Garmin Varia Vue: Capturing video of what’s ahead

Garmin has added to its collection of lights and cameras: the Varia Vue illuminates the way ahead on your rides and records video as well. It can do its job on its own or work in conjunction with the Varia RCT715 rear-view radar, camera and tail light, so you can get moving pictures of the action both fore and aft.

This new light/camera is a logical addition to Garmin’s lineup, the right complement to the rear camera. Crashes are caused not only by activity behind, but in front. If I look back at my own experiences, I remember more left and right hooks by cars, and only a few bumps from behind. As Dave Shellnutt, the Biking Lawyer says, it’s important to capture those events, clearly. A fuzzy image of a licence plate isn’t helpful.

The Varia Vue has a 600-lumen light and a camera that records videos in a quality as high as 4K. The data is saved to an SD card, which is not sold with the unit. The Vue does come with a mount that will hold it and a Garmin head unit. The Vue costs $800.

An Edge bike computer (1050, 1040, 840 and 540) allows you to manage the features of the Vue. From the head unit, you can set the beam: solid or flash. There are also light modes to choose, such as auto, high visibility, auto, individual and trail. You can also pick the recording quality of the videos.

If you don’t have an Edge, the Varia app is what you need to manage video quality, as well as recording modes and light modes. It’s the best means to view and download the videos stored on the camera, via the unit’s built-in WiFi.

You can record in 4K (30 f.p.s.), 1440p (30 f.p.s.), 1080p (30 f.p.s.) and 1080p (60 f.p.s.). By default, the camera shoots video continuously, grabbing 10-minute clips. If you have the Varia rear radar, you can set the front camera to record only when the radar detects a vehicle.
Connecting the Varia Vue to my Edge 540 was a cinch. Getting everything linked up with the app wasn’t too bad. I needed a few restarts, but the key here is starting the process with a fully-charged battery.

The Varia Vue weighs 192 g, which is a good amount of mass. I haven’t seen any CfD data on the Vue, but I’m guessing its boxy shape doesn’t help airflow. Safety or aero: pick one? For most of us, the former is more important.

The microphone is fairly good. Yes, there’s wind noise, which is unavoidable. In one clip, however, I could hear clearly the discussion that my riding partners and I were having, the beeps of other head units, the clank of gear shifts and even, if I listened carefully, the mysterious creak emanating from one rider’s bike (that was driving him nuts).

Garmin says the battery life of the Varia Vue is seven hours in day flash mode (as opposed to night flash) with the camera running or nine hours of recording time with the light off. With a few test rides spent with the Vue, I’ve found that Garmin’s numbers are in this range. I can get roughly two rides out of one charge of the light/camera if I only use day flash. A solid beam is another matter. It drains the battery much more quickly. So far, my rides have been in daytime. In the late fall or early spring, when I’m out dark and early, I’ll need that solid beam. I’m interested to see how it will perform then.

While my testing of the Varia Vue is still in early stages, I’m enjoying its less-flashy features. Actually, correction, it is the flash I do enjoy. The ease of managing the light from my head unit is the feature I use the most. The camera footage is fun to review, but if my time with the rear radar is any indication, I’ll stop doing that as time goes on. The hope is that I’ll never have to look at those clips after an incident, but having them gives me peace of mind.