THE BANDIT
Meet Tom
NEWS
TRAIL NOTES
T
he helmet/action camera market
is more crowded than a can of
beans these days. There are
all sorts of shapes and sizes and of
course they all claim to be the best
that has ever been.
Most cameras you can buy are
at least reasonably good nowadays.
High-resolution video is the norm,
battery life is getting better with each
generation and the ease of use is more
of a priority.
Tom Tom is a company best known
for its GPS units but it’s also in the
fi tness watch business and now the
action camera market with the Bandit.
We took the Bandit on a bunch of rides
and the fi rst thing we have to say is
that the video quality (up to 4K) is
excellent. And at 16MP the still photos
pop as well.
The camera is one of the easier
units to use, with a good screen on top
that displays the menu and current
status and large, prominent buttons
that are easy to fi nd with gloves on.
The build quality is good and while
nobody can yet match the GoPro
mounts, the Tom Tom has a unique
system that can, in fact, mate with a
GoPro mount, which is a nice touch.
The camera can hook up to your
phone via Bluetooth, where you can
edit and post to social media onA helmet cam for the adv man
the spot. Another option is to take
advantage of the clever self-editing
function, which is actuated by just
shaking the camera and boom, and
an edit of your video is made by the
camera itself. Also built into the
Bandit are sensors for speed, G-force,
altitude, rotation and heartbeat so at
the end of a ride you can log and share
an insane amount of information.
You can also tag a section of video at
the push of a button so you can fi nd
it again easily after the ride — most
likely the time your mate dumped his
bike into a creek.
The only major downfall of the
Bandit is that it doesn’t sit in a clear
casing like a GoPro or Sony, and is
therefore susceptible to lens
damage by roost or trees etc.
There is a covering over the lens
that screws on and can be replaced
if damaged, but we scratched it pretty
quickly and easily and the camera
itself looked a little second-hand
after just two trail rides. Also, a good
whack from a small branch just about
knocked it off its mount so for us the
Bandit would suit the adventure rider
more than the trail or motocross rider.
In fact, given the camera really isYou can take advantage of theclever self-editing function,which is actuated by justshaking the cameraTop quality and feature-packedbut not impossibleto understandpretty intuitive and easy to use, and
that the average adventure rider is
an older gentleman (yeah right!), the
Tom Tom is a good option for those
who appreciate something that’s top
quality and feature-packed but not
impossible to understand. The GPS
function is also a big selling point
for the adventure stuff, but while the
standard lens cover is splash-proof it
isn’t waterproof. However, there is an
optional cover should you get stuck in
one of those miserable biblical storms.
This is a good camera with a great
software/app landscape to edit within
and then send out into the world with a
huge amount of information attached
or just a raw video.