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 Fly6 CE - Rear Camera + Rear Light

If you don't already know, Cycliq makes the Fly 6, which is a rear camera plus rear light for bicycles. I have been using it since the second generation Fly 6 came out, which is more than 3 years ago. It is so popular because it is easy to use. Turning on the rear light also turns on the rear camera, and the video recording overwrites the earliest data when the memory card is full, similar to a car camera. This removes the need to manually delete the footage on the memory card when it is full. The only time you need to remove the Fly 6 from the bike is when you need to charge it, or when you are using it on another bike.

Recently, the Fly 6 was updated again, to Fly 6 CE, which stands for Connected Edition. It can now be linked to the Garmin cycle computer, so that you can control the recording or the light modes from the computer. Not that I need it, as I don't think I need to change the mode on the go. However, what attracted me to the latest version is the upgraded video quality.

The previous versions had a video quality of HD, which is 720p. However, under less ideal lighting conditions, the video footage will become grainy and low quality. The new Fly 6 CE has increased the resolution to Full HD, 1920x1280p at 60 frames per second! This is excellent and it is my main reason to upgrade to the Fly 6 CE. For examples of video quality, just check out Youtube.

New all black design makes the light looks more sleek and less obtrusive.

New packaging

Similar layout, with the big camera lens on top and the LEDs below. The casing is now all black instead of red to blend in with the bike.

Power/mode button on the side

Brightness selection button on the other side. 

The charging port (USB-C) is on top, right beside the Micro SD card slot. Covered by a rubber flap for rain resistance.

Instead of strapping the whole unit to the seatpost, it now attaches to a bracket via a twist type mount, similar to the Garmin type. The bracket remains on the bike.

Weighs 112 grams without the mounting hardware

Comes with a whole bunch of rubber shims, velcro strap and bracket to match almost any kind of seatpost.

Weighs 127 grams with one set of mounting.

Taking a closer look at the bracket, I found that it only works in one direction, as there is a stopper. No wonder I could only twist it in one direction instead of both directions like on the Garmin.

Installing and removing the fly 6 CE is easy, just twist it off like the Garmin.

Comparing the size to the previous version, the Fly 6 [v]. Much smaller in size as the mount is not part of the unit.

Much bigger lens on the new version!

Ring of red light around the lens, a signature design of the Fly 6.

The LEDs are really bright, and I find that using the low or medium brightness mode is sufficient.

For full HD recording at high FPS, a high performance micro SD card is necessary. This one is on Cycliq's list of recommended micro SD cards.

The camera and lights work well, and can be configured on the phone by downloading the app. However, the PC app does not work no matter what I try, luckily it works on the phone app.

Another issue is the poor quality of the velcro strap. It has a rubber coating for improved grip with the seatpost, but this layer of rubber peels off easily. Not a big issue as it can be solved by some DIY, just a little bit annoying that this is happening when it is new.

Black rubber layer peeling off the back of the velcro strap.

How it looks as mounted on the bike! All black look matches the bike well.

New bracket has a lower profile, which is good as it ensures that the VCLS seatpost can work properly without being constrained by the velcro strap.

For a super detailed review, refer to the one by DC Rainmaker, which is the benchmark for a good reviews with technical details and unbiased comments.