I was just wondering if any of you use action camera for a moto blog or just for safety and insurance reasons and if so what kind do you use? I have a Excel camera for hunting and it works great but the battery only lasts an hour and need something with a longer battery life. Im not to worried about sound quilty because i just want one in the event something go's wrong knock on wood (someone pulls out in front of me, brake checks, being pushed off the road again, etc!!!) I'm amazed that some people just dont care about us bikers and think they can push out of the way, or are to busy on there ****ing cell phones and dont pay attention to what there doing. I have to many close calls and want proof of these idiots when something bad happens trying to think ahead some. Any one have stories they want to share with this.

 

I have a dashcam in my F-150, some off brand with instructions in Chinglish I bought maybe 4 years ago on eBay for about $130. It works just fine, but you need to have a fast, quality micro SD card. I leave it on 25/7/365, it draws so little current.

Murphy's law update: I had some imbecile leaving a gas station stop, look me right in the eye, and then pull out in front of me anyway while I was doing about 50 on a two lane road. I stood on the brakes, swerved, and stopped a few feet from him, just as another truck in back of me, (which I didn't even know was there) narrowly missed rear-ending me, swerved to avoid BOTH of us, ran off onto the shoulder, and recovered, without even slowing down.

Of course, the "economy" SD card I was using had failed so I didn't catch any of it for posterity.

 

Yes. For $25-35 [best that I can recall] I got an HD camera which I have been using daily in my Jeep. There was a learning curve that almost lead to me removing the camera. Despite setting the camera to "loop" so I did not have to repeatedly delete files, I continued to get "card full" messages. Then I realized there was another setting which essentially monitored impact and saved the file(s) associated with an accident. Just so happens, the camera's setting was too sensitive and the Jeep's ride was too harsh - thus, the camera thought I was in a constant state of "accident". Shut off the sensor and now the camera merely overwrites those files of mundane day-to-day commutes. I can still press a button to save any files I want saved [assuming I'm conscious]. Not to jinx myself, so far I haven't needed recordings as "evidence" [though I sure have recorded some dumb **** that my wife would have previously dismissed as "my imagination"]. I am considering getting a second camera for my bike the next time I see another "promotion".

My son also has a dash-cam. The first week he had it, he was on a highway and noticed a cloud of dust and a "blur" from an unknown event. Video showed a car in the opposite lanes crash into and almost jump the concrete median.

 

If you want a camera for anything than just safety/insurance reasons get a go pro. The video quality is unreal for such a small camera and there are so many uses for them. I just got the GoPro 5 and love it. It's voice activated, you can sit on your bike and say start recording or stop recording, take a picture etc. It also has built in video smoothing so no more shakey jittery footage from the vibrations of the bike. It's awesome.

 

these guys build a pretty sweet motorcycle camera system, front and rear facing cameras with a DVR. https://www.innovv.com/the-k

 

I second the GoPro. I have the Hero 3+ and it works like a dream, just make sure you get a fast microsd card for it.

 

When I use a camera on a bike, I use a Go Pro also. Drooling over the new GoPro 5.

 

I have a GoPro Hero 3+, great camera. I have the RAM mounts, just need to set them up.

 

Can't recommend the GoPro Session or Session 5. I was running a 32GB memory card in a GoPro 3 basic and that thing would record for up to six hours. In both the session and the session 5 with the EXACT same card I get 1hr 21 min and 1hr and 58 min respectively. That is a ridiculous cut in recording time. I did mess with the different quality and FPS and it basically doesn't matter. Also, battery life for both is only about 1hr 45 min.

I contacted GoPro about this and they said those numbers are accurate for those cameras. They refuse to tell me why recording on a 3 with be same recording settings would get 6 hours but so much lower time on the sessions.

There are certainly some nice features about them, but since recording time and battery life are top of my list I can no longer recommend them.

 

dashcams are better suited because of the loop mode for recording. as far as I know, the Drift cameras are the only POV cams that have a DVR function and will record in a loop mode that overwrites the oldest footage after the card fills up.

I use a DOD dashcam in my KW, it also has a "save" button that will protect the current segment of video should a guy see something interesting. as well, it has a G shock sensor that automatically saves the segment in the event of an accident. records speed, GPS coordinates, and date/time that is displayed on the video during playback.