The Holy Grail of bike-cams? X170 review

[labyonnette]

You only want a camera because you are paranoid

[moneymayhem2000]

That black dot did it for me...

Hello go pro

[wtfmickey]

the lens? I thought it had to do with over exposer?

[HostileHST]

What type of brake handles are those? Never seen it done that way, very interesting for sure.

[Ojthemighty]

Looks crap I would only pay £30 for that

[simon44]

@Ojthemighty agreed

[dazzassti]

I found that really hard to watch... ist as choppy as hell. is that normal? :-/

[NineShagnasty]

You appear to have a dropped frame every second. Did you lose it during production or is this a fault with the camera?

Have you perhaps recorded @ 30fps and then re-encoded @29fps?

[simon44]

@NineShagnasty If it was recorded in NTSC and then changed to PAL then you'll lose every sixth frame to make it compatible. Always make sure you record in PAL (if in the PAL region) from the start and you wont have this issue and you'll also get 576p instead of 480p.

[deadlobster2]

hi, i will buy the x170 in a month or so, when they weather is good enough again for road cycling. Would you still recommend this camera now after 5 months of usage? I will use it for long rides mainly >5hours. Do you have any details if maybe a smaller follower of the x170 is being released within the next months?

[pjotr320]

Excellent review, thanks!

[gadgetmind]

I wonder what battery life is like, and how easy it is to turn on/off when wearing gloves?

I love my ContourHD, but this is cheaper.

[primasativa]

Battery life is a rated at about 4.5 hours for new lithium batteries and would be similar for rechargable NiCads. Operating tempature effects battery life. In cold applications, the life is reduced. In my experiance thus far - I was recording on & off all day long while snowboarding and always had life left at the end of the day. The remote can be operated easily with gloves as many of my postings on YouTube show - search for videos by primasativa or The Indian Sheppard.

[marcuskeeler]

But it's massive !!!

[exup1k]

is this set at 30fps or 60fps, ive just got one of these and it locks up and turns itself off when set to 60 fps.......

[Thunderous71]

@exup1k check your memory card speed

[cero815]

low resolution but quita a stable image, although mounted on the handlebar

[drsquirrel0]

The quality looks VERY nice, would be good to see low light.

The size is a bit big these days, and that is too large for a head cam.

The screen and lens rotation is a big big bonus.

Too bad this doesn't do 720p (1280x720).

Big question is, battery life?

For everyone else there are GOOD Muvi clones out there, that cost half way between the worst (around £13) and the original (£70). Muvi form factor makes it rubbish to mount though. A torch shaped camera (they exist) would be ++++

[bam1f]

Gopro HD ftw!

[kfgecko]

How is it in low light scenarios?

[Timexization]

I LIKE IT A LOT,I WANT 1!!!!

[a06275]

That looks really good. Shame about the price, but if you want quality video, you have to pay for it, and even bad video cameras aren't that much cheaper!

[carltonreid]

Quite. ContourHD is more expensive still; Muvi is just £80. They all have their good and bad points.

[downfader2]

Should imagine that would be a bit of a hinderance on a helmet, might be better on a motorcycle helmet where you could have front and back cams LOL

[carltonreid]

You're right. It's waaay too big to be a bicycle helmet-cam. The Muvi, reviewed earlier, is fraction of the size and unobtrusive. But no screen of course. And I like the X170's ultra wide angle.

[downfader2]

A good place to stick that would be on the underside of the toptube. Then you get to see knees moving and the steering.

[carltonreid]

I was thinking that too. I'm going to get a clamp - as you suggested on the last vid - and mount the camera(s) on forks, top-tubes etc. Got a video project coming up in Italy which will be a perfect test for all the jaunty angle shots.

[carltonreid]

TCR from a couple of years ago.

[PhilipClare]

Which Giant bike have you got??