Action Camera Advice Needed Please.

Marzipanogram · 24 Nov 2018 at 15:39

I've just bought a cheap generic action camera to attach to a bike, for recording other road users.
To mount it, I need to use the waterproof case.

How long can I run the camera for in the case? Will it overheat after a certain amount of time, as it's fully enclosed?
Should I drill holes in the case to let the heat out, as I'm not using it underwater?
I do need to drill a hole to connect a power bank to use it beyond the 90 min battery time.

Are none GoPro action cameras generally splash resistant (light rain at worst), so maybe I could rig something up and use it without the waterproof case?

Thank you.

Kutter · 24 Nov 2018 at 15:47

the battery in my cheapo one lasts about 2 hours and they gave me a spare. When im making long timelapse i either plug it into the out side socket or plug in one of the little battery chargers that you can buy for about $10, i also have a solar one that helps when its daytime.

Marzipanogram · 24 Nov 2018 at 15:56

Kutter said:
the battery in my cheapo one lasts about 2 hours and they gave me a spare. When im making long timelapse i either plug it into the out side socket or plug in one of the little battery chargers that you can buy for about $10, i also have a solar one that helps when its daytime.

Thanks for the reply.
But I'm interested to know if the camera would be damaged when using it in a sealed waterproof case (not in the water) for long periods of time.

Kutter · 24 Nov 2018 at 15:58

can see it, they are designed to go in those cases. might be better asking on the bike forum as a lot of the bikers probably have them.

Marzipanogram · 24 Nov 2018 at 18:35

Kutter said:
can see it, they are designed to go in those cases. might be better asking on the bike forum as a lot of the bikers probably have them.

OK thanks.
I've started a thread in the bike forum.

Rroff · 24 Nov 2018 at 23:13

In my experience they don't really warm up so using them in a sealed case isn't a problem as enough heat is transferred through the case. As an aside while the batteries from full give about 2 hours recording time I've found they don't hold their charge very well - a few days sitting around and they tend to lose a lot of their charge.

A lot of the cheaper ones seem to use interpolation from capturing multiple frames quickly to generate "higher resolution" images with so-so results - some of them you can scale down to a lower res through a filter and get reasonable results at 720-1080p but some just look grainy with mixed colour reproduction whatever.

Marzipanogram · 25 Nov 2018 at 16:41

Rroff said:
In my experience they don't really warm up so using them in a sealed case isn't a problem as enough heat is transferred through the case. As an aside while the batteries from full give about 2 hours recording time I've found they don't hold their charge very well - a few days sitting around and they tend to lose a lot of their charge.

A lot of the cheaper ones seem to use interpolation from capturing multiple frames quickly to generate "higher resolution" images with so-so results - some of them you can scale down to a lower res through a filter and get reasonable results at 720-1080p but some just look grainy with mixed colour reproduction whatever.

Awesome, that's exactly the info I was looking for.
Thank you very much