Cameras - Fly 12 - One to avoid IMO
kingrollo
Posts: 3,198
This is so nearly a great camera. After an age of tinkering and many beeps I recorded a 2 hour ride and the footage quality was fantastic - But there the good news ends.
IMO this product is fundamentally flawed - not so much by the device itself but by the the decision to control and configure the device almost 100% from the app. If they had included some basic buttons on the device itself (Record, Save, Light) then in my opinion this would be the camera of choice for cyclists - No question.
I struggled to get the app to connect to the phone almost straight way - a wifi reset got me on the thing at last. Then it does a weird thing where it replaces your existing wifi with its own which had my phone barking at me that it had no internet connection
I then got a mixture of connecting, can't connect, connected messages - Wading through these I decided to try the alarm feature....brilliant it worked.....well it did once ! - looking a the app in then showed the alarm was disarmed - imagine my surprise when I picked the device up - and bang, off went the alarm !
Staying with the alarm the more I think about it - the more useless it is. It would only appear to work if you are in range with the app on your phone....youre bike (IMO) is most likley to get nicked when you are a distance away from it. In addition the sound affects go through the phone - not the light !!!!
Staying with the app the recording, stop recording icon appears vague from what I could gather this button only works if you start recording from the app - ie you just switch your fly on - this doesn't tell you if its recording or not - it only does that if start recording from the app (and given the fly is supposed to record as soon as its on why would you do that?)
It comes with an array of modes for the light - and you can turn these on or off from the app.......supposedly ! I disabled them all bar 2 - yet still seemed to have loads of options when I turned the fly on.
The wifi button remained a mystery to me - you are supposed to be able to press it and it saves that footage from being over written - it also resets Bluetooth - I was never quite sure how it made the distinction between the two functions...
A lot of complaints about the device is that you are never sure if it is recording or not, especially if use under bar mounting. I kept mine on top of the bars so I could see the green light flash and know it was recording - it flashed away happily for 3 hours on yesterdays ride - imagine my disappointment then when i plugged the fly into my pc to see i had recorded absolutely nothing.
Don't even get me started on reviewing the footage on the phone - I got it to work precisely once !
Cycliq support wanted to to go into config.txt files and do all manner of things via the app - a painful process which i really don't think i should be doing on a £200 supposedly market ready device.
The whole thing reminds me of those £99 hi fi's in the 80's - turntable, cassette, radio all in one - what could possibly go wrong - well it never all worked at the same time and get worse as time went on !
a Real shame - I notice that cycliq have released a new version of the fly12 - But I have not heard of any revisions for the app - where much work is quite clearly needed or more sensibly have some hardware controls on the device.
its going back for a refund.
IMO this product is fundamentally flawed - not so much by the device itself but by the the decision to control and configure the device almost 100% from the app. If they had included some basic buttons on the device itself (Record, Save, Light) then in my opinion this would be the camera of choice for cyclists - No question.
I struggled to get the app to connect to the phone almost straight way - a wifi reset got me on the thing at last. Then it does a weird thing where it replaces your existing wifi with its own which had my phone barking at me that it had no internet connection
I then got a mixture of connecting, can't connect, connected messages - Wading through these I decided to try the alarm feature....brilliant it worked.....well it did once ! - looking a the app in then showed the alarm was disarmed - imagine my surprise when I picked the device up - and bang, off went the alarm !
Staying with the alarm the more I think about it - the more useless it is. It would only appear to work if you are in range with the app on your phone....youre bike (IMO) is most likley to get nicked when you are a distance away from it. In addition the sound affects go through the phone - not the light !!!!
Staying with the app the recording, stop recording icon appears vague from what I could gather this button only works if you start recording from the app - ie you just switch your fly on - this doesn't tell you if its recording or not - it only does that if start recording from the app (and given the fly is supposed to record as soon as its on why would you do that?)
It comes with an array of modes for the light - and you can turn these on or off from the app.......supposedly ! I disabled them all bar 2 - yet still seemed to have loads of options when I turned the fly on.
The wifi button remained a mystery to me - you are supposed to be able to press it and it saves that footage from being over written - it also resets Bluetooth - I was never quite sure how it made the distinction between the two functions...
A lot of complaints about the device is that you are never sure if it is recording or not, especially if use under bar mounting. I kept mine on top of the bars so I could see the green light flash and know it was recording - it flashed away happily for 3 hours on yesterdays ride - imagine my disappointment then when i plugged the fly into my pc to see i had recorded absolutely nothing.
Don't even get me started on reviewing the footage on the phone - I got it to work precisely once !
Cycliq support wanted to to go into config.txt files and do all manner of things via the app - a painful process which i really don't think i should be doing on a £200 supposedly market ready device.
The whole thing reminds me of those £99 hi fi's in the 80's - turntable, cassette, radio all in one - what could possibly go wrong - well it never all worked at the same time and get worse as time went on !
a Real shame - I notice that cycliq have released a new version of the fly12 - But I have not heard of any revisions for the app - where much work is quite clearly needed or more sensibly have some hardware controls on the device.
its going back for a refund.
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Comments
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I had no end of problems with my first one. After chatting with support for a few weeks they eventually sent me a new one. I was lucky enough to get mine for free, but if I'd paid full price for mine I'd be very disappointed with the app. Nice idea in theory, but in my experience it just doesn't work properly.0
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I never quite understood the point of the Fly 12. I can buy a very good camera and light individually at the same price and cheaper and not need to worry about the possibility of if I break one I break both. I have a Garmin Virb. Push switch forward - it records. Simple. Lights I push a button its on, I push again it cycles through brightness. Hold button - its off. Simple. Rear light - If I glance back I can see it illuminating the rear of the bike and the road so I know its on. If I am still not sure I can reach behind my saddle and it lights up my hand. Its right there. Its not out of arms reach. So quite what is the point of over complicated bit of kit for 2 of the most basic simple devices you place on your bike?0
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Trivial poursuivant wrote:I never quite understood the point of the Fly 12. I can buy a very good camera and light individually at the same price and cheaper and not need to worry about the possibility of if I break one I break both. I have a Garmin Virb. Push switch forward - it records. Simple. Lights I push a button its on, I push again it cycles through brightness. Hold button - its off. Simple. Rear light - If I glance back I can see it illuminating the rear of the bike and the road so I know its on. If I am still not sure I can reach behind my saddle and it lights up my hand. Its right there. Its not out of arms reach. So quite what is the point of over complicated bit of kit for 2 of the most basic simple devices you place on your bike?
10 hour battery.
I tend to do longer weekend rides and club runs - so need that run time. You could argue that cameras are only necessary for commuting - But who can predict when accidents happen.0 -
kingrollo wrote:Trivial poursuivant wrote:I never quite understood the point of the Fly 12. I can buy a very good camera and light individually at the same price and cheaper and not need to worry about the possibility of if I break one I break both. I have a Garmin Virb. Push switch forward - it records. Simple. Lights I push a button its on, I push again it cycles through brightness. Hold button - its off. Simple. Rear light - If I glance back I can see it illuminating the rear of the bike and the road so I know its on. If I am still not sure I can reach behind my saddle and it lights up my hand. Its right there. Its not out of arms reach. So quite what is the point of over complicated bit of kit for 2 of the most basic simple devices you place on your bike?
10 hour battery.
I tend to do longer weekend rides and club runs - so need that run time. You could argue that cameras are only necessary for commuting - But who can predict when accidents happen.
I get 4 hours out of my Virb and I have a second battery I swap out if needed. I don't think I have had to ride and record 10 hours of riding .0 -
Trivial poursuivant wrote:kingrollo wrote:Trivial poursuivant wrote:I never quite understood the point of the Fly 12. I can buy a very good camera and light individually at the same price and cheaper and not need to worry about the possibility of if I break one I break both. I have a Garmin Virb. Push switch forward - it records. Simple. Lights I push a button its on, I push again it cycles through brightness. Hold button - its off. Simple. Rear light - If I glance back I can see it illuminating the rear of the bike and the road so I know its on. If I am still not sure I can reach behind my saddle and it lights up my hand. Its right there. Its not out of arms reach. So quite what is the point of over complicated bit of kit for 2 of the most basic simple devices you place on your bike?
10 hour battery.
I tend to do longer weekend rides and club runs - so need that run time. You could argue that cameras are only necessary for commuting - But who can predict when accidents happen.
I get 4 hours out of my Virb and I have a second battery I swap out if needed. I don't think I have had to ride and record 10 hours of riding .
True - but the Fly is now cheaper than the virb - and comes with a SD card - and a mounting bracket - its ready to go. Its a shame the reliability isn't there (and early reports are no change in the new fly 12)
I know I wouldn't bother swapping a battery out.
There is one (tom tom i think) where you can record above a certain sped, hr, or when you hit certain locations - which be interesting - but again its more expensive than fly and doesn't come with sd cards
Most actions cams don't see long battery life as a selling point (waterproof seems the big thing) So I'm guessing unless cycliq up there game in the quality control dept we are stuck with 3/4 hours battery life on a generic action cam.
Perhaps we could have a dynamo powered cycling camera in future !0 -
kingrollo wrote:Trivial poursuivant wrote:kingrollo wrote:Trivial poursuivant wrote:I never quite understood the point of the Fly 12. I can buy a very good camera and light individually at the same price and cheaper and not need to worry about the possibility of if I break one I break both. I have a Garmin Virb. Push switch forward - it records. Simple. Lights I push a button its on, I push again it cycles through brightness. Hold button - its off. Simple. Rear light - If I glance back I can see it illuminating the rear of the bike and the road so I know its on. If I am still not sure I can reach behind my saddle and it lights up my hand. Its right there. Its not out of arms reach. So quite what is the point of over complicated bit of kit for 2 of the most basic simple devices you place on your bike?
10 hour battery.
I tend to do longer weekend rides and club runs - so need that run time. You could argue that cameras are only necessary for commuting - But who can predict when accidents happen.
I get 4 hours out of my Virb and I have a second battery I swap out if needed. I don't think I have had to ride and record 10 hours of riding .
True - but the Fly is now cheaper than the virb - and comes with a SD card - and a mounting bracket - its ready to go. Its a shame the reliability isn't there (and early reports are no change in the new fly 12)
I know I wouldn't bother swapping a battery out.
Isn’t that the most important part? Especially if you’re going to rely on it as your lights too.0 -
Trivial poursuivant wrote:kingrollo wrote:Trivial poursuivant wrote:kingrollo wrote:Trivial poursuivant wrote:I never quite understood the point of the Fly 12. I can buy a very good camera and light individually at the same price and cheaper and not need to worry about the possibility of if I break one I break both. I have a Garmin Virb. Push switch forward - it records. Simple. Lights I push a button its on, I push again it cycles through brightness. Hold button - its off. Simple. Rear light - If I glance back I can see it illuminating the rear of the bike and the road so I know its on. If I am still not sure I can reach behind my saddle and it lights up my hand. Its right there. Its not out of arms reach. So quite what is the point of over complicated bit of kit for 2 of the most basic simple devices you place on your bike?
10 hour battery.
I tend to do longer weekend rides and club runs - so need that run time. You could argue that cameras are only necessary for commuting - But who can predict when accidents happen.
I get 4 hours out of my Virb and I have a second battery I swap out if needed. I don't think I have had to ride and record 10 hours of riding .
True - but the Fly is now cheaper than the virb - and comes with a SD card - and a mounting bracket - its ready to go. Its a shame the reliability isn't there (and early reports are no change in the new fly 12)
I know I wouldn't bother swapping a battery out.
Isn’t that the most important part? Especially if you’re going to rely on it as your lights too.
Yes I either have a unreliable camera or one I know will switch off after 3/4 hours.....!!!!!0 -
Trivial poursuivant wrote:I have a Garmin Virb. Push switch forward - it records. Simple. Lights I push a button its on, I push again it cycles through brightness. Hold button - its off. Simple.
I have two Virbs. This is one reason. The 2+ hour battery life is the other.They use their cars as shopping baskets; they use their cars as overcoats.0 -
The Cyclist of Catan wrote:Trivial poursuivant wrote:I have a Garmin Virb. Push switch forward - it records. Simple. Lights I push a button its on, I push again it cycles through brightness. Hold button - its off. Simple.
I have two Virbs. This is one reason. The 2+ hour battery life is the other.
And you can have spare batteries.0
