If you want to join the helmet camera brigade, then the Veho Muvi will appeal. The price is low (excellent price on Amazon), it’s tiny and operation is incredibly simple.
I’ve taken it out for a couple of rides now, so I thought this might be a good moment to touch base and let you know my initial impressions.
Let’s start at the beginning. Installation. Admittedly, this was a little fiddly. Whilst I first trialled clipping the Muvi to my jacket this didn’t work very well as it ended up pointing down at the road. Unless you are riding a fully sit-up and beg position bike, then you’ll want to attach the Veho Muvi either to your helmet or your handlebars.
Attaching the Veho Muvi to the helmet is a small adventure. There are no real, clear instructions as to how you should go about doing this so the improvisation part of your brain goes into overdrive and starts tugging at straps and coming up with crazy solutions. My solution looks a little something like this:
Messy, but it worked.
Although, it’s a far cry from their suggestion:
But on the plus side at least I was “exciting my mind” as they suggest, by coming up with an innovative way of mounting the camera to my helmet.
With the Veho Muvi attached to my helmet I set off on the first ride:
What you’ll notice in the video is:
- I whistle and sing too much when I cycle
- I tend to focus my eye on drains for no apparent reason
- The video is clear enough to spot licence plates
One of those three bits of information will actually be remotely useful to you. Whilst the video appears like it’s a missing scene from the movie Cloverfield the quality is perfectly adequate for the intended purpose. It also copes incredibly well with being pointed towards the sky and then back at the road. Quickly adjusting to light things up.
The other important thing to note from my initial dodgy attempt at helmet camera filming is that to get the perfect angle will take a little adjusting. I found in my initial setup, the camera was pointing too much towards the sky.
Operating the Veho Muvi is easy. You turn on. Tap the record button and then tap the record button again when you want to save the recording. Then you turn off the camera. However, if you turn off the camera before hitting the stop/start button your video won’t be saved. No doubt a couple of people will get this wrong resulting in what scientists call a “doh” scenario. However, I can also see how its good to be able to discard video so quickly simply by not hitting “save”.
Overall, I’m really impressed with my first few rides and I’m looking forward to filming more with the Veho Muvi to put together a more coherent review. If you are already convinced then grab a Veho Muvi here and you’ll also need the Extreme Sports Pack which you can get from here.
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Update: You can now read my full review here.
See also:
I’ve been riding with a Muvi for about a month and I absolutely concur. Getting it set on the helmet is a little hit and miss (I have a lot of footage of gutters and my front wheel) but eventually you get set.
There are niggles, e.g. each movie is limited to 30 minutes and should automatically roll over to a new file, but that doesn’t always happen, but on the whole, you get a lot more than what you’ve paid for. I’ve got a 8Gb card in there (it is worth paying a little extra to get a faster card – class 4 or 6) which is enough for about 4 hours (longer than the battery life).
The clarity is astonishing and everyone I’ve shown it to is amazed at what you can see given it costs so little.
As a cheap intro to the idea of taping your rides, it is almost impossible to fault.
I used to use a muvi for my rear facing camera, and it was attached to the frame.
Obviously when attaching a camera to the frame it will experience more road vibration. So what is important is that it is strapped down tight but also cushioned. Not the easist of things to achive but it gives a clear image if you do it correctly.
The camera on my helmet has always been a ContourHD. It is more expensive, you obviously get a better image, more features but the real plus side is the better design, it’s much more easier to fix the mounts to various surfaces / objects and the lasers help you line your shot up every time (although if you don’t move it, not need to). So i have one mounted to my helmet easily and one mounted on my seat post easily.
I have had my Muvi a few months now and also found the fitting very tricky. After months of fiddling about with it, I finally have it in about the same place as you do and find it gives and excellent angle.
I have dropped my Muvi multiple times, forgot to unclip it from my helmet before slinging it in the shed and dropped it down the stairs (clumsy anyone). It still functions like a beauty (all be it I have a little scratch on the lens now but I’m hoping to brasso that bad boy off).
You can see examples of my Muvi footage on my youtube channel complete with sarcastic text that flies onto and off the screen all set to angry rock music. http://youtu.be/tpGjbW-AJqE This is from when I had the camera right on the top of my helmet. I’m much happier with it on the front now and hope to capture enough stupid stuff people do to make another sarcastic captioned video soon!
Happy cycling with your muvi!
Who’s going to save the video for you if you get hit by a car?
K; the cam will continue filming until the battery runs out, then it automatically stops filming before it shuts down. I think. Because I can’t get mine to work at all.
….it also saves the video file every 30 minutes. and nobody will have found out how to switch it off in that time, even if they notice it’s there at all. now, how does it work?
Might actually get this. Many of the helmet video cameras sold by Evans are really expensive HD ones, and this is one is at a good price.
The Veho Muvi is good, and great value.
I would recomend mounting it on your helmet, best done using the helmet mount they sell. I use a few elastic bands to keep it tight, and can fit the USB lead to charge and get data off it without taking it off the helmet.
I’ve managed to mount it fairly near the front of my helmet, rather than high on top like the instructions showed. Getting the angle right took a bit of adjustment over a few rides, but was ok.
I hadn’t found that turning it off before pressing stop deleted the footage. When the battery has run out of power it saves all the footage up to that point.
What’s the battery life like? Tempted to get one, but riding for up to 4 hours a day, the reviews on Amazon suggested battery life was anything between 1.5 and 3 hours so I’m a bit put off by the though that it might not even make it to work before dying (and given there’s two rlj collision’s just waiting to happen in the last 20 mins of my ride in the morning I wouldn’t want to miss them!) It does seem abit fiddly to have to stop recording before turning it off, especially if it does this itself when the battery runs out… With my riding though, I’d probably just let it run out filming under the desk at work then chartge it middle of the day for the ride home!
Oh and as for whistling and singing, I tend to waffle on to myself at times, of late: “you can tell the circus is in town, all the clowns on the road…” (although it’s gone this evening…)
Battery life was about 1 1/2 hours when mine was new, now its more like 1 1/4.
But as it charges off a USB lead I would charge it up at work off my computer before doin the journey home.
I’ve heard some people have fitted USB chargers to get more time out of it during a longer ride. I haven’t tried this yet (but am looking on amazon for something to try out like this).
To stop recording is easy as the stop/start button is on the top and the light changes colour from flashing green (recording) to red (stopped).
As you can fit an 8Mb card it holds a good amount of data (as it’s not HD quality so smaller files).
What thereverent said – It won’t last for 4 hours. Around 1 – 2 hours max.
I’ve not yet migrated from jacket to helmet but my Muvi which I’ve been riding with for about 3 months records everything from when it’s switch on to when it’s switched off or runs out of battery. I’ve managed to capture some interesting conversion in the work change rooms having accidentally left the device on…
Used like a true spy 😉
I tried the pro model a few weeks back but ended up sending it back. The supplied memory card (marked as class 4) wasn’t fast enough to record properly (10 frame a second slideshow) and even with a faster branded card it still struggled a bit with dropped frames.
Main issue was the battery life though. Three tries to record a just under one hour trip to work resulted in flat battery and un-usable partial file every time. (looked from the file size like it lasted about 40-45 minutes).
Perhaps I was just unlucky and got a dud? Pity as the size and weight were great but no point if you don’t have a video at the end.
Guess I’ll have to save up for one of the more expensive ones.
Interesting reading through all this feedback – like I said this was my initial impressions so I still have much more testing to do – I’ll get back to everyone with a full review in the near future!
I think James got a dud there.
But having bought a pro modle a while back, I wasn’t that impressed by it. The picture quality is slightly better, but you have a date/time stamp at the bottom right corner that you can’t get rid of. There don’t seem to be any mac drivers for this model so I can’t set the time on mine. It also seem to be more tempremental then the normal model.
I’d stik with the normal model and but it with the better 8Mb SD card and extreme sports pack for mounting it.
I have the Muvi HD 10, only had it for a week or so but I highly rate it. Not as small as the micro but it has a screen, remote control and all the mounting gubbins. So far I have used it on my helmet as well as a video camera for family stuff. Does both pretty well in my view. From the reviews above there seems to be some debate about the battery life of the micro. I have used the HD 10 for 3 or 4 hours no problem. Although it come with all the mounting gubbins the instructions that come with the camera leave a bit to be desired. There is no information on which mounting goes with which fixing. All you get is a list of what comes in the box. So you have to sit down and work it out, not to difficult but it would seem reasonable to give some indication as to what goes with what.
All in all though pretty good.
Do you have a test footage for this camera whilst cycling? Many people would be interested in seeing it
I’d second Gaz for wanting to see what it can do.
I saw a review on amazon, and it didn’t think so highly of it.
Hey,
For all of you that want to try out a Muvi, but don;t have £50 to spend eBuyer has a clone on sale now for £10. Add an SD card and postage and you’re looking at no more than £20.
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/183959
I got a clone; plastic case, and it don’t work.
I bought some adhesive-backed velcro to stick mine to my helmet and it works a treat.
I too have a Muvi HD, I mount it on my handlebars with a velcro strap and it works great. Thankfully Sally, my Steel Framed Surly soaks up lots of vibration – you can see an example ; http://www
Looking forward to getting back to blighty and taking Sally back out on the streets .
If the picture aspect ratio is 4:3 and your main aim is to use it as ‘insurance policy’ then you’re not losing a whole lot of the view angle by mounting it on its side and it would probably be less obtrusive.
There is a downside to all these helmet mounted gadgets though, which people don’t seem to appreciate. That is that they are likely to render your helmet less effective in the event of a crash or possibly even cause injury by snagging on the ground or penetrating the helmet.
Just some food for thought.
i just used cable ties – clean efficient and does not look cluttered