Drift HD Ghost – Timelapse Review – Rob’s ride from work to home

Departing the Mounts Bay Rd motorcycle parking area under the freeway in Perth, heading south to the suburb of Atwell.

The  camera was mounted under the headlight on my Honda ST1300A, set to take photos every second at a image resolution of 11 megapixels and with a field of view of 170 degrees.

I used Windows Movie Maker to put them together with a playback rate of 20fps.

Images taken by the camera are stored in folders on the memory card, with a maximum of 999 each folder. So, to take this series, they were placed in 3 folders.

When I went to view the images on the camera’s screen after the sequence was taken I got no response at the “play” screen, but eventually came back to life. I then worked out what the problem was. The screen shows icons for videos, photos, bursts, etc. (for each mode) and with each the number of files in that category. The display stopped working while it was calculating how many images there were in the photo category. It wasn’t broken, it was just this screen that gave a slow response. So, beware – you should copy & then remove the photos ASAP to make it a little more responsive.

Images seem to sometimes take on a yellow-ish colour, this is most likely to do with the auto-white-balance varying with the changing light, being shot late in day, and changing angles to the sun.

Movie Maker was easy to use, I just had to add the separate folders for all of the images in the right order to make sure the sequence made sense. Then I dropped an MP3 for the soundtrack, added the title screens at the beginning, and hey-presto.

The 2240 images consume about 2GB of disk, with the resultant video about 325MB (on my disk – not necessarily YouTube). Processing time (3.4GHz Core-i7 & 16GB RAM) took about 8 minutes.

Since compiling the video and then placing on YouTube will effect the quality of each image, I’ve also attached below some of those captured for comparison, with their approximate location in the video.

At 0:13…

DCIM102DRIFT

At 1:15…

DCIM103DRIFT

 

I’m thinking that a timelapse would be good to show how slow it takes me to put up a tent, building IKEA furniture (several times each go), etc. The above was a doddle – and I’m pretty happy with the results.

Drift HD Ghost – Battery Test

Further to the main review…

I’ve just recorded video in 170deg, 1080p, at 30fps and drained the battery from fully charged. There was 2 hours 52 minutes of video recorded. So, aligns with the “nearly 3 hours of battery” from Drift.

Interestingly, it records in 30 minute chunks. As each 30 minutes is reached, it closes that file and opens the next in the numbered sequence. Probably not a bad idea – rather than having 1 massive file to download at the end of a day’s riding.

Drift HD Ghost – My Review

First thing to note is that I’ve got no other device to compare this to. I’ve not used a GoPro, Contour, ReplayXD, etc.

I can only compare them across their specifications, and you can go find other reviews of other cameras. See here for the Ghost’s detailed technical specifications.

Samples videos captured from each of the possible modes (both raw and YouTube) are here.

My review is below, but I’ll start right now by answering the common question:

Q.Would I buy it again?
A. Absolutely, and in a heart-beat!

Continue reading “Drift HD Ghost – My Review”

Drift HD Ghost – Sample videos

The following sample videos were taken with my new Drift HD Ghost. All but the last 2 are taken following the same route near my home and last approximately 2:35. While each is not “exactly” the same, the similar route and time of day should provide a reasonable basis for comparison.

Continue reading “Drift HD Ghost – Sample videos”

Overnight Ride to Eat (RTE) to Moora – June

The local WA chapter of OzSToc (well, about 8 of us) is saddling up again and heading to Moora in early June. My plan is to take off mid-morning on the Saturday, stop off at New Norcia and Bindoon, and camp at the local caravan park in Moora.

On Sunday, no plans yet – I expect a ride will eventuate to make the trip home interesting through to York if nothing else is arranged with the group.

View Moora overnight RTE in a larger map

I’m not fully committed to an overnight stay yet since if I do I’ll want good weather for pitching the tent. It’s not worth the effort (me thinks) if it’s bucketing down.

I hope I do camp though. I’ll be using my new Drift HD Ghost (which I don’t know I’m getting for my birthday – wink) so the more I can use it the better.

York Motorcycle Festival

Every year this festival is held in the historic town of York. This was my first visit.

The primary purpose of the trip was to look at the Drift HD Ghost POV camera as they had a stall. I had some taxi duties back in Perth so I wasn’t able to stay long – just enough to check out the camera and have a quick look around.

First off was a friendly getting from Yorkie from OzSToc – he’s part of the staff helping out. Obviously from his name he lives close by.

Anyway, …

The festival: really well organized with demos, displays, competitions, and exhibitors. 

“Trials” were being demoed by Neil Price (WA champion and national rep) – this is like acrobats for bikes. They’re not dirty bikes that race, but rather modified bikes that conquer seriously difficult obstacles.

I watched from a distance (the Drift stand) si didn’t take any photos, thinking I would wait for the next show. Strike while the iron’s hit they say… I’d have to wait for another hour and I just didn’t have time.

Lots of stuff in display:

I had run out of time to see the rest (minicarna, show and tell, etc.) so this will be a definite all day event next year.

Drift HD Ghost…
I want one. Bigger than some but still manageable for the helmet with a lot more features. A birthday present me thinks.