Well, I WAS considering purchasing one of these but the lack of image stabilisation at higher resolutions is a bit of a deal breaker. Glad I saw this before I made an expensive mistake. Back to the drawing board!
I have 2 drift S models , which I have had for years. Superb cameras. As long as you keep batteries fully charged. Doesn't like half charged battery as they freeze up. So far all the clips I have seen for the xl pro, I am not impressed with video quality? So my question is apart from outstanding battery life is it worth me trading up to the xl pro? After all isn't all about video quality?
If your Ghost S cameras are still working reliably and you can manage with the battery life, I'd say stick with them, it's not worth the upgrade. I do think the S still has good enough video quality at 1080p, 60fps.
Excellent I have just got mine the other day not used it yet but this is invaluable to me as I have never used this or my other one which I also bought .One big thing that I feel it going to scupper me is editing as I have no clue at all : D lookin forward to the next one cheers : )
I did think that, one possible flaw I could see with an elbow adapter would be that it would be easier for the user to accidentally overtighten it and break the port.
I just bought one , not yet tried it , disappointed to hear no stabilization on 4k , on your firmware comment , the firmware version number on my new XL Pro is higher than the version on the ghost website so I don't think I will risk a downgrade lol , has the update bricked your xl pro ?
I think I'll be using 2.7K @60fps on mine. I was trying to work out what the little disc was for. I think a right angled mic adaptor is needed. Also an adaptor that charges from a powerbank and allows a mic connection at the same time, would be nice.
It should work on 720p, 1080p or 2.7K modes, just not 4K. So if it's still not working on any of those then it would be best to contact Drift support. May also be worth checking for firmware updates
I love the drift xl i have. Really like the upgrade to the pro just for the stabilisation, however, its a real shame that the FOV is reduced to 115 degrees when using stabilisation, that is a deal breaker for me.
Still undecided on this... have had the XL over the past two years and all the associated problems, freezing, turning off, etc. My XL seems to be affected by cold, freezes more in winter than summer ?, anything under 10 C and it is nearly guaranteed to start playing up... So hopefully they have this one working correctly, still interested because of battery life, size,shape and waterproofing but i will hold off in case there are 'issues'... looking forward to your longer term report !
I'll be sure to keep you updated in future videos. No reliability problems to report so far, but it's still early days. I think my old ones used to freeze up in hotter weather.
@@Phil480Hey Phil thanks for the reply... On the XL, If it's a temp thing ? hot or cold 😅 Do you think that would that point to a hardware issue rather than software ?
AH HAAAAA so you have bought one too‼️😁 I've used drift as main camera for years. Stealth 2 then xl. Xl battery life was awesome. No issues when I rode in a couple of monsoons. Only slight issue was varying volume levels sometimes when I started a new recording segment but that was sorted in editing👍 Seriously thinking of upgrading to this just so I can record at 2.7k 60fps. So very interested to see yours and motourevs footage😎 Also waiting to see if there are any issues with the new camera. I believe the image stabilisation works upto 2.7k 30fps, sure that's what motourev said🤔the improvement to colour is down to the Sony chip in the new camera, possibly the same one that's in your sony🤔😁 Looking forward to the footage. Thanks for sharing👍😎
Yes, you're right. I later discovered that 2.7K 30fps mode does support image stabilisation. It's a lot more watchable. The chip in my Sony would be an older one, but seems to be of a similar spec.
At the time I said it didn't have image stabilisation above 1080p, 60fps. Since then, it was revealed that it can actually have stabilisation on up to 2.7k, 50fps which I have demonstrated in another video. Whilst the image stabilisation seems to work pretty well, it does however reduce the field of view, so you get an even narrower shot than you would with the stabilisation turned off.
Very good first look Phil. Lots of interesting stuff, a few improvements but not enough to bring me back so far. The reduction to 140˚ FoV was almost a deal breaker for me when they first did it, as you mentioned it creates very jerky footage on the helmet mount, and I need to see how the stabilisation is - I found it to make the footage look like slo-mo on the Drift 4K. Also the reliability is really going to matter - one instance of freezing up is one too many for me now. The Sony never has, it's stabilisation modes are all great. I'd probably consider the XL Pro for a non-helmet camera - either on the bike or as a static ride by one. Thanks for the look-see :)
I'll try and get some test footage up over the weekend. The stabilisation works better than expected, the footage is certainly more watchable, but the FOV is still not ideal for the scenario. I think as a bike mounted camera, it may be a good option.
Interesting video Phil. I'm currently dithering g about a proper Vlogging setup, especially as I need something that is compatible with my Shoei Neotec helmet. I've considered various GoPros, but the audio thing is a bit of a headache. Currently using a Yi 4K which is Rubbish,
They look decent. I like the modular features, would be good if they did a side on lens so you can keep a narrow profile on the side of a helmet rather than gopro style.
I have asked Drift What is the life expectancy of the battery. I do know that my Ghost S Batts get warm, so I never charge in the camera. I am on my second set of three batteries as I rotate them, mostly one a day. If you could keep this in mind while you use the camera, it would be great to know how hot the camera gets after a day of shooting. I don’t run the camera all day, but as you know, video not only chews up batteries, it also gets warmer. It’s a lot of money to spend for a camera, only to throw away because the battery is dead!
I remember the ghost S having issues with batteries expanding in the camera. The camera does get warm after being on for a while as you would expect from any electronic device. It's worse in the car because there's no constant airflow like on the side of a helmet. I've not had any overheating issues with this and no sign of reduced battery life, but it's still early days.
Shame about the stabilisation limitations. Picture looks pretty good though. I really like the form factor of Drift but I finally moved away from them looking for better picture quality (just before this camera arrived). It''ll be interesting to see your final results to work out if I made a mistake :-D
Hi Phil great video as usual very interested in your summing up off your new camera, myself i use the Ghost XL which im very pleased with, I cannot really see myself upgrading too the XL Pro as not having the image stabilization above 1080 fps would be a dissapointment and i cant really see any added advantage for my personal uses.
Great video buddy. Recieved mine yesterday and can't wait to try it out. I had the drift ghost xl but wasn't really happy with how the max resolution of 1080p 30fps looked when youtube had massacred the quality. I saw motourevs video about resetting the camera with just the button aswell so would love to find out if thats actually possible also I have seen stabilisation works with 2.7k and below 🤔Subscribed 👌
Was considering the new Drift but can’t get over how lacking they are behind the competition, especially with stabilisation. Still can’t forget how awful their customer service is. Especially after all the issues with the Ghost S freezing, loosing footage, that horrible wine/hiss that it had and then blaming memory cards every time. It’s a shame because the form factor and lens rotation was a game changer at one point. I think my choices has come down to the GoPro 10 or Insta360 One RS, more towards the Insta with GP having issues at the mo also. Cheers for the vid pal.
i dunno not really sold me the VERY OLD sony camera you have is still the better camera hands down. that shake is alot from when you are used to nice wide gopro footage
It is, I couldn't watch it for too long. I am far too used to the steady shot on the Sony. I have tried stabilisation on at 2.7K, 30fps (apparently wherever I read about it only working on 1080p was wrong). It is far better with the stabilisation on, but the FOV is still crap. I wonder if you can still get those clip on wide angle or fish-eye lenses that you could buy for certain camcorders back in the day and adapt it to fit over the Drift lens 🤔
Well I'll wait for the further videos to pass final judgement, especially if you tweak the angle to help the white balance as you say and generally futz with the settings, but gotta say that's some disappointing footage. If you'd shown me that I would have told you it was a 5-year old Drift from way back, not a brand new model, and it's not really any better than my 40 quid amazon-special from years ago either. That combined with only having the stabilisation on 1080 and it feels like they fell behind the competition a long time ago and never caught up. GoPro, for all their flaws and instability, shoot some incredible footage these days and all the hyper-smooth and such really transforms our style of riding, and with the Insta One-R absolute smashing it right now, the Sonys, even cheaper ones like Olfi, I don't see Drift staying sustainable if this is the best they can offer at this time. £250 is by no means a cheap camera, and battery life is not enough of a selling point with all the power pack options for the others.
I can mostly agree at this stage. However, since recording this I have found that you can get stabilisation on 2.7K at 30fps. I have tried it, and it is certainly far better than the test footage I have shown in this video! The narrow FOV is still a let down though.
Great in-depth review, just how I like em. Long live my Ghost-S, bought new 2013. I think with Drift, it's a case of better-the-Devil-you-know. 1080p does me fine. Yeah, the old girl can freeze from time to time and the battery life is pathetic (a 26800mAh powerbank stuffed in my pocket sorts that niggle out), and there's an annoying purple lens flare everytime the sun shows its face . . . but other than that, she's ticking along and still doing me proud. Thanks and ride safe pal!
Hey Gizza! I haven't seen your name around for a long time, hope you're well. Yep, the Ghost S was pretty much perfect! I still have one (currently on loan to another motovlogger). I find them a bit bulky to what I'm used to now, but otherwise can't go too wrong with them. I bought some 3rd party batteries that last longer than the standard one.
@Update This camera supported micro sd card 512GB Samsung Evo Plus, manufactured says its only support 256Gb ;)
Well, I WAS considering purchasing one of these but the lack of image stabilisation at higher resolutions is a bit of a deal breaker. Glad I saw this before I made an expensive mistake. Back to the drawing board!
Just got mine today and the damned mic adapter lead is missing from the packaging !
I have 2 drift S models
, which I have had for years. Superb cameras. As long as you keep batteries fully charged. Doesn't like half charged battery as they freeze up. So far all the clips I have seen for the xl pro, I am not impressed with video quality? So my question is apart from outstanding battery life is it worth me trading up to the xl pro? After all isn't all about video quality?
If your Ghost S cameras are still working reliably and you can manage with the battery life, I'd say stick with them, it's not worth the upgrade. I do think the S still has good enough video quality at 1080p, 60fps.
Excellent I have just got mine the other day not used it yet but this is invaluable to me as I have never used this or my other one which I also bought .One big thing that I feel it going to scupper me is editing as I have no clue at all : D lookin forward to the next one cheers : )
Glad it was helpful!
It would be easier for drift to provide a mic lead with a 90 Deg elbow than to move the mic port???
Apparently they can't get a waterproof connection with a 90 degree as has to screw in with o ring🙄
I did think that, one possible flaw I could see with an elbow adapter would be that it would be easier for the user to accidentally overtighten it and break the port.
The ghost xl pro update process does not power on
I just bought one , not yet tried it , disappointed to hear no stabilization on 4k , on your firmware comment , the firmware version number on my new XL Pro is higher than the version on the ghost website so I don't think I will risk a downgrade lol , has the update bricked your xl pro ?
I think I'll be using 2.7K @60fps on mine. I was trying to work out what the little disc was for. I think a right angled mic adaptor is needed. Also an adaptor that charges from a powerbank and allows a mic connection at the same time, would be nice.
They did do a mic/power combo cable for the Ghost X, so would think they will do one for this one.
I am going to use the usb c connector to charge mine with a power bank @lord Billious 👍
@@Phil480 I hope so.
@@grossi46 it's an option, but you would have to cut a hole in the door.
The stabilization does not seam to work on any of the settings. Has anyone had any success?
It should work on 720p, 1080p or 2.7K modes, just not 4K. So if it's still not working on any of those then it would be best to contact Drift support. May also be worth checking for firmware updates
I love the drift xl i have. Really like the upgrade to the pro just for the stabilisation, however, its a real shame that the FOV is reduced to 115 degrees when using stabilisation, that is a deal breaker for me.
Still undecided on this... have had the XL over the past two years and all the associated problems, freezing, turning off, etc. My XL seems to be affected by cold, freezes more in winter than summer ?, anything under 10 C and it is nearly guaranteed to start playing up... So hopefully they have this one working correctly, still interested because of battery life, size,shape and waterproofing but i will hold off in case there are 'issues'... looking forward to your longer term report !
I'll be sure to keep you updated in future videos. No reliability problems to report so far, but it's still early days. I think my old ones used to freeze up in hotter weather.
@@Phil480Hey Phil thanks for the reply... On the XL, If it's a temp thing ? hot or cold 😅 Do you think that would that point to a hardware issue rather than software ?
how do you rotate the lens?
It just twists, its a bit stiff on a new camera but it will rotate up to 300º
AH HAAAAA so you have bought one too‼️😁
I've used drift as main camera for years. Stealth 2 then xl. Xl battery life was awesome. No issues when I rode in a couple of monsoons. Only slight issue was varying volume levels sometimes when I started a new recording segment but that was sorted in editing👍
Seriously thinking of upgrading to this just so I can record at 2.7k 60fps. So very interested to see yours and motourevs footage😎
Also waiting to see if there are any issues with the new camera.
I believe the image stabilisation works upto 2.7k 30fps, sure that's what motourev said🤔the improvement to colour is down to the Sony chip in the new camera, possibly the same one that's in your sony🤔😁
Looking forward to the footage. Thanks for sharing👍😎
Yes, you're right. I later discovered that 2.7K 30fps mode does support image stabilisation. It's a lot more watchable.
The chip in my Sony would be an older one, but seems to be of a similar spec.
You stated no "image stabilization". Per the manufacturer specs. it does indeed have image stabilization.
At the time I said it didn't have image stabilisation above 1080p, 60fps. Since then, it was revealed that it can actually have stabilisation on up to 2.7k, 50fps which I have demonstrated in another video.
Whilst the image stabilisation seems to work pretty well, it does however reduce the field of view, so you get an even narrower shot than you would with the stabilisation turned off.
Hi. How long can it record a video before it’s reset?
Depends on what settings you use. I can easily get 7 hours in 1080p, 60fps. 2.7k is about 4 hours
Very good first look Phil. Lots of interesting stuff, a few improvements but not enough to bring me back so far. The reduction to 140˚ FoV was almost a deal breaker for me when they first did it, as you mentioned it creates very jerky footage on the helmet mount, and I need to see how the stabilisation is - I found it to make the footage look like slo-mo on the Drift 4K.
Also the reliability is really going to matter - one instance of freezing up is one too many for me now. The Sony never has, it's stabilisation modes are all great.
I'd probably consider the XL Pro for a non-helmet camera - either on the bike or as a static ride by one.
Thanks for the look-see :)
I'll try and get some test footage up over the weekend. The stabilisation works better than expected, the footage is certainly more watchable, but the FOV is still not ideal for the scenario.
I think as a bike mounted camera, it may be a good option.
Interesting video Phil. I'm currently dithering g about a proper Vlogging setup, especially as I need something that is compatible with my Shoei Neotec helmet. I've considered various GoPros, but the audio thing is a bit of a headache. Currently using a Yi 4K which is Rubbish,
Those Yi 4K's were supposedly pretty good back in their day. I'll get some test footage up as soon as I can. So far, my only worry is the narrow FOV.
They look decent. I like the modular features, would be good if they did a side on lens so you can keep a narrow profile on the side of a helmet rather than gopro style.
I have asked Drift What is the life expectancy of the battery. I do know that my Ghost S Batts get warm, so I never charge in the camera. I am on my second set of three batteries as I rotate them, mostly one a day. If you could keep this in mind while you use the camera, it would be great to know how hot the camera gets after a day of shooting. I don’t run the camera all day, but as you know, video not only chews up batteries, it also gets warmer. It’s a lot of money to spend for a camera, only to throw away because the battery is dead!
I remember the ghost S having issues with batteries expanding in the camera.
The camera does get warm after being on for a while as you would expect from any electronic device. It's worse in the car because there's no constant airflow like on the side of a helmet. I've not had any overheating issues with this and no sign of reduced battery life, but it's still early days.
Shame about the stabilisation limitations. Picture looks pretty good though.
I really like the form factor of Drift but I finally moved away from them looking for better picture quality (just before this camera arrived). It''ll be interesting to see your final results to work out if I made a mistake :-D
Hi Phil great video as usual very interested in your summing up off your new camera, myself i use the Ghost XL which im very pleased with, I cannot really see myself upgrading too the XL Pro as not having the image stabilization above 1080 fps would be a dissapointment and i cant really see any added advantage for my personal uses.
It turns out I had bad information at the time of recording this. Image stabilisation is available on 2.7k, 30fps!
Great video buddy. Recieved mine yesterday and can't wait to try it out. I had the drift ghost xl but wasn't really happy with how the max resolution of 1080p 30fps looked when youtube had massacred the quality. I saw motourevs video about resetting the camera with just the button aswell so would love to find out if thats actually possible also I have seen stabilisation works with 2.7k and below 🤔Subscribed 👌
Thanks for the sub! Yes, stabilisation works up to 2.7K, 30fps. I'll have some test footage up soon
I've been pleased with the sturdiness of the xl compared with drift 4k i must invest in a pro
Was considering the new Drift but can’t get over how lacking they are behind the competition, especially with stabilisation. Still can’t forget how awful their customer service is. Especially after all the issues with the Ghost S freezing, loosing footage, that horrible wine/hiss that it had and then blaming memory cards every time. It’s a shame because the form factor and lens rotation was a game changer at one point. I think my choices has come down to the GoPro 10 or Insta360 One RS, more towards the Insta with GP having issues at the mo also. Cheers for the vid pal.
Insta 360 camera brilliant. Battery life awful. After sales service NON EXISTENT. Never had a problem with Drift after sales.
i dunno not really sold me the VERY OLD sony camera you have is still the better camera hands down. that shake is alot from when you are used to nice wide gopro footage
It is, I couldn't watch it for too long. I am far too used to the steady shot on the Sony. I have tried stabilisation on at 2.7K, 30fps (apparently wherever I read about it only working on 1080p was wrong). It is far better with the stabilisation on, but the FOV is still crap.
I wonder if you can still get those clip on wide angle or fish-eye lenses that you could buy for certain camcorders back in the day and adapt it to fit over the Drift lens 🤔
@@Phil480 yeah I was getting a bit of motion sickness
Well I'll wait for the further videos to pass final judgement, especially if you tweak the angle to help the white balance as you say and generally futz with the settings, but gotta say that's some disappointing footage. If you'd shown me that I would have told you it was a 5-year old Drift from way back, not a brand new model, and it's not really any better than my 40 quid amazon-special from years ago either. That combined with only having the stabilisation on 1080 and it feels like they fell behind the competition a long time ago and never caught up. GoPro, for all their flaws and instability, shoot some incredible footage these days and all the hyper-smooth and such really transforms our style of riding, and with the Insta One-R absolute smashing it right now, the Sonys, even cheaper ones like Olfi, I don't see Drift staying sustainable if this is the best they can offer at this time. £250 is by no means a cheap camera, and battery life is not enough of a selling point with all the power pack options for the others.
I can mostly agree at this stage. However, since recording this I have found that you can get stabilisation on 2.7K at 30fps. I have tried it, and it is certainly far better than the test footage I have shown in this video! The narrow FOV is still a let down though.
chit camera
Great in-depth review, just how I like em. Long live my Ghost-S, bought new 2013. I think with Drift, it's a case of better-the-Devil-you-know. 1080p does me fine. Yeah, the old girl can freeze from time to time and the battery life is pathetic (a 26800mAh powerbank stuffed in my pocket sorts that niggle out), and there's an annoying purple lens flare everytime the sun shows its face . . . but other than that, she's ticking along and still doing me proud. Thanks and ride safe pal!
Hey Gizza! I haven't seen your name around for a long time, hope you're well.
Yep, the Ghost S was pretty much perfect! I still have one (currently on loan to another motovlogger). I find them a bit bulky to what I'm used to now, but otherwise can't go too wrong with them. I bought some 3rd party batteries that last longer than the standard one.