Thoughts or experiences with action cameras

This could be a charging cable issue. I had the same problems with my Virb Elite, untill I used another usb-mini usb that problem was solved.

No, there is only one very special charging cable possible = https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/shop-by-accessories/cables/charging-cable-virb-x-xe-/prod515317.html
I can even charge under water, which is my last possible wish.

I use a GoPro 3+ most of the times. Gives a pretty good image even at higher speeds (view my pictures on Mapillary) but as stated above no GPS, which makes it a bit more work to upload. Would be nice if i could track my position on mapillary, so the coordinates could be automatically added while uploading the images

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@Harry, I think you should create an issue on https://www.github.com/mapillary/mapillary_issues/issues, that if you upload a GPS track and promises clocks are synchronized, then Mapillary will do the work.

I have been using the original Garmin Virb Elite when biking and it works great.

Pros:

  • takes standalone geotagged jpegs, easy to upload afterwards
  • regular GoPro mount compatible
  • if you want to record video, the GPS trace and video are in sync
  • battery time is great, I never run out of battery before my legs give up :wink:

Cons:

  • the fastest it can do is 2s intervals
  • GPS lock takes longer than phone (because not using cellular to lock)

I have high hopes for future 360 action cams but none of the promising models are shipping yet.

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@tryl

I’m the guy who use a Xiaomi Yi.

You should know a few things about this Action Cam :

  • You need to refocus it, or you will loose details
  • 0.5s and 1s timelapse are with Auto-Exposure locked. It’s a major drawback. I sent a mail to Xiaomi and started this thread : https://forum.dashcamtalk.com/threads/timelapse-and-auto-exposure.13229/
  • The Yi don’t use the subsecondtime, so if you use 0.5s Timelapse, you will have some problem to add lat/lon

But, Xiaomi are releasing new firmware pretty fast, and there are many people trying to hack this camera. I hope that everything will be better and easier soon.

btw : another sequence, on bike :
http://www.mapillary.com/map/im/cD0nfFzKixMdILQWEZmVHw/photo

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Got GoPro 3+ Black and Xiaomi Yi. Both cameras work good in timelapse mode. Been mounting GoPro outside car with suction cup & safety rope with carabiner.

Using MyTracks application for Android to save GPX logs and geotag photos with gps.

When starting timelapse I take a photo of my phone screen with exact UTC time. After that I compare it with EXIF timestamp and modify photo date time using exiftool. For example the following will subtract 9 hours 59 minutes and 58 seconds from current photo datetime.

exiftool “-AllDates-=0:00:0 09:59:58” -v -overwrite_original_in_place *.JPG

Keeping all photo datetime in UTC is much easier, and you don’t need to worry about daylight savings time, travelling between timezones, etc. GPX tracks are also in UTC after all.

Adding GPS position using gpscorrelate. Recently switched to mapillary script geotag_from_gpx.py which in addition to latitude & longitude adds camera angle based on track direction. Would suggest mapillary to make UTC datetime as option for this script.

Here are some example of photo taken with cameras:

Xiaomi Yi from inside car:
https://www.mapillary.com/map/im/wRQMnYSitkex_B0jLN4s-g/photo

GoPro 3+ Black mounted outside car
https://www.mapillary.com/map/im/teUp2A71huaXvTnj5_1kKg/photo

I was really surprised with image quality of Xiaomi Yi camera, considering it costs only AUD $80 !!! The only downside is absence of led screen, so you need to control camera using app on phone. Camera case is bit different from GoPro but it has same connector so you can use all GoPro compatible accessories

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My GoPro camera mounted on car while driving in Fiji:

I’ve ordered case with side opening, so you can plug USB cable with power and not worry about short battery life while driving for hours. 128 Gb MicroSD card helps with storing all images

BTW GoPro suction cup is the best for getting your camera mounted outside car. Tried cheaper suction cup from eBay was a waste of money - it just does not hold camera :frowning:

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I’ve a first gen garmin virb, bought 4 weeks before the next generation was released, so there’s that :confused:

I find it really good and simple to use. I’ve collected thousands more images by putting it into other people’s cars for a week. All they need to know is how to turn it on, start a sequence and turn it off.

Worst thing about it, the way images are stored makes sorting into sequences massively time consuming.

There is a python script that supposedly helps with the sorting but I don’t understand what to do with it so right now I have about 300,000 unsorted images stored on drives that I refuse to go through manually.

Anything I collect with the virb is basically going to gather dust until I find an easier way to break them into sequences.

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I wrote a Python script for my own use which groups files into directories based on datetime time.

Script

Usage:
python group_photos_by_date_and_distance.py “*.JPG” grouped 10 4 200

Where:
10 - maximum time in seconds between photos in same group.
4 - minimum distance in meters between photos. Allows you to remove duplcate photos taken while standing on traffiic lights.
200 - maximum gap in meters for photos in same sequence

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Yeah I’ve seen some others around too but I’ve no idea what to do with them

I’m not a coder so a script means nothing to me unless it’s akin to using normal software.

For example, I use a python script for mapping many bog lakes in Ireland automatically, but once I got it set up, I only have to press a single key in josm for it to run. I’ve no idea how it works, or what any of the code means. This is the scanaerial plugin I’m referring to

Dave, send them to us in some format and I/we will sort them for you with the scripts. They basically split based on time difference between photos (if time-lapse, anything significantly larger than the time step means a new sequence). Copy to SD card and send with mail or we figure something out.

I have a Xiaomi Yi camera as well. It takes some excellent photos. There was some progress on getting it to run custom code over in the dashcamtalk forum. It would be really cool to send photos via wifi to a computer or to use the onboard bluetooth for GPS geotagging in real time. I don’t think anyone doing the camera hacking/exploration has the same aspirations, though :smile:.

Cheers for the offer @jesolem but I need to do a load of QA on the images so to be honest I’d much rather know how to do what I need, do it myself, and then upload.

Teach a man to fish and all that :wink:

@DaCor do you need a step by step guide to use the scripts? One will split your images into folders by looking at the time between them. One (optional) will remove duplicate images, e.g. when you are stopped for a red light. Finally one will upload everything.

Or how can we help?

A step by step guide (idiots level) would be massively useful.

For example, I have no idea how to “run” a script

I fully agree and like to add that Garmin is known to make nice hardware but there software is and was always a pain.
What I particularly like i that the Garmin Virb Elite doesn’t look like a camera when mounted on the bike so much, it looks more like navigation and the name Garmin is known for that. In privacy aware countries like Germany this is a big advantage not to be bothered while mapping.

@DaCor please see http://forum.mapillary.com/t/running-the-python-scripts/130 and write in that topic if you can get it running as far as I have written now. I still miss to write about upload.

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I use a Sony HDR-AS100V with my bicyle (Intervall, 2 seconds)

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If you remove the battery, you can operate the VIRB from any external battery.

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