Sunday Parkways SE, More Helmet Cam Fabrication

Wow, this year the SE Portland edition of Sunday Parkways was not as much fun. Oh, it was cool to see all the people and the diversity of people out. With the huge growth over last year, maybe the time has come to break out of being hidden away along narrow side streets and really duplicate the Bogata event by closing off main roadways like our SE Hawthorne and a section of E Burnside. This seems even more needed if part of the message is to increase awareness that bikes are more than just for "play time" to the masses.

Evan and I, where there were any people, were basically nearly stopped and using the bikes more like scooters with seats. Some sections had too many parked cars which narrowed the neighborhood side streets. Near the parks, some of the vendor booths were set up in the street so not only was the road narrower, but with booth visitors in the street there was little to now room. Time for a different event for us? We'll see.

I do think it is great to see so many people out participating, and not just the cyclists. Pedestrians and families, really awesome. I have more pics on my flikr site:

My Sunday Parkways SE PDX Pictures

Warning: Geeky, nerdy content ahead ...

I have some editing to do on a bunch of my test videos, but I can share some more lessons and thoughts. Based on some internet research I had been shooting 720p/60fps as this is suppose to make for smoother playback. Out of curiosity, I switched over to the highest setting of 1080p/30fps. Wow, in addition to having the full ultra-wide angle (142 degrees), I think the imagery is better, smoother. So, I've been shooting at that setting this week on my commutes and will do some test editing. I've run my handlebar mount and have re-designed my helmet mount.

Why re-design? Based on both the bike and helmet mount I have found the key is to create an extremely non-flexing system. Bike-wise, I have better results using my home-made mount over the parts from the ultra-mount. The reason is that on a bike, there is so much vibration transmitted during riding that any of the rubber cushioning of the bought mount transfers additional shake to the camera head. Using an absolutely rigid mount and 30fps creates a very stable image.

Now, applying this same learning to the helmet mount was a bit tricky since there is always a bit of looseness between helmet and head and it is amazing how much shake your head takes, even on smooth roads. Again, changing to 30fps helped quite a bit. I also picked up some helmet pads (thanks Bike Gallery!) for free and fine-tuned the head to helmet fit. I then tried a few different mount designs and placements.

The above picture shows the camera mount and camera head in its current set up. With the ultra wide angle, I can get a portion of the helmet in the image and still have a lot of image space for my surroundings. The final test will be tomorrow's full commute ride versus the up and down the street test I did today.

The bracket itself? An earlier mount I made that I curved to create more surface to contact the curvature of the helmet. I then stuck a piece of no-slide rubber so the mount would not move around on the smooth helmet surface. I used a shock cord and slide clamp from an old pack to cinch the mount snugly to the helmet. Note the mount can be ever so slightly twisted to align it with the helmet center line.

Notice the turn knob on the left? I have a slot so I can adjust the vertical and rotation of the camera head. Using the knob I can make adjustments during my ride (after stopping to the side of course). There is actually enough space I can also turn the camera around and shoot backwards (something I am thinking of trying).

Looking forward to testing this new setup tomorrow. So far, with the setting and mount changes, the images are much better and more satisfactory to this perfectionist - lol.

If this works as my short tests have shown I may actually use the helmet mount as my primary. This is much easier to switch between bikes, since the mount is on my helmet and allows me to shoot what my head is pointing at rather than just where the bike/handlebars are pointing.

I will on getting some of today's and yesterday's test rides edited and uploaded to my Vimeo account soon. Really.

Bike Video Camera Going Serious Now ...

Mornings are still my favorite time, riding in to work, quiet, fairly peaceful and serene. Here's Portland on Thursday morning and, as I would later discover, with the sun serendipitously reflecting off "Big Pink" onto the Willamette River. The downside? Actually having to go inside a hermetically sealed, atmospherically isolated office building (read: no opening windows for fresh air ventilation). <bleh>

My experimentation with mounting my point-and-shoot camera on the bike's fork has been interesting. They are so handy for typical point-and-shoot (duh) picture-taking but only if you are holding them in your hands. When I shoot while riding, and holding the camera, I can feel the auto-focus point, pause for just a bit, then take the picture. I found I can't as easily tell when I am at the auto focus point which means the camera is not well focused to take my 4-shot set.

Case in point, the above is one of 4, all of them not quite in a level of happy focus. Taking video with that camera was  bit better, though because of its mass, it tends to create a bit shaky videos. Here's a sample I threw together as a test of mounting my camera.

Fork Mount Test at Vimeo

It's not all bad, I did get a few good shots in there - reminds me of my 35mm film days, take a lot to get a few good images.



Here the camera is mounted on the right side fork. Same as when I hand-held my moving wheel shots.

Here is a shot from a different day, but with the camera mounted on the left hand fork. I like these better since here we ride on the right, this just lets the wheel be the framing device rather than parked cars and curbs.

All this while and for some time now, I have been researching the various portable video cameras, also called POVs (point of view) and helmet cams. The one I really liked was also the most expensive - bummer. Well somehow I came across a discount gear site and found one at 40-some percent off - too good to be true? Turns out it was an open box unit and was missing a couple of cables, but those are cheap, so I done bought it. What is it? A V.I.O. POV HD.

I test rode it mounted to the bike on Friday. Will do some helmet mount tests. The one thing I find with a bike mounted camera is I can only shoot in the direction the bike is going. Will see how I like a helmet mount which would give me move shooting directions. I'll do up a test set - ha, when I get some time.

It's been fun to have a creative project, it's been quite a while since I had photography goals beyond taking pictures of my son. Okay, I have been taking commuting pictures, but this latest activity has me pushing beyond the "stop the bike, look at scene, take the picture, get back on the bike" scenario.

Well, that's the highlights, hope you all are out enjoying some great riding and other adventures!

You know you are a bike geek when ...

99% enjoying our warm, dry summer weather - starting to get spoiled for sure. That 1% is dealing with being more sweaty than I would like when I get to work - and I've been pannier'ing it to help. I'm just sweaty - I am trying to ride easy in the morning, too, really.

Well, I have to lighten up some more about judging cyclists who do not respond to my hi greetings, I just encountered the same thing at work with an unknown co-worker. I said, "hi," he said nothing. So, therefore, it appears it is a people phenomenon and, again, not a transportation thing. Hmmm.

Okay, on to the reason for the title of this blog entry. Actually I have two proofs, ha.

1. Felt there was too much black around the stem/handlebar area because of my thumb shifter mounts, soooooo - I sanded off the top of the clamps removing the powder coat. Then I fine grit sanded to smooth them up and then I hand polished them. Oooo, me like much better as there is less black showing. Cool.
   
   
2. With my experimenting with low angle photography, I felt I needed something that was a bit safer, sooooo - I built a custom mount for my camera, big surprise, huh? With another armrest clamp, more aluminum flat stock and a ball head, voila'. Oh, just for my own sense of safety, since the fork is tapered, I used a fender strut to act as a stop to prevent the mount from sliding downward.

Now, I can have the camera ready and just reach down and push the shutter button. I can also set the camera for video, but the image is pretty shaky. What I have been doing is using the multi-shot mode, set for about 5 consecutive shots. Once I have done some fine-tuning/tweaking then I'll clean it all up and paint it up black.

And that's getting my bike geek on ... hahaha.