Drift Innovation Ghost XL Action Camera – 1080 Full HD Video Camera with Rotating Lens and Dash Cam Mode – IPX7 Waterproof Camera – 9 Hour Battery Life – 12MP Still Photos

After researching a number of helmet mounted action cameras I decided on the Drift Ghost XL Snow Edition. The features I wanted were high video quality, ease of use, helmet mounting and other mounting options and long battery life (which is what the GoPro sorely lacks).The phone app is simple to use, though it could use some tweaking, being able to lock in the which camera variant instead of having to choose each time the app is opened and blue tooth instead of wifi - which doesn't stay connected. That's the biggest drawback and maybe there is some trick I haven't figured out yet. But being able to access all the menus for the camera and settings using the phone is much more convenient that trying to use the 1/4 of a postage stamp size screen.The camera itself is solid and well built. The adhesive holding the base to the helmet is very strong (I still rigged up a tether because I'd rather not lose the camera should the adhesive fail). I shot about 90 minutes of video and the battery indicator only went down one bar. I am hopeful that the 8 hour battery life is true. I set the video to the highest capture settings and even then I only used just over 9 GB of a 32GB card. I imagine a 128GB card would capture an entire days worth of riding without using the overwrite/loop recording feature.The video itself turned out very well, clear and sharp, the color is good and the field of view (which is adjustable in the settings) is excellent for capturing the rider's POV.Some of the reviewers complained of low video quality or blurred images - perhaps they didn't remove the clear plastic film that covers the lens prior to use. So far I am very happy with the Ghost XL and I look forward to testing it further during some longer rides.

I ride a Tribike for Ironman training workouts 50-100mi/wk. My usual routes in SouthOC CA have me sharing public highways 50% of the time. Every single one of our crew, including me, has had unfortunate interactions with motor vehicles over the years. We ride as safe and alert as possible, but that isn't enough sometimes. All of my motor vehicles have simple dash/rear cameras that work great, so after the most recent local bicycle death by automobile, I decided to mount one of these. It works so well, I bought another and mounted it on the rear. With the simple mounting hardware I used, each camera w/mount only weighs 5.2 ounces! Ultra sturdy, somewhat inexpensive, tiny, aerodynamic and easy to quickly operate, I'm blown away with the results after a few hundred miles. The cameras are capable of A LOT more than my simple application, but the battery life, video quality, lightweight and ease of use are perfect for me!

Image quality is good. Slightly grainy in low light. Has a filter for low light which helps and a vivid profile for better colors. Its 1080p 30fps and looks like it. It's clear n pretty sharp with a hint of pixelation. POV is pretty fisheye in the widest POV but you get 3 levels of adjustment. It's good. 👍What's not so good is the audio it is surprisingly horrible. 🤔 Recording volume is extremely low even at level 5. And there is an enormous amount of noise. It gets better with the use of an external mic provided you get a good one to match. Plugging in certain mics won't work. The jack isn't long enough sometimes you will need to use the adapter. It is a little limiting but if you pick this up for motovlogging you'll be fine.Battery life is great. Not quite 9hrs tho. The most I got was almost 8hrs with the sound and LED off. I have gotten 7 1/2hrs consistently. The recording light and the display light are together. So if you want to turn off the recording light you lose the backlight for the display and it becomes hard to see. Its already small and with no light becomes impossible to see unless you have a light on it.This camera is a couple years old now but I couldn't pass it up as the white one was on sale. $119. I see the price went back up. 😮 The snow edition the white looks great.There is zero image stabilization. At least it's waterproof. Love the rotatable lens its the one unique thing that most other cameras do not have. The size isn't too bad. It's no bigger than a Sony X3000. It's too bad the audio is virtually non existent with a lot of noise. 😐UPDATE: This gets a bump up now that the audio works. So what happened? The audio was really low with a lot of noise as you increased the sensitivity. I was bummed but decided to play around with it.I put this on instant record and I also plugged in a 3.5mm audio jack with a slim head. W/O a slim head it won't go in all the way. Don't know which did it or maybe both but now the audio works 😯🤔👍👏