Cheap camera for commuting?

mattdanielc

After several near misses I'd like to get a camera for my commute. My commute is half an hour (obviously twice a day).

Any recommendations for a cheap camera? Searching on here finds people with a budget of around £200 etc. But I don't want to pay that much. On amazon you can buy some for £20 / £35 etc. They'll be ok won't they?

Anyone got experience of that price point?

I only want the camera in case of the worst scenario. Also hoping it might deter some drivers from cutting me up etc if they spot it.

Thanks

slowbike

A few of us have the Aldi Fly6 clone. I did try for front mount camera too, but it wasn't very useful.

Two things to note
1) mounting has to be solid on the bike (or on your body/lid I guess) - otherwise the image is destroyed by the vibrations.
2) with the daylight dwindling, a camera may be of less use if you cannot make out the numberplate clearly.

and final point ..

what are you intending on doing with the footage? Where I am, there's a pretty good police operation that has a sensible online method of reporting - complete with video link (don't make the video public). In other places, it seems that you have to report from your grave before they'll even look at any evidence - so any action you take with your footage will only serve to wind you up further.
Could it be more beneficial to ignore the close passes and/or change the way you ride? (I'm not excusing the close passes, but if you're a regular commuter you don't want to have to dwell on them)

redvee

There are Hero Sessions on Ebay from time to time that are factory refurbs and come with a years waranty from GoPro that can be had for £100.

Olivier.5590

The cheap Aldi camera works fine, I tried to use one to do airsoft videos, without any real satisfactory result due to me being a cheapskate and taking something that wasn't appropriate.
But it'll be just fine for bicycle use; it didn't give satisfactory results when attached to my jacket, but it is much better once fastened to something more stable.

andyh01

I got knocked off once on the commuter the driver tried denying it after the event and the witness was being hesitant in giving statement as they didn't want get into trouble (they flashed driver out on opposite side of rd) anyway eventually all got sorted. Following this I happened to be gifted a GoPro which I regiously set running for about 6 months or so now I'm not too sure where it is.
It just becomes another chore remembering to charge it, pressing record and either download videos somewhere or record over footage.
All for that one unlucky misfortune, which rarely happens. Given my above experience I don't now really bother and certainly something over £100 is overkill imo
I wouldn't mind one of those Aldi fly things depending on cost with rear light too.i did have some one drive in to me, deliberately hitting my rear wheel that was not witnessed (go pro on front bike wouldn't have captured it anyway) but the followed up assult (shoulder barge following confrontation) was witnessed by third party. So you'd need a front and back one or a 365 degree one

awavey

I get what AndyH01 is saying, but for me its about an insurance policy, if the worst case scenario happens theres a decent chance Ive got something the police could use to prosecute with, and Ive reported several close dangerous passes that theyve dealt with, I dont report everything as I think Id just go mad if I did, but without a camera or independent witnesses, the driver can deny everything and you are left I would certainly feel more aggrieved by than had the camera not quite caught it.

but fwiw I think you pay in the camera stakes for the quality of image you get, I had £100 Go Pro, it was fine on sunny days, it was next to useless on a night commute or in low light conditions for number plate recognition, so I now use a Cycliq Fly instead, which for double the price gives you better battery, better user interface, its more suited to commuting than simply being an action cam video, but the mounts are useless for it. what a £20-30 camera gets you I wouldnt like to speculate, for that price it might be worth just giving it a go and seeing, but dont expect much would be my advice

and drivers dont spot cameras at all on bikes, certainly in my neck of the woods its never seeped into their conciousness you might be videoing them at all, which is why they still try to drive into you, drive alongside you and swear and generally seem to think they are engaged in some kind of GTA video game, so youd be better off spending your money on one of those "Polite" hi viz vests, and I bet theyd still not really read it or absorb the information