Friday, February 07, 2025

Cheap Camera Road Test

A camera that cost eight or nine bucks on Temu. I don't recall the listing mentioning that it records in black and white. I don't guess that's really a problem for the price.

Since it has a built-in mic -- no Bluetooth, no mic jack -- any audio other than bike/road noise would have to be overdubbed.

I'm still thinking about a helmet-mounted camera with a mic jack so that I can just plug in the mic already in my helmet (it connects to my Bluetooth headset). This one just clips on to a jacket or whatever.

I'd like to be able to share ride videos in color and with in-the-moment commentary.

Anyway, here's a minute or so from my short ride today. I don't think eight bucks is gonna get me what I'm trying for. But enjoy anyway.


Update, Saturday, 02/08: I was wrong about the camera only being black and white. It supposedly has a "night vision" function, and that was on when I took the above video. If I take the bike out today, I'll see if I can get some color video. [Further update: I took the bike out and got some color video. Unfortunately, due to poor choice of mounting point for the camera, it was pretty much all video of my left hand and the left handlebar]