I need a camera

ChaoSS · November 27th, 2013, 02:04 AM

So I've been wanting a camera but haven't wanted to pay for it. In the past few months though, I've had way too many incidents where i should have had cameras rolling. So here are my criteria.

Water proof. I commute in the rain.

Need to be able to charge it In the truck. When i get to work i need to be able to take it off the bike and move it into my work truck and charge it while running video.

Need to be able to review it on the go. Either wifi with the phone, or a removable flash drive i can access in the truck.

Not necessary, but i would prefer something that is unobtrusive. If something happens and i am not entirely blameless, I'd prefer to have a choice in whether anyone sees the video.

Very important, i need to be able to see a license plate at 150-200 feet with the camera mounted behind a windshield with my headlights lighting up the plate at night.

tfkrocks · November 27th, 2013, 04:04 AM

I've now used a camera from GoPro (Hero3 black), Drift (720p), and Contour(+). I've liked the GoPro the most so far (though to be fair, I have a top level GoPro camera and not as high level cameras from Drift and Contour).

All of them are waterproof. GoPro has a waterproof housing, the others are supposed to be waterproof as is.

GoPro can charge while filming, but not from inside the housing unless you alter with drilling. I suppose you can use the camera without housing inside the truck. Contour cameras are stupid and won't charge and film at the same time. Drift cameras must be opened to charge, but can film at the same time. Obviously opening the casing would take away the waterproof part, but probably won't matter in your truck. Another option you consider is getting one of those Wasabi battery replacements + charger. They allow you to plug the charger through a car power source so you can just leave the charger in your truck and swap batteries. That option is available for all the cameras.

All the cameras use a micro sd card so if you have a laptop with an sd card adapter (usually comes with the micro sd card) then that's easy. You can also just put the micro sd card in any smartphone, although video formats may be an issue depending on the camera. I remember being able to delete vids from the GoPro on my phone. GoPro can use a phone app to mess with videos and settings although I haven't bothered much with it. Contour has an app, but I don't recall it allowing dealing with the videos themselves. Drift has a built in screen so you can review/delete videos on the go.

Most decent cameras are going to be obvious. GoPros are the most recognize-able of course. People always asked me what the Drift and Contour cameras were. There's that 808(I think that's the name?) keychain camera that people on here have discussed but it doesn't come across as a reliable thing for me. It's super small and easily hidden though if you really want that.

My Drift camera does up to 720p only; I wouldn't trust it to catch license plates. My Contour does up to 1080p but still didn't seem great quality so it may or may not catch license plates. I use my GoPro on 1080p and signs and license plates are crystal clear in daylight. I honestly wouldn't expect too much out of night time videos unless you have really good headlights.

I've gotten progressively better cameras so obviously the quality improved and I like the GoPro best. However, Drift definitely has higher quality stuff out there so it might be worth checking out. Contour shut down so no newer stuff for now, but the company was bought so there's the potential for better stuff in the future.

Don't delay on getting the camera. Earlier this year I had been looking at cameras but really didn't want to blow the cash just yet so I kept putting it off. Of course, then I got in a crash with no witnesses and no cameras so I got screwed. I've paid a lot more fixing my bike than a couple of top-level cameras would've cost.

bdavison · November 27th, 2013, 04:44 AM

GoPro Hero3 - 100%, there just is nothing better out there, don't waste your time with anything else.
There are three things the GoPro has over everything else out there for motorcycle recording. One, is the wide angle screen that will capture more than just about all of the other cams. Two, is the mounting options that are available for the GoPro...you can mount it anywhere you want. Three, is the bombproof case that will go through just about anything but an apocalyptic gravel avalanche.

DEFY · November 27th, 2013, 05:45 AM

Drift has just released the Ghost S. Previos versions are Drift HD, Drift Ghost and now Drift Ghost S. Drift has been a favorite among most motovloggers and has great quality. Next would be the GoPro. I know that Garmin has released a camera but from reveiws it has a lot of issues. GoPro can be attached either on the top, side or smack dab infront of your face so it can be covered by your face shield. The Drift can be mounted on the side or top and holds up great during incidents, has a remote for recording and all its various modes which is corresponded to by led colors on the remote. There are plenty videos on youtube showing the video quality between drift, gopro and contour.

ChaoSS · November 27th, 2013, 08:57 AM

I think one of the most important things right now is night time clarity. Anyone have experience with that with their camera?

tfkrocks · November 27th, 2013, 11:09 AM

I always ride with my cameras, day or night. Nighttime quality is just never as good as daytime quality, even with the top camera I have. However I haven't tried a higher quality setting than 1080p on my GoPro because even the 1080p eats up the battery life and memory card space so quickly (it has a few cinema quality settings). Also I have the most basic headlights on my 250 so they suck and barely light anything. If you have better headlights, you'd probably have more luck.

kirk595x · November 27th, 2013, 11:44 AM

I have the Drift 1080HD. I am very happy with it. I have the Wasabi ac/dc battery charger and extra batteries so I'm never without spare power on the bike

Pros-Built in screen, easy to use menu on the fly , better battery life than GoPro, Can be charged on the go even while filming, micro Hdmi port, rotatable and rebuildable lens, remote control is standard, Zoom can be adjusted for video, excellent customer support and warranty.

Cons- picture quality not as good as GoPro3, Underwater case sold separately.

I have used mine in the rain with no problems and I'm content with my purchase. I've owned one of the original GoPro Hero's and was less than pleased with it for racing offroad but thats an older model. I have plans to get the Ghost HD as the price has gone down and I want to have the better pic quality and wifi funtionality. Drift 1080HD is pretty cheap now at around $180 with extras. Ebay and Amazon are the best deals.

Alex · November 27th, 2013, 11:58 AM

With any of these, is the ability to read license plates at 200 feet at night ever going to be possible? I'm skeptical, but don't have enough experience with all of these to make that judgement. I own a Hero 3 Black, but haven't played with it enough at night (or at all, truthfully). Looking at the commercial cameras that are designed to pick up license plates, the lenses are much, much larger than these tiny digicams and are orders of magnitude more expensive.

ChaoSS · November 27th, 2013, 04:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alex

With any of these, is the ability to read license plates at 200 feet at night ever going to be possible? I'm skeptical, but don't have enough experience with all of these to make that judgement. I own a Hero 3 Black, but haven't played with it enough at night (or at all, truthfully). Looking at the commercial cameras that are designed to pick up license plates, the lenses are much, much larger than these tiny digicams and are orders of magnitude more expensive.

Larger lenses makes sense, of course, more light collection, it's just like a pair of binoculars or a rifle scope, you want to see in low light you get a bigger objective lens.

But are the big names out there really so bad at this? It's not like I want to pick out a plate with no light, the headlights would be picking it up, situations where I would be able to see the plate just fine, but in situations like that a lot of cameras have a hard time with the light balance so the plates would simply be washed out. I was hoping something would do a decent job of not doing that.

NinjaDucky · November 27th, 2013, 05:35 PM

I record with a GoPro Hero2. i have a hard time believing that it could read plate numbers from 100-200 feet at night, then again i have mine mounted to the windscreen at 80+ mph and i get a lot of shake, rattle, and roll when im recording. heres some links to daytime and nighttime videos from the front of my bike using the hero2 from gopro, i imagine that the hero3 is better though. im recording at 1080p from the suction-cup mounted waterproof housing. this makes it hard for much outside sound aside from the engine to get through, and you cant charge it through that case without modding, but i think the hero3 hase both case styles so you can get one for your bike and one for your truck that has a charging port. also has the flashcard taht pops right out of the side which makes transferring to a computer or reviewing quickly not so bad. i only wish it had a view lense so i could see what its pointed at instead of guessing. ive never tried to use the hero2 while charging though so i dunno if that is a possibility.

Heres a 4 part video that starts in the late afternoon and goes until its almost completely dark out:

Link to original page on YouTube.

Heres one well after dark:

Link to original page on YouTube.

tfkrocks · November 27th, 2013, 05:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NinjaDucky

but i think the hero3 hase both case styles so you can get one for your bike and one for your truck that has a charging port.

Hero3 has both cases but neither of them has an opening to the charging port.

NinjaDucky · November 27th, 2013, 05:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tfkrocks

Hero3 has both cases but neither of them has an opening to the charging port.

Found this one here, is that not the charging port? i may be mistaken

http://cdn.luxatic.com/wp-content/up...ro-HERO3-4.jpg

heres the full page: http://luxatic.com/gopro-has-launche...ro3-actioncam/

ChaoSS · November 27th, 2013, 06:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NinjaDucky

I record with a GoPro Hero2. i have a hard time believing that it could read plate numbers from 100-200 feet at night, then again i have mine mounted to the windscreen at 80+ mph and i get a lot of shake, rattle, and roll when im recording. heres some links to daytime and nighttime videos from the front of my bike using the hero2 from gopro, i imagine that the hero3 is better though. im recording at 1080p from the suction-cup mounted waterproof housing. this makes it hard for much outside sound aside from the engine to get through, and you cant charge it through that case without modding, but i think the hero3 hase both case styles so you can get one for your bike and one for your truck that has a charging port. also has the flashcard taht pops right out of the side which makes transferring to a computer or reviewing quickly not so bad. i only wish it had a view lense so i could see what its pointed at instead of guessing. ive never tried to use the hero2 while charging though so i dunno if that is a possibility.

Heres a 4 part video that starts in the late afternoon and goes until its almost completely dark out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bEQdkbJlto

Heres one well after dark: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sI2_VPBDANU

I can not, for the life of me, get that thing to play in HD. I try to switch it to HD and it just keeps going in crappy quality.

NinjaDucky · November 27th, 2013, 06:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChaoSS

I can not, for the life of me, get that thing to play in HD. I try to switch it to HD and it just keeps going in crappy quality.

you know, funny story, i have all the settings on HD and 1080 and all that... and i cant get it to play back in high quality either... its maddening... im just copying the MP4 over from the gopro, but im more of a "Go" and less of a "Pro" when it comes to videography so if anyone has any tips on that id be glad to take em.

Edit: it may possibly be a dirty case on the mount too... at least for the light streaks... and on some of those i tried youtubes motion reduction stuff to try to smooth out the video and it seems to make it a little less clear.

Edit Edit: okay yeah just researched and checked the settings, im running the camera at 1080-30 mode which is supposed to be the highest quality with the most pixels blah blah blah stuff and things... so im not sure why its not playing back as nicely as its recording... again, tips anyone?

Brian · November 27th, 2013, 09:59 PM

I have owned the GoPro HD Hero 2 last year and sold it because I wasn't using it much. Now that I ride my motorcycle I should probably re-invest in one. Honestly unless your willing to shell out the obnoxious $80 for the screen LCD attachment there is no point in getting the camera if you can't see what you're recording. For example, even if you're going to mount the camera you'd want to know what the angle looks like and unfortunately you can't with the GoPro.

GoPro - Best camera if you have the best money

Other great cameras that get the job done:
-Drift
-Contour
-Ion
-Sony

Make sure it's waterproof and it's HD, then you're all set.

tfkrocks · November 27th, 2013, 10:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NinjaDucky

Found this one here, is that not the charging port? i may be mistaken

http://cdn.luxatic.com/wp-content/up...ro-HERO3-4.jpg

heres the full page: http://luxatic.com/gopro-has-launche...ro3-actioncam/

That's a frame mount and isn't a standard accessory with the Hero3. It also leaves the camera open to the elements and I personally wouldn't use it.

jeffb502 · November 27th, 2013, 10:55 PM

This thread made me finally order a camera. I was looking at gopros and stumbled across a mention of the Sony HDR-AS15 in one of the reviews. It's on Amazon for $102.87 used or $128 new (fulfilled by Amazon/Prime eligible for either option) so I picked one up. Didn't see it mentioned here...it doesn't meet all of the specs in the OP but it seems to be a good value for anybody else that comes here and gets inspired like I did.

Brian · November 27th, 2013, 11:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeffb502

This thread made me finally order a camera. I was looking at gopros and stumbled across a mention of the Sony HDR-AS15 in one of the reviews. It's on Amazon for $102.87 used or $128 new (fulfilled by Amazon/Prime eligible for either option) so I picked one up. Didn't see it mentioned here...it doesn't meet all of the specs in the OP but it seems to be a good value for anybody else that comes here and gets inspired like I did.

Yeah I just gave out the site in my post above for the Sony action cams. I'm hearing good things from them. Tell me when you get yours if it's worth it. They're pretty cheap in comparison to the others. I might have to try one out.

algs26 · November 28th, 2013, 10:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DEFY

Drift has just released the Ghost S. Previos versions are Drift HD, Drift Ghost and now Drift Ghost S. Drift has been a favorite among most motovloggers and has great quality. Next would be the GoPro. I know that Garmin has released a camera but from reveiws it has a lot of issues. GoPro can be attached either on the top, side or smack dab infront of your face so it can be covered by your face shield. The Drift can be mounted on the side or top and holds up great during incidents, has a remote for recording and all its various modes which is corresponded to by led colors on the remote. There are plenty videos on youtube showing the video quality between drift, gopro and contour.

I found some night time footage. Time stamp wouldn't work here so manually scrub to 1min 50s.

Link to original page on YouTube.

NinjaDucky · November 28th, 2013, 01:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tfkrocks

That's a frame mount and isn't a standard accessory with the Hero3. It also leaves the camera open to the elements and I personally wouldn't use it.

Ah1 okay then, yeah i wouldnt use it for the bike but he also needed one in the cab of his truck so i thought as a dashboard mount it would worl perfectly since he could charge as he recorded with ease.

NinjaDucky · November 28th, 2013, 01:26 PM

that ghost looks great. and i like the design of it too, seems like it my better suit a helmet cam than the GoPro does

ChaoSS · November 28th, 2013, 03:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NinjaDucky

Ah1 okay then, yeah i wouldnt use it for the bike but he also needed one in the cab of his truck so i thought as a dashboard mount it would worl perfectly since he could charge as he recorded with ease.

Yeah, to clarify, I need something waterproof and I need something that can charge while recording, but it doesn't need to be waterproof while charging.

DEFY · November 29th, 2013, 09:31 AM

The ghost is a lot more compact than the gopro. It comes with a different back cover in order to make it waterproof and there is a few videos I have watched where a bike crashed directly on top of the camera that was mounted on the side of the bike during races and the only damage was the broken gorilla glass. Still recoded and worked fine. The choice is obviously up to you which camera you choose as either the ghost or the gopro would be great choices. Unfornunitly the gopro in order to be waterproof you need a housing to be placed in.

DeltaFoxtrotZulu · November 29th, 2013, 10:26 AM

I've got the GoPro Hero 3 Black and it's pretty nice. After showing the footage to a friend with an older model he upgraded because the 3 Black had better clarity and much better night footage than his older model.

The new + models have a superview feature which is an interesting ultrawide mode. Look on YouTube for example videos.

tfkrocks · November 30th, 2013, 01:52 AM

http://www.bayarearidersforum.com/fo....php?p=8278838

This might be of interest to you. Drift Ghost + accessories and memory card for $200 and the seller is willing to ship.

jeffb502 · December 13th, 2013, 01:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian

Yeah I just gave out the site in my post above for the Sony action cams. I'm hearing good things from them. Tell me when you get yours if it's worth it. They're pretty cheap in comparison to the others. I might have to try one out.

Just used the Sony for the first time today. For the money I think it's worth it. It recorded 2 hours, 16 minutes of video before the battery died (on its first charge). I had it mounted to the tank with a fairly sturdy suction cup mount, but I could see it bouncing all over the place while I was riding. I figured the image quality would be horrible, but I had the image stabilization on and it must have helped. The audio quality of my video is HORRENDOUS! I think from the camera bouncing all over inside the plastic housing. There is a documented issue with fogging inside the plastic housing and mine did the same on a clear, sunny, 65 degree or so day. Here's a sample without the fogging:

Link to original page on YouTube.

jeffb502 · December 13th, 2013, 04:03 PM

And here's one with the camera housing fogging up on the left half...

Link to original page on YouTube.

November 27th, 2013, 02:04 AM	#1
ChaoSS ninjette.org sage Name: Tim Location: Goshen CA Join Date: Oct 2012 Motorcycle(s): 2012 red 250 ninja Posts: 740	I need a camera So I've been wanting a camera but haven't wanted to pay for it. In the past few months though, I've had way too many incidents where i should have had cameras rolling. So here are my criteria. Water proof. I commute in the rain. Need to be able to charge it In the truck. When i get to work i need to be able to take it off the bike and move it into my work truck and charge it while running video. Need to be able to review it on the go. Either wifi with the phone, or a removable flash drive i can access in the truck. Not necessary, but i would prefer something that is unobtrusive. If something happens and i am not entirely blameless, I'd prefer to have a choice in whether anyone sees the video. Very important, i need to be able to see a license plate at 150-200 feet with the camera mounted behind a windshield with my headlights lighting up the plate at night.

November 27th, 2013, 11:44 AM	#7
kirk595x ninjette.org guru Name: Robbie Location: Sacramento Join Date: Jan 2013 Motorcycle(s): 03' Ninja 250ex Posts: 333	I have the Drift 1080HD. I am very happy with it. I have the Wasabi ac/dc battery charger and extra batteries so I'm never without spare power on the bike Pros-Built in screen, easy to use menu on the fly , better battery life than GoPro, Can be charged on the go even while filming, micro Hdmi port, rotatable and rebuildable lens, remote control is standard, Zoom can be adjusted for video, excellent customer support and warranty. Cons- picture quality not as good as GoPro3, Underwater case sold separately. I have used mine in the rain with no problems and I'm content with my purchase. I've owned one of the original GoPro Hero's and was less than pleased with it for racing offroad but thats an older model. I have plans to get the Ghost HD as the price has gone down and I want to have the better pic quality and wifi funtionality. Drift 1080HD is pretty cheap now at around $180 with extras. Ebay and Amazon are the best deals. __________________________________________________ Perform Random Acts of Coolness!!ATGATT

November 27th, 2013, 11:58 AM	#8
Alex ninjette.org dude Name: 1 guess :-) Location: SF Bay Area Join Date: Jun 2008 Motorcycle(s): '13 Ninja 300 (white, the fastest color!), '13 R1200RT, '14 CRF250L, '12 TT-R125LE Posts: Too much. Blog Entries: 7	With any of these, is the ability to read license plates at 200 feet at night ever going to be possible? I'm skeptical, but don't have enough experience with all of these to make that judgement. I own a Hero 3 Black, but haven't played with it enough at night (or at all, truthfully). Looking at the commercial cameras that are designed to pick up license plates, the lenses are much, much larger than these tiny digicams and are orders of magnitude more expensive. __________________________________________________ Montgomery Street Motorcycle Club / cal24.com / crf250l.org / ninjette.org ninjette.org Terms of Service Shopping for motorcycle parts or equipment? Come here first. The friendliest Ninja 250R/300/400 forum on the internet! (especially Unregistered)

November 27th, 2013, 05:35 PM	#10
NinjaDucky ninjette.org member Name: Sean Location: Buena Park, Ca Join Date: Nov 2013 Motorcycle(s): 2003 Kawasaki Ninja EX250r Posts: 32	I record with a GoPro Hero2. i have a hard time believing that it could read plate numbers from 100-200 feet at night, then again i have mine mounted to the windscreen at 80+ mph and i get a lot of shake, rattle, and roll when im recording. heres some links to daytime and nighttime videos from the front of my bike using the hero2 from gopro, i imagine that the hero3 is better though. im recording at 1080p from the suction-cup mounted waterproof housing. this makes it hard for much outside sound aside from the engine to get through, and you cant charge it through that case without modding, but i think the hero3 hase both case styles so you can get one for your bike and one for your truck that has a charging port. also has the flashcard taht pops right out of the side which makes transferring to a computer or reviewing quickly not so bad. i only wish it had a view lense so i could see what its pointed at instead of guessing. ive never tried to use the hero2 while charging though so i dunno if that is a possibility. Heres a 4 part video that starts in the late afternoon and goes until its almost completely dark out: Link to original page on YouTube. Heres one well after dark: Link to original page on YouTube. Last futzed with by NinjaDucky; November 27th, 2013 at 05:37 PM. Reason: adding the second link.

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November 27th, 2013, 04:04 AM	#2
tfkrocks ninjette.org certified postwhore Name: Rebecca Location: SF Bay Area Join Date: Sep 2009 Motorcycle(s): 2013 Ninja 300 w/ ABS, 2014 NC700X, 2008 Ninja 250 (sold), 2002 Ninja 250 (sold) Posts: A lot. MOTM - Jan '18, Sep '13	I've now used a camera from GoPro (Hero3 black), Drift (720p), and Contour(+). I've liked the GoPro the most so far (though to be fair, I have a top level GoPro camera and not as high level cameras from Drift and Contour). All of them are waterproof. GoPro has a waterproof housing, the others are supposed to be waterproof as is. GoPro can charge while filming, but not from inside the housing unless you alter with drilling. I suppose you can use the camera without housing inside the truck. Contour cameras are stupid and won't charge and film at the same time. Drift cameras must be opened to charge, but can film at the same time. Obviously opening the casing would take away the waterproof part, but probably won't matter in your truck. Another option you consider is getting one of those Wasabi battery replacements + charger. They allow you to plug the charger through a car power source so you can just leave the charger in your truck and swap batteries. That option is available for all the cameras. All the cameras use a micro sd card so if you have a laptop with an sd card adapter (usually comes with the micro sd card) then that's easy. You can also just put the micro sd card in any smartphone, although video formats may be an issue depending on the camera. I remember being able to delete vids from the GoPro on my phone. GoPro can use a phone app to mess with videos and settings although I haven't bothered much with it. Contour has an app, but I don't recall it allowing dealing with the videos themselves. Drift has a built in screen so you can review/delete videos on the go. Most decent cameras are going to be obvious. GoPros are the most recognize-able of course. People always asked me what the Drift and Contour cameras were. There's that 808(I think that's the name?) keychain camera that people on here have discussed but it doesn't come across as a reliable thing for me. It's super small and easily hidden though if you really want that. My Drift camera does up to 720p only; I wouldn't trust it to catch license plates. My Contour does up to 1080p but still didn't seem great quality so it may or may not catch license plates. I use my GoPro on 1080p and signs and license plates are crystal clear in daylight. I honestly wouldn't expect too much out of night time videos unless you have really good headlights. I've gotten progressively better cameras so obviously the quality improved and I like the GoPro best. However, Drift definitely has higher quality stuff out there so it might be worth checking out. Contour shut down so no newer stuff for now, but the company was bought so there's the potential for better stuff in the future. Don't delay on getting the camera. Earlier this year I had been looking at cameras but really didn't want to blow the cash just yet so I kept putting it off. Of course, then I got in a crash with no witnesses and no cameras so I got screwed. I've paid a lot more fixing my bike than a couple of top-level cameras would've cost.

November 27th, 2013, 04:44 AM	#3
bdavison Wartown, USA Name: Bryan Location: Warner Robins, GA Join Date: Nov 2009 Motorcycle(s): 2009 Ninja 250R SE, 2007 Ninja 650R, and assorted other bikes Posts: A lot.	GoPro Hero3 - 100%, there just is nothing better out there, don't waste your time with anything else. There are three things the GoPro has over everything else out there for motorcycle recording. One, is the wide angle screen that will capture more than just about all of the other cams. Two, is the mounting options that are available for the GoPro...you can mount it anywhere you want. Three, is the bombproof case that will go through just about anything but an apocalyptic gravel avalanche.

November 27th, 2013, 05:45 AM	#4
DEFY ᗧ•••ᗣ•ᗣᗣ•••ᗣ Name: Nick Location: NY Join Date: Nov 2013 Motorcycle(s): 2009 Ninja 250R and 2014 Triumph 675R Posts: A lot.	Drift has just released the Ghost S. Previos versions are Drift HD, Drift Ghost and now Drift Ghost S. Drift has been a favorite among most motovloggers and has great quality. Next would be the GoPro. I know that Garmin has released a camera but from reveiws it has a lot of issues. GoPro can be attached either on the top, side or smack dab infront of your face so it can be covered by your face shield. The Drift can be mounted on the side or top and holds up great during incidents, has a remote for recording and all its various modes which is corresponded to by led colors on the remote. There are plenty videos on youtube showing the video quality between drift, gopro and contour.

November 27th, 2013, 08:57 AM	#5
ChaoSS ninjette.org sage Name: Tim Location: Goshen CA Join Date: Oct 2012 Motorcycle(s): 2012 red 250 ninja Posts: 740	I think one of the most important things right now is night time clarity. Anyone have experience with that with their camera?

November 27th, 2013, 11:09 AM	#6
tfkrocks ninjette.org certified postwhore Name: Rebecca Location: SF Bay Area Join Date: Sep 2009 Motorcycle(s): 2013 Ninja 300 w/ ABS, 2014 NC700X, 2008 Ninja 250 (sold), 2002 Ninja 250 (sold) Posts: A lot. MOTM - Jan '18, Sep '13	I always ride with my cameras, day or night. Nighttime quality is just never as good as daytime quality, even with the top camera I have. However I haven't tried a higher quality setting than 1080p on my GoPro because even the 1080p eats up the battery life and memory card space so quickly (it has a few cinema quality settings). Also I have the most basic headlights on my 250 so they suck and barely light anything. If you have better headlights, you'd probably have more luck.

November 27th, 2013, 09:59 PM	#15
Brian ninjette.org sage Name: Brian Location: Boston MA Join Date: Nov 2013 Motorcycle(s): 08 250R Posts: 639	I have owned the GoPro HD Hero 2 last year and sold it because I wasn't using it much. Now that I ride my motorcycle I should probably re-invest in one. Honestly unless your willing to shell out the obnoxious $80 for the screen LCD attachment there is no point in getting the camera if you can't see what you're recording. For example, even if you're going to mount the camera you'd want to know what the angle looks like and unfortunately you can't with the GoPro. GoPro - Best camera if you have the best money Other great cameras that get the job done: -Drift -Contour -Ion -Sony Make sure it's waterproof and it's HD, then you're all set.

November 27th, 2013, 10:55 PM	#17
jeffb502 ninjette.org guru Name: Jeff Location: Santa Maria, CA Join Date: Oct 2013 Motorcycle(s): 2013 White Ninja 300, 2010 Red Ninja 250r (Sold) Posts: 335	This thread made me finally order a camera. I was looking at gopros and stumbled across a mention of the Sony HDR-AS15 in one of the reviews. It's on Amazon for $102.87 used or $128 new (fulfilled by Amazon/Prime eligible for either option) so I picked one up. Didn't see it mentioned here...it doesn't meet all of the specs in the OP but it seems to be a good value for anybody else that comes here and gets inspired like I did.

November 28th, 2013, 01:26 PM	#21
NinjaDucky ninjette.org member Name: Sean Location: Buena Park, Ca Join Date: Nov 2013 Motorcycle(s): 2003 Kawasaki Ninja EX250r Posts: 32	that ghost looks great. and i like the design of it too, seems like it my better suit a helmet cam than the GoPro does

November 29th, 2013, 09:31 AM	#23
DEFY ᗧ•••ᗣ•ᗣᗣ•••ᗣ Name: Nick Location: NY Join Date: Nov 2013 Motorcycle(s): 2009 Ninja 250R and 2014 Triumph 675R Posts: A lot.	The ghost is a lot more compact than the gopro. It comes with a different back cover in order to make it waterproof and there is a few videos I have watched where a bike crashed directly on top of the camera that was mounted on the side of the bike during races and the only damage was the broken gorilla glass. Still recoded and worked fine. The choice is obviously up to you which camera you choose as either the ghost or the gopro would be great choices. Unfornunitly the gopro in order to be waterproof you need a housing to be placed in.

November 29th, 2013, 10:26 AM	#24
DeltaFoxtrotZulu ninjette.org member Name: Dan Location: North Hollywood, CA, USA Join Date: Nov 2012 Motorcycle(s): 2013 Kawasaki Ninja 300 Posts: 53	I've got the GoPro Hero 3 Black and it's pretty nice. After showing the footage to a friend with an older model he upgraded because the 3 Black had better clarity and much better night footage than his older model. The new + models have a superview feature which is an interesting ultrawide mode. Look on YouTube for example videos.

November 30th, 2013, 01:52 AM	#25
tfkrocks ninjette.org certified postwhore Name: Rebecca Location: SF Bay Area Join Date: Sep 2009 Motorcycle(s): 2013 Ninja 300 w/ ABS, 2014 NC700X, 2008 Ninja 250 (sold), 2002 Ninja 250 (sold) Posts: A lot. MOTM - Jan '18, Sep '13	http://www.bayarearidersforum.com/fo....php?p=8278838 This might be of interest to you. Drift Ghost + accessories and memory card for $200 and the seller is willing to ship.

December 13th, 2013, 04:03 PM	#27
jeffb502 ninjette.org guru Name: Jeff Location: Santa Maria, CA Join Date: Oct 2013 Motorcycle(s): 2013 White Ninja 300, 2010 Red Ninja 250r (Sold) Posts: 335	And here's one with the camera housing fogging up on the left half... Link to original page on YouTube.