Maybe this has been discussed before but I’ve been trying to find a camera suitable for mounting on my bike to continuously record the road ahead in case of accident or stupidity.
The criteria I’m looking for are:
minimum 20 minute recording capability
reasonable definition (min. 640x480) that will pick up number plates and low light capability
external DC power input so I can power it from a regulator on my bike
memory card or other solid-state recording so it would survive a pretty nasty crash
preferably able to cycle back over old footage continuously or at least quick and easy to delete unwanted footage
preferably some kind of standard screw mount for easy fitting to the bike
To that end, has anyone ever heard of the RWC Arex MobiDV-H10 Video Camera? It seems perfect for my purposes and it’s only NT$2,888… I’ve been on the hunt for some reviews and it seems to be running for three times that price in the UK.
Any other suggestions to achieve my aims? My budget is about NT$5,000, I’m open to secondhand items and have an old laptop spare that I could shove in a backpack if necessary.
Edit: just tried to buy it and the !@#*ing Yahoo store refused to accept my dirty FCxxxxxxxx ID number, despite having a valid 花旗 credit card. Oh well… there goes my impulse buying decision.
I’ve got a little Pentax Optio with 1 gig card and was suprised to find it has 45 minutes recording time. Cost about 8k a year ago and must be cheaper now like everything else electronic.
A bike’s 12V electrical system is very, very unstable and dirty. You don’t want to go powering sensitive devices from it without a DC/DC converter. Not really practical. You could just buy a sealed lead/acid battery and carry it in a backpack or something, charge it overnight. Much cleaner and cheaper solution. You may also find one of the required voltage if you look around electronics alley.
all I can add is that for mounting it you can’t go wrong with RAM mounts, they make bomb proof mounting solutions for anything under the sun… More amazingly their Taiwan sales agent replied to my emails within 6 hours, had all the parts I wanted in stock and had them at my door the next afternoon… I suspect that something was horribly wrong with the Taiwanese space time continuum for that to have happened, so be prepared for you mileage to vary…
As for cameras, I’ve also thought about this quite a bit… I’ve mounted my Canon digi-cam on the GS before and it produced pretty good video results, but I only had a 257Mb card back then, so recording time was limited, with a 1G card like Ironman suggested it could work, but only since on the GS it’s safely behind the screen away from wind blast and stray rocks etc… That’s kind of the problem for this application, the camera has to be tough as nails, at least have a replaceable lens protector and be weatherproof… quite a big ask… and most cheapo (flash memory or otherwise) video recorders are very vibration sensitive, and on Taiwanese roads vibration is one thing it’ll get a lot of… closest thing seems to be a “bullet cam” or “lipstick cam” plugged into a regular cam-corder with a video in RCA… like this “Helmet Cam”
Yup… I used to be an electronics engineer, remember? I already installed a bigger battery and made a DC-DC regulator that goes under my seat where the toolkit used to live. I now have 1x5v and 1x12v sockets sitting under the bike just behind the tail and since the new battery can supply about 600mA more I just threw a 500mA fuse on the whole kaboosh.
[quote=“plasmatron”]all I can add is that for mounting it you can’t go wrong with RAM mounts, they make bomb proof mounting solutions for anything under the sun… More amazingly their Taiwan sales agent replied to my emails within 6 hours, had all the parts I wanted in stock and had them at my door the next afternoon… I suspect that something was horribly wrong with the Taiwanese space time continuum for that to have happened, so be prepared for you mileage to vary…
As for cameras, I’ve also thought about this quite a bit… I’ve mounted my Canon digi-cam on the GS before and it produced pretty good video results, but I only had a 257Mb card back then, so recording time was limited, with a 1G card like Ironman suggested it could work, but only since on the GS it’s safely behind the screen away from wind blast and stray rocks etc… That’s kind of the problem for this application, the camera has to be tough as nails, at least have a replaceable lens protector and be weatherproof… quite a big ask… and most cheapo (flash memory or otherwise) video recorders are very vibration sensitive, and on Taiwanese roads vibration is one thing it’ll get a lot of… closest thing seems to be a “bullet cam” or “lipstick cam” plugged into a regular cam-corder with a video in RCA… like this “Helmet Cam”[/quote]
That’s really helpful… they seem kinda reasonably priced so I’ll get in touch once I decide on a camera.
Going the way of a pro bullet cam is probably way too expensive and troublesome for what I need. I’m worried that if it’s a pain in the ass to get running every time I’ll probably just not bother one day - which will be the day someone comes at me head-on in the wrong lane.
Wow… great find, thanks I like the way that you have to register just to look at prices in typical Taiwanese website style
OK… so logged in and the 特費 is… NT$35,000. Fuck that I’m going with an NT$3,000 digi camcorder, homemade mount, bolting the whole thing behind my fairing screen and hoping for the best. If it doesn’t work I kind of wanted a cheap digi camcorder anyway. Mordeth gets some great video with a digicam wedged in his helmet.
[quote=“llary”]
Yup… I used to be an electronics engineer, remember? [/quote]So you should be able to patch something cheap like a webcam to your digicam then eh?
[quote=“redwagon”][quote=“llary”]
Yup… I used to be an electronics engineer, remember? [/quote]So you should be able to patch something cheap like a webcam to your digicam then eh? [/quote]
I just found a consumer camera mount from some security store in Taichung for NT$150 that is just the right size to screw into the top of my headlight assembly and poke about half way up behind my fairing screen… woohoo! I bought two (one for the bike and one to screw into the roof of my car). There are some good reviews of the MobiDV H18 (apparently much better in low light than the H10) so all I have to do now is find a friggin store that will let me buy it.
The guy posting the second review says he wants to sell his, though he’s probably not serious.[/quote]
Yeh, I saw the Mrs. Pixel site and I don’t really understand the point of it - she seems to slag off a cheap camcorder designed for video because it doesn’t take pictures as well as an Olympus D580 designed for pictures :loco: And I was disappointed when I found not an actual review but just comparisons of still pictures taken on a device that wasn’t really designed for taking stills.
Didn’t see the other guy but he seems to talk about everything BUT the damn DV function - its main function. I don’t care if it’s a shit portable video player, I want something to record the road ahead and be cheap enough that I don’t cry if it gets smashed to pieces in an accident. 640x480x25fps and white balance setting is pretty friggin amazing for a sub-NT$5k DV, especially one this compact.
I found another few reviewers who felt like they got a hell of a lot of DV camera for their money so I just forked out NT$4,990 for the H18 using a fake ID number at Yahoo. That does include an extra 512mb SD card on top of the internal 128mb memory, which is plenty for my needs. I was tempted to go for the cheaper H10 but the H18 seems just about good enough to use on a lit street at night, which is pretty much essential. There were some online stores selling the H18 for NT$3,990 but completely sold out with no idea if they would ever get any more in. The H10 is still available for NT$2,888 at buy.yahoo.com.tw for anyone interested. The only problem seems to be that there’s no consumer tripod mount on the bottom but I’m sure my tap&dye set can make quick work of that.
Dunno when the thing will arrive… when it does I’ll let you know how it goes and post up a few videos of me getting angry in traffic.
I know those aren’t what you are looking for llary, but I thought someone else clicking on this thread looking for a helmet cam might like those links.
I wanna get a pro set up at one point. I’m kinda tired of having my nose squished into my face while recording…not to mention the reduced vision. I tried getting an expensive set up in Chung-Li…but couldn’t find anything. Even getting a good Portable Media Player is difficult here. A PMP is like a portable hard drive which has Audio and Video In…and could therefore record for hours without stop. They show some in the links above.
My camera does great night videos…they are about as clear and bright as what I see with my own eyes…it’s rather impressive really. I use a Casio EX-P505.
Why don’t you drill a couple of holes in an old helmet (still of good quality if its impact absorption qualities are ever needed) and mount a bracket either above or below the visor. You can visit my factory and we’ll throw something together in about 10 minutes if you like. I’ve seen you come past on Youtube.
llary. You need a camera front, back and each side. I had a car driver force me over a full lane in Chungli just yesterday and I was slightly ahead of them so they did not have the blind spot excuse, just the ‘I’m in a car and can push you’ excuse.
Why don’t you drill a couple of holes in an old helmet (still of good quality if its impact absorption qualities are ever needed) and mount a bracket either above or below the visor. You can visit my factory and we’ll throw something together in about 10 minutes if you like. I’ve seen you come past on Youtube. [/quote]
Problem is that I need to talk…or at least make noises.
Why don’t you drill a couple of holes in an old helmet (still of good quality if its impact absorption qualities are ever needed) and mount a bracket either above or below the visor. You can visit my factory and we’ll throw something together in about 10 minutes if you like. I’ve seen you come past on Youtube. [/quote]
Problem is that I need to talk…or at least make noises.[/quote]
Oh, good point. Okay, make that a really old helmet and well cut part of the lower area away and mount it so its really close to your mouth.
Probably safer than the restricted vision you have now.
Why don’t you drill a couple of holes in an old helmet (still of good quality if its impact absorption qualities are ever needed) and mount a bracket either above or below the visor. You can visit my factory and we’ll throw something together in about 10 minutes if you like. I’ve seen you come past on Youtube. [/quote]
Problem is that I need to talk…or at least make noises.[/quote]
I have a helmet mic/speaker for my radio… they’re really cheap and easy to make an adapter for your camera’s mic input.
Oh well… there goes my impulse buying decision.
I already installed a bigger battery and made a DC-DC regulator that goes under my seat where the toolkit used to live. I now have 1x5v and 1x12v sockets sitting under the bike just behind the tail and since the new battery can supply about 600mA more I just threw a 500mA fuse on the whole kaboosh.
I’m going with an NT$3,000 digi camcorder, homemade mount, bolting the whole thing behind my fairing screen and hoping for the best. If it doesn’t work I kind of wanted a cheap digi camcorder anyway. Mordeth gets some great video with a digicam wedged in his helmet.
quite steep
[/quote]So you should be able to patch something cheap like a webcam to your digicam then eh? 
