Drift Ghost S Helmet Camera
The Ghost S sports a rotating lens that you can turn through 300° to help you mount it in a variety of positions on your bike or helmet, and to aid operation there is a two-way remote control unit which can be mounted on your bars or wrist to allow safer usage on the go. It uses coloured LEDs to inform you as to the state of the camera. For instance, solid green is video mode whereas solid yellow is photo mode. Obviously if you plan to use it you’ll need to familiarise yourself with the various lights and their meaning.
Compact Drift does not look out of place upfront on any super bike and lens can be rotated to cope with all mounting positions
The other really good feature of the Drift Ghost S is that you get a viewing screen as standard; in this case it’s a 2.0 inch TFT colour Corning™ Gorilla Glass™ screen. This means it’s tough and you can easily see the footage you have shot. Drift offer a free phone app on both iOS and Android enabling the camera to connect to your phone over WiFi so you can see what the camera is seeing and set-up shots, as well as review and download footage for easy sharing to social media. The app is very useful if you are experimenting with mounting positions on your bike, such as rear facing, under the seat or maybe on a helmet where you cannot see the camera’s built in screen.
Remote control unit
As well as high quality HD video at up to an impressive 60 frames per second, there are Photo (with 5, 8 or 12 mega pixel images), Photoburst (with between 5 photos per second and 30 per second!) and Timelapse (with adjustable rate options of one photo every 0.5 seconds to one every minute) modes. To take a photo whilst recording video you can simply press either the Menu button on the camera or the Action button on the remote while recording video to take a still of between 2 and 8 mega pixels.
Video Tagging mode allows you to pick and choose when you record using the remote and can be adjusted time wise, so say 30 seconds of footage. There’s a continuous loop mode (strangely called Car DVR mode even though it’s as ideal for cycle commuters as it is car drivers) which allows recorded footage to gradually fill your SD card, then once full, starts over replacing the oldest footage. It’s ideal for daily commuters who can recharge their battery in the evening but don’t want the hassle of continually wiping the SD card every other week.
There are scene modes including Normal, with ‘the most neutral, true colour palette’, Vivid, which will ‘make your colours a touch more saturated’, and Low Light, for ‘filming at night or indoors with less ambient lighting’.
Sound is recorded as standard via a built in microphone but you can connect an external microphone. You can also charge the battery or connect to your computer via a USB slot or the camera can be connected to your TV via a HDMI connector.
You can film MP4 files in 1080p at 25fps to 60fps, which is pretty much on a par with all the best action cameras. If you want extended battery life, go for 720p HD at between 25fps to 120fps or WVGA at 25fps to 240fps where you can get well over 4 hours of recording. The camera’s sensor and high-performance video processor equals faster frame rates, and you can alter the video compression between normal or high bit rates, up to 35Mbps.
If you were so inclined, and perhaps wanted to get corresponding views of the same point during a race, you could even link several Ghost S cameras together, all controlled from one central unit… Whatever you want to do, then the Drift Ghost S seems to have it covered. How many of those features you’ll use depends on how into making video you get. Check back for a full review from the cyclists point of view.
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