Magicshine Seemee DV Rear Camera + Rear Light

Ever since the first Cycliq Fly 6 rear camera + rear light came out, I was surprised that there are so few competitors on the market. I believed that there is probably some kind of patent protecting this design, which is why there are no credible alternatives. I have used a few different generations of Cycliq Fly 6, can see the reviews here.

For such a device, the most important features are:

1) Clear video - Requires some kind of stabilization technology, as well as good low light performance.

2) Good rear light - Does not have to be super bright, but should be "good enough".

3) Relatively long battery life - At least 4 hours in my opinion, for a standard Sunday morning ride.

4) Water resistant - Needs to survive rain and wet rides.

Other features such as fast charging, quick release connection, compact size, Wifi connection, etc are good to have but not as important as the four I listed above. Without any one of the four features, the rear camera + rear light will not be good enough.

Recently I heard of the Seemee DV rear camera + rear light, which has some good reviews online. Decided to get it to try it out for myself, as it is just one-third the price of a Fly 6. 

One thing to take note: The Seemee DV does NOT have audio recording. This probably makes it easy to seal against water ingress, but also means that there is no audio record of anything that happens.

Seemee DV Smart Tail Light

Made in China like most other consumer electronics.

Free saddle rail bracket given as a gift.

Unit is well protected and well packaged.

All the parts that come with the standard package

Weight of unit + seat post mount is 114 grams.

Weight wise, the Seemee DV is lighter than the Fly 6 (Gen 3), which weighs 113 (unit) + 15 (strap) = 128 grams. In any case, it is a small difference.

Looks like a mini Garmin mount. Enables the strap to stay on the seat post, while the unit is twisted off for charging.

Some lens specifications listed. Hope it is scratch-resistant as it is located at a position where lots of road debris is thrown up against it.

LEDs at the rear and also the sides, which is good for visibility.

Type C charging port covered by a rubber flap

Micro SD card slot located at the other side, also covered by a rubber flap.

The Micro SD card slot is a bit annoying, as the spring mechanism does not keep the SD card locked in properly. When closing the rubber flap, it tends to cause the SD card to pop out. Basically the rubber flap is critical to holding the SD card in place. Feels like it might vibrate loose during a ride and stop recording.

Mini Garmin mount to secure the unit to the seat post mount.

Buttons are on top! Power button and camera button, as well as status LEDs.

With the video recording on, and in Flash mode (my preferred option), it can supposedly last 9 hours! That is like double the Fly 6 runtime.

Colour of LED at different battery levels

Fly 6 Gen 3 vs Seemee DV. The Seemee DV is a lot longer, although slightly slimmer.

Seemee DV has a teardrop shape, and also side LEDs which are useful.

There is a ton of regulatory info on the large Fly 6 sticker, while there is none on the Seemee DV.

This probably means that the Seemee DV did not apply for regulatory approval in those territories and cannot be sold there.

Both use their own proprietary Garmin-style quarter-turn locking designs.

Top view. I prefer buttons on top like the Seemee DV.

Rear and side LEDs lighted! I like the additional side visibility.

Additional side visibility is always safer.

There is also a circling red light around the camera lens when it is recording, much like the Fly 6.

As mounted onto the seat post

Looks quite slim, I have no problems with the size.

The Seemee DV has good battery life as well as a good rear light. Not sure about water resistance, it will only be known after it goes through a wet ride.

However, I found the video quality to be quite poor, even under broad daylight. As shown below from the still shots taken from the videos, the car plate numbers are not legible at all. 

These videos were taken when I was riding steadily on a smooth flat road, under good lighting conditions, and I still could not see the car plate numbers with the vehicles directly behind me. If that is the case, there is no hope for seeing the car plate numbers under less-than-ideal conditions.

It seems that the video image vibrates quite a bit even when rolling over smooth roads. From this, I can conclude that there is no effective video stabilization technology being used to smoothen out the videos.

From what I observe, another big contributor to the unstable video is the seat post mount. If you look at a few pictures above, where the Seemee DV is mounted onto the seat post, you will notice a few things that is different from the Fly 6 mount.

1) The mount is located at one end of the unit instead of in the middle, this enables the unit to vibrate more as it is not supported adequately.

2) Mount (mini Garmin) is very small, which enables the unit to shake more easily.

3) Strap of the mount is made of rubber, which is stretchy and also allows the light to shake more.

Together, these factors cause the Seemee DV unit to be "floppy", enabling it to bounce more than the bike itself. This can be shown by lifting up the bike from the ground, and letting it bounce on the tires. When I do that, the Seemee DV swings around a lot, which is terrible for video stability.

Conversely, the Fly 6 mount is larger, and uses a non-stretchy velcro strap to reduce vibration. The Fly 6 also has Electronic Image Stabilization which helps to steady the video. 

The Seemee DV is a well-packaged rear camera + rear light, with good battery life and bright LEDs. Unfortunately, it is let down by a mount design that is not good enough. In my opinion, if the mount design is improved to be more beefy, as well as adding in some video stabilization technology, this Seemee DV will be a serious challenger to the Fly 6. However, in this current iteration, I cannot recommend it as the video quality is just not good enough.

Cycliq Fly6 Gen 3 vs Fly 6 CE

The Cycliq Fly 6 Gen 3 is technically the 4th generation of the Cycliq Fly 6 rear light + camera, as there are 3 versions before this. The first generation (super bulky), second generation (less bulky), and the Fly 6 CE (slim and modern look).

Now, this Gen 3 is even smaller in size, which is always good for road bikes that appreciate a more compact device that is also lighter in weight. In this post, I will do a comparison of the Fly 6 CE vs the latest Fly 6 Gen 3 to see the differences. This is also the introduction post for the Fly 6 Gen 3, which will be very brief as there are many similarities to the previous Fly 6 CE. I will not go into the technical specifications as I think they are nearly identical.

Comes with 128 GB storage card! Much appreciated as a 5 minute Full HD clip takes up 1 GB of space.

All mounting accessories are the same for Fly 6 CE or Gen 3, which is great for interchangeability and reusability.

Gen 3 on the left, which is noticeably smaller than the CE on the right. Mostly due to the reduction of LEDs from 3 to 1.

Power button is located at the same position at the side.

Q button is also located at the same position at the side. However, note that the flap for the charging port is now located at the side on the new Gen 3, instead of at the top for CE.

Rear view shows that the quick release tabs are the same.

CE on the right side had the rubber flat for the charging port at the top, which was prone to water ingress.

New Gen 3 has moved the charging port to the side, for better protection against rain. Still, I hear many cases of Fly 6 failure due to water ingress. I have been lucky so far...

Fly 6 CE weighs 113 grams, which is not too bad.

Fly 6 Gen 3 is just 77 grams, which is even better for weight conscious cyclists.

When placed side by side, the smaller size of the Gen 3 is obvious. However, how does it look when fixed onto the bike?

Fly 6 Gen 3

Fly 6 CE

The Fly 6 Gen 3 does look a bit smaller compared to the Fly 6 CE, but not by much. In fact, without looking at the number of LEDs on the Fly 6, it can be hard to tell whether it is the CE or Gen 3 version.

Even with 1 LED instead of 3, the Gen 3 still puts out plenty of light for good visibility in the day or night. The more compact size is much appreciated on road bikes, where weight and appearance matters.

I use the Fly 6 as my primary rear light, in the flashing mode with the lowest brightness. Even the lowest brightness is bright enough in the day, let alone at night. As for the video quality, I use the highest Full HD quality with video stabilization for the clearest picture.

Using the app, I set the modes such that there are only 2 available modes. The first is with the camera + flashing rear light on the lowest brightness setting, while the second mode is with just the camera and no light. These are the only 2 modes I will use, so I deactivated all the other modes for easy mode selection with the power button on the Fly 6.

With the first mode (lowest flashing, camera on), it lasts for roughly 4+ hours, which is good. The previous Fly 6 CE manages only 2+ hours in a similar mode before running out of power. If I ride in the day, I will sometimes use the second mode with only the video camera recording, and no rear light. In this mode, it lasts even longer, but I have not tested this to find out the true duration.

I would say the Gen 3 is an incremental improvement over CE, not a big change like the Fly 12 (from 1st gen to CE). I have kept both the Gen 3 and the CE, and use them interchangeably when there is no time to charge it between rides or when I forget to charge it after the previous ride.

That said, the new Fly 6 Gen 3 has quick charging, where it can be charged to full battery rather quickly. This is a much appreciated feature in today's context, where there are so many devices to charge (Di2, Garmin, lights, phone, etc).

I run the full suite of Cycliq Fly 12 CE and Fly 6 Gen 3 on my Focus Paralane all-weather road bike, for maximum security. If anything does happen, at least I have the video footage ready.

Cycliq Fly 12 CE

Here is the latest generation of the Cycliq Fly 12 CE, which is an integrated front camera and front light. The first generation was called just the Fly 12, and it was a rather bulky unit. It was useful as a front camera to record incidents, and also as a front light.

However, it was always a pain to charge the original Fly 12, as there was no quick release mechanism to release the Fly 12 from the bike, in order to charge it. I had to park the bike next to a power socket, and connect the USB cable directly to the Fly 12. Also, the Fly 12 had to be loosened at the Gopro-style mount, in order to swivel it to access the charging port at the rear.

The alternative was to loosen the Gopro-style mount and remove the Fly 12 entirely, but it was troublesome as the interface was tight, and the angle had to be set again every time I removed it from the mount.

I mainly used it on my commuting bikes, the Avanti Inc 3 and then the Fabike C3. It is just too bulky and ugly to use it on my road bike, the Canyon Endurace.

Finally, the Fly 12 was retired ingloriously when the power button finally broke after long usage. Despite my best attempts to fix it, it only got worst after more usage. I finally decided to give up on it with little regrets.

Now, the second generation Fly 12 CE is out (June 2021), and it looks much smaller in size. Also, more importantly, there is now a quick release mount which will allow me to detach the Fly 12 CE easily for charging.

New Fly 12 CE!

Specifications of this new Fly 12 CE, with a more powerful front light.

Accessories that are inside the box for the Fly 12 CE. There is the Universal Adapter (middle) and the handlebar mount (right).

The locking shape of the Universal Adapter may look similar to the Garmin design, but it is not the same.

Before I installed the Fly 12 CE on the Focus Paralane, there was only a Garmin mount upfront for the Edge 530.

Comparing the Cycliq Duo Mount (aluminium) with the stock Garmin mount (resin).

New Fly 12 CE is more compact and squarish compared to the first version.

Camera and light positioned side by side

Charging port, SD card slot and reset buttons can be found under a waterproof trapdoor at the side. Much easier to access compared to the first generation design.

Power and Q button located at the side for easy access, as opposed to at the rear for the first version.

At the rear, there is only some holes for the beeping sounds to emerge.

Quick release tab located at the bottom of the unit, for easy removal from the bike. Very important feature.

Cyclic Duo Mount weighs 48 grams

Universal Adapter will be mounted to the Cycliq Duo Mount with a bolt using a Gopro-style interface.

Fly 12 CE unit itself weighs 195 grams, about 50 grams or 20% less than the previous version.

The total additional weight would be around 250 grams, which is roughly the weight difference between Ultegra and Dura-Ace. It is worth the additional weight if you want to record traffic incidents, or just record your ride.

Mounted under the Garmin, on the Cycliq Duo Mount.

Looks more compact compared to the first generation Fly 12. A big improvement.

Looks better with an all-black exterior, as compared to a large silver strip on the first version.

There are many noticeable improvements for this new Fly 12 CE, compared to the first generation. From the more compact size to the improved appearance, quick release function, easily accessible ports at the side as well as easily accessible buttons, it is much better.

Also, there was another issue with the first generation Fly 12, where the front light always turns on when you run the camera. It was not possible to use just the camera alone, without the light draining the battery unnecessarily. With the Fly 12 CE, the camera and light modes can be set independently.

I mostly use it as a camera only mode, as it ensures that the battery life will last the longest. I already have other front lights, so the Fly 12 CE front light only serves as a backup. 

It might seem like a waste to use this Fly 12 CE as only a front camera, when there are alternative cameras that are much cheaper. However, which other front camera can last more than 6 hours on one charge like this Fly 12 CE?

Overall I think that this is a good device to add to your bike, even though it is a pricey one.