GoPro may dominate the world of action cameras, but navigation and GPS powerhouse TomTom wants to change that, and is bringing its expertise to the world of sport capture.
The first camera from TomTom is heading to Australia soon, and it comes with a rather unusual name, and some interesting features that could nab people keen for a change from the usual small boxes you find to capture motion exploits.
It’s called the “Bandit”, and while it’ll grab video of all the things you do when you wear it, the Bandit will also come with a built-in media server, making it possible for the camera to talk to a phone in more than just playback.
With a media server found on the camera, an iPhone, iPad or Google Android-based device will be able to grab the TomTom Bandit app and edit the video from the phone or tablet, making it possible to trim your exploits without needing to download the video straight to your device, an action that can certainly take time depending on how much vision you’ve captured.
Full HD video is supported on the Bandit, shot at 60p and 30p, with 720p HD able to be filmed at 60p and 120p, while larger video formats like 2.7K and 4K UHD can also be recorded, albeit at lower frame rates (30p for 2.7K, 15p for 4K).
Images can also one captured, and there’s a wide-angle lens to help with all of this, shooting via a 16 megapixel sensor.
“We took a simple, but radical approach to solving the editing problem,” says Slobodan Stanisic, Lead Engineer at TomTom. “With all existing action cameras you first need to download gigabytes of footage to a powerful PC, a process that can take a long time. Then you need to find the highlights, put together a story and format it. We know this often takes hours.
“Not with the TomTom Bandit,” said Stanisic, adding “we have designed a camera where the footage is processed on the camera itself, making the editing process far easier and much faster.”
WiFi is also built-in, as is Bluetooth, because you’ll need a way of talking to the phone, but there’s also a USB 3.0 port if you decide to use a computer to edit the video using a conventional editing platform, like a computer.
Aside for the connection options, you’ll find the Bandit is highly water-resistant, supports microSD, charges over USB, and even includes something we know TomTom for already: GPS, with this and motion sensors working together to track location, speed, altitude, acceleration, G-force, and more.
Pricing hasn’t been announced yet, but Australia will see it, with TomTom sending word that we should see this later in the year, likely sometime between August and October.
