@Swedesteed :
For what I think that you want to do, I think you should mount the camera on the chin-bar area of your helmet, record video of potentially interesting areas, and then extract video frames for your still photographs.
Itchy Boots (who has about two million subscribers, and has been doing this for half a dozen years) uses a GoPro on the chin area. You can find out more info about her setup with some camera tutorials (which cost a modest amount) at
Itchy Boots.
Basically, she prefers the chin-mount system for helmets because she can verify that the camera is on and verify what it's pointing at. That can't be done with a camera mounted on the side of or on top of a helmet.
I'm suggesting that, like her, you record the good areas, turning your head when appropriate, and then select still frames afterward. You will need two or three good batteries per day, swapping them out at rest stops after an hour or an hour and a half of recording, something like that. (You will be able to see the battery level on the camera's display.)
To extract the frames for your still photos afterward, you can use any number of software products. I think the most common is VLC, which is free and available for a lot of platforms. When I record at 60FPS, 4K, Linear, I get frame extractions from it at 3840 x 2160 pixels on my Mac, which is good enough for many uses.
Now, for something related to what you want to do, but with its own set of advantages and disadvantages, let me tell you how I work things, as it MAY be of interest to you.
I mount the camera to to the bike, and leave it alone all day.
I get power from a USB port on the bike, typically use a suction cup for a mount, and use GoPro's rainproof USB cord/side panel that was introduced with the Hero9 (I have a Hero 4, 7, 9, and 11). This has the advantage of not having to mess with batteries, and I can concern myself with riding and enjoying the scenery myself. The downside is that it doesn't show views to the side.
As a set of examples, in July 2023 I was a participant in a motorcycle tour of the Alps for nine days, with ten customer bikes and one guide bike. I used a different memory card for each day (a 256GB or 512GB will do the trick, and, yes, I've spent more money on cards than on the camera).
I start off with a fully charged battery. The battery, which doesn't get charged by external power when the camera is recording, is necessary so I don't have to turn the camera on and off at short stops at scenic lookouts, etc., although I turn it off for coffee and lunch stops.
I like this system because I don't have to do anything all day, especially if I'm riding by myself at home.
In any case, here are about 70 videos I made this way, using a Hero11 while riding a BMW C 400 X scooter in the Alps this past summer:
The second picture on that page shows my mounting setup, followed by some maps, and then followed by that collection of videos. Those videos are my "highlight reel" extractions for each day. The YouTube thumbnails are screen grabs from a given video -- what I was talking about before, regarding frames -- but then scaled down a bit, because YT has a thumbnail size limit of a little over 1MB.
For that tour, I used a USB port inside of a glove box compartment, and just sort of mushed its door closed. At home, I've added rainproof external USB ports from 3BR Powersports, drilling through dash plastic on a few motorcycles.
Right, I miss out on being able to turn my head for different views. On the other hand, if you mount a camera on a helmet, it's not very practical to have it externally powered; that means that I don't have to worry about battery swapping at all, let alone at inopportune times. Just another of life's trade-offs.
Good luck with whatever setup you choose.
Regards,
Bill P.
