Dogcam Bullet R+
£149.95 | www.dogcamsport.co.uk 01208 269159 | Reviewed by John Milbank
There are plenty of riders wanting to broadcast their trackday antics or motocross backflips, but there’s also a large number of everyday bikers who simply want a record of their ride.
They might like to capture their adventure, or it might be to document the journey, just in case something goes wrong.
The Bullet R+ from Dogcam is a compact, lightweight 1080p/720p camera that’s relatively cheap, yet incredibly simple to use. The cylindrical unit can be rotated inside the cleverly designed mount, which tightly grips the metal casing once it’s pushed into the self-adhesive or screw-on brackets supplied.
Once positioned, a press of the single button makes the camera vibrate (a great idea for helmet fitting), then a laser illuminates for a few seconds to showwhere it’s pointing. And that’s it – the camera is now recording (a small LED alternates between blue and green as a reminder). Press and hold the button again and the unit will vibrate before shutting down. Charging of the non-removable battery is via a USB port on the rear of the camera, where you’ll also find the card slot hidden beneath a metal cap.
The Dogcam weighs just 93g compared with a GoPro Hero 3’s 196g when in its case. It’s also waterproof (down to a claimed 10m), but you need to have the closed cap on the rear. Like the GoPro, this muffles the audio, though I actually preferred the way it picked up the engine sound without the wind-noise associated with the perforated rear cap. The camera comes with an 8GB MicroSD card, bracket, a flat and a curved adhesive mount, handlebar and adjustable mounts, lanyard, charger, USB cable, spare O-rings and an RF remote control and receiver. The remote can control two cameras, and also allows you to shoot 3MP stills when not recording video. Despite one button and no display, setting up the Bullet is simple using PC and Maccompatible application. This allows you to adjust settings like brightness, contrast, quality, time stamp etc (switching between 1080p and 720p is done on-camera), as well as the excellent loop mode. It’s this setting that will probably be the most used on the camera, recording 15 minute clips until the card is full, then overwriting the earliest clips as it goes.
In my tests, the battery typically lasted around an hour and a half (an external battery is also available, taking this up to a claimed four hours, or the camera can be hard-wired to the bike’s battery with an optional kit). With the remote fitted, battery life dropped to one hour and 10 minutes of constant recording.
Picture quality isn’t up there with a high-end GoPro, and the field of view isn’t as wide, but that’s missing the point; this is a great-value alternative that could very well offer the compact solution you’ve been looking for.