October 13, 20141 Comment on I’m the weirdo with the camera
An animated Lego mountain bike adventure, in case you missed this over the weekend. It’s pretty funny because it pokes fun at people like me who shoot photos of people like you.
I don’t usually shoot photos of people catching big air on their bikes, but when I do they turn out like this.
April 25, 2014Leave a Comment
February 17, 20141 Comment on Bike advocacy in this video
The Atlanta Bicycle Coalition highlights the simple pleasures of biking while also talking up their accomplishments and projects. Well done.
H/T to Russ.
February 13, 20146 Comments on My thoughts on the Fly6
Everybody has been talking about the Australian “Fly6” Kickstarter project. If you haven’t heard of it yet, the Fly6 integrates an HD camera into a bicycle “blinky” tail light. The idea is to make ride cameras so ubiquitous that aggressive motorists will never know if they’re on candid camera or not, kind of how dashcams are so popular in Russia.
The notable differentiating features for me:
February 4, 20141 Comment on Count the number of moving cars in my bike commute video
If it bleeds, it leads, which is why I suppose so many helmet-cam videos feature close calls and idiots on the road. To try to skew the ratio back towards reality, I’ve started posting boring videos showing my carefree bike rides.
This video shows the entire part of my seven mile daily commute between downtown San Jose and my office in Santa Clara where I share the road with motor vehicles. Count the number of moving vehicles I interact with. This is very typical of my morning commute.
This video shows all of the on-road part of the route I will take during tomorrow morning’s San Jose Bike Train. The rest of it involves six miles of blissfull, stress free bike path.
Looks alright, right? If you think so, please join us for tomorrow’s inaugural San Jose bike train. We’ll meet 8:15 AM, February 5, 2014 at Diridon Station and serve destinations along the Guadalupe Parkway / North 1st Street corridor.
February 3, 20145 Comments on New action cameras for your bike
I’d been riding with a GoPro Hero camera since shortly after the introduction of their early standard definition model in 2008. The clunky boxy design is readily identifiable, yet I still frequently run into people who ask me what that goofy thing mounted on the end of my stick is.
GoPro invented the market for low-cost consumer “action” cameras and remains the market leader. These shockproof, waterproof cameras are meant for use in action sports.
Other good action cameras exist — the now struggling Contour with integrated GPS is perhaps the most popular for cyclists after the various models of GoPro Hero cameras. UK based Drift has their HD Ghost camera. Sony, JVC and other more mainstream digital products makers have introduced their own models of action cameras with varying levels of success.
Over the past few months, companies normally identified with sporting goods have entered this crowded market with action cameras of their own.
Garmin Virb
Garmin’s Virb action camera (MSRP $299) features all of the goodies you’d expect in any action camera released today: 1080p HD video, durability, water resistance, a variety of mounts, a USB rechargeable battery good for up to three hours of video, and a high frame rate for slow motion video.
Anybody who’s familiar with GoPro’s sucky user interface will love that the Virb includes a decent UI, complete with a full color preview screen and an on-off button that can be used with a gloved hand. Other handy features include digital image stabilization, smartphone remote control, and and mounts with interlocking joints (read “teeth”) instead of the slipping tension mounts used by GoPro.
The feature everybody’s talking about is ANT+ wireless connectivity to control your phone wireless from your Garmin / ANT+ compatible device. You can start and stop your phone from your handlebar mounted gizmo, even if the Garmin Virb is mounted on your helmet, your chainstay, or wherever.
Finally, GPS and other telemetry data can be automatically overlaid into your video to show a visual representation of your route, speed, cadence, and power without the use of third party software such as Dashware.
Acquaintances who now have the Virb after years of using GoPro’s cameras tell me they love this camera. Here’s the promotional video from Garmin to show you what you can expect.
Shimano Action Camera
The big news today is Shimano’s announcement of their CM-100 Sport Camera.
Like the Garmin Virb, this camera features ANT+ connectivity. Shimano says this camera will also interoperate with their Di2 system; Bike Radar speculates this is to integrate gearing data into the video recordings.
The big differentiating feature for this camera in my opinion: it’s waterproof to 10 meters for two hours without the optional housing. Other goodies: f2.0 lens aperture for superior low light video and photography, super HD video of up to 2528×1422 pixels, auto image rotation for a proper “landscape” horizontal video orientation no matter how your camera is mounted.
The only provided mount is an adhesive flat surface mount, but this camera mount appears like it could work with GoPro’s large collection of mounting systems. The sample movies shot with this camera includes shooting from what seems to be underneath the bottom bracket. I might have to try that myself sometime if I can figure out how to mount a camera there without snagging the derailleur cables.
Coming May with MSRP $299.