nicely.
This little cam is < £16 , has a metal body and the battery lasts a couple of hours at least. It comes with handlebar and helmet mounts and takes up to 16gb micro SD to give up to 3 hours audio/video recording. The video quality is good enough to show number plates clearly.
http://www.7dayshop.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=777_1&products_id=110355
@mkns - it lines up acceptably, for my purposes I'm not too bothered about being perfectly parallel to the road! Or my head wobbles too much for it to matter...
I've just lined it up with the base of the helmet, and found it to be grand, but my first attempt did have it rotated too far - still got the bus number clearly though!
@Bigjack - the rolling record looks good on this one, that's an obvious improvement for evidence gathering purposes.
Yet I wonder about the resolution - a fast close pass is the worst case scenario for a camera, and on one or two of those even the HD resolution Bulletcam struggled to record the number plate. Of course this could be a function of the optics rather than the resolution...
Robert
"the rolling record looks good on this one, that's an obvious improvement for evidence gathering purposes."
Small downside (according to the video on the link) is that 'changeover' takes 2 seconds (every 5 minutes) which might just be crucial!
I can give +1 for the Dogcam BulletHD wide, which I bought for the purpose of a recent ski holiday. It's light enough that I forgot it was attached to the strap of my goggles, and it has since happily attached to my bike helmet. It's very low profile and not disimilar in appearance to several led lights. Multiple mounting grips and strap options make it very easy to attach to almost anything - and it has the usual camera-screw-mount thread at the back. No vibration visible on any vids so far.
The audio is ok with the non-waterproof cap and the rain hasn't bothered it so far. It has also survived being sprayed with champagne and beer (dont ask), and several high-speed skiing wipeouts. In bright light the picture is very clear, but it's a small lens, so come dusk, it's not much use for numberplates. And 90 mins is your lot before you need a recharge (<1hr). As mkns says above, you get what you pay for. At the price, it's been great.
NB, I keep many GBs of MP3s on the memory card so it doubles as a portable music collection while it charges from usb :-)
How come your camera got sprayed with champagne and beer?
"...a fast close pass is the worst case scenario for a camera, and on one or two of those even the HD resolution Bulletcam struggled to record the number plate..."
I haven't had time to test the Contour Roam in anything other than 720p mode in daylight mounted to the handlebars but it is capable of catching the numberplate of something speeding past very quickly (and not particularly close), though this was only apparent on the pre-YouTube-upload edited rendering and on the paused original, nor on stills exported from the editor, nor on the YouTube-processed version.
I've finally got all my Muvi stuff together to send back tomorrow for a refnud. Interested to see the Contour experiences versus the Muvi - also considering the basic GoPro which isn't too much more.
It's immediately visibly sharper in the corners, but is immediately visibly more proper-lens-equipped. I should be able to get some cobble-street rattle-tests up by the end of the day, though I'm in severe need of a clearout and fresh reinstall to help my ageing laptop cope with video editing without having to go away for half an hour to let it re-cache the clip after applying tiny changes.
Even if the GoPro quality is as good as the Contour, its waterproofness and more flexible mounting options should make it a better buy than the GoPro. IMHO.
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