Helmet Cam Decisions! Stealth 2 v VIRB

jefflad

I'm just about recovered from injury (tibial plateau fracture) and it's time to get back out on the bike.

My injury happened on my commute to work when I was wiped out by a car. I've been pretty lucky in terms of the driver staying with me and accepting liability both with the police and insurance companies but I can't remember much about the accident prior to me coming to an abrupt halt on tarmac via his bonnet and windscreen!

As such I've decided to invest in an action cam, I've looked at numerous ones but think the 2 cameras I'm looking at will suffice and the price appears great on either product of around £70-ish.

The 2 cams are the Drift Stealth 2 and Garmin VIRB both supplied by Sportpursuit. Essentially I prefer the bullet shaped camera and wanted 1080p albeit these only do 30fps but for general cycling surely this will do? Both also offer decent battery/recording length of a stated 3hrs. The VIRB is waterproof which scores a big point whereas the Stealth is only water resistant BUT I can buy a waterproof case.

I'm thinking helmet mounted rather than handlebar mounted (I did think one front facing and the other rear but thought this would be overkill) as this will give me a more varied view of (a) what I'm looking at and (b) an ability to see what comes from behind as I glance at passing traffic. My big hope is that, if I'm hit by something I'll hopefully catch some sight of it on camera as I'll no doubt be drawn to look at it... well that's what I'm hoping :oops:

So to finish, both cameras seem similar but has anyone any experience with either they can share, I'd be interested to hear what night recording is like too?

I should add I'm a Garmin fan and like the idea of overlaying my cycling data on the video which I believe is possible with the VIRB but I also like the Stealth's weight as will be placed on my lid and the ability to get the video to record a straight picture and any angle of fixing, I don't think the VIRB offers this.

thanks in advance!!

luv2ride

Sorry to hear about your accident. I was also tempted by these HD action cameras - at £75 it almost seemed rude not to give one a go. I'd pretty much decided on the Drift Stealth 2, but I gather that the enclosed battery is not replaceable meaning when the battery goes duff you'd have to bin the whole camera. This put me off a little. Not sure whether the same is true for the Garmin Virb

jefflad

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19771678#p19771678]Luv2ride[/url] wrote:

Sorry to hear about your accident. I was also tempted by these HD action cameras - at £75 it almost seemed rude not to give one a go. I'd pretty much decided on the Drift Stealth 2, but I gather that the enclosed battery is not replaceable meaning when the battery goes duff you'd have to bin the whole camera. This put me off a little. Not sure whether the same is true for the Garmin Virb

Hmmmm good point... I'll look into that for the VIRB, I guess it's the same with my edge device though too but yes worth some serious thought.

monkeyhumanoid

I don't have experience of these but have a slighty more expensive Cycliq Fly6 rear light / camera which is excellent, in the event of an accident ( bike on it's side for several seconds) the clip is saved. Amazing what you see on their website https://cycliq.com . From Kickstarter I have ordered the Fly12 front one which should arrive soon.

One place to chek is Techmoan, I found his reviews really good and unbiased when I was buying a dash cam. Here is his review of the Drift Stealth 2:

http://www.techmoan.com/blog/2015/5/24/drift-stealth-2-smaller-is-better.html

andy9964

I've just bought a Virb, it might be a bit heavy for helmet mounting, so for now I've made a bar mount from an Edge "out front mount", the flat sticky Virb mount and a screw
Having said that. I'm working on making a custom helmet mount to make it sit flush on the top of the helmet instead of the higher Garmin mounts
If you get one and plan on doing the overlay thing, don't set it up in PAL format. You'll only get 25fps in 1080p, resulting in sync issues with the data
https://forums.garmin.com/archive/index.php/t-88284.html

Also, you don't need a Virb to use the Virb Edit software, it's a free download. Search Youtube for examples of GoPros etc using it

redvee

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19771678#p19771678]Luv2ride[/url] wrote:

This put me off a little. Not sure whether the same is true for the Garmin Virb

Both Mk1 & Mk2 Virbs have removable batteries, they can be had for around £20.

StillGoing

Virb is heavy. Whilst it corrects the image when mounted upside down, it doesn't if mounted on its side. If you're just going to want stills of an offending vehicle, you should be able to rotate any photo image using editing software.