I've had a chance to play around with the new Drift HD170 Stealth camera for a few weeks now and made a quick video just to show a few things I've tried with it. What makes it "stealth," I guess, is the new sleek black design (the casing of the unit is made from a durable black rubberized plastic). The bright orange face of the older model did likely call some attention to itself, and for some uses (i.e. stealth uses) that's a drawback. While the older model's bright colored face made it look fun, I think I do prefer the solid black and can see why they opted for it. The feature that makes this camera really stand out from other similar POV or "extreme sports" cameras, though, is the onboard LCD screen, that allows you to see what you are going to be capturing on the spot, so you can arrange the camera just as you like; it also allows you to go through the menu on the spot and adjust options depending on your needs at the moment. (You can set things up in the menu so that the LCD turns off after a minute of being unused so as to prolong the life of the battery).
What's struck me is that the real value of this camcorder is its combination of a rugged and durable design with its versatility. It's emphasized for use with extreme sports but it's useful pretty much anywhere you wouldn't risk another more fragile camera. It's water and weather resistant not water proof so you could use it in light rain, maybe even during a hurricane if it was securely mounted, but certainly in extreme conditions where you'd be worried about a standard camcorder. (I've heard that Drift Innovation the company that makes these will be coming out with a fully waterproof case for the Stealth some time soon so that you can add cliff diving and snorkeling to the list of extreme sports you can capture subjectively with the Stealth) The camera comes with three different mounts one that you can secure to any kind of narrow belt (and it comes with an elastic belt), one that you can put on a handlebar, and one that you can secure to a helmet with the included velcro adhesives. It's easy to orient the camera, even if you've got it mounted in an odd spot the shooting orientation can be changed simply by rotating the lens manually, and the quick release mount can also be rotated so that the unit can be oriented however you like with respect to the mount.
I'm not much of an extreme sports guy but I can see where this would come in handy for various types of video projects other than extreme sports, and I tried to illustrate a few possible uses in the video. You can mount it on a bike, a motorcycle, a skateboard, or on a 12-foot-long paint pole elevated over a car (as I did in the attached video, using the handlebar mount attached to the end of the pole). Obviously, I wouldn't want to put my Canon VIXIA HFS10 on top of a long pole like that because if it dropped or bumped into something it would almost certainly be damaged. While the Stealth is not damage proof it's a lot more rugged than a standard camera, and so it works great in lots of precarious situations. I used to think that when I needed an extreme shot the best option would be a relatively inexpensive camera like my Flip, that I could more afford to have damaged than my nicer camera but with this one the risk of serious damage is significantly diminished.
You can shoot decent photos (5 megapixels and they look fine, but as you'd expect on a device that's tailored for video capture they don't really compare to the images you'd capture on a compact camera in this price range expect a few notches up from the quality you'd capture on a phone and you won't be disappointed), and very cool time lapse sequences (with shooting intervals from 3 to 30 seconds apart), plus it takes surprisingly good HD video for such a small camera. It's not as nice or as versatile as my Canon, but the video is at least as good or better than what I can capture on my Flip Mino HD plus it's got a much wider lens, which is ideal for "point of view" shooting. At 720p it captures a 170 degree view, and it's got a bit of a fisheye effect which is kind of nice, it looks very cool with POV sports footage but could be effective in other applications as well. At 1080p it captures a slightly narrower range of 120 degrees, and there's less distortion, but not as many options for frame rates. At 720p you can shoot at frame rates from 25fps to 60, and shooting at 60fps allows you to slow the footage down in an editing program without things looking jerky as they would if you'd shot at a standard 30fps and then played back at an effective 15 frames per second. At 1080p you can shoot either 25 or 30fps. (You can also shoot standard definition video if you like). The video is encoded with H.264 in a Quicktime (.mov) wrapper so it's easy to import and play or edit in a variety of applications.
One other nice feature is that the set comes with a remote control "watch" you can wear it on your wrist (it's got a velcro band) and it has two buttons: for record and stop. There's a bit of a time lag on the stop function it takes a couple seconds and sometimes I've found I've had to press the button twice to get it to respond, but otherwise it works quite well. The weak element on the camera is the onboard mike it doesn't capture clear sound at all. It's noisy and would really only work as reference and not playback. In other words if you spoke into the mike or near the mike you would be able to hear what you'd said assuming you weren't on a motorcycle, or free falling from high altitudes and it might help you to remember something but you wouldn't want to even consider including the audio in a completed video. The main reason for the weakness of the mike seems to be that its input is protected by a rubber seal in order to ensure the water resistance of the unit. The real value of this camera is in capturing video you wouldn't be able (or willing) to capture in other ways. There is another option with this camera that not all cameras of this type allow, which is to plug in an external microphone but I'm pretty sure the input is proprietary, which means you either have to buy the mike from Drift or you have to buy one of the input cables for your mike from them. When you do use an external mike you have to keep the rear hatch of the camera open and Drift sells a kind of silicon boot to help keep things sealed and protected when the mike is connected and the door is open.
The Stealth is not a one-size-fits-all camcorder that will meet every need and wouldn't by any stretch replace a standard camcorder for ordinary shooting, especially given its fixed, extremely wide lens and its substandard onboard mike but it can capture images you'd never dream of trying to capture with your standard camcorder. If all you want to do is capture extreme sports from the point of view of the athlete, or other extreme images that would put an ordinary camera at risk, this would be a very good option. For someone like me, who only rarely has a need for "extreme sports footage," I know I won't use this all the time, but I'm very happy to have it in my "bag of tricks" because, as I think my little video shows, it's a very versatile camera that can capture some very cool and fairly good quality images and video that could fit nicely into a wide range of different kinds of video projects.
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I've owned just about every helmet cam on the market and I even sell the GoPro HD Hero on my site and this is by far the best camera I've owned to date.
The thing I like about it most is the ease of use. The menu is like any other PAS camera instead of hieroglyphics like the GoPro and yes I have the LCD on my GoPro and it's still a pain to use. It does take great video but no better than the drift.
I love that I can adjust the mic on the drift and pretty much turn it off if I want to and I can add a remote mic. I have one but have yet to use it. No more clanking from the mount like the GoPro either.
The battery outlast the GoPro and it seems to have great video compression. Long videos have pretty small file size. I took a 48:00 video and it was just under 3 gig.
About the only thing I don't care for is the helmet mount. I haven't used it yet but it's not that clean of a mount, I do like the GoPro better for that. I wound up putting a RAM ball on mine and that's pretty much all I use. All and all I love this thing.
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Camera arrived and straight out of the box had a faulty microphone. Had a play with it for a few days waiting to hear back from Drift Support and found the picture quality to be excellent. Really liked the good clear images and colour was spot on. Although, I soon found that a fully charged battery would drain overnight if left in the camera (even though the camera was switched off).
Thinking I just had a dud unit, and given the quality of picture, I decided to go through the Amazon returns process and had a replacement shipped out.
Amazon were excellent in how they dealt with the return and replacement. No complaints on that front (Drift on the other hand, took more than a week for their Support people to reply to my emails to tell me that it was faulty and then they passed the buck back to Amazon).
Replacement unit arrived today and upon switching it on I notice the picture is absolutely stuffed, making everything look like a psychedelic music video from the 70's. Back to emailing Drift Support. This time I won't wait for a week for their response. If I haven't heard back by tomorrow it's on it's way back for a refund this time.
You really have to ask yourself where is the quality control? Does Drift not test each unit before it's packaged?
Two cameras and two different problems straight out of the box.
It's disappointing because the Drift is the only one of the top 3 (GoPro/Contour/Drift) that offers external mic and reviewing screen facility.
I won't risk another replacement.
Looks like I'll be switching my allegiance to one of the other two brands.
UPDATE: Received a GoPro HD this week and most impressed with the quality of build and the video taken to date. The mounting system is a little fiddly but not entirely unusable. Changing camera settings was awkward at first but after clipping on the LCD BacPac it was much more simple.
I've just bought a Contour HD as well ($138) and will test that out when it arrives.
Honest reviews on Drift Innovation HD170 Stealth Action Camera with HD Recording, 4x
I did my research on Go-Pro, Contour and Drift Hd170. What sold me to get the Drift HD170 was a couple of things.
1-PRICE
2-LCD Display
3-Remote Control
4-Water Resistant
5-The use of a standard size SDHC flash memory card
6-FULL HD 1080P option
7-Has a universal screw mount on the bottom for tripods.
8-All the necessary attachments I needed to PLAY is included on the package! With the exception of the waterproof casing. OVERALL I AM PRETTY STOKED!!
So as I compared each product, this was the winner. I can rig it when I climb. Once I have the funds, I am going to purchase a waterproof case so that I can use it for surfing.
The setup menu options are pretty easy. Very user friendly, well at least to me :)
I just wished that the zoom capability worked for the HD 1080p settings.
Here's a link to my videos that I did using the Drift HD170 strapped on my climbing helmet. So far I am super stoked on it!!
UPDATE:
Well for some odd reason Amazon is not letting me post a link on my vimeo videos for you to view.
You can check it out by typing on the address line vimeo then typing the (.) then the com w/ the backslash (/) then luvlifeclimbsurf. vimeo(dot)com(/)luvlifesurfclimb
Thanks
ROCKY :)
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Wanting to document my snowboarding from a POV standpoint gave me a craving for a compact video camera, but which one? The most common video cameras I've seen on the mountain are the Go-Pro, followed by the Contour. The ungainly/delicate appearance of the Go Pro atop a helmet was enough to dissuade me from that particular brand (not to mention the price). On the other hand, the Contour's side-mounted, tubular design offered a more desirable low profile that seemed better suited for my tastes. Researching the Contour led me to discover the Drift HD170 and I found myself spending a great deal of time debating on which of these two cameras to choose. A combination of price and features led me to opt for the Drift HD170. While there are some issues with the Drift camera, I feel satisfied that the right choice was made.
The camera comes with a lot of stuff: several mounting devices (handlebar, head, goggle and helmet), rechargeable battery, USB cable (that allows charging the camera by computer) and a remote control. As with most cameras today, a separate memory card needs to be purchased. While I settled on a 16GB card, the Drift HD170 can handle a 32GB card (SD and SDHC). With options of 1080p and 720p, one may also see the need for more computer storage capacity. Other, not so cheap, add-ons are available for the DRIFT (longer-life battery, external microphone, underwater case, etc.), but I felt the silicon cover protecting the door that houses the battery, computer connection and memory card was the only essential add-on for my needs. My camera arrived the day before a snowboard trip so there was an eagerness to quickly get it ready for use. Opening the box, I was initially a little taken-back by the camera's size, it is little bigger in person. But this initial shock dissipated after holding the camera and feeling the "grippable" rubberized protective casing and how light it was. With everything provided, setup only required inserting the battery, sliding in the memory card and charging the camera. Attaching it to my goggles with the goggle strap mount (the goggles were wrapped around a helmet), I hit the slopes with my new DRIFT HD170 the following morning and came up with the following conclusions at day's end:
Positives...
+ Rugged camera housing ... rubber coating offers a decent amount of non-submersible water resistance and allows user to securely hand-hold the camera if necessary. The camera is lightweight and has a fairly low profile.
+ The video display ... a unique feature that separates the DRIFT HD170 from the other cameras ... you can actually see/replay what you record (lets you know instantly whether or not you've got the footage you want ... rather than being disappointed later). While the display is small, the picture quality is superb. However, the small screen size didn't help me identify an orientation issue I discovered later.
+ Ease of use ... 4 buttons: menu, up, down and record/play. Once you slide the battery and memory card in the slots, the camera is ready to go.
+ Rotation of camera lens allows option of wider, more panoramic POV filming. The fish-eye lens is subtly effective and not distorted.
+ Excellent video quality up to 1080p and 60fps. My setting of 720p/60fps was perfect for conserving space on the memory while not sacrificing video quality. Additionally, there is a 4x zoom feature and slow motion videos can be made with this camera.
+ The camera comes with a multitude of mounting options and is unique in that it has a remote control.
+ There is an option to take pictures (5 megapixels), but aligning up-close photos using the small video display to aim is more of a hassle. The works best on objects at a distance using the simple point-and-shoot method.
Negatives...
The documentation that accompanies the camera is minimal ... a multi-lingual foldout reference sheet. The actual manual needs to be downloaded (.pdf format) from the DRIFT website. The manual is necessary to understand the actual operation of the device and it should have come with the camera.
The camera interface is a little confusing at first (how to navigate, chose and save options), but the downloaded manual provides all the answers.
The remote is a great concept, but there needs to be a visual indicator on it ... the beep that indicates the camera is recording may not be audible in noisy environments or if the wearer is using a helmet with the ears covered. It would be nice to see a red light on the remote to see whether the camera is recording or not ... a single beep isn't enough and others might be annoyed by you asking "is the red light on?" everywhere you go. The wrist-strap isn't big enough to wear the remote over gloves and a jacket.
The camera's lens orientation is confusing ... I ended up filming everything upside-down and in reverse because the lens was twisted the wrong way right out of the box. While the orientation of the videos can be corrected, it took some time and an upgrade to Quicktime Pro to get things straightened out. The manual shows a colored seam (orange or grey) running along the top of the camera housing that matches the colored seam on the twistable lens ... they seem to logically line up for orientation purposes. Unfortunately, my camera is all black with black seams on the top and bottom of the camera housing. I had to figure this out on my own as the manual only addresses the ability of the lens rotate 300 degrees. Unfortunately, I am going to have to either paint the seam or mark the camera so I can quickly align it by sight.
The goggle clip is simply ... bad. Two minor (soft) spills (on my backside and with no contact to my head or helmet) resulted in two instances of the clip (with the camera) popping off the goggle strap. The first time, everything landed in my field of view, so I knew what happened. The second time it did not and I didn't realize the camera was gone until I got back on the lift and felt its absence after feeling the side of my helmet. Fortunately for me, it was early in the morning, only a few people were on the slopes and the lift back to the mountaintop paralleled the slope I just ran. I was able to visually trace my path from the lift chair and locate the disturbed area where I fell. Lucky me, I did spot the camera from the lift and was fortunate enough to get to it (before someone else did). The downside was only feeling comfortable holding the camera in my hand for future filming that day. I will not use the camera on my goggle strap again unless I rig something to ensure it's secure (ironically, the manual merely says "give it a tug" to ensure it is securely in place). I am also going to have to design some sort of leash for the camera so it stays attached to me regardless ... I was extremely fortunate that I retrieved my camera off the slope that day.
Issues with the mounting mechanisms (the poor goggle clip was enough of a reason to not trust the other clip mounts although the handlebar mount looks pretty stable/sturdy) is my only serious gripe. Losing the camera on the first day it's used would be horrible. Otherwise, I simply love every aspect of this camera. Even when I was in the chair lift, feeling devastated that I might have lost the camera, I was still contemplating whether I could/should afford buying a replacement. The videos I took turned out better than expected at 720p and I am looking forward to using it for other things (like strapping it to one of my Yellow Labs that can get some serious air fetching Frisbee Rings). No, I will not likely feel comfortable using any of the other mounts and will resort to my own mounting method for peace of mind. Overall, the DRIFT HD170 is a great value and I believe I chose the best camera for my needs and my budget.
