DV camera for bikes

Can't wait to discover the inventive ways Japanese guys will use this.

@paulinusa-you beat me to the punch mate! I was wondering the same thing. When will we read about the first arrest?

I wonder if it is possible to use it on motorbikes too. That would be really cool.

I've been making bicycling videos for over five years now. I even bought a Japanese waterproof camera on a cable specifically for the purpose of mounting it on my helmet so that I didn't have to ride the gnarly trails and mountains one-handed (very scary). The PROBLEM was that the format is a Microsoft format that NO editing software can handle. So I spent JPY 110,000 for camera that I cannot use, as, to this date I still have not found any programs that will accept the format.

Cops have cameras in their squad cars, maybe they can have this camera on their bikes.

Is it seriously mini-dv format? Using tapes and standard definition (not HD)?

Seems a bit strange when the HD GoPro camera has already been on the market for ages and can be mounted to just about anything, not just bikes. Guess we'll only see this being marketed in Japan.

Cops have cameras in their squad cars, maybe they can have this camera on their bikes.

That's the last thing females in Japan needs....is a Keystone with a camera on his bike...LOL!

Good, hopefully we will start seeing videos of people NOT looking straight ahead while biking or walking and thus causing accidents.

Sounds a bit too cheap to me; is it water resistant? Is the shake reduction optimized for bicycles? Looks just like annother gadget for bored mama-chari riders who cruise at about 10 km/h.

The cyclists in Sydney have been using the Go-Pro cameras (and similar) to catch unruly drivers and reporting them to the police. However, if you were to do such things in Japan I doubt if the j-cops would do anything.

DV does seem a bit out of date; surely HD is the in thing now? Still anything that could be used to provide evidence in an accident should be welcomed.

Foxie - looks like it could be used on a motorbike, MB handlebars arent that much thicker than a bicycles.

Disillusioned - Im giving serious consideration to getting a Go-Pro. I live in Fukuoka, home to "Japans worst drivers". As both a rider of a bicycle and motorbike, I can wholeheartedly attest to that. However, I agree with you that J-cops would do nothing in the event of me presenting cold hard evidence of attrocious driving. Ive been in Fukuoka for 5 years, it was known then for its terrible driving, and in those 5 yearsm the police here have done nothing to change that. Shameful. After one recent close shave, I went to the Koban and reported the driver... well, I tried to; they werent interested. Whilst there, I also mentioned seeing an articulated truck driver using his phone whilst driving throught the city centre (crowded streets all over) - they didn`t even raise an eyebrow in surprise/shock.

@TheBigRiceBowl. Regarding your software issue. If you are using an Apple computer and you need to convert the files, try downloading Handbrake from MacUpdate. It's free. Handbrake is a great video file converter and I've used it with my Linux digital camera's video files. However, if you're using Windows and are not happy with Microsoft software...

....you can get Handbrake for Windows.

I don't know why they're calling it mini DV, as many above have mentioned that it means something completely different. Checking out the website, it records mov files using h.264 compression to microSDHC cards. No mention of frame rates, but the sample video looks pretty smooth, probably 30fps, although quite a bit more jiggly than GoPro, which you can expect for the price

The video files wil be in AVI format, which Handbrake will not convert. However, you can use a free video converter called, ffmpegX. It is available for Windoze too.