Fly6 Review

There has been heaps of chatter about the Fly6 over the last few months and we were keen to check one out. So when a friend received his production model we were upfront and asked to put it through its paces.

With small, light HD video cameras becoming more popular and cheaper, we are increasingly recording our rides. The Fly6 offers features including; HD 720 looping video recording, Nanotechnology water resistance all in a neat tail-light and that is just the start of it. But basically the Fly6 is a rear light for your bicycle with an integrated video camera.

Some of the Features

The Fly6 is a POV camera, the HD 720 resolution and 130 degree wide angle lens works well for general daylight usage, capturing suitable details in most situations. The looping video feature ensures the Micro SD card is being updated with the latest footage. A single two-second hold of the on/off button turns the unit on; the camera begins taking footage straight away.

Nanotechnology surface science has been applied to the Fly6 but you’ll probably just have to take their word for it. Essentially nanotech is applied at molecular level and in this case the internal and external surfaces have been treated with hydrophobic film, so that it repels water. In testing we rode on wet surfaces and through misty conditions with minimal adverse effects.

The majority of the face of the Fly6 resembles a rear light with plenty of LEDs outputting an acceptable claimed 15 Lumens. Don’t look directly at the Fly6 when it is on though as it is blinding at short range. You can cycle through the two flashing options and four dimming settings using one of the two simple buttons. When turning the product on it defaults to an undimmed light setting, which we used most of the time, cycling it through to the minimum setting, just the circling LEDs around the camera, if others were riding close.

We found the Fly6 had a user-friendly setup and USB recharging. We added it to all our rides and why not, it was simple to fit and so easy to operate. Just set and forget, of course if you want some of the footage copy it off the card before your next ride. And the incident protection function is designed to turn the Fly6 off after an hour, saving the your footage.

Initially we stumbled with the .AVI files the footage is saved as, but we new this might be a problem after reading the nifty little instruction booklet. Then the camera struggled both low light and high contrast conditions, often when a taillight becomes an absolute a necessity. And at night, it isn’t effective as a camera and the LEDs flare significantly in the image. But many cameras find these conditions difficult. 

We can see the Fly6 as part of any club, shop or social bunch ride leaders essential equipment. We can also see it used by those who train or commute regularly on road, or for those looking to capture any action behind them without the bulkiness of other POV cameras.

Realistically the Fly6 does everything that it claims, and does it all with negligible fuss. It is a smart looking package that is easy to operate, producing decent quality footage and to what we think is a reasonable price bracket. Simply put, the Fly6 is your buddy who is always looking out for you.