Video Comparison of Lights vs None

I decided I really should have some comparison up here for lights vs no lights vs just the typical bike-helmet light and taillight, for visibility in dark streets, so despite the problems with the camera not having settings to turn off autofocus or autoiris, and no one to pan it to follow me, the following three vids still show pretty well how on a typical poorly-lit city residential street (with one street light at each end) just how important good vehicle lighting is.

Pardon the clicking sound as I ride; the bottom rollerskate wheel got a chunk out of it due to a stick getting jammed in there while riding in some heavy winds, stopping it but not stopping my tire, which rubbed a flat spot on the skate wheel. :-( That's one of the problems with the whole friction-drive concept, as this sort of damage has happened 3 times now, though from different causes each time. Gotta put another one of my spares on there soon--it's still working fine, just noisy and annoying.



This one is with full lighting, and shows turn signals and brake lights as well. I really wish the camera didn't autoiris, even more than I wish it didn't autofocus. On still images I can turn those off, but I cannot do so on video mode, as far as I can tell. The background lights in each video are the porch lights on houses down the road.


Only helmet mounted 6-LED headlight here, with flashing 5-LED helmet-mounted taillight. Definitely harder to see, but much more visible than the next one.



The only way I even see I'm in this one is the little battery-meter light at the headstock, because there are no lights at all here. Just me in white shirt, black pants (my work uniform pants), reflective-striped safety vest, and the DayGlo Avenger-colored bike, on a pretty dark street.

Keep in mind the street is not nearly as dark as it looks in these vids (*everything* is dark, including the lights, probably because it is autoirising down because of the glare from the porchlights in every direction I could point it), but it is not well-lit at all.

So these vids are useful for contrast between the lit, partially lit, and unlit ways to ride the bike, but little else. I still need to get someone else to pan the camera as I ride, and to find a way to keep the autofocus and autoiris from happening on video, as well as get someone with a car with decent modern lighting to drive alongside me as I ride, to provide a lighting comparison for visibility of car vs bike, so all of you can see relatively how bright this lighting is.