Bike Cams

Go pro getting more points....

Anybody else seriously considering gopro?
I only ask as I think I am definitely going to get one and we may get a better deal for multiple....

 

The weather seems to be warming up a lot better today. I might be able to get out and give the Drift a wee trial run after work. Will post up my results later this evening with any luck.

 

Good luck Blue Flame:upyeah:

 

Good luck...

 

I managed to get a wee run out and am working on the footage just now :smile: Will probably be a bit later on tonight before I can get it posted as I am having a couple of minor issues which I will include in my wee review.

 

As promised here (finally) is a mini review and some footage of the DRIFT HD720.

To summarise.....Overall I am very pleased with the end results however there are a few niggles that may or may not be showstoppers for you..

The camera itself is waterproof and seems like a solid piece of kit. You need to budget for a micro sd card (max 32Gb) though as the camera has no internal memory so you cannot really use it straight out the box. That having been said I recorded 1848 MB of data which translated to 45 mins of footage so a 32Gb card will go a long way.

The attachments that come with it are not great for mounting on the bike but I did manage to fashion a couple of locations with what I have. see pics


On Wing Mirror (Using provided mount for goggles [and cable ties])


On Pannier (Using provided adhesive backed mount)


Remote Control Location

I do have one other camera location option as I have purchased a suction mount off E-Bay but the only place that it seems to stick is down the side of the fairing (which is a bit scary). I may try that on another day with some cable ties.

Drift do sell additional mounting accessories however they are quite expensive. The mounting point is the standard camera (¼” - 20) fitting however so there are plenty of options on Ebay etc.

My biggest gripe is the format that the camera creates for the videos (.mov). This is a format native to Apple/Quick Time and try as I did I found I simply could not get standard PC based video editing software (ie windows movie maker) to recognise the file. It will also not play back via Windows Media Player. I followed a number of instructions in order to load a ‘codec’ (whatever that is) into the programs but it just wasn’t playing (literally)

I got around these issues in two ways. For simple playback directly on the PC I installed a program called VLC media player. This works a treat..

I then discovered that You Tube has some quite good online video editing software (in my opinion but I am just a virgin at this video malarky) and it accepts .mov files (with a minor complaint from the website software that that it isn’t sure...but it works fine) so I did not have to purchase any proprietary software. The downside of this is that you have to upload all the raw footage before you can edit and trim things down which obviously takes time depending how long the footage is (all blinkin evening in my case!!) . I trimmed it all down to 7 mins for the test video.

Anyways..... Here is my (not so) quickly edited footage taken from yesterday. Note that the first section has some high pitched whining that goes away when I change camera location. The music which I put in in an attempt to mask this a wee bit stops at around 3:50(ish). I would appreciate your feedback on both the picture quality and what, in your opinion, is the best camera position.

 

Blue flame I'm impressed... Especially as this is your 1st attempt.
Picture quality was very good IMO. Good colours, coped with changes of light very well.
The part near the beginning where you are riding near the snow covered hills is stunning and I want to go there..
Best position for me was forward but the rear facing was also good and if you had others following you it would be a good way for them to view their riding.
On the pannier facing forward was ok but we see a lot of you and maybe if it was on a track it may be a good angle.
I have seen a lot from the helmet as the Drift has a slimmer profile it fits to the helmet and I believe you can alter the rotation of the Lens so viewing angle is ok.

Other wise for the £120 you paid I'm impressed. Certainly a lot cheaper than the newer go pros and drift ghost... Is it drastically worse than those 2....IMO no... Would it be nice to have some additional mounts..... Yes...
Can you buy the mounts..... Yes...
Next stop helmet cam. :upyeah:

 

I need to learn how to edit my vids. What software did you use for this Gucci advert?

 

Did a bit of filming with the GoPro yesterday, used the GoPro suction cup and a velcro on camera mount for the shots onboard the bike. Had about 50mins raw film and spent a while editing it down to 5.

The complete film plays perfect and clear at home but once loaded up onto Youtube its not so good, tried twice to upload it and the second attempt is what you see here. Sound is not fantastic as I used the waterproof case and not the external microphone.

 

Richard
Your a bit of a professional.... Very good footage.. Interesting angles...
Also looked very good quality.... Dam so many choices...

 

Ditto..
Nice work Richard, some good angles, nice to see they haven't been lobbing the salt down like its going out of fashion like they have up here...
:upyeah:

 

Cheers Jim, had fun but slowly got fed up of riding in circles only a mile from home The roads are still quite salty round here, and not had any proper decent weather to ride the bike since I bought it in October.

 

Like all those different camera angle shots. Very impressive.

 

Been playing with these sort of cameras for a few years now but mainly for skiing and kayaking so can't comment on bike use as yet.
But.
My camera of the last 4 or 5 years has been an American made 'Tachyon XC Micro'. Bought it after seeing a friend's - never seen anything like it before so didn't research possible alternatves.
It's benefits were it's size and form factor - it was a bit smaller than the current crop and 'bullet' in profile with a single button on the top to stop and start recording. It was also waterproof to 10m once it's sturdy back plate was snapped shut.
Unfortunately once said sturdy back was closed there was virtually no audio! Also the 'beep' and 'beep beep' on pressing the record / stop record button was also somewhat lacking in audio so I was forever asking 'is me light on'! (funny how the audio always picked that up but nothing else...)
Anyway. Tachyon packed up recently so a new camera had to be purchased.
Just returned for a week's skiing in France where everyone seemed to be using GoPros. Wasn't impressed by the form factor - a box sticking up on top of their heads - they all looked like tellytubbies!
Nonetheless GoPros were obviously the thing to have so I started looking around and doing some research. Everything I read seemed to say that the GoPro had the best features and image quality of everything on the market so it looked like that was the way to go, I'd just need to find a way around the awkward form factor.
It was then that I discovered the Drift HD Ghost. Very similar spec to the GoPro Black, better in some areas, not so good in others, but certainly better looking, the right form factor (bullet) and about £50 less.
GoPro seemed to promise better image quality but I figured I'd never noticed anything wrong with the image from my 4 yr old Tachyon so would the difference between the much newer Drift and a GoPro's be anything to worry about?
So I bought a Ghost and accepted that the GoPro might have very slightly better image quality but as I might not notice it the form factor and features of the Ghost would more than make up for it..
So far I've only played around with it as a hand cam but I'm impressed - and on checking out comparisons between the two on YouTube it seems there is indeed very little difference in quality in daylight, although the GoPro is definitely better in low light. (Some of the daylight side by side shots actually favour the Ghost)
The Ghost remote is amazing - the coloured LED's on it not only indicate when you're recording but also which of the 4 modes you're in - video / photo / timed / multi shot. I've also downloaded the Drift iPhone app - lets you control the camera from the phone AND see what the camera is seeing (not much use on the bike maybe but....:biggrin
Drift make a handlebar mount and a Roll Bar mount as well as a handlebar mount for the remote which looks like it will be really useful. Haven't ordered a handlebar mount yet as I need to pick up the bike and check whether the camera will see above the instruments - maybe the roll bar mount on the front or rear forks might work better - should certainly get some good shots when I get on Oulton Park (Maybe I should wait until I take the stabilisers off first...)
Anyway. Sorry for long winded post (night shift!) I'll post some results as soon as I get them!

 

Great report bumblebee, how much is the ghost package?

 

try ebay or google...

 

Hi Jim
Apologies but I tried to respond yesterday on my phone and ended up losing everything I'd written so waited till I got back on the computer.
Just written another load of info but when trying to post it was told to log-in (again!) So I did and now my post is gone!
It may be that it's in the system somewhere (it said auto saved) but having now got my p*ssed off head on I'll have to try again later!

 

OK Trying again - maybe I need to be writing faster...:biggrin:

The Ghost is £300 and that seems pretty much the same everywhere - spotted it at a few pounds less here and there but they usually add postage which cancels out the saving. Got mine from Actioncameras - £299 and free postage.
The highest spec GoPro - the Black is about £350.

Some basic for(s) and against(s)

GoPro benefitsOver Ghost)
Better low light image quality.
Can film HiDef (1080) at 60 FPS (Ghost is 720)
Very small (tiny!) without it's waterproof housing.

Ghost benefits (Over GoPro)
Built in 2" monitor (GoPro monitor is a clip on extra)
'Bullet' form factor
Waterproof without housing (Only 10' but more than adequate unless diving)
Rotating lens allows more mounting options.
2 way remote - Remote includes large coloured LED's which give visual indications of camera mode (Recording / video / Still / Timed / Multi shot)
'Video Tagging' - Continuous record without actually storing on to the card. When something happens you want to keep just hit the record button and the previous 5 mins? (or whatever duration you've set it to) will then be saved.
Growing range of mounting options and can use GoPro mounts.

Loads of sites out there showing performance comparisons - The GoPro has a reputation for having the best picture quality but nothing I've seen confirms this - if you find a video of a dirt bike ride out in Death Valley the Ghost actually looks far superior to the GoPro. I've seen one low light comparison which definitely favoured the GoPro and my experience so far from some evening filming in a restaurant would support this - very grainy.

 

Again, great review Bumblebee, My minds made up now, This has been a subject which I have become bored with so many times, as everything seemed to point at the Gopro but Ive never liked the look of it, and i think what you point out here puts the Ghost ahead (and It looks a dam sight better)

Ive looked at the vids and to be fair I cant tell the difference. Ghost It is.


I wonder If Concept Carbon can get them at a deal???

Thanks for your guidance bumblbee, you done any vids yet???

 

Still like my Contour GPS. :smile: But bummin' good report, BB