As I stated in last week’s blog, I've got some new toys and I'm planning on reviewing these over the course of the next few weeks; the first one is the helmet camera.

Before I get on to talking about the camera itself I want to explain why I bought it as there seems to be some people who think this is all about catching bad drivers and using it solely for the commute. I bought the camera for a number of reasons, number one being that I wanted it! My first ride using the camera was with my daughter and we've got some fantastic footage of us riding together. I also plan to use the camera when riding off road as you can capture some interesting moments both comic and dramatic that you would miss just using a stills camera.

A few years ago a friend of mine made a short film featuring us riding locally and it's still hilariously funny to watch! I can now do the same thing, albeit with a much smaller and lighter camera. Please don't think that this is to be used as a weapon in some kind of imaginary motorist vs. cyclist war, it definitely isn't. My review footage was filmed during various commutes over the last week, this was just for convenience.

I've gone for a Mini HD2 720p bullet camera from sport-cam.co.uk at a cost of just under £100; this came with various mounts and an 8GB micro SD card. The first thing I've done is bought a bigger memory card, the camera records about 1GB every ten minutes so I've "upgraded" to a 16GB card giving me over two hours of recording time.

The camera is very easy to operate with only one button - perfect for me! - and appears to be very sturdy; it was also very easy to fit to my helmet with a specific mount made for that purpose. It also comes with lots of other mounting options including a handlebar and Velcro mounting system.

I have put together a short series of clips to show what my first experiences of using the camera have been like; these are my thoughts on those clips.

The quality of the footage has impressed me and is more than good enough for my purposes. With the camera mounted on my helmet there is only a small amount of vibration so the image is also fairly steady. As mentioned on the first section of footage the camera angle is slightly too low, but this was very easy to adjust. The first part of the clip is on quite a busy stretch of road, I make no comment on any of the driving!

For the second part I have adjusted the camera angle and this seems to be much better. I was also interested to see that the hill I'm climbing does look pretty steep; often with this type of footage hills just don't look very impressive!

Parts three and four show the effect of the fog last week, it was particularly bad as I had to stop and take my glasses off as they were misting up as well. Any camera footage was pretty much useless.

The final part of the video shows the camera being used at night. It's not really designed to work in the dark and despite me having good lighting there isn't much to see. I do make one comment regarding driving on this section of the clip as I was astounded at the driver of the mini who not only overtook me illegally through the traffic calming and during the zig-zag marking of the zebra crossing; but they also ignored or missed the pedestrians who were crossing at the time.

I am really pleased with my new purchase, the quality of the recording and the ease of use are perfect for me and I look forward it using it a lot more...and not just for the commute.

Commenters, please note: of late the comments on David's blog have tended to descend into personal attacks and disputes between posters. We would like to remind you to respect each others opinions, and if you need to disagree with something someone has said, do so politely. If you feel someone has posted something offensive, please report to us rather than responding to it. That way our below the line community can stay happy and harmonious. Many thanks!