Eight years of progress in the action camera world gets you from a rather expensive Cycliq Fly6:
To an SJCAM C100+ camera costing the better part of fifty bucks on closeout:
The camera is mounted on the side of the seat frame on Mary’s Tour Easy:
The slightly tilted picture comes from the frame rail’s incline. My C100+ camera mounts on the horizontal part of the rail:
As expected, the internal battery does not last for our usual hour-long rides, so the cameras now operate in “car mode”: recording starts when we plug in the USB battery pack and stops shortly after unplugging.
I started with the waterproof case on my bike:
Which (obviously) does not allow for an external battery, so they’re now in the “frame” mount. The hatch covering the MicroSD card and USB Micro-B connector (and a Reset button!) is on the bottom of the camera, but (fortunately) the whole affair mounts up-side-down and the settings include an image flip mode.
Putting the camera on the side required changing the mount angle from -20° to +35°:
The ergonomics / user interface of this whole setup is terrible:
- The camera’s flexible hatch is recessed inside the frame far enough that it cannot be opened without using a small & sharp screwdriver
- The USB jack is slightly off-center, so lining the plug up with the camera body doesn’t align it with the jack
- The MicroSD card is in a push-to-release socket, but its raised ridge faces the hatch flap and cannot be reached by a fingernail. I added a small tab that helps, but it’s difficult to grasp.
Extracting the video files from the camera through the app is an exercise in frustration. Having already figured out how to do this for the other cameras in the fleet, it’s easier to fumble with the MicroSD card.
I devoutly hope we never really need any of the videos.
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 