drift ghost 4k lcd touch screen pricelist

The Ghost-S uses the same design as the HD Ghost. The camera measures 1.3 inches wide by 2 inches high by 4.1 inches deep and weighs 5.9 ounces. Strapped to the side of a helmet or pair of goggles, you won"t exactly forget it"s there, but it"s not overly big, either.

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 on the right side (or top depending on how it"s mounted) and a flat, wide-angle lens with a 160-degree angle of view that can be rotated up to 300 degrees.

Though Drift has a selection of mounts that use a quick-connect clip, the clip attaches to the camera via a standard 1/4-inch tripod mount. That means you have plenty of mounting options outside of what Drift offers, including GoPro mounts.

It"s all of these things combined -- the long-life removable battery, rotating lens, tripod mount, built-in LCD, waterproofing -- that make the Ghost-S a top choice in the category.

However, much of this stuff isn"t new with the Ghost-S. Inside, though, 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 MP4 files at 1080p at settings starting at 25fps, and going as high as 60fps; at 720p the options range from 25fps up to 120fps; and using WVGA your choices start at 25fps and go all the way to 240fps. You also adjust the amount of video compression with a choice of normal or high bit rates, with the latter recording at up to 35Mbps.

Drift has also added new scene modes: Normal, Vivid, or Low Light. Normal gives you more natural colors that are easier to work with if you want to adjust color to your liking when editing. Vivid pumps up colors so they pop, while Low Light seems to increase noise reduction, though not so much that subjects turn to mush.

The camera can burst shoot stills at 10fps at 12-megapixel resolution as well as simultaneously capture 8-megapixel photos while recording video. Unfortunately, they"re in a 4:3 aspect ratio rather than 16:9, so you"ll have to do some cropping if you want to use them in your HD videos and keep everything wide screen. The Ghost-S can do time-lapse photography as well, with settings for shots at intervals ranging from every 0.5 second all the way up to every 60 seconds.

Navigating the menu system and changing multiple settings on the camera can be a bit of a pain. Still, I"d rather have the Ghost-S menus and controls over the GoPro"s or needing to run to a computer to change settings. And, should you put together a group of settings that you use regularly for a particular activity, you can save them to one of three setting profiles.

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, change settings, or to play back your recordings on something larger than the camera"s screen. In my testing, both apps worked fine on an iPhone 5S and a Galaxy S4.

In addition to using the camera with mobile devices, a new Clone mode lets you use the Wi-Fi to connect and sync as many as five Ghost-S cameras (should you have the need and the finances). One is designated as the master camera, so if you press its record button, 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.

Video quality is improved from the Drift HD Ghost, especially when it comes to detail. Everything looks more crisp, and I saw fewer artifacts when using the camera"s high-bit-rate setting. Using that setting will eat into the battery life and the files use up more storage, but it"s worth using if you plan to view the video at large sizes.

That"s not to say you won"t see any artifacts; quilting can be distracting, such as on the power lines in the clip above, and there"s still some blockiness visible when viewed closely on a big screen. And if you"re shooting in low light, you"ll notice an increase in noise/artifacts, too. Much of this is common to action cams, though. (Note: A firmware update is available that improves extreme low-light video.)

I liked the HD Ghost, and the Ghost-S is basically that camera with improved battery life and performance, more shooting options, better Wi-Fi, and nicer-looking video. What"s not to like about that?

Regarding the build, the Ghost XL Pro is roughly the same size as the Insta360 ONE RS and GoPro, and when it comes to building quality, it comfortably sits alongside them as a premium action camera option.

The styling is minimalistic with the small rotating lens mounted at the front, mounting on the base, logo on top, the small mono screen on the back, three control buttons along one side and the battery and MicroSD card door on the other.

Mounts are always an important factor with any action camera, and here the Drift utilises its style of clip mount. While this isn’t the GoPro three-prong style universally used by many manufacturers in practical use, it offers a far more rigid connection with anything it’s mounted to. In the past, before decent EIS, this mount proved itself for its robust build and reduction in vibration when compared with the GoPro equivalent.

Touch and voice control have made controlling action cameras exceptionally easy in the last few years. However, the Drift Ghost XL Pro has non of that. Sticking with the pure ready-for-action stance, a small LCD screen on the back shows the mode and setting, battery life and SD card capacity, and that’s about it.

The three buttons enable you to scroll through the options and update them as required. The display’s colour changes for each screen, making it easy to recognise which section you’re in. While using the LCD screen and carousel-style navigation is relatively easy, it does feel like you’re stepping back in time.

The small screen and direct control buttons are only used to start and stop recording, and if you want to change any settings, then the fastest route is through the App.