Drift action Camera

[spunky-mon]

Hello, looking at getting a action camera for my dads Xmas/50th birthday. Obviously fail safe choice is Go Pro, but, my pal has one of the drift HD cameras and it seems pretty good, and has some nifty features the Go Pro doesn't, twisty lens and that.

Just wondering if anyone had used one and has any feedback on the drift, or has used both and can give a good review of them both?

[LostCroc]

My track buddy has one and we have been back to back testing it with my GoPro. His is the Drift HD stealth. What I like about it compared to the standard GoPro:
- all in one package - aiming screen and remote in one integrated unit. No need to buy add ons like the GoPro
- nice compact size
- just as easy to mount as a Gopro - takes the same mounting options.
- if mounted at an angle then you just twist the lens to get images nice and straight. Extra mounting hardware needed for the gopro sometimes for some positions I have on my roll bar.

The downside is their customer service is like GoPros - deficient. Out of the box expect to have to upgrade firmware and faff around to make it function like it should straight out of the box.

Recording decent quality sound was also a major issue early on as there was no firmware update. This is now fixed but expect to have to update it.

I use blurfix on the gopro to add polarising filters - no such option on the drift.

Here is a sample of the footage quality at 720HD 60fps. Make sure you select the quality botton right youtube screen otherwise it will appear in
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTC9tY7i1rw&fea...

If I was in the market again for a camera I think it is a very competitive option to a go pro for a track day camera.

[Craikeybaby]

Another well regarded option seems to be the Contour cameras, but as you say GoPro seems to be the default choice, so there must be reason behind that.

[spunky-mon]

Thanks for the info lostcroc, plenty there to think about.
I think go pro seem to be the default due to the amount of marketing the do. I only heard about drift this year at the Isle of Man TT. They had actually leant a few riders the drift camera to use and get footage and it was pretty good stuff.
They were using the HD 1080p. The footage was on par with the latest go pro at the time.
I have also heard the memory card plays a big part in the quality of the footage as there are different classes which will change the upload speed to the card? Is this correct?

I'm actually siding with the drift at the minute due to the extra features as standard.

[LostCroc]

spunky-mon said:

They were using the HD 1080p. The footage was on par with the latest go pro at the time.

I have also heard the memory card plays a big part in the quality of the footage as there are different classes which will change the upload speed to the card? Is this correct?

The footage is comparable to a Gopro - you would be hard pressed to tell the difference between them. I find using 1080HD 30fps does not work on track days due to the car's inherent vibration and I get rolling shutter effect (wobbly image). but downgrading to 720HD with 60fps fixes that problem. GoPro and Drift are identical for their rolling shutter effects at 1080 30fps in a vibrating setting.

Memory cars do come with classes. I find the high speed classes - class 8 to 10 are best for video work at high resolution/frame rates as they can more quickly update for the images being recorded.