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Camera for shooting and riding, and stopping and shooting

Old 06-17-21, 01:51 PM
  #51  
kuroba
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I have been thinking about gettin a secondary camera, this thread gave me the push to go for it and I settled on Canon G9X Mark II. I wanted RAW format liked how portable it looks (compared to my dSLR) and someone was selling one on Marketplace lol
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Old 06-17-21, 03:57 PM
  #52  
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I have a Rolleiflex mount for my handlebars, works for me.
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Old 06-17-21, 04:07 PM
  #53  
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Originally Posted by Mogens
I have a Rolleiflex mount for my handlebars, works for me.
I dropped my dad's Rolleiflex 2.8 from a 50' radio tower in 1963 I also burned a hole in his Leica lllf's cloth focalplane shutter by leaving the front of the lens exposed to the sun a few years before that. He really liked me. He was not even mad about either event. He still let me use his darkroom, but was a little more careful about letting me use his cameras.

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Old 06-17-21, 04:10 PM
  #54  
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Whoa, lucky it didn't land on anyone. My mom dropped the Rollei on her toe from about four feet and broke her toe.
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Old 06-17-21, 04:17 PM
  #55  
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Originally Posted by Bill in VA
Most times people say iPhone or Android photos are not clear....
I’m pretty impressed with my iPhone XR. I take some photos with it when I tour. I just need to remember to clean the lens cover of the LIFEPROOF case it is in because it can get grungy.

Adolescent common skink on exterior bathhouse wall.


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Old 06-17-21, 04:39 PM
  #56  
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Mostly my Nikon V1 with VR zoom if I'm riding with a handlebar bag.

Otherwise, an Olympus Tough camera in my jersey pocket for snaps, when I feel like carrying a little extra weight. It's pretty much weather proof, sweat proof, etc.

But in actual practice I usually take screen grabs from my videos. I always ride with at least one forward facing video cam, sometimes on the helmet, and often use a rear facing camera as well. If the video captures something interesting along the way I'll get the screen grab later. No need to stop, which is handy on group rides so folks aren't waiting for me.

I'm not coordinated enough to snap pix or videos with my phone while riding. I've seen other folks who thought they were coordinated drop their phones, crashing and endangering others. If I see anyone using a phone to shoot video or snap pix during a ride I avoid them. Not worth the risk. Most phone snaps are mediocre anyway because the ergonomics are terrible and most camera apps offer limited or no exposure control. If you can't bias the camera toward a faster shutter speed most photos will be blurry anyway. Occasionally someone gets lucky but most of the pix and videos I see friends posting from their phones to Instagram are instaforgettable.
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Old 06-19-21, 10:41 PM
  #57  
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the shooting while riding thing with a real camera will certainly take some practice - if it's worth doing at all.

today i gave the z7 (with a small collapsible zoom) a try on the blackrapid strap. this is a route i've ridden 20 times in the last few months, so i'm super familiar with the road, traffic, etc. i fairly quickly realized that the only way to do it is to use the little stays on the strap so that when riding normally, the camera sits at the bottom of your back. to use it, you reach around and pull the front stay along the strap, which allows the camera to come around. full area AF, matrix metering, aperture priority, auto ISO, etc were the settings i started with. however, it's definitely going to take some fiddling with menus to see if it's possible to make sure those settings STAY. by the end of the ride, i was on spot metering, and most of the shots in the middle are totally out of focus due to it having entered some sort of subject tracking mode. may have been the touch screen hitting my back?

anyway, nothing interesting or even decent photographically. the weather did NOT cooperate - no light at all, heavy fog after a few days of heat and sun. it's basically dark at the end, ISO 25600.




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Old 06-20-21, 06:27 AM
  #58  
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What device is that on your handle bars? Thanks
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Old 06-20-21, 08:37 AM
  #59  
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Originally Posted by WaveyGravey
What device is that on your handle bars? Thanks
it’s an iphone 12 pro max, running the specialized mission control app in those pics. i also use rideWithGPS for navigation if it’s a new route, but i generally leave it on mission control (or screen off) to see speed, climb, power output, etc. i use it instead of a bike computer.
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Old 06-21-21, 08:40 AM
  #60  
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getting this dialed in now. hardly notice the camera anymore now that i know to pull the clip on the strap all the way around the back. it sits nicely behind me around the small of my back. i don't think this would work with a big heavy lens, but for the small plastic zoom i've been using, or one of the upcoming Z pancakes, it's great. and, of course, if you drop it, it's still attached to you and can't fall below your hip.

the camera definitely needed to have the touchscreen turned off. also increased the speed ratio for the auto ISO - but that needs to be bumped up again. the camera brain thinks that at 24mm 1/40s is plenty fast enough, and holds the ISO at 64 until the exposure goes past that point. i think 1/200 is probably a better minimum, except when blur is desired. a minor annoyance is that the camera's app connection doesn't work reliably enough to enable auto-tagging of the images, so i have to use a utility after the fact to geotag from the geotrack file. not a big deal.

here's a few more attempts. lots of unsatisfactory results from a technical standpoint but definitely getting closer! these are all taken from the bike, a second or two to grab the camera, shoot, put it back.

relive link https://www.relive.cc/view/v8qV9RpNE76


camino alto



sir francis drake



intentionally blurry, has a nice texture viewed larger.



picturesque barn, hot AF in the sun.



nicasio reservoir, dry... nice color and textures.



ok, this one wasn't taken while riding. water and snack stop.

Last edited by mschwett; 06-21-21 at 08:43 AM.
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Old 06-22-21, 10:17 PM
  #61  
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this setup is working pretty well for me now.

total weight with the FX lens is just a hair over a kg, 1060 with the strap, lens, camera, battery, card. the dx lens drops that by 60g, which is not consequential and cuts resolution in half. better to go with the z50 in that case, for 775g total. again, i'm not sure 285g is worth such a big loss of resolution. the camera stays put back there until i reach around and pull the little clip forward. doesn't really bother me 99% of the time, every once in a while getting out of the saddle it shifts a bit to the side, but that's rare and it's not like i'm racing anyone.



i'll probably bring this with me on any rides i expect to have good light (haven't had one yet, but looking forward to one of those rare clear summer evenings in the headlands...) or longer rides with opportunities to get off the bike for a few minutes here and there.

(and yes, those are the clothes i ride in, MTB shorts and a jogging shirt. not a fan of the skin-tight stuff, again, not racing anyone!)




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Old 06-22-21, 10:51 PM
  #62  
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Did a 100k ride with my wife. Had my Panasonic GM5 & 12-32 compact zoom on. Kept the camera around my neck on the (shortened) strap right in front of me. Easy to adjust the zoom with one hand with the camera in front of me lift it up and glance at the large screen and take a picture while riding.

281g for the two pieces. The lens sticks out an inch (24mm) and the camera is a tiny 3.9x2.4x1.4 inches (90x60x36 mm).

No need to sling it over my back. Way less than 1kg total weight. Really easy to turn on and off without looking at it.

Last edited by guachi; 06-22-21 at 10:57 PM.
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Old 06-22-21, 11:00 PM
  #63  
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Originally Posted by guachi
Did a 100k ride with my wife. Had my Panasonic GM5 & 12-32 compact zoom on. Kept the camera around my neck on the (shortened) strap right in front of me. Easy to adjust the zoom with one hand with the camera in front of me lift it up and glance at the large screen and take a picture while riding.

281g for the two pieces. The lens sticks out an inch (24mm) and the camera is a tiny 3.9x2.4x1.4 inches (90x60x36 mm).

No need to sling it over my back. Way less than 1kg total weight. Really easy to turn on and off without looking at it.
nice. the gm5 is seriously small. how does the autofocus do while moving fast-ish? it’s too bad panasonic never followed up that camera, it’s pretty uniquely small for an ILC.
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Old 06-23-21, 08:20 AM
  #64  
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I bought a Fujifilm XP for bike rides. Tiny pocket camera. Water proof and shock proof.
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Old 06-23-21, 08:50 AM
  #65  
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Originally Posted by mschwett
it’s an iphone 12 pro max, running the specialized mission control app in those pics. i also use rideWithGPS for navigation if it’s a new route, but i generally leave it on mission control (or screen off) to see speed, climb, power output, etc. i use it instead of a bike computer.
How is it mounted? What brand/system?
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Old 06-23-21, 09:13 AM
  #66  
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Originally Posted by kahn
How is it mounted? What brand/system?
quadlock, using the "out front" mount, but flipped around so the phone sits right above the stem. very easy to take in and out, super secure even on crazy bump terrain. it does require you use their case, which i sometimes leave on between rides, sometimes take off and go raw.
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Old 06-24-21, 11:35 AM
  #67  
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These were taken while riding next to my wife with my Sony a6000.




The APS-C sensor in a mirrorless camera with an electronic viewfinder makes a compact package. We've printed 20" x 30" prints that are very sharp.

Last edited by Doug64; 06-24-21 at 11:47 AM.
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Old 06-24-21, 12:10 PM
  #68  
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Originally Posted by Doug64
These were taken while riding next to my wife with my Sony a6000.
that first one is fantastic! i think aps-c is a sweet spot for this kind of use.
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Old 06-29-21, 11:47 PM
  #69  
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very dramatic light for this evening's ride. this is just about the steepest moment of a big descent (19%!) so i actually stopped for a moment. no way i'm one handing that!




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Old 09-13-21, 10:50 PM
  #70  
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...a few months later, in conclusion.

i really like the blackrapid strap with the z7 and any of a handful of small/light lenses. optimum camera settings are manual exposure at the widest or next to widest aperture the lens has (varies, but i'm not riding with any fast lenses, so typically 4.0, 5.6, etc), shutter speed around 1/1000 (enough to get a little foreground blur if desired but pretty much stops everything else and doesn't require a steady hand), auto iso, wide area AF with the area box set slightly above center, and auto bracketing with three frames, plus and minus 1 stop. i reckon i can grab the camera from where it sits at the small of my back and take a shot in a fraction of a second, and probably put it back in about the same. much faster than unclipping my iphone from the quad lock, switching to the camera, taking some shots, and clipping it back on. also much safer, if i have to put both hands back on the bars i do it immediately and the camera just drops back to my side.

with 45 megapixels and low noise up to ISO 6400 or so, the shooting envelope is huge. i can mis-frame pretty badly and crop, rotate, adjust, etc, and get a nice clean image.

all that said, i don't take it on most rides. it's still ±2 pounds of stuff and every once in a while it bangs around a little bit. no big deal, but not worth it unless the ride is somewhere new, or at a potentially really interesting time of day.

two random shots from the home stretch of yesterday's ride. both shot while moving.


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Old 09-15-21, 07:27 AM
  #71  
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Originally Posted by mschwett
..... i reckon i can grab the camera from where it sits at the small of my back and take a shot in a fraction of a second, and probably put it back in about the same. much faster than unclipping my iphone from the quad lock, switching to the camera, taking some shots, and clipping it back on. also much safer, if i have to put both hands back on the bars i do it immediately and the camera just drops back to my side.
You must have very good hands .... I would worry that I would mis-grab the camera, or if I had to drop it to stop a crash, that it would bounce around off my knees and the bars, causing pain to me and damage tot he camera.

You seem to have mastered it, and I congratulate you. Not sure I want to test how many times my camera can swing into the stem before something breaks.
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Old 09-15-21, 08:11 AM
  #72  
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Originally Posted by Maelochs
You must have very good hands .... I would worry that I would mis-grab the camera, or if I had to drop it to stop a crash, that it would bounce around off my knees and the bars, causing pain to me and damage tot he camera.

You seem to have mastered it, and I congratulate you. Not sure I want to test how many times my camera can swing into the stem before something breaks.
i’m not sure the camera can even reach any part of the bicycle while it’s attached to me and i’m sitting on the bike. the strap is fitted pretty short.

not fail safe, i’m sure if i go down hard the camera has a decent chance of hitting the ground before i do, although in the clipped position i’d have to land flat on my back for that. first time for everything …
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Old 09-15-21, 09:09 AM
  #73  
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I have an update too! I ended up not being able to buy the Canon G9X I mentioned earlier and finally found a used Sony RX100. Not the newest, flashiest camera, but it was the right price for me and has served the purpose. It's small enough that I could fit it in a jesery pocket (if I take the silicone case off), but I carry it in a top tube bag because it's easier for me to grab the camera from there.

Here are some pics I've taken with it:


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Old 09-15-21, 09:22 AM
  #74  
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Originally Posted by kuroba
I have an update too! I ended up not being able to buy the Canon G9X I mentioned earlier and finally found a used Sony RX100. Not the newest, flashiest camera, but it was the right price for me and has served the purpose. It's small enough that I could fit it in a jesery pocket (if I take the silicone case off), but I carry it in a top tube bag because it's easier for me to grab the camera from there.

Here are some pics I've taken with it:
nice! very rich colors in the first one. the RX100 series is very capable and very compact!
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Old 09-15-21, 09:44 AM
  #75  
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Haven't used it for cycling, but I have an Olympus Tough Sports Holder for my TG5 camera - attaches to a backpack shoulder strap and includes a springy camera tether. It's been really handy for other non-cycling activities and could imagine it'd work well if you're wearing a hydration or other pack.

https://www.amazon.com/Olympus-CSCH-.../dp/B00T2WYAFI
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