First attempt at action filming

It's not something I see myself doing on a regular basis, but there have been a few occasions when I have thought "wouldn't it have been good to have filmed that?" but my hands were too busy grabbing handlebars, pulling me through a tunnel or gripping a dog sled so I was unable to hold my camera. Typical that the most exciting moments are also the times when my hands aren't free! I decided to invest in a cheap action camera to see if it's something worth pursuing. I'd say that I don't do enough interesting or thrill-seeking stuff to make it worth my while to buy a better one.

Today, biking in the New Forest, I thought I'd take it out for its first spin, with varying degrees of success!

Problems I've encountered include:

• Incredibly poor audio - part and parcel of buying a cheap model
• Inaccurate time - for some reason the time carries on from when it was last switched on!
• Wrong angle - There was only one place where I could attach it to my helmet but that meant that the angle was too high and so to see the road I had to look down the whole time which was a little impractical, if not dangerous
• Seasickness - partly my filming, partly the nature of trying to use it when juddering up and down on gravel. Perhaps the issue could have been resolved by attaching the camera to the handlebars, but I don't know it would have made a huge amount of difference (but at least it would probably be pointing  the right direction!)

In all honesty, I think this little gadget will live in a cupboard doing nothing most of the time. I might get it out for the odd interesting event where holding a camera is inappropriate and I certainly want to take it to Go Ape but I'm not expecting decent footage any more!