Drift Ghost HD Action Camera - Black

Product Information

You also have the advantage over all other action cameras: it doesn’t have to be level, either the right way up or upside down; you twist the lens to get the horizon correct.

Drift Innovation Cameras – Drift Innovation

However, with the Drift Ghost XL Pro, you know that you have one of the best action cameras on the market. It doesn’t try to please everyone or cram in all the features you can think of; it just provides you with the core, and there’s a lot to say. Besides the build quality and the design being minimalistic and sleek, there’s little else to comment about the camera’s build. At the end of the test, the Drift Ghost XL Pro put in a solid performance; being able to mount the camera in ways that would usually be impossible gives you plenty more options when it comes to filming and enables plenty of fun. In use, it performs well with the large buttons and beep, enabling you to easily operate the camera even if you can’t directly see it. Built-in Wi-Fi allows you to connect a smartphone or tablet to the HD Ghost using the free iOS or Android app. From there you can use your device as a viewfinder, trigger recording, or upload shots to the Web. Battery life was better than the GoPro with Wi-Fi enabled, but couldn't match the Action Cam's longevity. Connecting the Drift to a Nexus 5 and an iPhone 5s via Wi-Fi was painless, and the well-designed app lets you remotely operate the camera and change its settings. The iOS version's video stream of what the camera is looking at was fairly immediate, but the same can't be said about the Android version; it shows a two-second lag.Drift action cameras are one of the original manufacturers and are known for an innovative design approach that enables you to capture a level horizon; however, the camera is mounted.

Drift Innovation HD Ghost Review | PCMag

One of the most impressive features is the internal battery that can provide up to 7 hours of battery life when recording at 1080p or 4.5 hours at 4K. To put this into context, that’s over double that of the standard GoPro battery. Like the Contour Roam2, the Drift HD Ghost looks fantastic. The camera has a tough exterior and is waterproof to 3m down out of the box, without requiring a separate housing. Dropping the resolution definitely costs you some detail, but the 720p/60 video is still very good. In the end, the results are above average, especially considering the flexibility of the camera and all it can do. Video quality is improved from the Drift HD Ghost, especially when it comes to detail. Everything looks more crisp, and I saw fewer artifacts when using the camera's high-bit-rate setting. Using that setting will eat into the battery life and the files use up more storage, but it's worth using if you plan to view the video at large sizes.When it comes to using the Drift Ghost, XL Pro is one of the easiest action cameras to use. It’s been designed to be as simple as possible, even when using gloves or underwater. The large button closest to the lens starts and stops recording with the light changing to indicate that the recording has started; another press to finish. Mounts are always an important factor with any action camera, and here the Drift utilises its style of clip mount. While this isn’t the GoPro three-prong style universally used by many manufacturers in practical use, it offers a far more rigid connection with anything it’s mounted to. In the past, before decent EIS, this mount proved itself for its robust build and reduction in vibration when compared with the GoPro equivalent.

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Simple and solid essentially sums up this action camera. The sleek design makes it a perfect option for side mounting on a helmet, and with a huge array of mounts available, attaching it to almost anything isn’t difficult. Out on trial, and the mounting options are well beyond the GoPro or, for that matter, any other action camera; want to put it on your bike forks? Not a problem; attach and rotate the lens. The remote, which you can strap onto your wrist using the included wrist strap, pairs easily with the Ghost-S, and you can use it to start and stop recording as well as take still, time-lapse, and burst photos. It also indicates recording status, which is useful when the camera is mounted on, say, a helmet. The two buttons are large, which makes it easy to operate the camera when wearing gloves.Keeping with the waterproof features, a waterproof adapter enables you to connect to accessories such as a mic or external power source. This I like as it means that you can mount and essentially not have to worry about the power going to the camera or record a voice-over through the action if required, perfect if you’re thinking about a bit of rally driving! As you’d expect from an action camera, the Ghost XL Pro is IPX7 waterproof, so there are no worries about dropping it in a puddle or mounting it on a surfboard. Still image quality is on par with the Hero3, which is to say good, but not great. The HD Ghost shoots images at 11-, 8-, or 5-megapixels. You're still dealing with a good deal of distortion introduced by the wide angle lens, but images look sharp and colors really pop. I noticed the HD Ghost had the tendency to blow-out highlighted areas, but otherwise the images looked crisp and generally noise free. In the box, you'll find the camera itself, a remote, the battery, a non-waterproof connector hatch that gives easy access to the mini USB and mic out ports, a universal clip, two mount clips, a wrist strap, a mini USB cable, a microphone extension cable, and a goggle mount.

Ghost 4K – Drift Innovation

The Ghost-S takes quite good pictures, and you can shoot in time-lapse mode at 0.5-, 1-, 2-, 3-, 5-, and 10-second intervals. You can also shoot in burst mode in five or 10 shots per second.The one downfall is the resolution and framerate options. At 4K, the maximum framerate is 30fps, ok for static and slow movement but not great for high-speed action. 2.7K at 60fps is very decent, and the 1080p 60fps is also superb with the option to extend to 120fps. It’s a shame the camera doesn’t extend the framerate to 4K at 60fps, but that’s the only real fault I can find with this otherwise excellent camera. The small screen and direct control buttons are only used to start and stop recording, and if you want to change any settings, then the fastest route is through the App.