Bike-mounted video
First, some background:
Back at Christmas, my wife and I decided we needed a video camera, what with a child on the way and all, so we bought a Flip Mino solid-state camera (http://www.theflip.com/products_flip_mino.shtml#scene=sceneMain). It's worked out well, and I started to think about its suitability for action shooting (i.e. on my bike). Flip makes an action mount for this purpose, but it's velcro, so not tremendously stable under the conditions many folks would ride, and it's $15. Being thrifty, I researched a bit and discovered that someone had designed a better mount using standard hardware for around $1 (http://www.instructables.com/id/Bicycle-Camera-Mount-for-under-%241/). Earlier this week, I finally dug up some of the parts I already had (some rubber washers, and a reflector mount), and hit up the local hardware store for the rest. I picked out some brass wing nuts that were pricier than spec'ed at $1.30 each, but I was shooting for ruggedness. My rubber washers were quite a bit thicker than the spec called for, so I only used one up against the camera, but otherwise, I followed the directions to a tee.
Today at lunch, I needed to head to the post office and village hall, so I decided to try things out. To see the ride (~18 minutes long, outbound only), head over to YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/kristianzoerhoff
I broke the clip into 3 5-6 minute segments to keep things reasonable, and stay under YouTube's 10-minute limit. It's pretty boring, being the 'burbs and all, but if you've thought about doing a bike-mounted video camera, this could be your ticket.
Back at Christmas, my wife and I decided we needed a video camera, what with a child on the way and all, so we bought a Flip Mino solid-state camera (http://www.theflip.com/products_flip_mino.shtml#scene=sceneMain). It's worked out well, and I started to think about its suitability for action shooting (i.e. on my bike). Flip makes an action mount for this purpose, but it's velcro, so not tremendously stable under the conditions many folks would ride, and it's $15. Being thrifty, I researched a bit and discovered that someone had designed a better mount using standard hardware for around $1 (http://www.instructables.com/id/Bicycle-Camera-Mount-for-under-%241/). Earlier this week, I finally dug up some of the parts I already had (some rubber washers, and a reflector mount), and hit up the local hardware store for the rest. I picked out some brass wing nuts that were pricier than spec'ed at $1.30 each, but I was shooting for ruggedness. My rubber washers were quite a bit thicker than the spec called for, so I only used one up against the camera, but otherwise, I followed the directions to a tee.
Today at lunch, I needed to head to the post office and village hall, so I decided to try things out. To see the ride (~18 minutes long, outbound only), head over to YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/kristianzoerhoff
I broke the clip into 3 5-6 minute segments to keep things reasonable, and stay under YouTube's 10-minute limit. It's pretty boring, being the 'burbs and all, but if you've thought about doing a bike-mounted video camera, this could be your ticket.
Views: 30
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Ian on
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nothing you can do about boring, but the video quality is good. If someone is willing to spend more $ and less time, REI sells a small plastic bending, grippy little tripod ($20?) with a quick-release mount that will accomplish the same thing. The Flip Mino is a great, simple, digital video camera.
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Permalink Reply by Dubi Kaufmann on
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Here is an idea to make your future bike video more edgy.
Have the camera face backwards and reverse the video and speed it up. It will look like you are riding on the wrong side of the street towards upcoming traffic. To make the video look really dangerous, try to ride faster than the cars.
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Permalink Reply by Tank-Ridin' Ryan on
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Nice video. Amazingly good quality. Did you get the HD Flip or the standard def Flip?
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Dubi Kaufmann said:Here is an idea to make your future bike video more edgy.
Have the camera face backwards and reverse the video and speed it up. It will look like you are riding on the wrong side of the street towards upcoming traffic. To make the video look really dangerous, try to ride faster than the cars.
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Permalink Reply by vxla on
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I don't know if your camera has this capability, but newer HD cameras usually have a 60/fps setting that helps with "shake". I have an Aiptek camera that does 780p@60/fps. I've only used it snowboarding, but the shake isn't bad at all.
You could also try one of these on a helmet (which I plan on doing next winter when out in the snow).
http://www.twenty20camera.com/
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Permalink Reply by XV on
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Ian said:
You can get a cheaper one ~$5 shipped from here (takes about 10 days since it's shipped from china) They also have a bunch of bike mounts/lights and cheap accessories...REI sells a small plastic bending, grippy little tripod ($20?) with a quick-release mount that will accomplish the same thing....
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Yes I have, it's a fairly popular site, just dont order anything extravagant or illegal
then again that might be good to mount on your bike, unless it makes people look at their phone and swerve into you
Brian Kennedy said:Have you ordered from them before?
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Permalink Reply by Steven Vance on
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I use a "studio clamp" from Calumet Photo to mount my regular Sony point and shoot camera onto my handlebars, fork, or rear rack. Here's the relatively smooth result:
More examples:
31st Street Lakefront Trail detour
Side by side tracking experiment
Camera mounted to fork.
The clamp mounts anywhere - on tubes, poles, tabletops, etc...
More details about my setup.
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