Dashcam for Bicycle?

[TonyM]

Frame vs Handlebar Mount
(identical cameras, different mount positions)

The frame mount is much better, despite the cables in view. The handlebar mount is unusable.

 

[Nigel]

The handlebar mount is unusable.

Looks like I was right
You could remove a lot of that vibration with EIS, and maybe get it OK for a movie, but you can't remove the motion blur it causes, especially at commuting time when there is not so much light, so for reading plates, yes it is useless.

Yet nearly everyone mounts the camera on the handlebars! Or head, which is actually quite good and well stabilised, if you can get the camera to point in the right direction even when you put your head down for the fast bits!

Yes, I get brake and gear cables in view, but I'm happy with that for the video stability. Sample coming soon.

A few cable/zip ties will help a lot with that, you may even be able to get a longer cable/pipe and route it completely out of the way.

 

[Nigel]

On the audio, a fluffy microphone shield, with fluff as long as possible will make a big difference, you can get some quite nice/interesting audio when cycling, people talking / shouting abuse / birds in the trees, much of which you don't notice at the time because your ears tend not to have very good fluff over them and you brain just filters everything out as noise unless it is very loud.

 

[TonyM]

I encountered a downside of having the brake & gear cables in view at night - they reflect my bike headlight, even though the light is mounted higher up on the handlebars.

Despite the distraction, it doesn't seem to affect the metering, so maybe I'll live with it.



Perhaps I can wrap some matt black tape around the shiny metallic grey cable housing, or shroud the lower edge of the headlamp.

 

[Nigel]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/B00LBEJ8PC
Probably still lights up a bit at night as it is polyester, so shiny, but may look decent.

I can read the plate on the illegally parked car, that is a good headlamp; at that brightness, it could maybe do with a dipped beam though, while you are masking the light going to the cables; you are lighting up all the plates on the other side of the road where car headlamps wouldn't?

 

[TonyM]

I can read the plate on the illegally parked car, that is a good headlamp; at that brightness, it could maybe do with a dipped beam though, while you are masking the light going to the cables; you are lighting up all the plates on the other side of the road where car headlamps wouldn't?

It's an inexpensive headlamp. I doubt the 1000 lumens claim. I'm using it with the warm LEDs that provide softer peripheral illumination - the central white LED is rather narrow.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/B0CHVZPD3X


This is a low-light camera I'm using, so the headlights will appear brighter than if I was using an IMX291 camera for example.

 

[Nigel]

I doubt the 1000 lumens claim.

Note that 1000 lumens is only twice the brightness of 250 lumens, and to double it again you need 4000 lumens. It can be quite difficult to judge the difference. Lumens are effectively power, proportional to watts, but our eyesight isn't linear. Also, if the lamp spreads the light out instead of sending it to where it is needed, this reduces the brightness but doesn't reduce the lumens.

A potentially interesting read.

 

[Dashmellow]