GoPro or Drift or..........?

[pheasant56]

I bought a GoPro battery eliminator off eBay and it is wired into the bike so there is no need for a battery.

Something like this one
Gopro Waterproof USB Battery Eliminator for hero 4 & 3+ UK Supplier | eBay

I can leave the camera turned of all day and only press when I want to take a video or photo.

[maria41]

I went through 2 contour HD cameras… the 1st one I exchanged, as it never worked, despite uploading new software and doing lots of stuff to it with help of their "help desk". The second one worked for about 2 minutes before not recording ever again. Massive waste of money !

I bought few months ago a Drift HD. I liked the fact it has a remote recording button. I can set the camera as Photo or Filming mode. I can then action the camera, while riding, with the remote button, to record or take pictures. Very cool.

My only initial confusion was that the button does no show if it is working, and the start and end buttons are not obvious. One has a round circle, the other a square. I keep forgetting which is which!
Also to switch from photo mode to film mode you need to take out the camera and go through the tiny screen menu. This cannot be done remotely. Shame. It would be a useful function.

I bought the camera specifically for taking pictures while on the go. It avoids the usual faff around of finding a safe place to stop, trying to find my camera in my tank bag or backpack, removing gloves and helmet etc… by the time we stop, usually we are too far from the spot, or whatever wild life I saw is long gone….

Both pictures and filming are fine, for what I need.

I had a crash recently while riding off-road. I went flying from a higher muddy ridge into the other side of the trail. I landed head and shoulder first into a pile of bricks under deep mud. My helmet was badly scratched, my shoulder hurt and the support for the camera, glued to the side of my helmet, was smashed. However, the camera, apart from some scratches on the plastic side, is still in good working order. Very impressed. It will be tested further this summer across northern Russia and the Stans. But so far so good!

[Redboots]

Looking around, I found this: The Nextbase RIDE is the world’s first dash cam for motorbikes.
A bit pricey, but comes with hard-wiring kit. 4 hours on a 32 gig card.

[greenmanalishi]

Thanks for all the advice folks. It appears (although I did not know it) that what I want is a motorcycle dash cam. Thanks to Redboots for the info on nextbase ride. I have now managed to read reviews on this item and something called an INNOVV K1 Innovv motorcycle camera | motorcycel recordign system | car dashcam if I can find a European dealer or distributor I may give this a go as it seems to tick all the boxes for me.

Once again thanks for all the advice.

GM

[Redboots]

Originally Posted by greenmanalishi

...if I can find a European dealer or distributor I may give this a go as it seems to tick all the boxes for me.

It says they ship to the UK - 7-21 days.

Good find, by the way

[maria41]

Hi again,
Old thread so revisiting.


I am looking (again!) for a helmet cam! Doh!
There are quite a lot of cheap Chinese stuff online. Anyone tried those?


I used my Drift Ghost cam for photos while in my last trip in central Asia and Russia. Photo quality was not great and I did not like the "fish eye" look. Oh and the remote button disintegrated within a nanosecond. Also the battery life is under 2 hours. So overall not inspiring.


I am now off to southern Africa for a 4 month trip. I would like to take photos on the go (mainly - not interested in filming!).


So any suggestion for reasonably priced camera I could fit to my helmet or bike?


I should I bite the bullet and get a GoPro?

[AnTyx]

My usual advice is: somebody else's barely-used GoPro that they bought at full retail and have not taken out of the desk drawer in six months.

Statistically you are very likely to know somebody like that.

I have to say that with the Hero 6 they have finally released a model that is potentially worth the upgrade from my Hero 3 - it's natively waterproof and comes with an LCD on the back, for 429 euros plus some bonus mounts and stuff - but honestly, any fairly recent model you can get for cheap will work fine.

The battery life problem is solved by having an external powerbank to run the thing off of - in your jacket pocket, for example. Incompatible with true rain-proofing unless you faff about with customizing the housing, though.

[Big_Dave]

GoPro, way overpriced. Plenty of alternatives these days. Have a look at

Akaso v50

YI 4K+ Sports and Action Camera

Campark ACT74 Action Camera

[Hates_]

The Yi 4K+ definitely seems like the way to go instead of the GoPro these days.

[Chelmi_ouest_coast]

A few months ago I was also looking for a cam action and I came across this test video of the Sony FDR-X3000 by crossmen in the USA.

https://youtu.be/2fert4BM8ZU

I was convinced and I took this camera, I'm not disappointed, the optical stabilisation is great (B.O.S.S) here is a two personal video made in Brittany and during the last spring in Greece, small roads and trail, camera placed on a support type RAM. While the price is high but the quality is very good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtcTl0em4q8
&
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXBZpybrmck

Ciao,

[backofbeyond]

I've been using a couple of GoPros and a couple of Chinese copies for the last three or four years now and tbh they're all a pain in the posterior to use on a bike. There's loads of mounts and clamps available so you can put them most places but using them is a different matter.

The number of modes and options available plus the awkward controls for swapping between them make them jacks of all trades but masters of none. The dedicated remotes for the GoPros (hanging on a lanyard around my neck) are probably the best control option but even those are often hit or miss while you're riding.

The image files from the GoPros are significantly better than those from the Chines cameras (although I don't have a Yi) but compared with what I get from my Nikons they're all pretty poor and need a lot of post processing. That's not too bad with stills but takes for ever with video files. That's the main reason I film in HD rather than 4K. As most of what I shoot on the road is either for me only or, at most, a small group of fellow, err ... 'enthusiasts' HD has been good enough.

4K video capability does seem to be a big marketing plus but how many people here film in 4K routinely from action cams without a 'professional' reason to do so? Pulling a (largish) still out of a video sequence is probably the only reason I'd currently use it but even with HD you can get usable images. This came out of an HD GoPro file and is currently used in a book (although smaller than seen below):




AnTyx's advice about buying someone else's vanity purchase secondhand is the way I've gone with the GoPros. I doubt I'll buy any more Chinese stuff unless it's for skiing or something where the damage possibility is quite high.

[AnTyx]

Originally Posted by backofbeyond

The number of modes and options available plus the awkward controls for swapping between them

Not sure if the newer models still do that, but my Hero 3 lets me do a "one-touch" mode where it will automatically turn on and start recording in a given mode, just with one press of the power button. Still finicky to change modes, but it certainly helps - especially when the camera is on my handlebars or mirror stalk, so I can just reach over and start it when I get to an interesting bit of road.

There's one device that could be potentially a better recommendation than a GoPro, and that's the new DJI Osmo Pocket. It's got mechanical (rather than electronic) image stabilization, which could make a huge difference, and it's cheaper than the GoPro Black. The main problem is that it's not natively waterproof - there's a waterproof case, but it looks quite clunky - but it's definitely the first such gadget in many years that I'm considering buying with my own money.

[Tomkat]

Originally Posted by greenmanalishi

Thanks for all the advice folks. It appears (although I did not know it) that what I want is a motorcycle dash cam. Thanks to Redboots for the info on nextbase ride. I have now managed to read reviews on this item and something called an INNOVV K1 Innovv motorcycle camera | motorcycel recordign system | car dashcam if I can find a European dealer or distributor I may give this a go as it seems to tick all the boxes for me.

I know people who have bought these and they report the reliability is very poor, and the customer service worse. One person had the recorder fail after just a week and all the factory were prepared to offer was to sell him a new one. Personally I wouldn't touch them with a bargepole now, they're cheap for a reason.

I am more hopeful about the V-SYS dashcam that I bought (but haven't fitted yet). It's also Chinese but I have heard better things about it from users than the Innovv. You can only buy it from China, unfortunately, but here's the link I used, and it worked fine for me.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/SYS-...673122536.html

[backofbeyond]

I've got a Hero 4 silver and a 5 black, with most of my experience with the 4 silver. As you say it can do one touch start and film but often that's not what I want so I normally have it on photo standby by default.

Changing it by pushing buttons or swiping left (not possible in the case) is a stop the bike operation. You can do it more easily on the GP remote and that's possible on the road if its quiet but even after getting on for 3 years with it changing anything on the front screen still needs me to sit down with a and the instruction book.

Mostly though I've been happy with them and got some good results. The extreme wide angle can give you some interesting results if you pick your subject.