Action Camera Options

[Frito Bandito]

I am in the market for an action camera and would like to hear from you guys what works for you, pros and cons for what you have, and what functions you'd like your camera to have.

Here is what I had and now have, and what I like and dislike about them.
GoPro 3. Decent for its time, but overheated and lost a ton of footage on some great rides. Couldn't sell it fast enough.

Mohoc.
https://www.mohoc.com
Pros.
Up to 1080p 60fps. Kind of aero. 2 hours of recording on OEM battery. Ability to use rechargeable CR123a batteries. 10m waterproof without a housing. Controllable with app on a smartphone. Rugged, many mounting options (velcro) with a lense you can orientate up to 180 degrees. Time lapse (60 sec, 30 sec, 5 sec, or 3 sec). Loop record to serve as a dash cam for your bike in case of an event. 12MP camera. Full recharge in 90 minutes with wall charger. Up to 64GB Micro SD cards. Live Stream capable.

Cons. No image stabilization. Occasionally drops signal during the ride (App update or reboot/reinstall?). Heavy.


I'd really like a camera with built in image stabilization, as aero as possible, time lapse, controllable with app on a smart phone, at least IPX6 rating, and a good battery life. I don't need 360 degree.

Sony's 3000 series appears to be out of production now so it might have a new camera coming down the pike soon. But GoPro has finally matched it IMO with the 9 Black.

This guy has done a great review of the top cameras...

 

[paco1961]

I’m not the action camera guy but I know of quite a few people locally who have all but throw their GoPro 9 in the river from frustration w function and support.

 

[Frito Bandito]

I’m not the action camera guy but I know of quite a few people locally who have all but throw their GoPro 9 in the river from frustration w function and support.

I wonder what is wrong with it. I haven't searched for issues with the Hero 9, but if there are some then I definitely want to know about it. Now you have me worried haha.

 

[Frito Bandito]

Thanks for that Paco. I searched around for some of the issues and many of them appear to have been resolved with updates. So, it might be okay now.

 

[LarryOz]

I loved my Garmin VIRB - it was very aero and Garmin VIRB edit let you meld all the data on the screens. I did just get an Insta360 - considered the Garmin 360 - buy it was much more expesive and is also discontinued now too. Not sure why. I am having some challenges mounting it in a nice place . Have tried my handlebars, top of helmet and top of race case. Still not happy with anything. WIll probably fabricate something special - maybe to go right no top of my right brifter so I can start and stop it easily. I am also just starting to learn the insta360 Studio software. We shall see.. more later. I also ordered this Kodak 360 to evaluate it: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0752NQMP2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Frito Bandito]

I loved my Garmin VIRB - it was very aero and Garmin VIRB edit let you meld all the data on the screens. I did just get an Insta360 - considered the Garmin 360 - buy it was much more expesive and is also discontinued now too. Not sure why. I am having some challenges mounting it in a nice place . Have tried my handlebars, top of helmet and top of race case. Still not happy with anything. WIll probably fabricate something special - maybe to go right no top of my right brifter so I can start and stop it easily. I am also just starting to learn the insta360 Studio software. We shall see.. more later. I also ordered this Kodak 360 to evaluate it: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0752NQMP2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Thanks Larry. Yeah, I had my eye on a Virb Elite a couple of years ago but the shop I saw it at removed it from the shelf. I do love the Garmin Video editing software though. It does all I need and is easy for my technically incompetent butt to understand. I had only seen the previous version from Kodak so I wasn't aware of the Orbit360, but it does have some nice options. I didn't see many videos on Youtube of how well the image stabilization works on a bicycle yet so I'll have to see how it performs on one first. I am trying to stay away from having to pay for video editing software as well as buying a camera that needs me to fix the footage it recorded. I had initially written off 360 cameras simply because I don't really want my face in the videos so mounting options would be limited to my head or head rest. But, in wide open areas a 360 camera would provide some awesome footage. I'd love to see how the Orbit360 performs on one of your rides.

 

[cpml123]

Does any of the 360 camera do loop recording and can be charged while recording? I looked at Insta360 a couple years ago, but it didn't loop record.

Right now I have an Akaso 4k camera ($60) loop recording connected to a portable charger, and it lasts 6 or more hours. In the back I have a Cycliq Fly6 ($200) for recording, and it's good for 5 or so hours unless I also connect it to a portable charger. In that case, it could last probably 10 hours.

I don't really look at the videos retrospectively because I record front and back mainly to document bad drivers...like yesterday a few impatient moron drivers honking at us. At least they didn't swerve at us. :-(

 

[Frito Bandito]

Does any of the 360 camera do loop recording and can be charged while recording? I looked at Insta360 a couple years ago, but it didn't loop record.

Right now I have an Akaso 4k camera ($60) loop recording connected to a portable charger, and it lasts 6 or more hours. In the back I have a Cycliq Fly6 ($200) for recording, and it's good for 5 or so hours unless I also connect it to a portable charger. In that case, it could last probably 10 hours.

I don't really look at the videos retrospectively because I record front and back mainly to document bad drivers...like yesterday a few impatient moron drivers honking at us. At least they didn't swerve at us. :-(

I am not sure if any of the 360 cameras have both loop recording and can be charged while recording, but it would be a nice option to have. I am not really promoting the Mohoc per se, but it does have loop recoding and an option to swap the original cover for one that allows a waterproof connector to an outside power source. I have used it as a bike dash cam for when I am on public streets, and the 1080p at 60fps is quite good at catching license plates. Once I decide on a front facing camera I will start using the Mohoc as a rear facing camera. Something along the lines of a GoPro 9 or Sony FDR-X3000 for the front to document my upcoming rides. Who knows though? A top mounted 360 camera could fulfill both roles to document the rides and for security.

 

[Mathew Fy]

I’ve been using these:
https://cycliq.com/

 

[Frito Bandito]

Those are pretty nice. Did you do any post video editing (image stabilization) before uploading it to Youtube, or was that straight from the camera?

 

[Mathew Fy]

Did you do any post video editing

It's possible to upload from the Cycliq directly to your phone and put Srava data overlay on it, then edit on your preferred video software. I prefer to upload to my desktop computer and edit there. If I want data overlay, I use Garmin VIRB Edit for that. Like I did for this one.

 

[Frito Bandito]

Nice video Matthew. It is really stable and the over/under is nice to show front and back. I use Garmin Virb online for editing also, and while I have a few videos I don't do anything fancy with my videos other than trim. I will continue to put G-Metrix overlays on some of the fast rides, but I am going to get a camera with image stabilization so I don't have to do that in post production. I'd also like to start using Time Warp and Time Lapse as well for the tours.