Modern Vespa

Are they worth getting?

Seeing as I'll be riding around central London a lot, It seems viable to buy myself a helmet camera for evidence of an insurance claim etc.

I've been looking at the Drift hd ghost for £300 (http://www.actioncameras.co.uk/drift-hd-ghost)

So does anyone else use a helmet camera? If so, what you got?

I have a Drift HD. Frankly, I find it a lot of bother to keep the SD card cleared off and the battery charged up. I had assumed I'd use it all the time, but I find I rarely do. I just pull it out for special occasions, now.

Hojo

I use a contour and like it. My Mac setup really foes a great job on getting out the "shakes" from the wind, bumps etc. Plus i can sync it with my iphone and watch what's being recorded live. Got a iphone waterproof case that i mounted on my left mirror stem. Had a GoPro but the housing leaked and trashed the camera. I also like the fact that you can turn rotate the lens without having to turn the camera. The camera can be forward facing and be taking rear shots. Still like the GoPro tho.Both have pros and cons. I have a side and top of, helmet mounts on my helmet. Pretty much have everything covered. Good luck.

I have a Contour Roam 2 and I use it all the time.

I too ride around C London and the suburbs and I catch a lot of bad driving and close calls... which make good YouTube videos ( www.youtube.com/realityhasitslimits )

The Contour is great for the price, I got mine for £170. It has a big slidey on and off switch on the top which is easy to flick while you're riding. The camera isn't on standby all the time, just flick it on and it'll automatically start recording so battery lasts pretty long. Records 720p @ 30/60fps or 1080p @ 30fps too. I'm yet to run out of battery or memory on the 32GB card.

Only gripes are wind noise reduction and night mode which are both non existent. Wind noise can be fixed by wrapping the camera in a sock/sweatband or a makeshift windshield. Night mode can't really be fixed even with manual camera settings.

One day it'll probably help me in an insurance claim... it's already helped someone else out when I witnessed a crash while recording. Definitely worth getting a helmet cam of some sort.

I was thinking about getting this one...


http://www.actioncameras.co.uk/drift-hd-720-helmet-cam?gclid=CLGbvcLC-rcCFeTLtAodciwAYA

JimC has/had a Drift HD that impressed me with the quality of the footage when he posted it up on this link. I guess the HD Ghost is a newer version of his camera with a bit more development...

Crossing Barmouth Bridge

Ashbrook has been running a helmet cam recently on our rides but I don't know what it is...maybe he'll post up

Not for a scooter. I just bought a dash camera for my my work van.

I wish it was waterproof. It works very well.

jimc, DougL and I all had Drift HD cams for the Picos de los Pirineos Rally. Got some pretty amazing video.

https://modernvespa.com/forum/post1648829#1648829

https://modernvespa.com/forum/post1644593#1644593

https://modernvespa.com/forum/post1665280#1665280

That is great video! Wow! what a ride! Really great!

Some great footage there aviator! My only issue at the moment is having to trawl through hours of footage just to get the best bits which could only be 10mins in total.

Just bought myself the ghost, Roll on monday!


Those who edit their footage, what programmes do you use? I'm after something cheap and preferably free!

I use Serif's Movie Plus X5. It costs £19.99 and does a very good job.

Great vids... Contemplating getting one now..Off to watch a few more 8)

Seems for insurance reasons,,,Everybody in Russia has a dash cam, to record wrecks and close calls.

With the recent popularity, I expect Detroit...(and wherever the EU & Japan versions of Detroit) will soon make dash cams an option on new vehicles.

I'm very happy with my GoPro Hero 2.

Great piece of kit.

somerset

GoPro offers Cineform Studio for free. It was among the best programs available before GoPro bought it, and now it's free. I don't know if they've changed it since the reviews I've read, and I haven't used it, but as the official software, it's at least worth a shot.

http://gopro.com/software-app/cineform-studio

I have Contour cameras and like them.

Mark

I think the contour cameras has the best profile mount for the helmet.
It is easy to operate too.

Only con that I can think of is that you need a pc/Mac to adjust the camera settings.

I use a Contour GPS similar to GTSYPH and Judy. Mine has GPS so it monitors my speed and position on a small inset map. Also has bluetooth so one can view live footage through a smartphone and laser dots for accurate framing.

Got mine now!

No point doing a review within a week of having the thing, but i'll do one soon.

I look forward to hearing about it.

IMHO, Drift has a very good combination of form factor and features. It's far less obtrusive on a helmet than GoPro.

I've gotta say (maybe this makes me very old-fashioned, but) when I see someone in central London rocking a helmet-cam I tend to think that they're probably the sort of aggressive/reckless rider that gets themselves into near-misses on a regular basis.

I tend to give those riders a wide berth.

It's funny, but for the first year or two when I started riding, I used to get very agitated about how "bad" and "dangerous" other road users were. I used to use my horn a lot to righteously fart at those evil wrongdoers (this was before I had a loud horn, so you can imagine how pathetic it must have sounded as I laid on that stock parper and unleashed literally 10's of decibels at someone who was probably sat in a soundproofed car, playing shite music at full volume and was oblivious to the whole thing).

Since those first years, I've fallen into the habit of riding smarter: making better observations (hopefully); not trying to jam myself into little gaps up the inside of traffic; deciding when to get a shift on, and when to hold back; not pissing off other drivers, etc. Do you know...(touch wood)...I haven't had a near miss in years. And strangely I seem to get places every bit as fast as the guys who rev the nuts off their bike and drive like crazies. While they're stopped in the middle of the road trying to kick the mirrors off the car that they've just pulled a stoppie to avoid slamming into, I'm trying to be the guy on the scooter serenely passing by in a bubble of space.

I wonder what changed? Did all the other drivers get better, or did I get smarter? I know which one I think happened.....

I LOVE seeing geat videos from rideouts, so I can totally see that helmet-cam's are fantastic for that purpose. For city centres, I'd spend the £300 on a day's training, or doing my IAM test.

But, that's just my 2p worth, and I'm generally out of step with popular thought.....so I hope you enjoy the camera.

I completely understand what you mean and respect that. In nobody elses error apart from my own, I forgot to highlight the importance of me having a camera and being able to record my journeys in audio and video through London as I'm currently learning the knowledge (And I'm not really keen on riding around the streets of London learning my runs in the snow - So I can just sit at home with a cuppa and run through the footage). I guess the whole evidence in case of accident is just a bonus for me and those whoever need it.

Not forgetting how cool capturing all the footage of London - Isle of wight rally! (If i go, that is)


In terms of riding experience, I agree with regards to getting agitated. Just hope the free bike safe course offered to me by the met police will teach me a few things.

Nice! I got a Drift HD back in February. My only complaint is for the length of my rides, I usually kill the battery before I'm back home. I plan on picking up a couple spares at some point. (I'll get around to it eventually.)
Other than that, I like the camera. It's held up wonderfully through rain storms and the mic works well. The ghost has some features I'd love to take advantage of, but it was out of my budget.

Start a youtube channel and check out motovlog.com (I think that's the URL.)

I have been thinking about one but no decision yet. However, I did see something interesting at the BMW Rally in Salem, OR. A vendor demonstrated a camera which was Bluetooth enabled,, They had an app on their cell phone so you could actually see what your camera was seeing. I have friends with video cameras and have wasted much time recording either the sky or the pavement. Just something to think about when buying.

This ^ I like it! I hope everyone does the same. I ride in the city and am very careful but you never know. If someone sees I have a camera they may be more careful to keep their distance.

I bought the Contour Roam after a person (with a passenger) waiting in front of me at a red light decided to back into me for no apparent reason (they weren't blocking the crosswalk). I was almost able to move out of the way. They hit me and broke my deflector off while I banged on the car to get them to stop. They never saw me even though I was about 5 feet behind them to begin with. I took a quick pic of the plate in case they decided to run.

They jumped out of their car and the driver immediately started yelling at me. Honestly, there wasn't much damage and I would have been okay with an apology but the fact that she wouldn't even let me talk (just yelled non-stop) had us yelling at each other in the intersection for about 10 minutes. When she started accusing me of hitting her for the insurance money, I got the hell out of there. I don't deal with crazy and she had a witness. What makes more sense... that I rear-ended her or that she backed into me at a red light?

Most likely nothing like that will happen again, but if it does I'll have a recording of it. Crazy SF drivers!!

post of the day

ive been thinking about a cam a while now n since being knocked off ive found one ... theres alot of reviews on ebay about em n they seem good ... just need to fix it somehow ... why pay hundreds when its gonna slide down the road ... a fiver has to be worth it .... the quality seems right too ... im not intending on making a bbc documentary

Yes I sort of agree, filming commutes in central London is just a drain of precious time. But I am a crappy rider, and I have no intention of providing evidence of it to anyone other than the trail of victims in my wake.

You know if there's an accident and you have a camera? I'm going to ask to see all your commute film. Not just the bit you want to present. All very very relevant to any claim.

Rideouts, that's all different. I completely get it.

Absolutely agree with WM and BB. I don't want to be asked for my footage of my dodgy moves...

Rest assured I have deleted the video taken from your trail in Spain. Your secrets of dodginess are safe.

It's probably quite unlikely that the police are going to be confiscating your computers, but if that is really a concern there is always the option of reformatting the SD card after each uneventful trip.

I really meant in the event of a civil claim not the police, you saying you have evidence of the accident on film is a ticket to the other side saying they want all of the commute film for that date. Of course you can say no but why no if you are blameless in all respects?

I mean, you can't argue it isn't relevant if two minutes before an impact you were speeding or otherwise breaking the rules of the road. Or you have been doing the same dick move for the entire duration of your commute, and got unlucky once. Oh look, you're a bad rider and the fault is yours.

Context is everything. Don't record yourself unless you are cool with it all appearing in court. I think the trend for keeping this kind of information is nutty, but that's another debate.

I have a sony action cam. I just took it to Disneyland and filmed all the rides with it to see how it did. Its nice but like all of them has its pros and cons. If I had it to do over I would get this one. The Polaroid XS100. Its cheap, easy to use, waterproof without extra housing, keeps your picture upright no matter what, and it doesnt give shaky footage. My sony has a few of those issues.

http://www.amazon.com/Polaroid-Extreme-Waterproof-Mounting-Included/dp/B00A81SXHI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1375325395&sr=8-1&keywords=polaroid+action+camera

I haven't taken it on the scooter yet, but I will. I have used it on a few bicycle rides. I gather footage to make spin cycle videos to view in the winter when we are using those and not riding. I will make some with the scooter and do that too.

Now THAT's a great idea! Surprised I don't see more people doing the knowledge with cameras on.

(I think you'll find the Bikesafe day is worthwhile - especially if you're getting it for free!)

I have the WiFi model of the Sony Action Cam. It's good but not perfect. I like I can control it and view real time footage from my Android phone