Come see the new Dual Channel K2 dashcam in action at the INNOVV booth at the AIM Motorcycle Show in Las Vegas

Yep something like that, just have to make sure water cant accumulate between the protective glass and the lens itself, but that should not be a major problem.
 
@Dashmellow - Yeah, I remember your windshield problems-problems-problems (original and 2 bad replacements :eek:). My point is that you have a tiny target here- not a whole windshield. For each thousand grains of sand that hit your windshield, one might hit this cam lens. The effect wouldn't be less, just the number of grains and therefore the length of time before it needed replacing. Plus the average motorcycle sees fewer miles per year than a car, with most here in the US being ridden only in good weather and not a lot of miles even then. I was one of the very few hard-core riders who rode in all conditions (I've had my beard freeze solid-honest!) and it was all I could do to manage ~30K miles per year. Short of riding in a sandstorm I think a front motorcycle cam would last at least several years unless it happened to catch a flying rock or pebble simply because only one in a thousand impacts would happen- the rest would pass by the cam ;)

With my usual luck if I were still riding mine would be smashed in a week by a brick flying off a jack-knifed semi carrying only cardboard, but that's an entirely different story :p

Phil


I'm afraid I really have to disagree with your logic that an external camera presents a tiny target for wind driven road particles compared to a full windshield. And I don't quite know how you came up with the figure that, "For each thousand grains of sand that hit your windshield, one might hit this cam lens.” but that seems highly unrealistic to me. Over a period of months you are probably talking thousands or even hundreds of thousands of grains of road grit or sand. The fact is, that it's really all about how many particles are hitting each square inch of glass whether it is the glass of the windscreen or the glass of the lens. What you are claiming would be like stating that a windshield in the rain or snow would get hit with more raindrops or snowflakes than a lens surface mounted on the front of a bike or car. Both would get hit with the same number of raindrops – “per square inch”.

Perhaps conditions where you live are different but as I mentioned above, at least where I live pitted windshields are a very common problem from local dirt and gravel roads, sand and salt in the winter.

As I think you may know, there is also a huge industry of services and products in polishing and repairing automotive headlights suffering from hazing due to high speed wind driven road particles. So, this would be the same phenomenon that would affect an external unprotected camera lens like on the K2, and just like the headlights, little by little until it becomes a significant, noticable problem. There is reason that the protective covers on today's vehicle headlights are called "lenses".

Also, as a guy who has been handling camera lenses my whole life I disagree with the logic of having a camera that might “last at least several years” with its front lens getting hit with high speed particles. As a photographer it is anathema to me to put a nice quality camera in harms way knowing the lens will start getting ruined and loosing performance almost from the first day of use. And the Innovv K2 seems like an unusually well made device that has a good chance of holding up well for quite some time if cared for properly. Of course, a simple, inexpensive lens protector would avoid any possible lens damage at all! The Innovv K2 camera is currently selling for about $340.00 USD. I can't imagine installing such a camera on my bike without taking steps to protect the lens so as to insure optimal image capture going forward as long as I own and use the camera.

What is important to know is that every pock mark or pit in the surface of the lens caused by being hit with high speed road particles will cause light to scatter. The more pits and pock marks that appear on the lens over time the more the scattered light will cause a loss of contrast in the image. Eventually, there will be a loss of sharpness to the point of losing critical detail. You will also start to experience a form of lens flare from the refraction of light passing through each pit in the lens surface. Even the untrained eye will see this happening eventually.

Here's an example of a pitted windshield caused by wind driven road particles. The fingernail in the photo would be approximately the size of the K2 front lens element. Would it get fewer pits and less damage per square inch than the windshield because it makes for a smaller target? No. As a camera lens it would be seriously compromised at this point. This is similar to what the windshield in my truck looked like before replacement except that I had a greater number of pock marks but many of them were smaller than what we see in this example photo I found on the net. My windshield would suddenly transform into a fairly dense haze in low angle lighting conditions such as sunset. Eventually, a camera lens will suffer the same fate but with photographic consequences rather than driver safety consequences.
specks.jpg
 
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This discussion has led me to a simple solution to eliminate all but the most severe cam damage from road debris. Why not have a clip on lens protector similar to a cpl that is made of clear glass or plastic? It could be easily replaced when pitted or quickly pulled off and swapped out or cleaned as necessary after it has done its job as a lens protector. I would think the cover being made of a clear material could be sold for $5 or less. Motorcycle riders might buy 4 or 5 just to be able to swap out the lens protectors after they get covered by bugs and dirt. After getting back home clean up of the protective screens should be easy.

This is an idea that has been discussed going back several years now since the first remote lens motorcycle camera from Innovv, the C3, including my mention above in this thread three days ago when I spoke of suggesting to RockThinking the idea during C3 pre-production testing, of: "a replaceable lens protector that could be like a lens cap with a glass insert", but thanks for suggesting the concept as your own novel idea, at any rate. ;)
 
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