Drift HD170 Camera - My review from a pilots perspective

[DBI]

Great review, thanks Matt!

[260Driver]

theclymb.com has the new Drift HD for $240. You have to be a member to buy, but membership is free and anyone can join.

http://www.theclymb.com/home

[Emory Bored]

The Drift HD is now $215 on Amazon.

[260Driver]

Even better...just to be clear though, the one at theclymb.com is the new smaller model, not the HD170.

[mountainmatt]

theclymb.com has the new Drift HD for $240. You have to be a member to buy, but membership is free and anyone can join.

http://www.theclymb.com/home

Hot Dang that's a good fine. Was $370, now $240. $12 batteries too. The last thing I need is another Drift, but these cameras are just too cool!

[260Driver]

Tell me about it! At that price I may have to grab one...

[lesuther]

Umm, the Drift HD is available at several outlets for $130-$150. I got a second one 2 1/2 weeks ago, *with an extra battery*, for $186 *including shipping*. Looking now, it appears they have raised the price to $169 for the cam alone (B&H Photo).

[swixtt]

you sure about that price, post a link if you are. there are two products currently from Drift. the Drift HD170 Stealth and the Drift HD.

just so others know, the battery is NOT interchangeable between them. cards are of course.

[marker60]

$169 at Crutchfield.
http://www.crutchfield.com/p_788SHD170/Drift-Innovation-HD170-Stealth-Camera.html?tp=36196

[Grassstrippilot]

I saw the Drift HD170 on Amazon for $169 too.

I don't remember if this was asked, but how does it do with the cold? I have one of the ATC cams and it seemed like in really cold temps, it would shut off while in flight.

[mountainmatt]

The Drift does good in cold. I shot some video today at Leadville CO, and it was a whopping 6°F on the ground and -10°F at altitude. I was able to film the entire flight home (1hr15min) on a battery with it hanging off the wing strut in the wind.

[Grassstrippilot]

Great! That is what I wanted to hear.

[Grassstrippilot]

Jello - That is what my in-flight images look like. The mount is very solid so I don't think it is camera shake. Is any one else having this problem with their Drift Stealth at 1080p mode?

Hey Mike (and everyone else),

So I got my HD170 from Santa and went out to do an initial trial yesterday. Takeoff and climb out looked like the Wasatch was getting hit by a 20.0 earthquake...lots of jello effect. In cruise, is dampened out quite a bit, descent and landing was nice and smooth. I have yet to do another flight to do the "hold in your hand" suggestion that was made to ascertain that it is vibration (which is my guess). The mount seems as solid as I can make it with my current setup, which is the ram mount with rubber between it and the strut held on by a viole strap and "cleaned up" a bit with a velcro strap. I also have a foam type of material between the camera and the mounting disc/ball piece of the ram mount system.



So, my question for you guys that had this problem is, what did you do to alleviate it? For example, did you add a certain type of material for padding to take out some of the vibration and if so, where and how did you add it? Any info would be appreciated and pics of your setup would be even better!

[wtxdragger]

Take out all of the foam and padding, make it solid. I have my Contour mounted to the strut with a hose clamp around a Ram roll bar mount along with a 2" extension. the extension has a ball receptacle on both ends with a thumbscrew in the middle to set tension.


---
I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=29.578277,-100.972884

[182 STOL driver]

Very interesting --- I saw a article in a R/C model airplane Magazine using servos and old radio to change direction/elevation of camera . I have a old 3 channel and servos(270 degree travel) hmmm. I'd like to be able to turn it on or off when i want -also saw the remote they had . Thinking of a 1/2 shaped ball (clear) mounted on wing tip( or inspection cover) with forward /aft /and side views. I'd like a monitor screen to see what the camera is aimed at --- maybe blue tooth or hard wired hmmm. It'd be cool to have 2x,4x or variable telescopic remotely from cockpit in flight --- HD video .I've also got more channels R/C units up to 8 channels and boxes of servos.

[akavidflyer]

Very interesting --- I saw a article in a R/C model airplane Magazine using servos and old radio to change direction/elevation of camera . I have a old 3 channel and servos(270 degree travel) hmmm. I'd like to be able to turn it on or off when i want -also saw the remote they had . Thinking of a 1/2 shaped ball (clear) mounted on wing tip( or inspection cover) with forward /aft /and side views. I'd like a monitor screen to see what the camera is aimed at --- maybe blue tooth or hard wired hmmm. It'd be cool to have 2x,4x or variable telescopic remotely from cockpit in flight --- HD video .I've also got more channels R/C units up to 8 channels and boxes of servos.

Sail winch servos and a cheap servo driver will make a pretty clean instal and give you one heck of a swing. Plus it will eliminate the TX and RX and you will just have a dial to run the servo.

http://servocity.com/html/dual_servo_driver.html

http://servocity.com/html/spt200_pan___tilt_system.html

[AvidFlyer]

Cool stuff Leni! I was checking these beasts out the other day. Would sure be a lot of fun!!

http://www.bergenrc.com/ObserverTwin.php

[GroundLooper]

So, my question for you guys that had this problem is, what did you do to alleviate it? For example, did you add a certain type of material for padding to take out some of the vibration and if so, where and how did you add it? Any info would be appreciated and pics of your setup would be even better!

Bump the screen rate up to 60fps. That seemed to do the trick for me. After trying several things, best I could determine is that there was too much vibration with the airplane at certain speeds. Downside is that you can only shoot at 720.

[Av8r3400]

Santa brought me a Drift HD170 Stealth for Christmas!

What software are you guys using to edit and manage the .mov files it produces?

[Grassstrippilot]

Bump the screen rate up to 60fps. That seemed to do the trick for me. After trying several things, best I could determine is that there was too much vibration with the airplane at certain speeds. Downside is that you can only shoot at 720.

The HD170, unlike the Stealth, only does 30 fps. I'll get rid of the small amount of padding and see what happens. Matt, how is yours rigged?

Av8r, MountainMatt suggested Magix Pro. I got it for Christmas and started to play with it today. Pretty cool software, but there will be a learning curve.