Do you know how long the battery lasts on these Ginge? 1200mah is a fair amount of power, but heard that some wifi-capable  cameras need it on to run  the remote, so drain quickly when using the remote in flight.

Hey Ash, Sorry its taken a while to respond, ...I've been busy selling them. I haven't tested the length of time they last but the remote doesn't need the wifi function enabled. You can control the phone from the smartphone app and this does use the Wifi....  As you're the first to respond, when you see me on the hill...or before if you're about let me know and I'll let you test it for us.... although we've done quite a lot and the resolution is fab.  My son took his to France and it lasted two days without the need for recharge.  However, a different situation to flying. All in all they've performed as well as my friends GoPro 4, despite some mocking and disbelief. For the price it certainly can't be beaten.
Again sorry for the delay in replying, they're in stock at importair.co.uk. Please feel free to give me a call on 07966229963

Cheers
Ginge

out of interest are they compatible with go pro mounts and cases?

Yes the 3 prongs and screw system is compatible so you can fix the camera on the GoPro accessories.
Any questions lets us know.
Cheers
Benjamin

cool thanks for the info 🙂

I have been using  Geonaute G-eye 2 Escape, and am a bit disappointed with it. Although the picture quality is quite good, it has two disadvantages- 1) the remote control uses WiFi, which drains the battery, and 2) it goes into standby mode after 5 min not in use, and it takes ages to re-activate it.  It seems that your camera is free from both these problems. However: the manual says that that the remote should point towards the infra-red sensor of the camera- will it work in flight? And then the question of battery life reamins open. It is nothing about it on Denver web page either, so only testing can give the answer.

In summary: I might be interested but cannot commit before I hold it in my hands / test it .

Cheers
Alex

Hi,

I went and bought one of these as I was having no luck with other 'offerings' out there 🙁

First outing resulted in a load of footage on the ground and then a flat battery before I got airborne due to the fact that I'd miss-read the instructions on the charging process, Doh!

Not managed to get it in the air yet, but did get the chance to 'test' it out in the car on a long boring drive up to Glasgow yesterday.  This was in full 1080p 60fps mode (don't know if it'll be any more frugal in the lower 30fps 720 modes?).

The camera records in 'chunks' of 29 minutes - you power on, press 'OK' to start the recording sessions, and the view-finder / display shows what's being snapped for the first minute and then goes blank.  The red lights flash on the front and the top left (behind) to let you know it's still doing something 😉

After 29 minutes the front flashing led goes blank and the top one stays solid red.  You then have to 'wake' it from it's 'sleep' mode by pressing the 'OK' button and then once again on the 'OK' button to start another recording.
I completed two of these one after the other and then let it sit there for a good twenty minutes to see if it would shut down completely - it didn't.
Another couple of presses of the 'OK' button awoke it from its sleep mode and started a third recording.
This time I stopped the recording after twenty minutes (press the 'OK' button to wake it up) by pressing 'OK' and then started another recording straight away - another press of the 'OK' button.
After fifteen minutes I repeated this (another three presses of the 'OK' button) and left it to continue.
After 15:23 minutes the power ran out and it went dead (but not before storing that last video.

This was from a fresh full charge, WiFi turned off, no messing with the infra-red etc. and I got a total power-on time from 05:31 to 07:41 (2:09:28).  A total record time on the 32gb card of 1:48:36.

I left it on charge on my phone charge adapter in the car but even after three hours it was still not showing as charged so it can't have been a high enough rating to get the thing properly topped up but I tested the WiFi function on the way home with the iPad and noted the following:  It didn't stop at 29 minutes but continued recording until I interrupted it at 35 minutes, a couple of minutes repositioning it and started recording again but lost all power after a total recording time of 50:54 minutes on the card in this mode.  I'll have to repeat this test but only after a full charge when the indicator has gone out - this was continually monitoring the video feed over the WiFi so it may well be an accurate measure of performance?

Hopefully I can get in the air later on today and see what the footage looks like / performance in the cold (unless the sun continues to shine!).

Initial feelings are that I'm impressed with the quality etc, good to have that little display on the back built in, nice to be able to use WiFi IF you have an android or Apple smart phone (no good on my HTC with Windows PocketPC platform!).  Not too sure about the usefulness of the infra-red yet as I haven't messed around with range / button presses required etc.

With any luck I can post some video and you can all make your own minds up?

Cheers,
Richard.

Right - just tried the WiFi action again - busy day in the office!!  😉

Full charge over night - so I know it's got all it's going to get this time.
Started recording at 08:44:45 and left it running while continually monitoring on the iPad.
Noticed it went right past the 29 minute stage again and left it running all the way until the battery died at 09:37:01
Checked the card after on the laptop and there are two files, one with 34:40 and one with 17:35 duration recordings - incidentally, both in the 'JPG' folder rather than the 'Video' folder the others were in when not using the WiFi.

So, total power time of 52:15 this morning in this operating mode fresh from a full charge although in reality you'd most likely only use it for minutes at a time for 'lining' up the shot and starting the record - as long as the button is within reach for switching the WiFi off after it's going?  No good for sticking to the wing - infra-red might be a better option for that idea 😉

FWIW I've recorded 3 hours31 minutes and 45 seconds of video so far and its used up 25,480,134kb of the 32gb card.  The largest file size of 4,170,195 from this morning (34:40 duration).  The two '29 minute' files from yesterday are 3,487,978 and 3,488,900.

Cheers,
Richard.

Here's a link to a recording yesterday lunch time - just a boring top-to-bottom from MamTor East to Dunscar Farm landing:

https://youtu.be/V-4E6dycoLQ

Lessons learnt so far - you can't use the time/date stamp while using the image stabilisation because you'll lose half of the information!
Don't know yet, might need a higher class of card (got a 32g Sandisk '10 in at the moment) to use with 1080p 60fps as I'm sure I can see some 'stepping' in the recording. 

Need more experimenting to find the best mode / storage etc but at least this will show the angle of view / quality etc?

Cheers,
Richard.

Hi Richard,

Thanks for the review. Did you try the remote control? And did you take any still pictures?

Alex

Here's a link to a recording yesterday lunch time - just a boring top-to-bottom from MamTor East to Dunscar Farm landing:

https://youtu.be/V-4E6dycoLQ

Lessons learnt so far - you can't use the time/date stamp while using the image stabilisation because you'll lose half of the information!
Don't know yet, might need a higher class of card (got a 32g Sandisk '10 in at the moment) to use with 1080p 60fps as I'm sure I can see some 'stepping' in the recording. 

Need more experimenting to find the best mode / storage etc but at least this will show the angle of view / quality etc?

Cheers,
Richard.

Hi Alex,

Only 'messed' with the remote on the bench, not used in anger yet - working on a 'magnetic' attachment to put the camera on the underside of the glider so the IR remote will come in handy then 😉

Again, only taken the odd still, nothing to be of any real use yet, and the picture quality is exactly what I'd expected.  I'll try to get some on the slopes next time I'm out.

Got some flying in today on Lords Seat with the camera set to the lowest quality, 720 @ 30fps, but haven't had the chance to review it yet.  Plenty of footage until the battery gave up the ghost so will take some time to get through it.

Cheers,
Richard.

A day on Lords yesterday saw another chance to try out the camera in a different mode - 720P and 30fps.

https://youtu.be/a0wScyqm-aA

Footage is a lot smoother than the 1080P at 60fps seen on Sunday?  Another check on the card (a 32gb Sandisk Ultra [10]) resulted in no errors or anything 'untoward' - maybe a smaller capacity would be necessary to improve?

Timings from yesterday showed 4x29minutes, 1x6:15minutes, and the 36 second clip from above so a total time before the battery gave up of 2 hours 4 minutes @ 720P 30fps against the 1 hour 48 minutes @ 1080p/60fps - an extra 16 minutes!

The sizes of the 29 minute files yesterday ranged between 2,850,261KB to 2,851,480KB so given the total recording time at 2:04 I calculate a maximum capacity requirement of 12.19GB for 720P 30fps mode.

Tested the IR remote this morning in the office and got 7 yards away (roughly - no tape measure with me!) or 21 feet before I lost control but the aim had to be pretty perfect at this distance.  Will get outside later on and try again there.

Cheers,
Richard.

Testing of the camera / IR carried out this morning - not very good results I'm afraid  :-

Firstly - I had to wait for a sunny day, yeah and it's August, go figure! - placed the camera on the wall outside the house and couldn't get the IR remote to take any pictures.  Covered the sensor receiver on the camera from the direct sunshine and I couldn't get over 8 feet away before it stopped responding - a lot less than indoor testing the other day.  If the intention was to mount at the top of the wing looking down (as I was looking to do?) then there won't be a problem with direct sunlight but I don't think the range will be enough unless you've got a good reach and a glider with short lines?

Got the tape measure just to make sure, specially as we weren't talking great distances, and found that without taking the receiver away from direct sunlight I could only get 30 inches away before it failed to respond - not a great distance at all!

To top it all off, the 'power' button on the remote only serves one function - to power OFF.  If the unit as 'auto' powered down after a period of time, or is powered down manually then the button on the remote does nothing.  If the unit is switched on then the 'power' button on the remote turns it off and then you have to turn it back on at the camera before anything works.  If you're wearing gloves trying to mess around in the air it could be quite easy to catch the red power button by mistake - unless you can reach the camera to turn it back on you'll be out of action until you land.
The 'sleep mode' or 'auto shut down' can be disabled leaving the camera in standby continuously but I don't know what kind of time it'll stay in that mode before the battery gives up?

Tried adding the pictures for information but the system says they're too big!  2.69MB (largest) according to my PC.

Cheers,
Richard.

I'll be bringing these to the DSC bbq if you'd like a test, play 🙂