- Garmin has announced a bicycle fire which is coupled with a 4K security camera
- This means that it is indeed a bicycle dashboard cam with a light of 600 lumen
- The Varia View is now available for $ 549 / £ 459 (around $ 965 in)
Garmin has just revealed a new powerful new gadget for cyclists who wish to invest in their road safety – a crossing between a powerful light before 600 fuels and a 4K security camera, which means that it can serve as a bicycle dashboard.
The new Varia View is indeed the back of the rear light and the Garmin radar (called Varia RCT715), with which it can also synchronize. This model is however much more powerful, being much brighter thanks to its release of 600 Lumen. It also packs a 4K front camera (rather than 1080p), which can automatically record videos if it detects an incident – just like the best dashboard cams.
This is one of these products that Garmin should have done years ago. Whether you traverse in very well lit urban areas or on country roads – or, like me, a bit of both – a powerful light before and a camera are essential cycling accessories, so it is good to see them combined a well -designed, although expensive package.
Garmin says that the integrated camera has an electronic image stabilization to help you establish license plates even on potted roads, although this is done at the expense of a harvest. We will have to see how this stabilization compares to the best action cameras like the GoPro Hero 13 Black.
While Garmin has experience with action cams with his now decontulated VIRB series, I do not expect what View View corresponds to Gopro and Dji for image quality. Even thus, it must reach a certain level to make it a viable cycling dashboard cam, because the capture of small details can be important. To help capture these incidents in its entirety, it also has a hidden microphone for audio.
The only potential drawback of the combination of these two gadgets is the battery life, but Garmin’s claimed specifications suggest that it is achievable. It indicates that the Varia View will last “up to seven hours” in Flash Day mode with the recording of the camera (although it falls at a little more than an hour in full brightness) and / Until nine o’clock “when the lighthouse is off, and you pull in 1080p. If you plan a long journey, the camera can also be used during the load.
Your video clips are stored on a microSD card (which is not included), and you can also automatically save images on the cloud via Wi-Fi using Garmin Vault.
The drawback? There is inevitably a subscription to the use of Vault, and it is a fairly expensive $ 99 / £ 99 per year.
However, the global concept is good, and as a cyclist based in London, I like the idea of carefully combining a light and cycle dashboard cam in a relatively small unit. The Varia View is available for purchase now for $ 549 / £ 459 (around $ 965 in).
Security is delivered with a high price
To watch
In many ways, Bike Tech always feels a little late, which is why I always combine a fairly dated Lezyne light (which always has a micro USB loading port) with an old GoPro if I go to a long journey on the roads.
But it seems that there is finally a little more competition in the space of intelligent bike light, with Varia View of Garmin arriving to face the more established cycliq Fly12 Sport (which combines a 4K camera with a light of 400 Lumen for a more affordable $ 319 / £ 299 £ / 449 at). Wahoo also recently announced the new Radar Trackr, a rear back light with Tech Radar like Garmin’s Varia RCT715.
None of these elements is exactly cheap, and there is an argument that you better go with two separate devices if you don’t need a camera for each walk. Although well in theory, the Varia View Varia Cloud storage component could also prove to be an excessively expensive supplement if you don’t use it often.
However, it is good to see a long -awaited innovation in bicycle safety technologies, and increased competition should, hopefully, more affordable options follow in the Silstream of Varia View – depending on the prices, of course.
