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I think my mate is bonkers, he's looking at fitting his Olympus OM-D EM-5 to his MTB handlebars to take videos to upload to Rouvy.
I think that even if he manages to get a clamp that will hold it in place, he could easily wreck the tripod mount. And even if that survives I think the footage will be unusuable.
Has anyone done this?
Does it have any image stabilisation?
Loads of bar mounts available though.
(I've just had to Google "Rouvy")
It has good IS, but it's sensor shifting which is fine for hand-held camera shake but I can't see how it's going to work rattling along on an MTB.
Possible? Yes. Sensible? Doubt it.
Maybe one of those cage-style cases would be a better start to spread the load. Probably worth getting a gimble mount too.
No.
They make these things called action cameras now.
Also, bar mounted footage looks utter gash.
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you could probably buy a go-pro for what a decent mount would cost...
Even if he succeeds, and even if he doesn’t crash, it seems a great way to shake a camera to death.
Mount isn't so much the issue. Probably need a gimbal for shake though. Seems like a faff.
you could probably buy a go-pro for what a decent mount would cost…
Or a gopro alternative. Plenty around for £40-60, even if you avoid the rubbish chinese ones.
*Mirrorless....
Not advisable while the Olympus mirrorless is lighter and smaller than a DSLR it's still a decent size lump to be mounted to a bike. I wouldn't mount my Fuji XH-1 to my bike, no way!
Unless he was mounting a fish eye there is little chance anything would be or stay in focus during the ride. Then the possible damage to a glass lens of stones etc.
Possible damage to the lens mount from vibration as there is a bit of play in these things and if he's got the standard lens I think these have plastic mounts.
GoPros and the like exists for a reason.
IMHO, If dedicated to using his Olympus chest mounting is the way to go with a fisheye.
SLRs mounted on windsurfer masts used to have a short life if ridden hard in shop or when jumping. Old school movie cameras fared much better.
There are plenty of options to make it work, but they will all come at an expense.
Unless he's going for something highly specialist the sensible (and cheap) option would be to use a GoPro.
Or a gopro alternative. Plenty around for £40-60
Any suggestions as to what is decent? Are there any that add GPS data? He wants to make Rouvy videos.
“Possible? Yes, sensible? Doubt it”
This.
Get a gopro, or a cheaper copy.
“Bar mounted footage is gash”
Agreed.
All round it’s a pretty poor idea.
Image stabilisation has apparently came a long way these days, but if you're looking for production quality stuff you should probably factor in the cost of a Gimbal, which will cost as much as a GoPro itself (more again for an SLR).
All round it’s a pretty poor idea.
I totally agree, he's going to trash his nice camera - but he's not listening to me 🙂
It's possible, you will want a camera cage though, the shaking will pull a tripod mount apart.
IS isn't as big a problem as you would think, most of the shake in Go-Pro footage is from the camera shaking on the mount, e.g. flapping about on the chest mount, or mounted on an unnecessary number of links on the bike. If you can mount it down solidly (mount it, then fold the camera/links down so the camera sits as close to the bar as possible) then it's massively improved.
Get a Hero 5 Black off ebay, they had GPS built in, and if mounted securely image shake won't be a big problem.
I thought it would be a great idea to mount one of the first solid state Panasonic video cameras to my bike - metal chassis and a solid RAM mount I was good to go. Trouble was, I was riding Paris-Roubaix - hit the first sector at Troiville, the camera chassis broke and my camera his the deck. Lovely big dent in the side but it still worked.