After seeing some of the reviews elsewhere on the Ghost I figured it was more in line for what I was looking for . Finally got out today to try the gizmo out and I still have some learning to do or at least the remote control indicators and the like. Went with a helmet mount on my X11 Shoei with a guess for best position and worked out rather well. Finally got a chance to see what the results were when I looked at the video , and it does see quite a bit, including an indication of my speed I may want to reconsider the mounting angle. I'm impressed Snivly
I ordered a real cheap 2nd battery (plus car charger) from ebay. It was listed as suitable for the Drift Ghost, has Drift on the side, also has model number "FXDC02" on the side - which is identical to the original Drift Innovations one. Only difference is the original has 1700mAh, and the new one has 2300mAh on it. The volts are the same (3.7v) Question: Will it hurt my camera to put in a 2300mAh battery in it. Btw, a quick ebay search shows you can get 3 x batteries now from Hong Kong for about $20, instead of the $50 or so for the original ONE. Btw2, both the original and my cheapie have "Made in China".
Can't answer your direct question. Can say that I had good experience for GoPro cameras with batteries from Wasabi and just picked up their batteries made for the Ghost and am quite happy. Charger and two batteries for the cost of one Battery from Drift. They are 3.7 volt and 1900mAh and made in China. Time will tell how they hold up but so far so good.
All electronic circuits dicate how much current they will use/draw from the power source/battery in normal operation, they will not take more current/power/watts from a power source than they need. Therefore using a battery/power source with more current capacity (mAH) will not cause your camera to draw more current and thus it is safe to use.
Short answer: USE WITH EXTREME CAUTION. Long answer: Batteries, being essentially little boxes of precisely-arranged chemicals, are one of the few things where you absolutely get what you pay for. The half-price-double-capacity batteries sold for cheap on ebay from Hong Kong use metals and chemicals of a lesser purity grade, assembled with less care, allowing them to build the battery cells at less cost. Hence the crazy low prices At best, the listed capacity is a blatant lie, as you will find out after a few weeks of use, or if you pull the battery apart and look at the actual listed capacity on the individual cells. The simple fact is that with Li-Ion batteries, capacity=size. If they say they've managed to add 600mah, for half the price, and with no change in battery size, they're bullshitting. At worst, the slap-dash construction and impure materials will eventually react in a bad way (usually after recharge), shorting out or starting a runaway chemical reaction, causing a meltdown of the battery. I learned this the hard way with four ebay batteries I bought for my Canon DSLR. The four of them may have cost as much as one canon battery, but the battery grip they destroyed cost much more. I'm seriously not joking - they swell up, start hissing smoke, then catch fire. You need to drop them in a bucket of salt water to put them out. I've had the same thing happen with ebay batteries for my phone, for RC helicopters....I've stopped trying now. Lesson learned Stick with well known brands (like Wasabi) or the manufacturers battery. They may well be made in China too (often japan though), but the materials and quality control are up to scratch, and you will get a better charge from them for longer. I'm going to get two Wasabi batteries for my Ghost - they've been great in my phone so far.
This seems like good advice. I use LIPO batteries for flying a quadcopter (also 2200 mah in this case) and can tell you that they are very dangerous and can cause very serious fires if not constructed or handled correctly. Obviously the batteries I am using are much larger, and therefore more dangerous, but the principles are likely the same.
I can't speak for any other model but the Stealth HD. But I bought the Stealth shortly after it's release so I guess that was about 3 years ago. It's held up great in the wet, dust, heat, cold.. the only issue I've had is with the remote. I replaced the battery so the next step will be to replace the remote but it's only $20. The remote has been intermittent at times which has sucked because I thought I was snapping photos while going down the road only to find out I wasn't.:huh
Hi Lost Rider, great vids and tips on the use of the Drift. I'm using a Contour now but will prob switch to the Drift. My challenge is in post-production/editing as I am an absolute novice at this and have been trying on the PC and Windows Moviemaker. Is it really that much easier/friendlier doing this on the Mac's iMovie? Also, am curious if you had 3 cameras set up on your "BMW F800 R in the Malibu Canyons" ride cos I am seeing 3 different angles (helmet, rear wheel and total rear views)? All that switching done by the remote on the fly? Cheers!
Interesting info on the Drift - I am finally getting around to trying to use it: When I tried to take a pic while recording, it did not work, even though i had everything set up per the manual - ie. video tagging was off. I contacted Drift Customer Service - which again was awesome. Very simply, you have to record int he following formats in order to be able to capture pictures at the same time - from Drift: "These are: 1080p (30/25FPS), 960p (30/25FPS), 720p (30/25FPS) or WVGA (30/25FPS). You can check page 7 of the user manual for a few more details here: http://driftinnovation.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Manual-4th-Jan1.pdf" Note that this online manual has info that is not included in the manual that ships with the device. Everything works fine now - am happy again Still trying to figure out Imovie though... That's what is eating up the little time I have.
Finally managed to get a video tested and uploaded. What I am realizing is that all the comparison tests between these cameras are sort of meaningless - the quality on y Mac is awesome, but once uploaded to YouTube the quality loss is so large I don't think it really matters what camera you use. Anyway, I'm relatively pleased with the results and really like the remote and the ability to snap pics at the same time as recording. My battery life is lower than I expected though. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/7H51LA8J9WI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Here are some still taken while recording:
I got a Ghost HD after borrowing a Hero 3 black for a week, and hating it. The lack of LCD screen and rotatable lens meant it was trial and error, reviewing footage on a latptop to get the thing actually filming what I wanted for each new mounting position, and by the time I got it right, the bloody battery went flat. If you're a pixel-peeper, the GoPro has the better image detail (although IMO it doesn't reproduce color as well, everything seems kind-of 'tinted'). But when it comes to actually watching whats going on, there's really no practical difference. Most folk I know record in 720p/30fps anyway to save card space. WTF the point is in 4K recording I have no idea. The Ghost is great. Comes with everything you need as standard (unlike the GoPro). I got mine for $400 flat with a 32GB card (less than the GoPro). The flashy remote is great, lets you know what the cam is actually doing (unlike the gopro). Water/dust/ice/mud proof without a case (unlike the gopro). Battery life is a consistent 3 hours (double the gopro). The tagging feature saves trawling through hours of footage, but never risks missing something unexpected because you weren't recording to save space (unlike the GoPro). However, low light footage is pretty poor. Anything at night is very noisy. GoPro definitely wins there. But in terms of usability, the Ghost wins. Out of the box, no screwing about with waterproof cases, laptops, extra LCD screens, steroe external mic adaptors, constant battery swaps. All you need is a USB cable and a cig socket charger, and you're good for as long as you're on the road. In a nutshell, if you're after production grade footage at the expense of everything else, and you've got the laptop and a box of batteries in the support truck, the GoPro is the go. If you're after an easy to use cam for a few days on (or off) the road - the Ghost is fantastic. Usability is its selling point. You don't even have to think about it to get the footage you want. On the microphone/wind noise: Both the GoPro and the Ghost have sucky built in mics. ALL built in mics on most things are awful, especially when they need to be weather resistant. At least the Ghost has a standard stereo input plug - unlike the GoPro, where you need a USB-stereo accessory....which costs extra. I got an old combined earbud/mic headset for Skyping, worth about $10 from DickSmith, and butchered it so I had just the mic. After some experimenting, I found the best setup was to run it in the mouthpiece of the helmet. A bit of artfully placed electrical tape to bulk up the stereo plug, it's snug around the rear port in the Ghost body, leaving it rain-proof. Gives stereo sound, clear voice and cuts the wind noise down to a low background roar at 110kph, keeps the exhaust note and other outside noises (people nearby) audible. Downside is that your footage seems way less hardcore when it includes a soundtrack of you singing along to Florence and the Machine. Which is why there's no Youtube demo clip :d But here's some pics of the setup. I've also modified the standard clip with a dremel tool and a spring, to give the cam a notched rotation, so I can change viewing angle mid ride without taking my eyes off the road. Took about 15 mins, can post pics if folks want to duplicate it. The white cable/dongle is the mic for the Ghost, the foam bud ifs for my UHF/starcom thingummy. Extra cable gives a bit of on-the-fly-rotateability.
yes would you mind taking a couple pic for that.... To be fair, you can spend another $$$ to get the LCD screen remote on GoPro, but gee, $$$ is starting to add - you have to do a lot video blogging to justify the cost-
Okay,sorry this took so long. Here's how I made my Ghost's mount a rotating ratchet. You'll need a dremel, a drill, a little washer about 5-7mm in diameter, and a spring about the size of a 10c piece. It needs to be able to compress into a flat profile when squashed (ie cone shaped when extended) and be fairly stiff First step is to dismantle the standard base plate (in the back of the below picture): Get some pliers, grab hold of the silver bolt by the metal thread visible in the pic, then unscrew the little screw in the rotating cap on the other side. Now, step one is to take the silver bolt, and screw it back into the Ghost body with a socket. Make it firm, use loctite if you have it. We do NOT want this rotating once finished. Now get out your drill and dremel. Make the two plastic bits look like this: Basically, grind/sand down the underside of the circular black cap by about a mm or so, making sure its flat and smoot (ish). Then put the little screw back in the circular cap, and put the washer on the screw. Now drill a hole through the lock plate. This hole should be big enough to allow your little washer to fit through. Grind away the remaining material once the hole is drilled, so you have a 'flat' surface for the back of the cap to fit in. Now take the spring and assemble as shown below: Loctite the little screw, squish it all together and put it on the top of the bolt you secured in the ghost's body. Screw the little screw back into the top of the bolt, clamping the whole mechanism together. Tighten until firm - this means the little washer is now flush with the top of the main silver bolt. If all has gone well, the lock plate should have enough space to move up and down between the 'teeth' in the base of the ghost, and the black plastic cap. But the spring will keep it forced up into the teeth, providing a 'notched' resistance.
I just purchased the Ghost after my VIO POV HD died. Video quality was the last factor I considered. I'm spoiled with the loop and tag feature of the VIO. I always have mine on external powered via the bike. and it's always on loop feature. I just tag a good section of the ride after the fact. Drifts implementation of this feature is not as nice as the VIO. POV, but it's still the best of the bunch. The use of loop and tag function almost makes a remote mandatory. So that's another reason I chose it. Especially with the status light to provide good feedback. Lastly, Drift is the only one that provides you a decent solution for powering up the unit externally while maintaining relative dust proofness. Get something like this, you don't have to be tethered to the bike but can leave the camera on loop for 20+ hours. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BZDK3XK/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Then there's the rotating lens, if you want to mount the camera between helmet and on bike with a RAM mount. The rotating lens is a godsend. To me these practical advantages are often overlooked. What's the use of good video quality, if you have to constantly check your battery level, or to remember if it's recording or now?
I continue to be happy with the camera as well. I am using it in part for taking video from my home built quad copter for those times when i am willing to trade heavier weight for better video (I have amuch smaller 808 key chain camera as well). Here is a sample - shame that Youtube reduces the quality so much. One other thing to note is that i have learned that the GoPro does not have a zoom function - I find this very useful in being able to take out the helmet or other objects out of the picture. <iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/wxhYUYOFOjA" allowfullscreen="" width="560" frameborder="0" height="315"></iframe>
Long time DRIFT HD user. How long? I've been thru three remotes, and the rubber skin on my HD is actually melting... But I digress... Anybody get a DRIFT HD Ghost lately? Got one from Amazon a couple weeks ago, and went to connect up the remote mic. The rear cover on my DRIFT Ghost is way different than the poster doing the rotating mount. Mine does NOT have a rubber flap to lift and attach the mic. It is a solid piece, with the attachment screw at least twice the size, covering the back width almost completely. While I can take the cover off and plug in the mike, I then lose all dust and waterproofness. :huh Would appear a GIANT step backwards in functionality... Anybody else seen this, or better yet, found a solution? The DRIFT site does not acknowledge the change in design, nor does the MIC packaging itself. While the enlarged screw does NOT cover the MIC port, it appears that drilling a hole in the back (to enable plugging in the MIC)would be right through the waterproof gasket, and in the curved edge of the back. At this point the only solution I can see is to dremel out a 5/16" hole in the back to allow the MIC body to fit... What a pita... From the DRIFT site, you can see the edge of the new attachment screw. http://store.driftinnovation.com/cameras/drift-hd-ghost#tab-images
My Drift Ghost came with both back covers - the solid one and the one with the rubber flaps over the mic and USB ports.
