Photography

Drift Innovation releases the souped-up Drift HD Ghost actioncam

Drift Innovation releases the souped-up Drift HD Ghost actioncam
Drift Innovation has unveiled its latest actioncam, the Drift HD Ghost
Drift Innovation has unveiled its latest actioncam, the Drift HD Ghost
View 6 Images
A look inside the back of the Ghost
1/6
A look inside the back of the Ghost
Drift Innovation has unveiled its latest actioncam, the Drift HD Ghost
2/6
Drift Innovation has unveiled its latest actioncam, the Drift HD Ghost
The Ghost comes with a two-way remote
3/6
The Ghost comes with a two-way remote
The Ghost has a Gorilla Glass 2-inch screen
4/6
The Ghost has a Gorilla Glass 2-inch screen
The Ghost has a threaded tripod stud on its underside
5/6
The Ghost has a threaded tripod stud on its underside
The Ghost has a 170-degree swiveling lens
6/6
The Ghost has a 170-degree swiveling lens
View gallery - 6 images

Christmas must be coming. No sooner do GoPro and Contour release new actioncams, than we now see an updated camera from Drift Innovation. Called the Drift HD Ghost, it’s a feature-laden alternative to the company's existing Drift HD – which is already a pretty nice sports video camera.

Like the HD, the Ghost has a 170-degree lens that can be swiveled independently of the rest of the camera. This allows the camera to be mounted at whatever angle is most convenient, with the shot subsequently being leveled out via a twisting of the lens. Another one of the big selling features of both cameras is their integrated LCD viewfinder/playback screen, although at two inches, the Ghost’s is larger – it’s also fronted with high-impact Gorilla Glass.

Both cameras also come with a wireless remote, although the Ghost’s is a two-way remote – not only does it send user commands to the camera, but it also receives a signal from the camera, allowing the remote to indicate the shooting mode that the Ghost is currently set to.

The Ghost comes with a two-way remote
The Ghost comes with a two-way remote

Some of the camera’s other extras include connectivity with smartphones via built-in Wi-Fi; timelapse and adjustable photoburst modes; a 3.5-mm external mic input; a built-in speaker; and waterproofing to a depth of three meters (9.8 feet) – it still might not be a good idea to take it scuba diving, but it should do fine in whitewater activities.

Video can be shot at resolutions of 1080p (30 frames-per-second), 960p (30/50 fps), and 720p (30/60 fps). WVGA is also available, for users who want to take advantage of its 120 fps shooting speed. Still images can be snapped at up to 11 megapixels, as opposed to the HD’s 9. As with the HD, the Ghost can take MicroSD memory cards up to 32GB in capacity.

The Ghost has a Gorilla Glass 2-inch screen
The Ghost has a Gorilla Glass 2-inch screen

A final unique feature of the camera is its Video Tag/Loop function. When this is selected, the camera will start temporarily storing footage of whatever is in its field of view, continuously overwriting that footage, so there's never more than the past five minutes stored at one time.

If something interesting happens, however, the user can tag that footage. This causes the camera to save the past five minutes and set it aside, so it isn't overwritten. Afterwards, the user can retrieve all of their tagged 5-minute blocks of footage for editing. In this way, there's much less raw footage to sift through to get to the good parts, and memory space isn't used up as quickly.

The Drift HD Ghost is available now for preorder, at a price of US$399. It is expected to start shipping as of November 19th. Footage shot with the camera can be seen in the video below.

Source: Drift Innovation via Technabob

Drift HD Ghost: Share Your Vision

View gallery - 6 images
2 comments
2 comments
Ct
Doesn't seem to have as much curvature at the edges as GoPro or Sony. Website says it is waterproof to 3M, so no extra case to buy for most wet applications- surfing, kayaking, rafting....etc. That is a big difference from the others action cams.
notarichman
nice, but you didn't mention zooming capability or lens quality or image stabilization or ability to video in low light.