Drift Ghost XL

I've been using my GoPro 3+ for several years and getting tired of missing some of my flights due to short battery life. While there are lots of good action cameras out there with varying degrees of features, battery life is top on my list as I don't really want to run a power line back to the tail. I've been looking at the Drift Ghost series and just purchased the XL for $124. 9 hour battery life, 1080p at 30fps ( 720p up to 60fps) with a 12 MP camera. Several angles of view, rotatable lens. I'm going to try it out this weekend. It doesn't have image stabilization but neither does my GoPro and that hasn't been an issue. I'll report back......

We thought it would be cool and a great addition to safety to mount a GoPro to the tail of our towplane, bluetoothed to an iPhone on the yoke, so the tow pilot can see the glider more clearly. Alas, there is some kind of time-out feature that keeps shutting the camera off midway through a day of towing.

Its not mine, so I have not dug into how to make the camera stay on NO MATTER WHAT until the battery is dead.

I have used many Drift cameras going all the way back to the HD170. I currently have the 4k as well as a GoPro Hero 7 Black.

I like the form factor and streamlined design of the Ghost and the battery life is definitely better. In most cases extended life batteries are available. I like the movable lens which allows the camera to be mounted in nearly any orientation. I also like the zoom feature, though if you use too much zoom the image quality notably suffers.

The Gopro has a superior image and the 7 finally has image stabilization that really works. The con, is the form factor puts the fat part of the camera directly into the wind and just completely unacceptable battery life.

As Carl mentioned, I solved the battery life issue with the FlightFlix power supply. I have the GoPro mounted on the left wing tip and the Ghost attached to the roll bar. Below is an example of some video using both cameras.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fq8vkJMgbJs

The biggest hurdle is getting it mounted rigidly enough to eliminate camera shake and jelly roll. The firmer mounted the better, generally. Also, going to a higher frame rate seems to help as well.

Good luck.

Steve,
Those are very nice videos. Both images appear equally sharp but I see the image stabilization on the GoPro7 makes a difference. Thanks for the demonstration.
David