Drift Innovation LTD, a British consumer electronics firm and maker of wearable point-of-view cameras, recently came out with their Drift 1080P high definition video camera.
Let it be known, that the main thing that I want out of these small sports cameras is “quality output”. From a video standpoint, the Drift 1080P hits that requirement hard.
Appearance: the camera has a nice look and feel, with a rugged and stealth character. It looks like a fine piece of equipment with a nice grip. We are told that the camera is durable, water resistant, shock resistant (not proof), and the product certainly appears tough. The “Drift water proof case”, further protects the camera from water related excursions. While I have read no report on it’s over all durability, I have heard from both Drift Innovation and other reviewers that the camera can take some pretty hard knocks, which is one of the reasons the 1080P has the added capability to easily remove and reorder replacement lenses.
The base camera body: has everything that you expect to see, with regard to controls, inputs, rotating lens, camera mount access, a slick removable cover, to gain access to the internals, and most importantly, a nice integrated LCD screen!
The RF Remote is a great feature with this product, totally liberating the user from the on-camera controls. Plus, remote “start” and “stop” functionality is a wonderful way to prevent unwanted camera movement that results when the user presses control buttons on the main camera during the recording mode.
Video quality: the camera produces an extremely nice field of view, with a video characteristic that appears noticeably warmer than then the other offerings on the market. I would have liked a tighter focus, but that’s just me, I am a photographer, and I love super clear detail. Example: letters and words on passing road signs are not that clear. However, this is to be expected on a special purpose camera with a, fixed, wide angle lens.
Low light video quality: very good, especially with the use of a switchable “day and night” mode, for an optimal low light delivery.
Audio quality: unsatisfactory. I was very surprised to find a disturbing level of distortion. This may have been caused by my microphone sensitivity being set too high. But distortion is never welcome. The documentation tells you to expect a lower microphone sensitivity than other digital cameras, and that the microphone is covered with a rubber seal, but again, distortion should be eliminated. Further the documentation warns people against puncturing that seal (that covers the microphone) or the warranty will be void. So people must have tried to make their own improvements in the past.
Controls and operations: are very intuitive and follows the rule of consistency for all operations throughout all modes. A few of the fonts on the control display are a little too small and pixilated to decipher, even under magnification.
Documentation: Great.
Sounds and tones: are helpful and distinguishable, but a bit soft.
Firmware Code Quality: appears to be a bit immature, with regard to error handling, messages and process conflicts. Examples of this code immaturity are when the SD memory card becomes full, you receive a non-descript, “unhelpful”, message of “card error”. Further after you receive this message, there appears to be no programmatic way to exit the process, without a “power-button-shut-down”. Most importantly, when the memory card is full, the camera still “appears” to comply with the users command go into recording mode.
I also experienced another (apparent) software glitch that left me in a dormant state with dead controls and a blank screen. It reminded me of what software developers refer to as a “deadly embrace”, where more than one process is going after the same resource at the same time, causing the system to lock-up. In those particular cases, as with this one, the only way out of this "locked" state, is to remove the battery from the camera, and do a “cold boot”. Meaningless error messages with no direction for the user and software locks are good examples of software immaturity / quality.
Firmware immaturity is a very common problem with low priced consumer electronics, and is usually eliminated during updates and revisions. If the product remains in high demand, and as bugs are reported, enhancement requests are collected, then the code get cleaner over time. Please note: the level of firmware errors were pretty minimal, and probably not noticed by most, however, I have an extra sensitivity to software operations.
In conclusion, I recommend the Drift 1080P, it has a quality look and feel, it’s intuitive in design and operation, and it delivers a wonderfully warm output quality. As a software developer, who appreciates clean and mature code, I feel that a “quality” code review is in order. The internal microphone control process and audio output quality delivers a high degree of distortion, but over all, the camera is super, and I believe that the camera has some great market appeal.
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