What Helmet Cam

Mark Elvin
Mark Elvin Posts: 997
edited February 2013 in Commuting chat
Due to nearly being collected by a bus twice this week I'm looking at getting a helmet cam, in case I do actually get collected.

Can anybody recommend a reasonable quality one please?
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Comments

  • Mikey41
    Mikey41 Posts: 690
    Most people will go for either the GoPro or Contour cameras. Both are HD quality and have long battery life, the Contour starts at a cheaper price.
    Giant Defy 2 (2012)
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  • redvee
    redvee Posts: 11,922
    ContourRoam2 for £170 ish, providing the teacher allows you to spend that much or just hide it on a high shelf and she won't see it :lol:
    I've added a signature to prove it is still possible.
  • daddy0
    daddy0 Posts: 686
    I got a 808#11 from China via Ebay - cost £23. Already had a micro SD card for it, but you might need to buy one - you can get 32gb ones for £15 now. I mount it to my helmet with gaffa tape. It records at 720p, quality is decent enough to read number plates and its OK in low light conditions. The mic picks up the wind, but its not as bad as other much more expensive cameras. The only real downsides are the 1hr battery life - you'd need to charge it for every journey, or get a USB battery, or take it to bits and replace the internal battery. Also, you need to remember to clear the storage yourself, but a 32GB card should be good for a weeks commutes I'd guess.

    Heres a vid with some demos and explanation of how it works.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj26JjSiazQ
    https://cyclejames.wordpress.com/
  • Twostage
    Twostage Posts: 987
    Daddy0 wrote:
    I got a 808#11 from China via Ebay - cost £23. Already had a micro SD card for it, but you might need to buy one - you can get 32gb ones for £15 now. I mount it to my helmet with gaffa tape. It records at 720p, quality is decent enough to read number plates and its OK in low light conditions. The mic picks up the wind, but its not as bad as other much more expensive cameras. The only real downsides are the 1hr battery life - you'd need to charge it for every journey, or get a USB battery, or take it to bits and replace the internal battery. Also, you need to remember to clear the storage yourself, but a 32GB card should be good for a weeks commutes I'd guess.

    Heres a vid with some demos and explanation of how it works.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj26JjSiazQ
    I think the guts of this is the same as a small cam I bought last year. If so you can extend the battery life with a bit of DIY. You build a battery pack which you can put in your pocket and connect it to th USB port.
  • daddy0
    daddy0 Posts: 686
    Yeah, the battery in mine is useless. After writing my last post I went and recorded a ride and only got 25 minutes out of it after a full charge. Time to sort the battery out. Will probably do something like this:
    http://samsmods.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/808-camera-11-external-battery-mod.html

    I had another look at the 808 cam forums and seems that the 808#18 is the one to get now, but its pretty much the same as the #11 with some extra features.

    Another drawback to these cameras is that the file system is FAT32 - so the maximum file size will be 4GB - probably about an hour and a half of continuous filming even if you sort out a larger capacity battery. Of course you can just hit record again when it stops, but you have to remember to do that.

    But the good points for me far outweigh the bad points: it's very small, very light and very cheap.
    https://cyclejames.wordpress.com/
  • bails87
    bails87 Posts: 12,998
    I had a couple of cheap ones and they were naff. Now got a contour and it's much better.
    MTB/CX

    "As I said last time, it won't happen again."
  • mudcow007
    mudcow007 Posts: 3,861
    i use one of them 808 cameras (stripped down) on my radio controlled plane

    mine is a #11 version its great for the price an weighs nothing, i have replaced the lipo with a 1200mh battery which would last waaaaaay longer than the sd card
    Keeping it classy since '83
  • daddy0
    daddy0 Posts: 686
    mudcow007 wrote:
    i use one of them 808 cameras (stripped down) on my radio controlled plane

    mine is a #11 version its great for the price an weighs nothing, i have replaced the lipo with a 1200mh battery which would last waaaaaay longer than the sd card

    MC - what battery did you use? I'm having a hard time finding something suitable for mine.

    Sorry for hijacking the thread!
    https://cyclejames.wordpress.com/
  • mudcow007
    mudcow007 Posts: 3,861
    Yo

    it was a school boy error its 1000mh

    its a "blade" lipo clickage

    with a bit of jiggery-pokery to connect it to the charger
    Keeping it classy since '83
  • kiwimatt
    kiwimatt Posts: 208
    Here's a pic of my setup. #11 in a tic tac box with a 0.67X wide angle lens hot glued into the front. Cell is a single 18650 (c.2300maH) ripped out of an old laptop pack - hooked in with a mini connector to camera protection circuit board and then plasti dipped for waterproofing. Whole thing weighs about 75g. I just use the 80min firmware which covers my commute but could easily reflash the continous recording version and do about 10 hrs I think :)
  • Mark Elvin
    Mark Elvin Posts: 997
    I'm such a doosh sometimes.

    I've just found a box with a couple of MD80's in that I bought a couple of years back, along with some mounts which redvee gave me,

    Lets see what I can 'lash up'
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