1200 Action Cams - Who Uses?/interesting Project

I've used DVR in my works van for the last 8 years and used the footage in insurance fights.#
Never in court*, but two may be three times at the roadside with old bill.
All of them record the footage in small files, each numbered sequentially.
I've the latest GPS/dvr with each unit costing around £300. 1080 and 30fps with 3g measurement, speed and GPS location.
The cheaper ones seem to lock up albeit I've not tried a sub £100 for a few years.
I can't find a good place on the bike, so that can has stayed on my desk.

* The best use is parking tickets and service call invoicing.
# cars undertaking and crashing into the rear or side of the van and one attempted claim scam.

 

but the saying is, to settle out of court first you need to be in court..........or have the case to go there!

 

Well that's the beauty of the size of what i'm planning.

The actual cam is tiny, the raspberry with the processing power will be up with the clocks. I know what you mean with service call invoicing though. I'm copiers & phone systems myself so similar lines of work.

View attachment 45488 [/QUOTE]
My worry with the camera would be waterproofing and lenses.
I've had to invest in a polarised filter 32mm and that's inside the van.
On the MTS1200 I've thought about the nearside noose cone, but I'm worried about airflow over the oil cooler.
Plus they can easily get stolen, so either remove them or hide them.
It sounds like a good idea of yours, so I'm going to follow you progress on here.

 

I had a Roadhawk Ride HD on my Triumph ST1050 mounted under the nose fairing. It is the size of a cigar, and wired to a switchable live it starts recording when you turn the bike on, and stops shortly after you turn the bike off, so you never need remember to turn it on yourself. It records in 5 minute segments to the 32gb sdhc card, and overwrites the oldest footage when it gets full up. It records in 1280 x 720 and is very clear. I will be mounting it under the beak of the Multistrada, wired to the accessory outlet on the loom on the l/h side. I find it reassuring to know if some knob knocks me off I will have it on camera, it is time and date, but not speed, stamped on the footage. I feel kind of naked not having it on the new bike yet. Only cost just over £100 from e-bay, loads of mounting options included.

 

ACT, I will mount it well back, being small and black it is not real visible to thieves, and is not easy to remove from it's qd mounting unless you have the knack.

 

@andyb who is this statement aimed at.
I've turned off ignores and reread the thread, but cannot see the relevance to any post.

 

i am saying you are protecting yourself with your evidence you are gaining and its serving you well as you inferred out of court,

my point is by having the case and evidence behind you these things can be settled away from a court

 

Got it.
Yep, going to court is a waste of a day and expensive.
And in my limited opinion rarely gets to the truth of a matter*.

* e.g. just where I've been a witness. Old man intervenes in what he thought was a kidnapping of a girl on!y to get badly beaten by 3 young adult men. As it turns out is was one of the guys girlfriends trying to escape a drunken beating from her boyfriend.These smartly dressed accused were found not guilty, despite forensic and witness testimony. I didn't see all the evidence, but I did hear them joking about getting away with it and they did.
Court is about process not justice.

Where is Star chamber when we need it.

 

Yep i record stuff & ride outs but i do not upload or share them online as they are
'slow & boring'. And I'm not someone who's willing too bring shame to my acquaintances!

I certainly record parts of european trips for prosperity & eventually to compile into home-movies of tours. On my third generation contours & I've supported each new release by grabbing them in pairs.

 

As you might notice these latest ones have a lead/microphones situated inside my helmet so i can v-blogg. 99% so far is for my entertainment, safety & documentation of area's i visit. I do share small snippets too fellow bikers on web sites.

There is some basic's with having video equipment you need to know. Your right to take images and the right of police to sequester or confiscate the memory-sticks (they do not need to take the equipment if external recording medium is used). Which would mean, if you carry extra memory sticks, you can keep on making video's!

I'm not trying to be difficult with anyone here but i don't feel i should suddenly link sites to photography right's (that is all video is; still images at 30fps etc plus sound recorded). Or explain laymens understanding of the polices policies to take your footage off of you.

Been really frank; EVERYONE is speeding. If i sat on the motorway overpass with my big shoulder camera from a by-gone hi8 age. I could record hundreds of people going over 77mph (we still have a 10% leeway). Although the police & courts only deem it appropriate to prosecute those going over 100mph or reckless driving dependent upon age & experience.

I do not speed in towns or villages, open lanes or dual-carriageways I'm prepared to risk my own life for some small amount of exhilaration & adrenaline hit. The police know this about bikers & take a common sense approach we do have a great society in that respect. The game of cat & mouse in some county's with undercover or unmarked speed van units is a different thing. You speed on a well known A-road then you should know better or have been there before too ask what its like..

I have never had footage or memory sticks taken off of me.

 

I've recorded a couple of rides, and I have found this:

You are nowhere near as good a rider as you think you are.

The cops have still not nicked me despite the vids being on youtube for at least 5 years.

Messing around with cameras on bikes is only interesting for 5 minutes, then you get bored with them. And they're not the least bit interesting for anyone else. So don't go throwing your life savings at it, eh...

 

Not sure i agree with @gun on the use of speed.
A-roads and dual carriageway (where I have the appropriate sight lines) are ripe for this.
I avoid the motorway as much as possible.
My journey to and from Cjs near Bristol was all A roads (from Heathrowu).
Just don't see the need to use the Motorway system for pleasure riding.

 

Without even looking at your profile Gunz I had a mental picture of you on a GS.

 

I don't own a twat suit, proper Rukka gear me The word mental is spot on Drinky.

I have heard that there is a length of time limitation on videos where behavior can be construed as criminal or dangerous. Just can't think of the wording...maybe 'statue of limitations'!

 

I've got a Drift camera which I've used on trips to Europe. It has a constant recording feature which allows you to tag a section if something good/dangerous happens by simply pressing a button on the remote control (mounted on the bars or in a tank bag). It saves the section before and section after (variable from 30 seconds up to 2-3 mins before and after). I find it a much better way of dealing with huge quantities of video data when you come to edit.

I've also used this during commuting, but I do need to get in a better habit of charging the battery if I wanted to do this all the time.

The main problem with most on-bike footage is it's too long, it needs really sharp editing and multiple view angles to bring it to life. A 10 min ride down an alpine road is still only interesting to the person who took the video.

 

Isn't it far simpler to use a Mobius camera than mess about with the Raspberry Pi? Its peanuts in cost and about the same size as a box of matches. It already does auto on/off trigger based on supply of power, it records each journey in a new file to the SD card. You can even get a lens extension to separate the electronics from the body if you want to get creative with mounting.
By the time you have the Pi, camera and messed about with the software side of things it seems a little pointless - unless you are going to do something that only the Pi will bring to the party...

There's also the Innovv C3 - which is like the Mobius, has a lens extension and has waterproofing on the lens system too
Webbex Mini DV Cameras - INNOVV C3 ACTION CAMERA 1080P MINI DVR

Was considering selling my helmet cam (Ion Air Pro 2) and moving to a couple of these wide angle instead.

 

Fair do's mate. I was assuming you had to buy it all. But the tinkering is half the fun that's for sure!
Be interested to see how you get on - keep us posted with the build. And give me a shout if you need anything made up bracket wise as I have a 3D printer at home.
Still haven't figured out a proper full time use for my Pi yet, its spent time as a webserver, media player, games machine - allsorts since I got it.