Motorcycle Cam: Good, but needs more battery life
I bought this during a daily deal on Amazon in late July 2016. I got a case, remote, 32gb card and a few other things. Overall, I was initially happy then frustrated. This 2-button cam has a learning curve to it. Now, I'm ok with it, but my biggest issue is battery life, thus the 4-stars. I have honestly not used the remote yet.Details....The good:It's compact, fits on my modular motorcycle helmet (that's the police style where the chin part flips up; my cam is a side mount) but there some cons there - later. People even notice it while I'm riding around (I'm in a major city and commute) so I'll get people that randomly wave or throw signs at the camera... If you're distracted by people waving, flicking you off or doing random signs, this is not the thing for you.The fish-eye lens - you don't notice it at first, but the lens on the camera is pretty dang good. It shows a heck of a lot of footage, at pretty much 180 degrees with my initial testing. Some may complain about the built in lens angle, but it works for me. It can cause detail loss, if you're in a bad situation - I tend to try to focus on "threats" as I ride so the cam gets a clear view of the situation. Even riding an underpowered bike with a high-vis jacket doesn't mean you're supposed to be invisible.The bad:BATTERY LIFE. I would love for this to last longer. I can go out on a decent ride for 1/2 the day where I turn the cam on/off when I'm riding or not and it still only lasts about half the day. I've had it die a few times while riding but that's my issue. Go too long and it just shuts off, you just have to watch it. I recommend that non granola crunchin bikers leave the volume at 100% so you can hear it through your helmet. I turn off the LED to stop attention and to gain about 2 mins of battery life. You can also turn off the Wifi/App/Bluetooth settings so it doesn't drain the batter while it's looking for networks.The factory PLASTIC GoPro mount. OMG - as a motorcycle rider that uses the cam as insurance "just in case", the plastic cam mount (the part the goes around the cube) was the very first thing to go. I ended up buying a CNC'd aluminum mount for my helmet. The cam can still pop off in an accident because of the plastic that sticks to the helmet, but no where near as bad as a plastic compression housing from the original package.Your mileage may vary, but if you need to depend on the mount, upgrade to a metal based mount ASAP.The plastic curved sticky mount does not conform to my helmet, at least where I need to mount it. It's got 3M type mounting tape with foam, but it's only attached at a 30% ratio, even when I press as hard as I can. This is more helmet related, so I'm not blaming them for the curved mount - I just wished it had more flexible foam...I use Linux at home, as I am a Sys Admin and Security Professional at work - read: I do NOT use Windows at home, at all. GoPro does not currently support Linux peeps for their Application. I have to use my work laptop (Win7) or my wife's machine (Win 8.x) to use their software. I honestly haven't tried to randomly load up videos from the cards but felt I should mention it since they integrate some tooling into their software. MORE LINUX DANG IT............Notes:I have mine side-mounted on my helmet. It does not self-right with sideways views, only with top/bottom flips. I had to reconfigure my load to ensure I had normal video instead of sideways. I will state that, at highway speeds, my motorcycle jacket does flip up and cause some limited viewing and movement. This is more specific to the venting on my jacket, so keep that in mind when mounting your cam. There are times where I get caught on my cam when turning my head, but I've learned to work around it with certain movements - took me about 2 rides to figure out what I needed to do to work around the cam. I can still hear the cam when it's at 100% volume for beeps, even when I'm at 35mph. Your helmet and hearing "mph" may vary.No external mic. For my case, I'm not going to turn in to a YouTuber overnight. The cam doesn't easily support an external mic and only hears me through my helmet when I yell at idiots at lower speeds. At highway speeds, I doubt it would "hear" me at all. Since I know I'm being recorded, I tend to shake my head (in a "no" sign) to show that I disapprove of whatever happened or I hang my head low (like "omfg, really?!"). I find the drivers around me, at least in my area, understand my non-verbal "complaints" when I do this as well. Should anything come up due to an accident or a stupid situation, I can explain what I was doing/thinking at that moment.Memory: A 32gb class 10 card will buy you about 2.x hours of recording time on 1080 or higher. 64gb will buy you about 5.x hours of time. Your battery will die before that time happens if you have a 64gb card, at least with my experience. I have not figured out the "video looping" feature, as I still get shut downs before the card is full. At this point, I'm about to order a portable USB charging brick so I can top-off the camera during breaks and they're small enough to fit into my motorcycle jacket so I can charge my cam while I'm at a random food/bathroom stop. Even during a 4 day weekend where we only went 2-5 hours a day, I had the 32gb card die, which caused me to reformat part of my trip before I decided to pull over and buy 2x 64gb cards (again - I'm in this more for "insurance") and the battery die with a 64gb card before I was ready several times - and I have the habit of shutting the cam on/off when I enter/leave traffic (start to pull out of a parking lot - it's on. Pull into a hotel and stop the bike to check in, instantly off - it's part of my muscle memory routine now).I consciously pushed my helmet one way or another for shots that I could pull up later. Sometimes this was as simple as facing my camera towards the right, while looking forward for a few seconds - it's all about your comfort level. Recording yourself also shows that you're looking where you're turning through corners - more insurance "just in case" footage.Less than 1080 will give you pixelated video that reminds me of the late 90's. 1080 or higher will show details like speed on my speedometer and better quality license plate reading. Again, your setup on your helmet and bike will vary here.As my state is moving through a heat wave, I will state that the cam heats up a decent bit during recording. I have not had it shut down due to heat yet, which is apparently the opposite of the cold factor talked about in other reviews.And - since this is a motorcycle review - bugs do not seem to affect the operation much, at least not on a bike with a "windshield". If you get hit with a pterodactyl sized grasshoper "impact", you're on your own.....Since I'm currently on Linux, I'll have to deal with raw video to upload, but I'll try to upload motorcycle footage for others that are thinking about it, here shortly. I'd have to upload 20 mins of video instead of a few clips that show what I'm talking about here.