Aussie company kickstarts combined rear light & camera at bargain price

Just a query about the kickstarter/crowdfunding concept. If the whole amount isn't raised and production doesn't start, do contributors get their money back? I'm very interested in this, but don't fancy burning £100 for nothing.

Interesting concept. I like the waterproof coating.

Seems to me that it would be even better if the flashing were with white LED and it was mounted instead to a brake caliper with a cable tie-in to give it the ability to operate as a brake light.

I've seen these in the past, but they never caught on. Probably in part at least to hydraulics, but certainly most road bikes are not using hydraulic brakes at this point.

It's not very complicated to add and if they used plastic for the brake tie-in, it would only add 10 grams or so.

Obviously the biggest problem here is that most dangerous collisions don't come from the back, but the side or the front, but those that do happen from the back often happen with changes of speed.

I've been shot with a slingshot for no reason before (walking along the street, kids just playing at being jerks), but the more cyclists do to demonstrate that they are responsible and have a right to coexist in traffic, the better things will get.

For most people this is a simply brilliant idea no pun intended. I think it will we a great assist in the drive to make drivers more bike aware. The simple fact that a cyclist's rear light could contain a camera will be a deterrent to those drivers looking to make mischief or act carelessly. Let's get this funded and launched.

Nice idea - but two flashing options on the light, and - apparently - no steady mode? For any sort of group riding that is no-no. In fact some events (PBP for example) ban use of flashing lights altogether.
Not for me on that basis.

Yes this is all very good but it does seem to take up a lot of space under the seat. If you have a seat bag you might obscure the camera.

What I really want for Christmas is a central unit, preferably mounted on the frame using a spare bottle position, capable of taking feeds from at least two camera units.

The main benefit of this arrangement is that the expensive gubbins would be mounted in a protected position, centrally on the frame and your camera units can then be small, unobtrusive, cheap, waterproof/sealed and essentially sacrificial. Another benefit would be that as the central unit is mounted centrally a larger battery could be used.

You're all going to shout at me that one already exists, arn't you! If it does give me the details please.

The glare from the light is annoying, can't the shape of the plastic around the camera be changed to avoid this? Why is there a bunch of LEDs around the camera lens anyway - ditch them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qux8wkc26tE

What angle FOV does it have?

There's a more in depth review of this here:

http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2014/02/fly6-hd-camera-light.html

Including some actual night footage if anyone's interested

Hope you have some UK testers for the great British weather, looks good a little pricey still but great for hill climbs if your the fastest

'that's why there are no videos, all you will pick up is the flashing red light.'

*yet* another reason to put your lights on constant mode...

Nice vid,but here in the UK. Your definition of low light and mine differs

HI guys and thanks for your comments & questions! I will try and address them here.

We believe that motorists will become aware that cameras are out there via the media (not by the light/camera itself). An example is where an aggressive driver harassed a group of cyclists (one with a Fly6). The video went viral (locally to Brisbane, Australia) and the police took hold of it, interviewed the cyclists and were taking it up with the motorist directly. Ultimately the news media picked up the story and was on the nightly news that night (http://bcove.me/4lz78hdi). This is the awareness that Fly6 can create which should lead to a safer environment for cyclists & motorists.

Fly6 has a normal camera that requires light to capture imagery. It is not an infra red camera so where there is no light there is no footage. An infra red camera would similarly be ineffective during the day. Many people use their lights during the day and should do to increase visibility (although we have an off function for those that don't want to). Most riding is done during the day (why you see most of the footage during day). Of course commuters often ride through daylight, low light and night conditions where Fly6 will work well as a light for all those conditions and as a camera for day and low light situations (see low light example video here http://vimeo.com/85642890) where the footage is fantastic.

The battery life is not just what is written in the manual - we have 150 units with cyclists at the moment and they are getting over 5 hours by default with both the camera and the lights working (longer if you turn the lights off!). Making the device, last 5 hours, have very steady footage, weather proof, HD & audio, incident protection (in case of an accident), aerodynamicly located behind the seat post, just over 100grams and looping constantly for set & forget ease of use are all features that cyclists need. Sure GoPro has higher definition footage and a 'keyfob' is inexpensive but neither of them can deliver the features a keen cyclist needs (although we need to start designing the beer holder!).

Hope that answers all your queries and happy to answer more if you have any! We are a small company (two of us) and have tried our best to bring all these features into a small enough device that is what we believe affordable and easy to use. We are open to other ideas and suggestions so please keep them coming! Our website (www.fly6.com) has plenty more resources if you want more details.

Sorry for the long winded response and thanks for being interested in Fly6.

What we need is webcams mounted on bikes with 3G capability and add GPS to that as well. You leave your bike somewhere, it gets stolen but your web cam is on and streaming to a server that records the stream for a period of time - say 24 hours. You get evidence of whoever nicked it and you get GPS coordinates streamed along with it.

In fact a GPS receiver with a 3G connection to upload your bikes position every minute would suffice. Needs to be mostly concealed with a large enough battery so inside the seatpost for everything but the GPS and 3G antenna, would be ideal.

Who want to crowd fund me for that?

Really sucks that cyclists are required to carry cameras on the roads these days

I think powering both the light and the camera from the battery is a terrible idea. They quote 5 hours, but in my experience cameras rarely live up to the manufacturer's expectations, and as soon as it's out of juice you've lost both the camera and the rear light.

The media would undoubtedly love the video footage. But until Police start to prosecute bad drivers properly, no-one will care and they'll all just end up on You've Been Framed.

This is not a bad idea, but I think that rather than compare the camera to a GoPro, it would make more sense to compare it to one of the many "keyfob" video cameras (available for about £20 on eBay).

While they have their issues (difficult configuration, lack of weatherproofing) the basic operation and video recorded is perfectly adequate for this usage.

Considering they are already sold at a profit, it should be possible to source similar vidcams-on-chips for even less, and build both front and rear cameralights to sell for less than £100.

I think GoPro has had the "actioncam" market to itself long enough, BTW. I've got one and while the video is fine, the ergonomics are pretty awful. Bring on the competition (Garmin, Shimano, etc.)

This is not a bad idea, but I think that rather than compare the camera to a GoPro, it would make more sense to compare it to one of the many "keyfob" video cameras (available for about £20 on eBay).

While they have their issues (difficult configuration, lack of weatherproofing) the basic operation and video recorded is perfectly adequate for this usage.

Considering they are already sold at a profit, it should be possible to source similar vidcams-on-chips for even less, and build both front and rear cameralights to sell for less than £100.

I think GoPro has had the "actioncam" market to itself long enough, BTW. I've got one and while the video is fine, the ergonomics are pretty awful. Bring on the competition (Garmin, Shimano, etc.)

Every one of their videos is filmed during the day. When do you mainly have a light on...

I want to see how it looks at night, I bet its crap and that's why there are no videos, all you will pick up is the flashing red light.

If they add a speed display, artisan beer holder and make it from ethically recycled bamboo then it has all the ingredients for kickstarter success.

I dont think I want to see!

Nice product idea - but i figure car drivers will not see the thing as a camera, just as a bike-light.
(so in terms of prevention it wouldn't do much for you, it would be of great for footage after an incident, i think i'll just go for good lighting)