What\’s this, in a different way to capture for posterity the extremeness of our helmet-requiring pastimes? Yes indeed, a new player has entered the increasingly crowded POV/action/helmet camera market, the Drift Innovations HD170, offering 1080p recording in a durable case that stands poised to take on GoPro\’s HD Hero and VHoldr\’s ContourHD 1080p. However, the built-in color LCD here permits you to do something you only can\’t do on either of those two: check your footage on the camera itself. Does this make up for a few of the cam\’s other shortcomings? Read on to discover.
Unboxing and first impressions
First thoughts on unboxing the HD170 is that it’s one big mamma jamma — relatively. It\’s about two full inches longer than the ContourHD and easily dwarfs the GoPro HD. It\’s the heaviest of the three, too, weighing in at 175g compared to the ContourHD\’s 127g and the GoPro\’s 100g. However, throw the GoPro into its polycarbonate case (required for mounting) and that jumps up to 169g. Still, any extra weight is magnified when it\’s attached for your head, and the HD170\’s size makes it just a little tricky to mount in some tight areas. Its size and styling also makes it hard to miss, despite a design that has rather a lot in common with the much more stealthy ContourHD.
Like VHoldr\’s offering, this camera is long and narrow, much more aerodynamic than the tiny toaster design of the GoPro. It also offers the rotating barrel of the ContourHD, meaning irrespective of the mounted angle of the camera at you could easily ensure a superbly vertical image. This makes mounting on angled handlebars easy, a feature made even more useful by the integrated LCD, something neither of the others offer. Despite its Top quality Forever size the screen is hugely handy… sometimes. When you\’re mounting on a rollbar or frame or the like it is easy to switch on the cam and instantly tell whether you have got it oriented good. However, when you have the article mounted on the side of your lid you\’ll still do not know what you\’re filming until afterward. For this case we still prefer the ContourHD\’s laser sights.
The LCD also means on-device reviewing of footage, for you to ensure every moment of your last yard sale was captured in glorious detail, and offers a helpful UI for changing resolution, exposure, and other settings on the camera. It is a definite improvement over the clunky button presses required on the GoPro and the lack to tweak much of anything inside the field with the ContourHD.
Flip open the back and you\’ll find room for the 1110mAh battery, an SDHC card, a miniUSB connector, and a second connector for the included component/composite video and audio outputs — unfortunately no HDMI. Also included inside the box are mounts for attaching to a helmet, affixing to goggles, clamping onto handlebars, or strapping on to almost whatever you’re keen on. But, sadly there\’s no suction cup mount on offer, and neither is there a traditional, threaded receiver.
Finally, there\’s the remote control. Unlike the only on the Tachyon XC it isn’t infra-red, meaning you don\’t should worry about line of sight. But, there was an annoying lag between hitting a button on the remote and having the cam actually start filming. It was just a second or so, but enough to make us think it didn\’t register and so hit the button again — canceling the first press. When you get used to that it works very nicely, but we do wish there was a recording indicator light on the remote itself.
Performance
The novelty of having a camera strapped on your head has largely worn off, so if that noggin-borne device doesn\’t capture good-quality footage it simply isn\’t worth having around. The HD170 records at a maximum of 1080p30 at a few 12MBps bitrate, matching the resolution and frame rate of the alternative two here with a top quality that\’s comparable in addition. We filmed most of our footage on an unfortunately overcast day, not ideal conditions for these tiny sensors, but the HD170 delivered footage very on the point of the alternative two by way of ultimate brightness and color reproduction.
But, it added some thing not noticed on the alternative two: jelly vision. Some CMOS image sensors generate a perceived jelly effect when filming footage, something seen on DSLRs like Nikon\’s D5000 and positively noticeable here, too. Check up on the 40 second mark within the video above: a bogged engine and a slight bump within the road causes a disconcerting amount of rendered wobbliness. The opposite two cams show a piece in addition, but it surely\’s nowhere near as noticeable. (Note: the shaky mount on the GoPro produces some excessive vibration, but relatively little jelly.) This effect is just noticeable when the ride gets bumpy, so once you\’re filming a road race you have to be fine. However, in the event you\’re into downhill mountain biking this probably isn\’t your camera.
Another area of disappointment is audio quality. We\’ve already lambasted the ContourHD for its excessive wind noise and praised the GoPro for its clear sound seemingly despite speed. The HD170 is the worst of the bunch, distorting sound at any speed as if it were recording underwater. The deep rumble of a motorbike exhaust is changed into a wierd high-pitched squeal and, while wind noise isn’t much of a controversy, that\’s mostly because everything kind of fades into the static.
This can be probably because of the camera\’s \” waterproof\” nature and, while we hate to exploit unnecessary quotes, in this they feel appropriate because the HD170 is rated to survive a trifling half-meter plunge. In other words: getting splashed with mud is maybe okay, but whatever you do don\’t trip into a kiddy pool.
Wrap-up
At $329.99 the HD170 is slightly a difficult sell compared to the competition. That\’s $30 more than the ContourHD 1080p or GoPro HD Hero, either of which can be available for $299 (or less, in case you shop around). It\’s certainly nicer and easier to take advantage of than the GoPro, thanks that camera\’s clunky exterior case and two-button menu system, and it offers comparable video quality to the competition — whenever you left room for Jell-O. But, it\’s considerably larger and somewhat heavier than the opposite two and, while it does come out of the box with more flexible mounting options, at the top of the day it finds itself attached to a third place out of this trio.
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