Boofer wrote on 03/07/12 at 19:17:42:Serowbot, I've been researching your cheap 808 camera and ran across the MAC-10 on WalMart.com. If anything is left of income tax refund I'm looking seriously to buy. I really appreciate your advice on the little camera, but I think the Mac-10 would be a little easier to aim. For $80 it better be.
Again, I'm not familiar with that specific cam, but... Walmart lists a spec of 63 degrees viewing angle... that is very barely wide angle. So, I wouldn't recommend it for bike use. It will make very jiggly video.
The go-pro is 170' and the replayXd looks to be 160' or so...
Don't worry about resolution, because they're all pretty great nowadays... view angle is the important spec for shooting on a bike...
I think 170' is a bit too wide, and would prefer something in the 120'to 140' range... but below 90 degrees is going to be too hard to make smooth...
The wider the angle, the smoother the moving video will look,.. but, objects will look further away, and curves will look straighter, forward speeds will look slower...
(pros beat this problem by using a 35 to 45mm lens but using a very elaborate steadycam mounting system to smooth the view)........
We can't afford those thousands of dollars, so we must compromise by balancing the jiggle with the wideness of the angle...
I actually get the best compromise with my Fuji still camera set to video... it's hard to mount up, but shoots excellent... I'm guessing the angle is in the 90' range...
If you already have a decent still cam that does video, give it a try first and see what you wish was different.
It may do perfectly well. or it may tell you more about what you might want...
These two videos were shot entirely with my Fuji 150 still cam... it shoots 640 x 480 at best quality and has a 24mm equivalent lens (thats fairly wide angle for a point and shoot still camera... 63' will be equal to about a 35mm lens).... (smaller millimetre lens = wider view angles)
17mm to 22mm equivalent, or 110' to 150' view angle is near perfect...(I haven;t found any in that range,... look for close.)...
this was hand held... with the camera in my left hand, I was moving it around to get different views...
this was mounted solid on the front fender of a friends bike as he followed behind me... (the jiggle you see is from the 90' view angle. It would be much less at 120 degrees)( 63 degrees would be much more jiggle)...