Drift HD170 Action Camera Review

I promised last month I'd write a review of the Drift HD170 action camera after I'd given it a thorough test, and here it is!

The review is mainly based on my experience of using the camera with my road and mountain bike. I have also included two videos I have produced. The first video reviews the camera and the second video shows real full HD footage from the camera on my commute to work.

The HD170 is a very well featured action camera. It's the only one to come with an integrated LCD screen which makes setting up and reviewing your footage a doddle. The lens swivels so you can adjust the recorded footage however you have the camera mounted. And it comes with a generous selection of mounting options which together with the swivelling lens means you can attach it pretty much anywhere!



First off we tried the handlebar mount on a Specialized road bike. It has over sized handlebars which makes for a slightly tight fit but a fit nonetheless. This is a nice position to have the Drift mounted since you can see what you are recording and can start and stop the video easily. But depending on where you are riding, the recorded footage can be a little shaky! And off road it will get drenched in mud too.

A more sensible option is to mount it to your helmet. It easily mounts to a vented cycle helmet and I found the best position directly on top of the helmet. The camera records a huge field of view so as long as you get it roughly level, you should capture most of what you can see. The video review below shows the camera mounted on my cycle helmet.

Fortunately you get a distinct sound when you start and stop the recording so you don't need to remove the camera to start and stop recordings. In fact you can also use the supplied remote for this purpose which works very well over a good range (doesn't need line of sight). I would like the sound to be a little louder ideally but it is audible without too much background noise.

The camera records in full 1080p HD and 720p. I've mainly used it in full HD mode but the one advantage of the 720p mode is you achieve the full 170 degree field of view mode - which gives a nice fish-eye retro look to the video.

Full HD quality is very impressive (see for yourself in the video below) - better than I was expecting. Although don't expect too much indoors or outside in low light - this camera is just not designed for that. It has a night mode but I'd avoid that like I'd avoid digital zoom. You're far better off applying any post-processing via your computer. Together with decent software you'll achieve far better results.

Photo quality, although not a feature I'll use much, is also surprisingly good (although grainy in low light). And since you get the massive field of view, it can be quite useful:



Another nice feature of the HD170 is that unlike many of its competitors, it has a standard tripod mount which is very handy, as demonstrated in the review video.

Getting your videos and photos off the camera is a fairly basic affair. If you use the supplied USB cable, you can drag and drop the created files to your computer. Or for quicker transfers you could use a card reader. The camera doesn't come with any software and you will need a decent computer to edit full HD video. But the MP4 files can easily be uploaded to Youtube or such like for sharing. Or you can use the supplied cable for playing to your TV.

The Drift is water-resistant - not submersible. This means it can get wet and will probably survive a dunking, but you shouldn't use it for very wet activities like water sports. I've got it drenched on my cycle helmet cycling home and it's been fine.

The device does record audio but since the microphone is covered with plastic to give it water resistance, the quality is not great, but no worse than other action cameras. But the Drift does have the advantage that it can take an external microphone which will improve sound recordings significantly. You will lose some water resistance though and it needs to be used with the optional rear silicon cover to get any water resistance at all.

In conclusion:

Positives:
Very good image quality
LCD screen
Swivel lens with huge field of view
Generous mounting options
Standard tripod mount
External microphone option

Negatives:
Low light performance (but no worse than other action cameras)
Audio quality (although external microphone an option)

Please take a look at our video reviews of the Drift HD170. In the first video I review the camera and the second video shows real footage in full HD of the camera recording my commute to work! You can choose the playback quality and size from the bottom right of the video.





Drift HD170 camcorder and accessories available from:
http://www.thetechnologycompany.co.uk/

The tablet revolution continues ...

Yesterday the iPad 2 from Apple was revealed. The first generation iPad was a huge success with Apple's usual slick user interface and superb design. It defined a new genre of computing devices - the tablet. Basically an over sized smart phone - who'd have thought it?

The truth is tablet PCs have been around for over 10 years - defined basically as a computer with the main interface being a touchscreen. Microsoft first came up with the concept but it was never very popular. The fact is these early devices probably tried to do too much. The iPad is fairly basic in its capabilities. At launch it didn't even support multi-tasking. It has no USB ports, no memory card slot, no camera, doesn't support Flash (which many websites use to display video and other content) and has no keyboard.

So why has it become so popular? It's all about implementation and marketing. What the iPad does do, it does very well. It's the perfect device to consume information (not create it), whether it be reading emails or newspapers online, viewing web pages and films, playing games, trying out the latest app etc. And Apple very clearly explained what it was for in their marketing messages - they showed it being used to browse the web, watch videos etc. No one was ever quite sure what the original tablet PCs were for.

There's no doubt the iPad is a nice device to own. It's great for having on the coffee table for a quick browse of the web. Or in your hotel room to amuse yourself. But it's very much a secondary device - you'd still want your laptop or desktop PC and your phone - it's won't replace either of them.

So what about the new iPad 2? Well it adds a camera, is thinner and it's quicker (but the iPad is pretty nippy). It has an £30 add on that lets you connect it to a TV. None of these things are groundbreaking. But Steve Jobs very proudly boasted that it will cost the same as the original iPad.

And for me that is the problem. If someone can come up with a device like the iPad that costs between £100 and £200 I'd probably get one. But with the new iPad 2 also costing from £430 to £700 it's still too expensive. If I were Apple I'd have concentrated on getting the price down, not adding features that whilst nice are probably not necessary.

Do you trust PC World with your computer repair?

I was gobsmacked to read this month's (March 2011) article in Which? magazine: "Would your PC survive high street surgery?" Which? took 24 computers (both laptops and desktops) with very basic faults to PC World, Comet, Best Buy and Carphone Warehouse and found the chances of getting them fixed was no better than 50:50!

But what shocked me more were the prices they quoted or charged for the repairs. For a laptop with a fairly basic software boot-up fault, Comet quoted for a new motherboard for £275! Best Buy came in at £160 charging for a new version of Windows plus a diagnostic fee of £40.

The most we would charge for these repairs would be £50. On top of that I was staggered by how long they took to repair these machines, typically 5-15 days with some repairs taking as long as 28 days! If we had a tricky repair with components needing sourcing, it's very rare for a repair to take longer than 3 or 4 days and typically it's 1-2 days. So why do these large retailers with plentiful staff need up to 4 weeks to fix the most basic repair not even requiring parts?

The desktops had an even more basic fault than the laptops - a cable had become detached from the motherboard. PC World charged £69.99 to repair this and took 4 days! Typical charges were £49.99 and I was pleased to see some offered the repair free of charge.

We offer free diagnosis on all our repairs and we wouldn't dream of charging you for the five seconds it took to plug a cable back in you'll be pleased to hear!

Near miss ...

Some of you may have spotted me on my daily cycle to our shop in Tavistock. I'm the one with the really bright front light! Well last week (on the 4th of February) I was trudging up the A386 to Grenofen on my way back from work, when I felt a sudden sharp blow to my right elbow. I looked up to see a Ford Escort white van speeding off with its wing mirror flipped in. Luckily I didn't come off and I only came away with a slight bruise. But the road is wide here and I am clearly visible with a super bright rear light too! The driver of course didn't stop and unfortunately I didn't get his number plate.

After many near misses I've often thought of recording my journey to work with a helmet camera. But after this incident and further prompted by the recent BBC news article on helmet cameras I decided to look into this further. Of course the opportunity to try out a new gadget also came into the equation!

I wanted something that would easily attach to my cycle helmet, would record in high quality and was weatherproof. There were three contenders: the Contour HD 1080 (RRP £230), the Drift HD170 (RRP £280) and the GoPro Hero HD (RRP £300).

They all have their own merits but for me the Drift HD170 came out on top. It's also the only one to have its own LCD screen which makes setting up and playing back your recording far easier / possible! Looking at endless video clips on Youtube and Vimeo, I preferred the quality too. Plus it's made by Drift Innovation who are based in the UK which is a nice change.

I should be receiving one soon and will be giving it a thorough test. If it does the job we'll be stocking it in our shop and online! With the amount of outdoor activities here on Dartmoor - walking, cycling, mountaineering, horse riding, kayaking etc, I'm sure it'll be popular! Look out for a review coming soon.

Skype your friends and family!

Sorry for the shocking amount of time since our last post!

Hopefully most of our local customers should have received a flyer from us this week with some great offers to help you through the winter months. With Christmas not far away we have included some tempting deals on webcams and headsets for Skyping your friends and family over the festive season.

It couldn't be simpler to make a Skype call. For video calls you will need a webcam - a headset is optional. All our webcams have a microphone built in. However the sound quality will be better with a headset.

Skype allows you to make phone calls free of charge using the Internet with the added bonus of seeing video too! After you have your Webcam setup (install the software from the supplied disc and then plug the camera into a spare USB port), visit http://www.skype.com/ and download their free software.

You'll need to create an account to start using the service. Once you have the software installed and your account setup you need to find some people to call! Contact your friends and family and suggest they get the Skype software installed if they haven't already. Then add them as "contacts" in the software. After that it's as simple as clicking on their name and clicking the "Video Call" button!

Our new website with online ordering!

Well it's taken a couple of months but our new website is now live offering our shop on the Internet! We're adding all our products as fast as we can but if there's something you can't find please contact us. And of course if you live locally or are visiting please come and see us!

We'd love to hear from you with any comments or suggestions you may have, and please subscribe to our newletter to keep up to date (you can do so from our homepage).