Can anyone lend/hire me a bike/helmet cam?

The wife and I are off to Switzerland at the end of June to visit friends and do a bike trip (see post http://londonbikers.com/forums/Topic370741-78-1.aspx) and wondered if anyone had a bike or helmet camera I could use?I think that some of the passes that we’ll be using, pictured on that post, will make for some fantastic footage.

I’m hiring a Kawasaki GTR1400 out there for the trip, as it should be great 2 up with luggage. Anyone have any experience of them? It’ll be slightly different to the VTR!

Thanks if you can help.

Can’t help too much but Oregon Scientific used to market a very compact self contained digital video camera for silly, small money.

It was tested on the Gadget show and came out as best buy and almost indestructable.

(I tried to buy one a couple of years back but fell foul of the U.S. anti terrorism laws as they had banned the export to Europe. I could still buy it in France though.)

Thanks Oldguy. I’ve found the Oregon camera on Amazon for about £70, they’ve obviously relaxed the security!

Is that an all in 1? I’ve heard bad things about the oregon if so.

Came out well in the Gadget Show tests but it might be worth checking user reviews on the 'net before shelling out the dosh.

User reviews on Amazon go both ways as usual, some say brilliant, some say total crap. Not a lot of help! I’ll try and find others.

That’s a bit of a problem with user reviews, personal expectations vary so much.

There are some people out there who want to pay the least then complain when they don’t get the most. (I work with one of those and I think he’s beggining to get the message from me and others that he’s a tightwad little prat.)

At £70 it’s not going to be a Sony professional job. You’ll get better from a decent palmcam, but pay £’s more.

The only thing I’d say is to repeat that Gadget Show rated it best value for money and it survived their quite severe tests that included a lot of strapped to m/c stuff. (I expect the programme is still out there somewhere if you want to look.)

At the end of the day, it’s your money, your judgement. (Amazon do have fairly decent returns policy but open the packaging carefully and retain.)

Added bit. If you are anywhere near the Stelvio Pass, do the decent. Awsome.

The ascent is for whimps.

Thanks Oldguy. A mate has offered the use of his palmcam, so if I can attach it to the bike I may take him up on the offer. If not the Oregon may be a decent choice.

I’ve seen some pretty good videos from the ACT2000, I agree it’s not going to be the best but for a compact, all in one waterproof camera the results are surprisingly good. Great for rideouts, track days etc.

GSXRAng also pointed out that they are the ideal shower cam . . . now there’s a thought ! ;):stuck_out_tongue:

cool have fun - sorry I don’t have anything I can lend you but just wanted to say hi and wondered where in Switzerland you are going, will you ride around the alps? I started riding when I lived in Switzerland and I think it is just a fantastic place to be (when on a bike) sometimes I totally miss it.

I met Ang for the first time last night. Shower cam? I see her in a different light now:DThanks for the feedback.

J, the pictures of the passes we’re doing are on another of my posts http://londonbikers.com/forums/Topic370741-78-1.aspx.

Here’s a map of where we’re going to. The trip starts in Elgg, where our friends live, with us boys on the bikes and the girls in the car with the baby. We then meet up in Flims, where Ivo’s family live, dump the car and hand the little 'un to Ivo’s family. The girls jump on the bikes and we head off to the lake.

I’ve been riding with Ivo once before on the roads around Elgg and it’s just fantastic. Brilliant roads, fantastic views and no traffic!:smiley:

I have an ATC2K. Initially it lived up to my zero expectations, picture was so shaky it was not viewable.

Have now mounted it solidly to the fairing and it has made a huge difference, I had it on the mirror stalk, but the camera cannot deal with vibrations. However after doing that I had in excess of an 80% failure rate with it quite often corrupting the SD card (needing a reformat). Yesterday I got a Sandisk Ultra II SD card and tried it out on the ride to the BM, worked perfectly no locking up, turning itself off or the file corruption. It is only 1 test, but I’m impressed with the improvement. It’s ended up being not too bad after all.

Find somewhere that does not move and also that won’t transmit too much vibration to the camera. The sound is awful, but if the volume is kept low on playback it is OK, but watch out for wind noise. Get high speed SD cards, the cheap and cheerful ones will end in tears.

I know the Swiss are anti most things motorised, the bullet cam might be mistaken for a radar detector and draw unwanted attention from the authorities. I have seen a similar type of camera which looks like a mini point and shoot, but is about double the price. The upside of this one is there is no mistaking it is a camera and the mounting brackets seem far sturdier than the ATC.

-Steve