Drift Ghost XL Pro - 4K Action Camera, Image Stabilization, Waterproof, Rotatable Lens, Dashcam Mode, Livestreaming, Clone Mode, 7hr Battery Life at 1080P & 4.5hr Battery Life at 4K (X)

The Ghost X is an outstanding value for a bike traffic/documentary video camera. I've been running 'em front and rear on my Trek 5900 and Centurion Ironman for awhile. Got the first in September. Tried it for awhile before committing to another, after being disappointed in the GoPro knockoffs. Got a second Drift Ghost X in December. Keepers.Lots of little features that make it better than the rest for this narrow niche purpose:*Rotating "lens" (probably the sensor that rotates) so the camera can be mounted at any angle and preserve the full size and desired aspect. Some cameras that offer flexible mounting do it by reducing the image size or forcing a weird format.*1080p at up to 30 fps or 720p at up to 60 fps. Pretty basic but good to have.*90°, 115° or 140° FOV. I mostly use 140.*Choice of recording modes. I mostly use DVR looping with 5 minute segments. Some users prefer the tagging mode but that requires manually pressing a button and being conscious and having the use of a hand. For real emergencies, that seems unwise.*5 hour run time on the standard battery. And it really lasts that long. There's an optional 8-hour battery for about $30. I use only 32GB media cards and those have been good enough for three of my usual workout rides, or a long casual group ride with friends before it loops around and records over the earliest segment. An 8-hour battery and 64GB card would probably last most commuters a week between charges.*No need to delete existing videos -- it'll loop around endlessly. But I'll occasionally wipe both cards so it's easier to sync the front/rear videos if something sketchy happens on my ride.*Weather resistant. I've been caught in the rain. No problems. There's a waterproof case but I haven't bothered.*Buttons are easy to reach, with audible confirmation. Good for helmet mounting.*Speaking of helmet mounting, the Ghost X is very low profile, much better than the typical GoPro type black box.*Good mounting options for almost any conceivable angle.*Good Android app for controlling the camera, near realtime viewing while recording, reviewing videos and easier setting of options than using the tiny utilitarian LCD on the camera (no preview/review screen on the camera). I've used the app to show a school district bus supervisor a dangerous stunt by a driver minutes after it occurred. I just asked them to review and observe safe driving, not to punish or fire the driver. He cut diagonally across a wide curve, drifting into my lane head-on and nearly forcing me to ditch, when the lanes were more than wide enough for two buses to pass safely. Lots of cyclists use that route, and there's relatively little traffic otherwise, so there's no need for any drama.*Very good dynamic range, resolution and clarity for a camera in this price range. Not bad at night either.Neutral stuff:*The included mounts are intended for sticking to motorcycle helmets, using heavy duty 3M adhesive tape. They might work on Bern or Nutcase type hipster helmets but not on typical vented road helmets. I built up a thick mounting platform using Blu Tack gum and similar putty from 3M. Works fine. But I mostly mount the cameras on my bike. An old neck injury makes it painful to carry much weight on my noggin for long, so I use helmet mounting only on my commuter/casual ride helmet and hybrid bike rides.*Plastic bolt on mounts cost extra, but are decent. I got one for handlebars, another for "roll cages". The only difference is the roll cage mount has a slightly larger aperture and longer bolts. I use it on the stems or head tubes of my road bikes. The handlebar mount actually goes on my seat posts -- the shorter screws don't protrude enough to snag my legs. I might need to file down the plastic thumbscrew knobs a bit, though.*There's an eyelet on the mounts for a safety leash, but not on the camera body itself.*No built in anti-shake/vibration sensor. But a sturdy mount minimizes problems. I see more rolling shutter jello effect on the front mounts than rear. Not sure why. I've swapped cameras, mounts and even bikes around trying to minimize the problem. Presumably the front end just vibrates more with both the steel and carbon fiber bikes.Negative stuff:*Needs an eyelet on the camera body for a safety leash in case the mount fails.*Some mode combinations disable the date/time stamp. Other reviewers noted this. I couldn't get a date/time stamp in 720p at 60 fps.*Camera modes/options can be fiddly with just the camera, tiny LCD utility screen and three buttons. No worse than most devices with multi-function buttons though. The app makes it much easier.*While the dynamic range is very good, US license plates are too small for any HD camera to reliably record at night. The plates tend to be blurry or blown out. Until the US switches to European style plates (which will never happen), we'll need better dynamic range and resolution to reliably record license plates. Assuming cars even use them. Texas permits cars to run without front plates, reducing the effectiveness of a rear facing camera.*Built in mic picks up a lot of wind noise, depending on where it's mounted. Most of the wind noise is turbulence from the bike or helmet. I may try a stick-on wind muffler doodad. If a commuter relies on shouting out license plate numbers to record dangerous situations, the mic might not pick it up.*There's an optional external mic for the USB port, but this leaves the port uncovered and vulnerable to rain. The external mic would still need a wind muffler.Not perfect but an outstanding value for under $100. I'll probably get the Ghost 4K if I upgrade my PC to handle video editing. In strictly technical terms I'd give it 4 of 5 stars, but considering the low price and added discount, I'll give it 5 stars.

Now having owned this camera for two months and using it many times, I would pass on this camera. There is a known problem with this camera that causes it to freeze randomly. Customer support is a joke. I have tried it with many different memory cards and different settings trying to find what causes it to crash but could never figure it out. Reliability is extremely important for those of us that use this as a helmet cam while riding our motorcycles. Having it freeze up without your knowledge does not instill confidence that it will capture a video at the most important time. It is so bad now that it will freeze up every time I go out to ride. Sometimes it will freeze in the first 5 minutes of use and sometimes it will freeze an hour in.The only reason that I purchased this camera is because my Contour Roam finally gave up the ghost. I will only use this type of form factor on my helmets because I feel that the GoPro type just aren't very helmet friendly. I read about the freezing issue prior to purchasing this but decided against my better judgement because there is a lack of cameras with this form factor. It was either this or the Sony X3000 which is 4 times the price. After having used this camera, I should have just gone for the Sony.There are much better cameras at half the price. Knowing what I know now, you can't even pay me to use this thing as it is a liability waiting to happen. Save yourself the headache and just get something that actually works and that you can depend on. Unfortunately, Contour is no longer in business or else I would have stuck with what worked.If you're thinking that the 4K version is any better; it's not. It is also plagued with random freezing just like this model. Buyer BEWARE. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

I play fighting games competitively, and as I start going deeper in bracket, I've found that it's very difficult to find a camera that is both easy to mount on my person in order to easily archive unstreamed sets, and has the battery life to survive me entering multiple games that I do well in. Most other cameras can't even handle a full FT3 KoFXV set! In particular, I have struggled with knowing exactly how long I have on a given battery, or even whether the camera is even recording.I'm happy to report this camera is good at all of these things.Pros:Extreme battery life - I recorded over 90 minutes of footage continuously and the battery didn't even hit 80%. This will survive any tournament bracket, even if you're godlike.Easy to mount - the provided clips are very easy to use and shoulder-mount using other products in the store. While some adjustment may be needed to either rotate the video or to hold the camera mount on the side of the arm rather than the shoulder, neither of these is a big problem and the mount is very stableVery clear indicator of recording - No blinking lights, no turning off of the screen. The camera has an ongoing bright red color when recording, makes a loud noise on start of recording, and will not turn off the screen the whole time so you can verify recording at any time without pressing any buttons. Very effective.Fast USB transfer - You can plug in the camera over USB and you will get speeds close to microSD SDHC limits over said USB, without needing a card reader. Very practical when on the go to dump a current card. If you're the type to swap between multiple cards - this is still easy!Long record time (on 1080p60) - file size is moderate, the camera seems to be doing a little bit of encoding to help the file size.Cons:No viewfinder. Tradeoff to make it possible to monitor and have longer battery life, but you will have to experiment with settings.Menus are dense and somewhat confusing to navigate. Make sure to read the manual to understand what you're doing.Exposure is difficult to control. Even at low ISO I feel like everything is overexposed, but this might just need more work with settings.No zoom. You got an action camera - almost none of them have this anyway.No user-swappable battery - but you won't need it with how big the included one is!Overall, if you need to record fighting game sets, or any long-form content that requires consistent, long battery life (> 1 hour) and predictability, this is by far the best camera on the market.