what camera for road riding?

Looking for compact camera with say 4-6hrs recording capability – not high res – just enough to capture close passes and reg plate.   Have “avoided” buying one for a long time as I like the simple life on me bike, however the number of close passes warrant taking action now fwiw.

I am not overly price sensitive more focused on something that isn’t too bulky and has decent battery life and recording storage.

Cheers

Needs to be fairly high-res to have a hope of seeing reg plates. 60fps if possible too instead of 30 but this is harder to come by.

I have a Chili cam which fits all your criteria except battery life: think it’s around 1 or 1.5 hours (not sure as I usually go on short journeys and charge it every week or so…)

I had the Cycliq Fly front light / camera module for a while.

It’s actually quite a big ask to expect it to get a number plate in a fast close pass with, say the number plate, in the shadow.

Sold it on eBay in the end as it was heavy and wasn’t that useful.

https://cycliq.com/bike-cameras/fly12-sport/

Also, the light + camera battery couldn’t last our typical winter road ride length (5 – 5 1/2 hours), so it always died before the end of the ride. Probably would last if it was warmer.

It wasn’t compatible with Polar mounts, so I had to bodge my own…

Cycliq Fly 12 and Polar mount by Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr

Looking on with interest as I am starting to get concerned about the number of close passes and interesting driving.

Presume a new version of Garmin’s radar cam will be out soon (can be set to only film when the radar is triggered) – initial version didn’t have a great camera.

I used to have a Chilli cam

They are quite small, easy to mount to a helmet, can be bought for around £70

I could get around 3-4 hours out of one battery

Its biggest downfall for me was it could not capture number plates at night (half my daily commute is in the dark) along with being unable to clearly capture drivers on their moble phones whilst they are pulling out/cutting across my path during the day

https://www.chilli-tech.com/action-cameras/Bullet-Camera-For-Cycling

Also had a Drift Ghost XL camera, basically made for motorbikes, bit bulkier than a Chilli cam, upto 8 hours battery life, better at catching number plates at night and drivers on their phones

https://www.sportsbikeshop.co.uk/motorcycle_parts/content_prod/454072

Best ive had is a GoPro Hero 8, captures number plates at night perfectly, drivers on their phones is no problem, downsides are they are a bit bulky and awkward to mount, battery only lasted around 1.5hrs

Ive yet to find a camera that meets all my needs in a nice size that i can mount to my helmet, Chilli cam now have a 4k one with stabilization so im looking into that

Rear

This one. Amazing camera

https://tooocycling.sg/

Front camera, i am still soldiering on with a Fly

.

Tooo front is on the way, April delivery I think.

 except battery life: think it’s around 1 or 1.5 hours (not sure as I usually go on short journeys and charge it every week or so…)

My chilli cam will do 4 hours no problem. Not very good at night as said or when raining hard but apart from when cars are at funny angles so reg not visible it has done the job needed. It’s mainly purpose though is to help me not react which it has mostly done well too!!

A rear facing one is also a good idea. Have a look at the Cycliq Fly6. G&G used to have one connected to a screen

Fly6. Mine won’t go that distance though. Also Garmin Varia because forewarned is forearmed.

Cycliq fly12 is probably as close as you’ll get but front only, if I had only one camera I’d go rear (like the sound of the garmin only recording when it detects something). the fly12 is a bit of bloater, the fly6 much smaller and lighter but only really any good for commutes type ride, longer rides and it’ll die.

That 4k Chilli looks good. Or 1080p @60fps, with a 3 hour run time, £100… nice.

One other point to mention is that I believe some police forces will only accept footage if it’s timestamped, even if that’s not 100% correct then it certainly makes things easier regardless. Unless you’re recording for your own use or to make a Rad Edit™, leave the timestamp on.

I keep looking at chilli. But I keep getting put off.

They have 3 cameras. £70, £80 and £100. The cheapest has the longest battery life, 4.5 hours and replacement battery. But the lowest tech.

The other two are not replacable battery but better resolution and image stabilisation.

So I guess, is the cheaper one up for the job?

The cheaper one is up to the job if you just want to capture number plates during the day, works fine for that

If you want to catch mobile phone users etc.. during the day or capture number plates at night then its rubbish

Still waitng for reply from Chilli cam about the 4K camera’s night time ability

Thanks for the replies – went for the Ghost XL – the longer battery life and more functionality sold it to me – plus I ride mbikes as well

Its biggest downfall for me was it could not capture number plates at night (half my daily commute is in the dark) along with being unable to clearly capture drivers on their moble phones whilst they are pulling out/cutting across my path during the day

………..

Ive yet to find a camera that meets all my needs in a nice size that i can mount to my helmet, Chilli cam now have a 4k one with stabilization so im looking into that

The issue is that a lot of the image quality comes down to processing power.

Processing power is:
– Expensive to buy (the hardware)
– Expensive to develop (the firmware)
– Expensive to run (battery life)

I’ve not seen the new chilli cameras, but their old ones would claim things like “sony sensors”, which is great, Sony make great sensors, but if it’s not backed up with quality lenses and a well developed processor then it’s useless.

e.g. if you watch Ambulances on the BBC, the in-ambulance footage is all shot at 1080i50 (i.e. a resolution most on this thread would turn their nose up at). The difference is that it’s using decent lenses, and then the image is well processed so you’re actually getting 1080 lines of detail. Not just one grain of detail smudged across multiple pixels. The end result is an image that isn’t as good as the FX9 they use outside the truck, but still looks acceptable on your TV at home (and you can usually read much smaller details than a number plate).

I’d be tempted to run one of the smaller go-pro’s off an external battery. With a bit of drilling/sealant/putty you can make a pass-through waterproof case and just stuff a powerbank that’ll last all week in your too tube bag.

Two stupidly close shaves today so v interested in how this thread is updated with further comments.

Thanks in advance