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Apple Warns Against Mounting iPhones to Motorcycles
Apple warns against mounting iPhones to motorcycles:
This has gotta be one of the weirdest ways you can ruin an iPhone camera.
Apple posted a new page to its support website warning iPhone owners to be careful about exposing their phones to the specific vibration frequencies found in "high-power or high-volume motorcycle engine." News of the support page first popped up in a report from MacRumors.
Apparently, operating these phones too close to those engines can fry the cameras in iPhones with optical image stabilization (OIS) or closed-loop autofocus (AF) technology. Every iPhone from the 7 onward has at least one of those things inside it, so if you've bought an iPhone in the past four or five years, it could potentially be at risk.
Exposure to Vibrations, Like Those Generated by High-powered Motorcycle Engines, Might Impact iPhone
The iPhone camera helps you take great photos in any situation—from everyday moments to studio-quality portraits. The advanced camera systems in some iPhone models include technology like optical image stabilization and closed-loop autofocus to help you capture great photos even in difficult conditions. These systems work to automatically counteract movement, vibrations, and the effects of gravity to let you focus on taking a great shot.
[...] The OIS and closed-loop AF systems in iPhone are designed for durability. However, as is the case with many consumer electronics that include systems like OIS, long-term direct exposure to high-amplitude vibrations within certain frequency ranges may degrade the performance of these systems and lead to reduced image quality for photos and videos. It is recommended to avoid exposing your iPhone to extended high-amplitude vibrations.
High-power or high-volume motorcycle engines generate intense high-amplitude vibrations, which are transmitted through the chassis and handlebars. It is not recommended to attach your iPhone to motorcycles with high-power or high-volume engines due to the amplitude of the vibration in certain frequency ranges that they generate. Attaching your iPhone to vehicles with small-volume or electric engines, such as mopeds and scooters, may lead to comparatively lower-amplitude vibrations, but if you do so a vibration dampening mount is recommended to lessen the risk of damage to your iPhone and its OIS and AF systems. It is also recommended to avoid regular use for prolonged periods to further lessen the risk of damage.
Also at engadget [engadget.com].
(Score: 5, Informative) by lars on Sunday September 12 2021, @07:15PM (6 children)
I've heard about this issue for a few years on motorcycle forums. Just looking at the videos taken by handlebar mounted phones, you can see everything go blurry when the engine revs. All phones with OIS seem affected. This is why GoPro action cams only use software video stabilization, even when OIS would have looked better since they tend to get exposed to much more vibration than most phones/cameras.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Sunday September 12 2021, @07:21PM (3 children)
Aren't most GoPros mounted to the helmet? You've got a good bit of meat insulating the GoPro from the engine vibrations with that kind of a mount. Mounting anything solidly to any part of the frame guarantees that it will be vibrated mercilessly.
I'm not arguing that the software makes a difference, merely pointing out that iPhone and GoPro mounts are quite different from each other.
(Score: 2) by DavePolaschek on Sunday September 12 2021, @08:46PM
Many folks tried to mount cameras (especially GoPros) to the handlebars, windshield, and all sorts of various things when the cameras were new. Helmet-mount quickly became the standard for a few reasons: theft of the cam, because you usually take your helmet with; crash survivability, because if you leave the bike due to falling down, your helmet frequently is one of the less damaged things; and because of vibration, though the handlebars on some dual sports are about as vibration-free as the helmet, and are less likely to point in directions the bike isn’t going.
But yeah, helmet mount is good fit a lot of reasons. Bike-mounted is better for power (especially back before batteries got as good as they are today). And with dampers (weights to change the resonant frequency), handlebar-mounted can be better, but that’s more fiddly.
(Score: 2) by crafoo on Monday September 13 2021, @05:54AM
I bought a spare tank off eBay that had a camera mount at the top of the tank just behind the windscreen. The tank is isolated from the frame with rubber grommets. I imagine it’s a common location on this type of bike. The view is a little low but it’s protected at least.
(Score: 2) by lars on Monday September 13 2021, @01:41PM
I had mine handlebar mounted initially, but use a top helmet mount now. My reason for changing was the vibration. They do have plenty of handlebar mounts for GoPros, but I think they are more oriented for bicycles. Mine being a motocross bike with a single cylinder and rigid engine mounts is particularly bad for vibrations. I'm thinking of going with a chest mount as it shows the bike for context, so things look less like they are floating. I've had the camera knocked back when going under low branches, so a side helmet mount might work better than a top mount.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 12 2021, @07:58PM (1 child)
I would doubt software stabilization would work at all-- having done it myself, the vibrations at ~1500 rpm/25 Hz were a divisor of the same rate that CMOS sensors download (100Hz?). It was Strobe-tastic.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Sunday September 12 2021, @08:23PM
If your right, software stabilization shouldn't yield a good image in the specified scenario. It still shouldn't wreck the camera.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.