Greatest GoPro accessory ever?

We all love our GoPro cameras. They are the camera all other sport cameras are measured against. I have a number of GoPro cameras, including the GoPro Hero and the GoPro Hero 3. I have a vast amount of mounts as I use them in many different situations. This includes under the sea, in a car and on my bike. However, as every GoPro owner can testify to, I also have a large number of batteries. For the GoPro Hero and the GoPro Hero 2, this was fine. The internal and external batteries were the same battery. Taking extra batteries with you on long trips wasn't a problem. With the GoPro Hero 3, everything changed. The battery usage far exceeded the previous models and the different internal battery just played havoc. Officially, the new external batteries were no longer battery compartments with a battery slotting in. So the new external batteries became incredibly expensive. Unless you had a previous model external battery compartment and batteries. They were compatible. However, the internal batteries still had a problem, they were useless. 

I put up with the problem of battery charge being useless for quite a while. After a while, due to age and the number of charges, some of my external (and internal) batteries started swelling. Never a good sign with rechargeable batteries. So I started looking online for some replacements. I was stunned. If you could find batteries for the Hero 1&2, the cost was ridiculous. It was even worse for the external batteries for the 3. I would not be deterred. Then I stumbled across a game changer. The Brunton All Day Battery. It claimed to run your GoPro for about 10 hours. Yet the cost was the same as an external battery for a GoPro 3 which only added an extra hour (total 2.5 hours) if you're lucky. Yes, fine tuning the settings could get me close to 4 hours runtime with existing batteries. This is nowhere near 10 hours though. I had to have one. 

I bought mine from AbSafe (Australia) http://shop.absafe.com.au/products/Brunton-all-day-battery

As of the date of this write up, it is being listed as AUD$69.95 plus shipping. 

Now, the first thing that is not obvious. I have a GoPro 3, not a GoPro 3+. The camera sizing is identical. The housing is not. So I purchased a cheap GoPro 3+ copy housing. It will not fit the the 3 housing but the 3 camera will fit into the required 3+ housing. 

I have a 64GB card in this camera. So testing the battery was not going to be a problem. The largest ride I went on (including coffee shop breaks) was six hours. I left the camera running the whole time and I still had to power it off when I got home. With all of the settings tuned for minimum battery usage (720, 30fps, etc) I managed to just reach 10 hours non-stop recording. This is not a real test as I left it inside a window recording. I say it's not a real test as there was not 10 hours of daylight and it was recording night time. Recording at 1080p, I get about 8 hours of recording in the same environment. 

As I said, this is possibly the greatest GoPro accessory ever. I now have a problem though. My GoPro3 has developed a fault, it can no longer record audio. So I am looking at the GoPro4. This accessory is obviously not compatible as GoPro in their wisdom changed the internal battery yet again. From everything I am reading, it appears as though Brunton will release a 4 version but it may require a cable from the outlet to the GoPro charging input. I am not thrilled with this idea as water ingress becomes an issue. The GoPro 4 Session looks great but 1 hour of battery life? I no longer have to put up with it now I have the Brunton All Day Battery. If you have a GoPro 3/3+, you need this accessory. 

Indigo5 bicycle light

I first came across this light as a Kickstarter project. I was sick and tired of the cheap plastic lights shorting out when I rode in the rain. Those that didn't short out (designed well with charging point not pooling water) were simply not bright enough. So I became a backer. 

I opened the box, when it arrived. I was not prepared for how good this light looked. This light is "manufactured from machined aircraft grade aluminium and finished with military spec anodising". Whatever. It looks really good and really expensive. It is the Maglite of bicycle lights and I haven't even turned it on yet. 

The first thing to do is read the manual. Everything really just fits into place and is very logical. However, be warned, it does state not to use the Max light setting without travelling at least 10kph as it heats up very quickly. Fair enough. Max setting is 1800 lumen. 

A quick check to make sure it is charged. Here is the first thing you'll notice. It is not charged by a USB charger. So yet another charger in the bike shed. At first I thought this was a negative. However, as the company explained, a standard charger simply couldn't output enough power to the light to charge it in a reasonable time frame. 

So more spaghetti at the charging station :-) Take note of the red LED on the charger (one on the left). The manual states the light will turn green when charging is complete. It doesn't specify where the light is. So I was worried none of the three lights on the Indigo5 were lighting up during charging. Then I noticed the LED on the charger itself had gone from red to green and the penny dropped. 

As mentioned, the charge input connector is not a mini/micro/USB connector. The LEDs above the power connector are the power on light and indicator as to how much charge is left in the battery. 

Mounted on my bike. Make sure you mount it correctly as the first time I mounted it, my knee kept hitting it when I was out of the saddle. User error only. 

So. How bright is it? Holy Moley! It's bright. 

http://youtu.be/A_Mha8uC-48

Video I took of the four different solid light settings. 

So what do I think? The Indigo5 is to bicycle lights as GoPro is to portable sports cameras. This light looks and feels top quality and as can be seen from the video, 1800 lumen lights the whole street up. I thankfully purchased the bezel so I only light the road in front of me and don't blind oncoming traffic. I have used this in the dark and while it was raining. Even though it was covered in road grime and dripping wet, it did not feel like it was ever going to be a problem. Great for mountain bikes. 

Have a look at http://indigo.lighting for further details including the latest price. They are now selling for $249 with free shipping. In my opinion, it is well worth the price. I've even been looking forward to early morning rides so I can use the light :-)

Oh and it is an Australian company based in Adelaide. 

RidEye (black box) camera review

I heard about the RidEye camera through social media quite a long time ago. I then backed it through Kick Starter. This camera had a lot of promise so why has it taken me so long to write a review?

I have two GoPros, one for the front (Hero 3 Silver) and one for the rear (Hero 1). To be honest, when I finally received the camera, I wasn't sure if I wanted it anymore. 

However, I installed it. 

To give a fair comparison, I had them pretty much side by side. Here is some video of the comparison:

http://youtu.be/v_bUX8fbvA8

The first two things you notice are the blue hue and the vibration in the RidEye. It was raining, hence the crash. Yet the RidEye shows the sky as being blue. The mount is horrible. I did receive the newer mount but did not ever get a chance to test it. 

The RidEye was then mounted on the rear of the bike. I removed the existing mount. As I had not ordered a GoPro mount (pretty silly on my behalf) I used a K-Edge mount instead. 

Now, you may ask, why the zip tie? It is to secure the camera to the saddle in case the mount breaks (I almost lost a GoPro once when the mount broke). Just use fishing line or something similar (lanyard from a USB stick works wonderfully). 

It is mounted upside down, however the RidEye is smart enough to record upside down so the footage appears the right way up when viewing it on your computer. Pretty damn cool!!

The RidEye is designed to be like a video "black box". If it detects a knock, it will save the footage. The camera records and will not stop when the internal memory card (not replaceable or able to upgrade) is full. It simply overwrites the oldest footage. The detection of a knock (or pressing the on/off button) changes the file name so it will not ever be overwritten. As I had a 32GB model, this was never really a problem for me. 

It also has fantastic battery life. My tests (at 720) gave me a consistent 8.5 hours recording time. My GoPro 3 is lucky to last 4 hours with the extra battery attached. 

So why is the RidEye no longer being used? I certainly love the camera. However, my camera died. I had finished a group ride and wanted to use the footage to create a video but discovered the camera refused to "power" on. There is power as the blue LED works but you need it to turn red to access footage, etc. I have contacted Cedric and he is happy to replace it. I will be shipping it back to him. However I feel this camera works wonderfully as long as it never rains. The microphone holes above the lens appear to be a poor design. I have heard quite a few reports of water ingression and I believe water has killed my camera. 

So I'll be sticking with the GoPros unless I can work out a way to waterproof the RidEye.

www.rideye.com for more information or to purchase.