Anyone bought a cheap (reasonable quality) handlebar cam?

[Madk higgins]

As per the title, just after a reasonable quality cheapish cycle cam I can mount on my handlebars. I mainly want it for the shortish road cycling journeys I do due to the amount of not so good drivers out there (that was diplomatically put).

I won't pay hundreds for a gopro, but any suggestions of something that will do the job appreciated?

 

[Gary]

one of the cheap SJ cam Gopro copies with a large enough SD card should fit the bill.

Why do you want to video bad drivers though?

 

[Madk higgins]

one of the cheap SJ cam Gopro copies with a large enough SD card should fit the bill.

Why do you want to video bad drivers though?

Thanks for the info. Yes, standard of driving isn't too great and occasionally I will video some of my bike trails (not that will be at the least bit exciting for anyone else to watch).

 

[jerry]

The Gopro clones are actually rather good, image-qualitywise. A testament is that some chinese manufacturers started cloning a GoProclone as some point (I could be wrong, i thought I remember it was... SJ-cam or something? Look at the amazon-reviews.
Of course, don't expect the latest Image Stabilization yet - they are yet to clone that
If you want to enjoy it longer - buy a second battery at the same time.

 

[Mikerb]

loads of second hand Gopros on the market.....something like the Session 5 which was a good price in the first place has excellent video quality and has video stabilisation...albeit not the latest hypersmooth but if you are going to handlebar mount the video will be mostly useless on anything other than smooth surfaces unless the cam has video stabilisation. If you go for a cheapie its probably better to helmet mount it.

 

[dirt huffer]

Might be more fun to rig up a loud ass horn to mess with drivers who misbehave.

 

[iXi]

I bought a gopro hero 2018 for a couple of hundred then flashed it with gopro hero 5 firmware, works a treat. The hero 2018 is a just a firmware crippled hero 5. Can't go wrong for the price and the image stablization isn't on par with the black 7 but it's still decent.

 

[Mikerb]

Some considerations before you make your choice. Action cams have a relatively small battery life of typically 2 to 3 hours so recharging on a daily basis is required for commute rides or get a couple of spare batteries. 1080 is all you need...higher res will use sd card capacity quicker meaning you will need a bigger capacity and higher spec sd card which will cost more than a cheap cam by itself. You need a waterproof cam. IP7 "waterproof" will not survive at 15mph in driving rain. Gopro 5 series on are waterproof without a case to a much higher IP standard. You can get bike " dashcams" like the Fly ...works like a dashcam and has a gyro to detect if you fall and auto saves the footage. If you bar mount the cam needs to be a very wide angle lens.....170 degrees.....helmet is better. For bar mounting the mount is as important as the cam. Most plastic ones are useless...too fragile and not stable enough. Get something made of alloy and allen key fixed.

 

[Sandy]

Alloy mounts are buttons on ebay. Just ordered a black one that i can fit my bargain ebay second hand Olfi too.