Drift boosts battery life, performance for new Ghost-S action cam
We liked the HD Ghost, and the Ghost-S is basically that camera with improved battery life and performance. What's not to like about that?
- More than two decades experience writing about PCs and accessories, and 15 years writing about cameras of all kinds.
Drift Innovation already had a good thing going with its Drift HD Ghost action cam. So perhaps it's best that its newest camera, the Ghost-S, concentrates on performance enhancements.
The Ghost-S uses the same design as the HD Ghost. The bullet-shaped body is waterproof down to 9 feet (a waterproof housing is available so you can take it down to 196 feet) with a built-in Gorilla Glass-protected 2-inch LCD depending on how it's mounted and a lens that can be rotated up to 300 degrees.
Unscrew the back hatch and you'll find an external mic jack, Micro-SDXC card slot supporting cards of capacities up to 64GB, Mini-USB and Mini-HDMI ports, and a battery big enough to supply up to 3.5 hours of recording time depending on your settings.
With the exception of slightly better battery life, all of that stuff isn't new with the Ghost-S. Inside, however, is a new Sony 12-megapixel BSI CMOS sensor and a high-performance video processor that allows for, among other things, faster frame rates. The Ghost-S can record at 1080p at 25fps, 30fps, 50fps, or 60fps; 960p at 25fps, 30fps, 48fps, 50fps, or 60fps; 720p at 25fps, 30fps, 50fps, 60fps, 100fps, or 120fps; and WVGA at 25fps, 30fps, 50fps, 60fps, 100fps, 120fps, 200fps, or 240fps. You also adjust the amount of video compression with a choice of low or high bit rates.
The camera can burst shoot stills at 10fps at 12-megapixel resolution as well as simultaneously capture 8-megapixel photos while recording video. It can do time-lapse photography as well, with settings for shots every 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 30, or 60 seconds.
Like the HD Ghost, the Ghost-S has built-in Wi-Fi. It can be used to connect to an Android or iOS smartphone or tablet to view and control the camera or play back your recordings on something larger than the camera's screen. In addition to that, a new Clone mode lets you use the Wi-Fi to connect and sync up to five Ghost-S cameras (should you have the need and finances). One is designated as the master camera, so if you press record on it, the others will start recording, too. The same goes for any setting adjustments: change the resolution on the master camera and they'll all change.
Drift has also added new scene modes -- Normal, Vivid, or Low-Light -- and a Slow Shutter mode that it says drastically improves low-light performance.
Included in the package along with goggle and flat- and curved-surface mounts is a wearable RF remote for starting and stopping recordings and changing shooting modes. Colored LEDs give you visual feedback so you know what you're doing, and the remote can be used to control multiple cameras (again, should you have the need and finances).
I liked the HD Ghost, and the Ghost-S is basically that camera with improved battery life and performance, so what's not to like about that? Hopefully, it'll perform well enough to warrant its $399 price tag. You can preorder them now on Drift's site or wait till it lands in stores on November 26.