raqball

My GoPro died a horrible death and I am on the hunt for a new rear facing camera. I currently have, and love, the RTL 515.. The RCT 715 is intriguing because it has the radar, light, and camera all rolled into one package.

But, many of the reviews from the top dogs are not promising. While there are plenty of positive reviews out there, reviewers like DCR weren't impressed with it.

A few things I don't really dig is that it's 1080p max, 30 FPS max and what might be the biggest head scratcher is the lack of image stabilization.. The price is a bit steep as well but I can get it for about $40 less than MSRP and tax free which will save a little cash of it's price..

So, any current owners out there? If so are you happy with it?

Thanks in advance.

raqball

Went ahead and ordered it so I guess I'll be the test dummy.. I'll post my thoughts and some video clips after it arrives. Have a 30-day return period to see if it's a keeper or not.

Seattle Forrest

There's a thread in road from when this was released. People are talking about workflow with the video clips, some people love it some hate it.

Your best bet is r/Garmin for this kind of info because drastically more people post there, and they're more coherent and stay on topic.

raqball

The workflow with video clips does not really concern me.. I'd probably never use the app and would use my computer to view and download clips.. I think many of those complaints are directed towards using the app to do so..

Yeah the Garmin /r is a good resource but I try to avoid r-eddit (word censor?) as it's kind of a cesspool.

I've seen footage that looks great and I've seen footage that looks terrible.. Guess I'll find out and decide after hands on usage..

Troul 

the expectation of it being an action like camera is where it is misleading as it is not such. Even though, the marketing of it sorta kinda makes it out to be such.

If you set the bar low, you'll likely be happy with it. I would rather go with a true compact action camera.

raqball

I don't mind using it as a safety camera only.. My only question is will it do the job it's intended for. I've seen some videos where plates are easily identifiable and videos where it's not even close. It's hard to tell as a lot of the video clips I saw are from Europe where the plates are larger and easier to read than the plates used in the US..

I don't expect it to be an action camera. I am intrigued by the combo of camera, radar and light. All wrapped into a 6 hour battery life. If it can reliably read plates then it does it's job. This is where image stabilization would be handy but for some odd reason Garmin didn't include it..

I've been using action cameras on the rear for close to 6 years now (I had the little GoPro Session for 5 years of that) and while they are great, they are also not prefect. No loop recording unless you want to use a few preset options that allow loop. Battery life is bad, real bad and requires the use of a USB battery pack and a cable running from the camera to it. You also need enough space on seatpost to mount the camera and a light (assuming you have a saddle bag)..

I really wish Garmin would have made this 1080p 60FPS with image stabilization. Even electronic stabilization would have been fine..

Mine shipped today and it says it will be here Saturday so I guess I'll find out 1st hand..

Troul 

That right there is why I would not expect it to be reliable to depend on footage when you really need it.

Too much "Ifs" & such for me to consider it.

raqball

Agree but I'll try it out and see how it does.. Most of my rides are on smooth tarmac so image stabilization is not an absolute need but even on smooth tarmac it has benefits. If it sucks then back it goes and I'll look into another GoPro, probably the Mini that releases in a few weeks.

I really want it to work as the 3-1 combo with long'ish battery life would be a massive plus.. One gadget on the seatpost that does it all.. Fingers crossed..

raqball

It arrived today and I got it updated to the latest firmware and I installed a 256GB card. Garmin says 128GB is max but I got the 256 working after an initial error message. When I 1st put the card in I received an error that the card was corrupted but all you need to do is format it via the Varia app and all was fine.

Never been a fan of the extra thick rubber band type mounting that Garmin uses so I sent a file off to a local 3d printing shop to make me a GoPro adapter. My only issue is that I don't like using plastic, or in this case 3D printed parts, for camera mounting as I've seen many failures. I generally only use Aluminum mounts and extension arms. I guess when I get the 3D adapter next week I'll have to see if it's something I even want to use..

For anyone interested here is the GoPro adapter for the RCT715: https://www.printables.com/model/209...ct715-adapters

1st ride tomorrow so I'll post some photos of it mounted (using the stock Garmin mount for now) and some video to see how well it does as a rear safety camera for capturing license plates and other important details.

Polaris OBark

I bought a 1080p Garmin dash cam for my car. With an external USB battery, one could probably adapt it for a bike. The image quality in general is pretty reasonable, but it is difficult to get a license plate. I'm kind of surprised Garmin doesn't make a bike version of this, since it would take very little to adapt it (front or back). It records continuously, in 60 second snippets, and then overwrites the oldest. The idea is you only need to access it for an incident. It has automatic incident detection, and flags the relevant videos to prevent deletion. Also, it uses voice commands, so you can save a snippet or even a still-shot just by saying "OK, Garmin, save video". All for $100.

Obviously it, too, is not designed to be an action cam, so I doubt mountain bikers would use something like that, but road bikers/commuters might be a market for an adapted product.

spdntrxi

top dawgs ding it because they expect too much from it. They expected GoPro like video with stabilization. Incident capture is why I got it and I'm happy with it.

raqball

Awesome.. And yes I think they expect it to be an action camera... I saw a TON of YT videos where people were recording their group rides.. A few complained about the quality of the video. Well, umm, yeah.. You are trying to use it as an action camera and it's not..

As long as it can reliably capture clean images of plates I'll be thrilled with it. It's a 3-1 with radar, light and camera, long battery life (much longer than a stand alone action camera), loop recording, and it's waterproof.

I would like to have seen 60FPS and at least electronic stabilization though.. But for years I rode with camera at 720p (original Fly6) and then 1080p camera w/o stabilization and they were fine for the most part..

Troul 

IMO, stabilization is critical for greatly increasing the reliability in capturing important details. It really should be something incorporated in any video recording device that is used with/within something in motion. Auto-light selecting would be a close second default feature. How many times have I've had a recording going & later to find out it is trash because all that is viewable are passing lights & a random blurry reflector.

raqball

Agree to a point.. I guess it depends on where and how you ride. I rode for years without it on a Fly6 and on an old Session 4.. The Session 5 had electronic stabilization (so they said and there was a setting to toggle it on) but in all honestly, it was barely noticeable, if at all, on the Session 5. I never really had an issue getting readable plates from those camera w/o stabilization.

I mainly ride on tarmac and never really had an issue not having it. With that said, I do agree that it can smooth out the footage and make an iffy plate more readable. On smooth tarmac I don't think it does much. On a bumpy road it can indeed help.

I'd love to have it just because not all roads are created equal and you might go from a smooth road into a construction area where the roads are bumpy and bad. With stabilization you don't need to worry about it as it should smooth out the rough road area a bit..

I'll see how it does and decide if I am going to keep it from there. As long as it captures readable plates then it's pure gold IMO.

What's odd is that some YT footage is crystal clear and others are kinda bad. DCR, even though he slammed it (mainly the app), did say he had no issues getting readable plates even w/o stabilization.

I guess I don't understand Garmin's decision to not include at least electronic stabilization. They could have made it a toggle with a warning of decreased battery life. Toggle it on at your own battery life peril..

Troul 

My riding would necessitate video recording stabilization 99% of the time. Michigan roads & infrastructure lol!

I have noticed that if I turn the stabilization off, I am likely to net at least 20 minutes more of run time. If I switch off the auto setting for image clarity (i forget the term it uses) it'll bump the run time up a few minutes too. In general, I run any camera device to almost its full potential. The setting I reduce is the resolution, but not by much unless 1080 is the max then I'll leave it at that setting. 4K, meh not really trying to look at someone's teeth for cavities. 2.7K, maybe if I am planning out a short recording that really is "cool" or something.

raqball

I can definitely understand that.. There are several videos of rides on gravel and / or some seriously crappy roads where the RCT 715 video is pure garbage.. I am really hoping it fine for me and my use as I really do want a 3 in 1 solution with long battery life, waterproof and a solution without the need for a USB battery pack and a cable running between it and the camera..

I'll post up a few video clips later after my ride. I have a few sections of the route I am doing today that are a bit on the rough side (nothing crazy) so hopefully I'll get some cars to pass me on those stretches.

I played around with it last night and got it all setup. DCR mentioned a few serious issues with the app 4 months ago and sadly Garmin has not resolved any of them during that time..

• WiFi connecting between the camera and the app is terrible.. Luckily for me I'd never use the app to view or save videos. I'd not recommend using the app for anything excep for making any settings changes and live view for lining the camera up during initial setup.
• You are suppose to be able to set record clip length. It does not matter what you set this to as it will only record 30 second clips. That's going to come out to 120 clips per hour. On a 4 hours ride, that's going to be 480 clips.. YIKES!
• When using a Garmin computer it instals a widget screen automatically. This allows you to tap and save a clip. While it does work, the unit acts like it's frozen and it takes a LONG time to clear the "Saving Clip' message.

Absolutely unbelievable that Garmin has not addressed those issues since they were brought up by numerous reviewers over 4 months ago.

Polaris OBark

Thank you for the initial impressions, and for saving me $400.

raqball

The issues it has that I've seen so far at least are not deal breakers for me. The only real deal breaker for me will be the footage and its ability to reliably capture plates.

The app is absolutely terrible but I'd honestly never use it. Much better experience to view and transfer video via PC / Mac.. The slow saving of a clip when you tell the head unit to do is is a minor annoyance. Once you select that option via the widget on the head unit and get the 'saving clip' pop up you can just swipe up and go back to the data screens. It will still save the clip in the background..

Now that 30 second clip thing is absolutely ridiculous... As a work around you could just use the buggy save a clip from the head unit widget when something happens then it will be easier to find later on the PC/Mac as those clips go in a separate folder on the SD card..

raqball

Todays 1st ride with it. Went 28 miles and traffic was a bit sparser than normal which I guess is to be expected since it's Sunday. I only had 311 cars pass me according to the radar but during a weekday I'd normally see this number in upper 500's. I originally wanted to do a longer ride but strong headwinds combined with gusts that almost blew me over a few times put an end to that thought quickly..

The camera is fine.. Actually, it's more than fine.. Here are 3 short clips that show it had no issue whatsoever capturing plates. A few of these vehicles were high speed and at least one was probably in excess of 60mph..

Now the weirdness.. Above I said the camera records in 30 seconds clip increments no matter what you have it set to and that is still true, sort of.. If you select save a clip from the Garmin head units widget then it actually saves the clip at the duration you set.. Weird.... Mine is set to 1 minute 30 seconds and all the clips I saved are exactly 1 minute 30 seconds. Non saved and regular clips are unfortunately not honoring the setting and are all 30 seconds long..

Also, like I said above when saving a clip from the head unit it acts like it freezes and takes a long time for "Save In Progress' message to go away. But if you simply swipe up you go back to the data screen and it continues in the background.. I guess one message saying 'Save In Progress' is not enough so I get 2 of them on my 1040 Solar.. LOL



3 quick videos. I did 'edit' them in Final Cut Pro but only to cut them down in length and add freeze fames on the plates.

• Test Video 1: https://vimeo.com/760853944
• Test Video 2: https://vimeo.com/760853981
• Test Video 3: https://vimeo.com/760854071 (this car is probably doing in excess of 60 mph)

The camera is fine on smooth tarmac. I went down a cruddy road but didn't have any vehicles pass me. I'll try that road again tomorrow. The app is pure 100% garbage..

A few images of it on the bike.

Polaris OBark

Thanks for posting the videos. Those are better than I was expecting.

What is your saddle bag/mount? That appears to solve the primary problem of not enough seat post for both.

raqball

It's an older model of the Bontrager QC saddle bag. Don't think they make it any longer. I've had it for years and it's held up. I bought 2 of them right before they discontinued it.. I did not want the saddle bag shown in the videos so I am happy that it does not..

Troul 

that did turn out better than I was expecting. looking forward to the second attempt on the rough road route.

If you view the footage on a bigger screen, or zoom in, does it show the details noticeably better?

raqball

Not sure about larger screen thing but the plates are readable on my 14" MacBook Pro in full screen view..

You could clean videos up in post editing but I am not sure how a court would react to that, If you were to enhance or clean the video up then I'd suggest keeping the original, unedited version, of the file as well. That way if a court rules the edited version is not allowed then you can fall back on the unedited original version.

You could also screen grab or extract a still image from the video and clean it up via editing as well.

Law Enforcement does this sort of thing often and you'd be surprised how much can be cleaned up in a bad image.

I'll try that crappy road again tomorrow. If I don't get any car on the 1st pass I'll circle around and make another pass..

Troul 

Usually when a video is played back using a larger screen/resolution, it'll reveal any quality that is may or may not have. I was just curious if you played the raw video on a run of the mill 32" TV, does the lettering & numbers on the plates show up better?

I agree with keeping the original file & creating a second file if it is used for evidence.

raqball

I'll try it later and plug SD card into my TV and see.. Pretty sure I can USB it into my TV using a USB to SD card reader adapter which I have.