Helmet camera for daily use

Sochi

Sochi

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I am thinking to get myself a helmet camera for the next season.
Not looking for anything super advanced and I can't stand GoPro for it shape and mounting options.

I was thinking Drift Ghost - like the form factor and specs..

Anyone has experience with it? especially in reliability department.
What other options you use and would recommend?

Thanks.

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For daily use, you might want to think about some kind of bike-mounted camera affixed permanently on the motorcycle, either front or front+rear. Have it connected to switched power, so it turns on when you turn the key to the on position. And then have it start recording automatically, writing to an SD card so it over-writes the oldest file, that you way you always have the last x rides saved on the SD.

My buddy had a lipstick camera mounted just under the nose fairing above the front wheel.
 
Sochi said:
I am thinking to get myself a helmet camera for the next season.
Not looking for anything super advanced and I can't stand GoPro for it shape and mounting options.

I was thinking Drift Ghost - like the form factor and specs..

Anyone has experience with it? especially in reliability department.
What other options you use and would recommend?

Thanks.

us.driftinnovation.com

Action Cameras | Drift Innovation

Shop Drift Innovation's full range of action cameras — from the Ghost XL Pro to hands-free wearable cameras X5. Built for adventure, motorsport, and everyday action.
us.driftinnovation.com
Click to expand...
Depends how often you use the cam.
If it's daily use, what lightcycle suggested might be easier on the long run

Otherwise if its weekend warrior style, first of all, wow those drift cams have gone down in price. And 2nd gopro is a golden standard in terms of recording quality but this might be decent. I'd suggest looking at as many reviews as possible

Insta360 has a few option (one x2, one r)
DJI Action 2
Don't know if xiaomi still is in the game but they had some cheaper options
 
X3 looks cool.
I actually have permanently attached dashcam mounted front and back of the motorcycle. it constantly loops like a car dash cam. only thing is I cannot record my dash... shrug🧐
 
awesome, it's one of my winter projects and currently in the information accumulation stage :)
hopefully can get something on sale over xmas and later test it on my winter mb rides.
 
Not sure if mounting cameras on your helmet is the best idea. There was some talk about Schumacher having a mount on his helmet when he crashed and thus caused the severity of the accident to be more severe? Not sure on facts, but if manufacturers recommend not putting stickers on helmets then I would have to say an irregular shaped object might not be a good idea.
 
Fuzzbuster said:
Not sure if mounting cameras on your helmet is the best idea. There was some talk about Schumacher having a mount on his helmet when he crashed and thus caused the severity of the accident to be more severe? Not sure on facts, but if manufacturers recommend not putting stickers on helmets then I would have to say an irregular shaped object might not be a good idea.
Click to expand...

Interesting point, never came across this before - not even stickers? Need to search for that and Schumacher’s crash as well, assuming it was related to his ski accident..
 
Yes the ski accident. When it was mentioned that he had a gopro mount on his helmet apparently gopro sales took a nose dive. Not sure where the truth lies in the story but it makes sense that upon impact it would go through the helmet.
 
Sochi said:
I am thinking to get myself a helmet camera for the next season.
Not looking for anything super advanced and I can't stand GoPro for it shape and mounting options.

I was thinking Drift Ghost - like the form factor and specs..

Anyone has experience with it? especially in reliability department.
What other options you use and would recommend?

Thanks.

us.driftinnovation.com

Action Cameras | Drift Innovation

Shop Drift Innovation's full range of action cameras — from the Ghost XL Pro to hands-free wearable cameras X5. Built for adventure, motorsport, and everyday action.
us.driftinnovation.com
Click to expand...
had a drift ghost x, 5 hrs battery life, no complaints!

currently use a go pro 7 black, only cause i also use it for our trips.
 
Drift Ghost XL does about 8 hours of recording on a single charge, verified. Couple of days worth or riding can fit on one SD card. It works well as a "dashcam", but footage is nowhere near GoPro in terms of image stabilization and quality... (and this is an understatement).
It is easier to mount on a helmet (lower profile)... Rotating lens are great, gives you even more mounting options... Also has a dashcam mode, auto-saves on impact, and bunch of other features...

With its lousy image stabilization, mounting it on a bike would probably ruin the footage... On a helmet, it gets much better vantage point, less vibrations, and records where you look... I would have no hesitation recommending it for "dashcam" use, but for any other use (vlogging, travel videos), GoPro totally owns it...

I was thinking of getting a cheap motorcycle-specific front/real dashcam set, but seeing recordings taken from a bike, decided against it...

Another point on Drift cam - on-board mic is useless. They sell vlogging kit - you get decent external mic and BT remote control - both are nice (but won't improve video quality, so not really vlogging material).

Aside from image stabilization, I don't like how dashcam mode and tagging cannot be combined... Really bugs me.

In terms of reliability - 0 issues so far (knock on particle board).
 
Just to get an idea, this is the old old old xiaomi yi. Bought this camera probably 5 years ago, was able to do 1080p max at about 60fps...


Tech has come a long way since, but then the camera was about $80 back then.

Xiaomi Action Cameras online in Canada | Action Cameras - www.miot-canada.ca

Xiaomi | Action Cameras www.miot-canada.ca. Reviews, Customers reviews, characteristics, photos, video and more.
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That's if you can find a place that sells them

Man, looking up the new options, youre making me want to get a new one even though i know i wont use it. Like that gimbal i bought that i used about 2 dozen times in about a year.
 
Alex, I use the little Go-Pro sessions. I prefer them as they are very small and compact, although the battery life isn't the greatest.
 
Jayv said:
Alex, I use the little Go-Pro sessions. I prefer them as they are very small and compact, although the battery life isn't the greatest.
Click to expand...
Jay, it seems Go-Pro sessions are not available anymore, I see only 8,9,10 and max models.

But as recommended above i am looking now at DJI Action 2 - similar very compact cube size and it has image stabilization.. Need to watch more reviews, it seems it has some overheating issues though..
 
Contour helmet cam is a slick torpedo shaped camera which is stylish and aerodynamic.
 
HarleyHare said:
Contour helmet cam is a slick torpedo shaped camera which is stylish and aerodynamic.
Click to expand...

just checked - it looks like Contour cams are done - not avail anymore... The only other cam with similar shape what is still available is Sena Prism Tube WiFi, but reviews are not so impressive......

Product

The Prism Tube WiFi camera system is a low-profile, helmet mounted 2K action camera with a 125° field of view and adjustable lens rotation. Additionally, the Prism Tube is now equipped with WiFi, allowing for quick and easy previews and downloads through your smartphone. Visit Sena to learn more!
www.sena.com www.sena.com

.... so the more I read the more I see that GoPro Hero Black dominates the market adn IS the best option despite the shape and mounting options...
 
Sochi said:
just checked - it looks like Contour cams are done - not avail anymore... The only other cam with similar shape what is still available is Sena Prism Tube WiFi, but reviews are not so impressive......

Product

The Prism Tube WiFi camera system is a low-profile, helmet mounted 2K action camera with a 125° field of view and adjustable lens rotation. Additionally, the Prism Tube is now equipped with WiFi, allowing for quick and easy previews and downloads through your smartphone. Visit Sena to learn more!
www.sena.com www.sena.com

.... so the more I read the more I see that GoPro Hero Black dominates the market adn IS the best option despite the shape and mounting options...
Click to expand...
coming from a drift to the go pro hero 7 black;

Pros-
  1. Obvious uptick in quality
  2. Image stabilization is a nice touch
  3. Flexibility to use it as a nice action camera to bring on vacation, etc
Cons-
  1. Battery life is meh. Perhaps 1 hour and 15 minutes of record time per battery
  2. Swapping batteries is annoying but doable
  3. Loop record cannot be left on as default (at least in my experience). you'd have to manually go into the camera every time you turn it on and turn this feature on. Otherwise this means the camera will only continue to record until the SD card is full, then you have to manually go into the settings and wipe the SD card.
If you just want something to record some basic action stuff, accident/insurance purposes with minimal hassle, then spring for the Drift with 5 hrs battery life, it just works and it's cheap.
 
The Fly12 CE camera may be a good option if you like to record your daily rides and have same evidence in case you are involve in incident. Definitely not very good for creating video content to be publish on YT, Vimeo, etc. It is waterproof, about 8hrs battery life if used without the light, loop recording, freezes footage in case of accident, not bad stabilization. I purchased one over 5 years ago together with Fly 6 and both cameras are still working fine. The version I have is not as good as the one selling today but this is a sample of the footage I recorded on my first bike ride:
It will help if you change quality of above video from Auto to 1080p48HD when watching.
 
What about the Insta360 Go? It's pretty small.

DYNFFXa.jpg


Have you ever considered a 360 degree camera? I find helmet cams can get too much movement sometimes. Having a 360 cam mounted to the bike ensures everything around you gets recorded. You adjust the shot after with your phone or computer. For example, you can get a shot of your speedometer, a front facing shot and rear facing shot all from the same video file.
 
i-WERKS said:
What about the Insta360 Go? It's pretty small.

DYNFFXa.jpg


Have you ever considered a 360 degree camera? I find helmet cams can get too much movement sometimes. Having a 360 cam mounted to the bike ensures everything around you gets recorded. You adjust the shot after with your phone or computer. For example, you can get a shot of your speedometer, a front facing shot and rear facing shot all from the same video file.
Click to expand...
The reason i didnt include it in my suggestions... battery life is abysmal. It's aimed at the "content creator crowd" that does reels and stories. So unless your commute is less than 15-30 minutes.. look at the other insta360 options :)

the one x2 lasts about 80 minutes at highest resolution (5.7k)
the one R lasts about 65 minutes at highest resolution (5.3k)
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