Helmet cams and battery life

[AdvntureSi]

So.. looking at a trip to Denmark and Sweden late Sep/early Oct.. prob risking it with he weather but it's not been possible till now..
Pretty much decided on the Beeline for navigation, but wondering about a helmet cam to record the trip.. 
Cheapy "sports" cameras would prob do but battery life is pants (2hr best).. Ghost XL pro seems to offer 9hr battery life..
So, stop every 1.5 hrs and swap battery on cheapy,
Suppose could alway rig up a power pack for the cheapy so it records for longer. Or splash the cash on the ghost or "A N Other"..
What have you peeps done??

[Froglodyte]

Possibly the trip of a lifetime. If you buy a cheap camera you will regret it. I did that when I did northern Spain a few years ago. Looking back at the footage now I realise that it's crap! Buy a decent camera with stabilisation. Power it with a separate power bank and don't run out of space on the sd card. Also, are you planning to record audio? That's a whole new subject. Is the video for your own entertainment or are you planning to upload it to YouTube?

[purplebikeunicorn]

Don't buy the cheapest of the cheap GoPro copies. They'll record to MJPG AVI files or other such rubbish formats and look like garbage.

If it is the trip of a lifetime, why don't you push the boat out and get a 360 camera (if you have the computer and also memory cards to cope with the file size). You can then change the viewing angle at any point, where a helmet camera is just going to be where you're looking.

If going for a Gopro style camera, the ones that fit into waterproof cases (rather than the camera being waterproof) generally won't record audio whilst in the case. Just be mindful of that, plus, if you plug in a charging lead, you may open a door meaning the camera then isn't waterproof at all.

The Drift Ghost XL does have this covered, has a waterproof charging port/cable, and can record audio. The footage is fine, but not at 4k Gopro level.

[AdvntureSi]

Mmm, good points.. I had a cheapy one a while ago for off road 4x4 and was fine.. (can't remember where that got put or who I gave it to though)
It's just for me.. 2 factors...  to record the good bits and also in case of the unfortunate.... 
I haven't looked at the 360 things..

10 days riding is going to be a lot of video to scroll through so that's my other concern.. will I bother in the end.. I expect there will be a lot of boring stuff in there...Ha ha ha.. 
I
Maybe a ghost and make sure I stop to take pics etc often, when I see places I want to keep a memory of..

[Gert]

Take along enough memory cards (aka 1 for each day) should make it easier when trying to locate a specific section of footage. Just remember to label them.

[Mep]

I've been using Drift Ghost cameras for a while now and they are OK. I now have the XL. I did consider the XL Pro as it has image stabilization, but is a lot more. Battery life is not a problem, and I've not come close to running out of power even when filming most of the days ride. It's loaded with a 128mb card that is more than enough and will hold a cray amount of footage. The Drift Lite App is essential for using with the camera as it makes light work of adjusting settings and previewing the camera view before recording, which is great due to the lens adjustment available and the small screen on the rear of the camera. I like to have the sound of my bike when filming, so the Drift microphone is clipped under my seat. The other end is up at the front of my seat and I use an extension cable to connect it to the cable that screws into the camera. The volume is set to 1. The external microphone will get too much wind noise so no good for bikes. The other option other than recording is to us the time lapse feature. I use this a lot depending on the route I'm taking. For this I dispense with the helmet mount and use the suction cup mount on my fairing. I set the camera to take photos every 10 second and use the best to make a video slide show. I've had some great results with this. My best one far is of The Sotres Trail on my recent Picos trip, which is posted here. https://www.v-strom.co.uk/smf/index.php?topic=42352.0 I've posted plenty of YouTube videos in the Video Clips section too if you want to see what the Drift Ghost is about.

[pichulec]

Get GOPRO 7 Black or higher (stabilization on the below models is rubbish). Power it from the power bank or from bike USB. Huge memory card, problem solved.

[AdvntureSi]

Thanks peeps, I shall have an in estivate and see what's what and see what's in the piggy bank..  thank you

[Rusty Nuts]

https://www.v-strom.co.uk/smf/index.php?topic=42513.0

[AdvntureSi]

Emailed.. 

[AdvntureSi]

Great day out and meet up with Martyn.. thanks mate.. did about 260 miles round trip and had a good time..