Bicycle video cameras

[rcannon100]

Had a Contour. It ultimately gave out and the company went bonk. Then bought a Panasonic on the recommendation of a friend and it was cheap. It never worked.

If the budget ever permits, I would be interested in buying again. And I would likely buy a GoPro. My dislikes are (a) price and (b) form factor. But my likes are, if you are going to buy a biking camera ~ buy a good one that you can play with.

You say that this is Washington, the haven for data driven policy – and you want solid research proving my point: Well sir, here is your proof of what makes the GoPro magnificent:

[video=youtube_share;UowkIRSDHfs]http://youtu.be/UowkIRSDHfs[/video]

I am inclined to get a GoPro for The Kid as a toy to play with during his Goof Off year.

[Phatboing]

My thought is that you’ve convinced yourself you want a GoPro Hero3+ Black edition and want the internet to validate that decision for you

Alternatively, depending on which of those requirements are essential, the Contour+2 seems to meet some of them: http://store.contour.com/collections/cameras/products/contour-2

Alternatively alternatively, why not get separate cameras for bike and business promotion? The things that make for a good bike camera do not necessarily make for a “producing promotional videos” camera. For example, except for the GoPros, I don’t know of any good bike cameras that have on-device previews (which is fine for biking, because that keeps the camera small).

[rcannon100]

I did not realize that Contour was back in business. Here is a good article that contrasts the GoPro to the Contour.

http://thefusejoplin.com/2014/08/gopro-hd-hero2-contour-supreme-cam-fight-comparison/

So, the winner of this battle is the GoPro HD Hero2

I will say, the one thing I really liked about the Contour was the form factor. It fit very well on my handlebars and was low fuss. The GoPro looks like a weird appendage where the Contour looks like well another headlamp or whatever.

Just depends on what your priorities are

* If you want form factor, Contour
* If you want high quality video, GoPro

[americancyclo]

I’ll add to this conversation that although I went the cheap monoprice route, I kinda wish I had splurged on the gopro. maybe some day.

[Phatboing]

Oh, this too. It doesn’t have a screen to preview stuff, but looks pretty cromulent.

[Vicegrip]

How about the garmin Virb? I don’t have any direct experience with it but it looks like just the thing for a bike.

[Subby]

Here is my go pro hero (silver) set up with the K Edge mount. It is pretty unobtrusive. I bought some aftermarket replacement batteries ($15 on amazon) so I always have a charged battery. I bought a 32GB SD card but after about a day you have to delete/offload all the video to make room. Not a huge deal as the camera can connect wirelessly to your smartphone and you can just delete the files without having to touch the camera. The editing software is good enough for what I do and has improved a ton over the past year.

[IMG]http://bikearlingtonforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=6553&stc=1[/IMG]

[Dickie]

@Phatboing 93828 wrote:

My thought is that you’ve convinced yourself you want a GoPro Hero3+ Black edition and want the internet to validate that decision for you

Alternatively alternatively, why not get separate cameras for bike and business promotion? The things that make for a good bike camera do not necessarily make for a “producing promotional videos” camera. For example, except for the GoPros, I don’t know of any good bike cameras that have on-device previews (which is fine for biking, because that keeps the camera small).

Actually, I’m not totally convinced… cost and form factor are preventing me from pulling the trigger until I’m sure they’re isn’t an alternative. As for buying two…. not going to happen. If you read between the lines, buying it for work and using it as such allows my company to cover part of the cost, thus I can also use it on the bike. Actually, the idea for a bike camera came first, it wasn’t until talking to Bobco that I realized other possibilities.

@Vicegrip 93833 wrote:

How about the garmin Virb? I don’t have any direct experience with it but it looks like just the thing for a bike.

The Virb is nice but I assumed you’re paying for +ant connectivity and the ability to overlay your videos with all your data…. that isn’t something I’m interested in… that said I should still check out the camera quality. Thanks!

[hozn]

The Garmin Virb and the Shimano Action Cam both look great — the former for its ability to be controlled by my Garmin GPS (Edge 510) and the latter due to its super compact size. I would want them mounted with out-front mounts on the road bike (K-Edge or similar, ideally under the GPS). The GoPro doesn’t look too bad in this setup, but the Shimano is very attractively tiny. It’s hard to think of anything that looks dorkier than a helmet mounted GoPro. OTOH, the GoPro chest mounts make for some decent bike videos and probably work better off-road than bar mounts (due to constantly twitching steering, not stability/security of unit).

Does anyone know which editing suite allows for combining in the TCX/GPX tracks to overlay speed, cadence, etc. I haven’t investigated this at all, but that would definitely be a feature I’d want — and probably my choice in camera could be swayed if it was easier with one [bundled] software suite.

[JimF22003]

warning, this is a useless post…

but I do have the Garmin Virb. I have had it since May and have only used it about three times. It seems to work fine. I have the Garmin 810 app to control it but that doesn’t seem to accomplish very much unless you’re using a helmet or backwards-facing mount where you can’t see the (very) mini-screen on the top of the camera. With the handle-bar mount the video is pretty shaky on rough, or even chip-sealed roads. I should probably try the helmet mount that I bought

As I knew in advance I’m the type to make some recordings and then never get around to editing them down. I’m going to try to capture a few more rides this fall so I’ll have stuff to watch on the trainer this winter. I’m planning to capture some of the Civil War Century this weekend.

[Phatboing]

@Dickie 93838 wrote:

Actually, I’m not totally convinced… cost and form factor are preventing me from pulling the trigger until I’m sure they’re isn’t an alternative.

And what excellent reasons they are. I think that for the 300 budget, both the Contour+2 and Shimano Action Cam look good. I hadn’t realized this earlier, but both seem to have live previews over wifi, which is quite dandy and almost making me want them.

[Supermau]

I can’t really speak for other brands but I’ve been using GoPro cameras for a long time and I think they’re excellent. Here’s a vid of my commute about a month ago. God bless you if you have the patience to watch it though. I had to compress 75 minutes down to about 13.

http://vimeo.com/101089637

Here’s another using the chest mount, a little more watchable.

http://vimeo.com/100324868

[bluerider]

I use the GoPro White Edition on a K-Edge Pro mount. I am very happy with it. It’s very reliable and lots of memory with a 64GB card. I love the K-Edge mount. In my opinion, it the only way to go. I have two additional 3rd part batteries at I just swap out on longer rides.

I also like the time lapse photo setting. I have it take a picture every 30 seconds. Sometimes you get really cool photos. The White Edition only takes 5MP still photos so if this is a priority, go with the Silver or Black. They will take better pictures. For video, the White does everything I need.

Shot at 30fps in 1080p

[vvill]

@hozn 93840 wrote:

Does anyone know which editing suite allows for combining in the TCX/GPX tracks to overlay speed, cadence, etc. I haven’t investigated this at all, but that would definitely be a feature I’d want — and probably my choice in camera could be swayed if it was easier with one [bundled] software suite.

A friend of mine uses http://www.dashware.net/ I think with his GoPro

Some cool footage.

Edit: I have a Contour but rarely use it. The form factor/light weight is about the only really good thing about it (other than the price). If I was to buy a new one today I’d look at Go Pro, Garmin and Shimano.

[americancyclo]

@Supermau 93849 wrote:

I can’t really speak for other brands but I’ve been using GoPro cameras for a long time and I think they’re excellent. Here’s a vid of my commute about a month ago. God bless you if you have the patience to watch it though. I had to compress 75 minutes down to about 13.

http://vimeo.com/101089637

Here’s another using the chest mount, a little more watchable.

http://vimeo.com/100324868

that’s a bit of a circuitous route to get to Fed Center SW!

[Author]

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