TomTom Bandit
Surf, spin and shake your way to action-packed YouTube fame
The world of extreme sports is as much about capturing and sharing the action as it is about the activity. This action camera has major features to capture your exploits: GPS, 4K filming, and in-camera sensors that enable quick editing.
The mount can be rotated 180 degrees around the body, enabling easy positioning, and both packs have an adaptor for GoPro’s mounts.
The Bandit is well suited to spontaneous recording. In testing, its GPS usually connected in less than a minute. The red button on the back starts recording; hitting it again highlights the clip, which is handy for organising later. The stop button is, inconveniently, on the Bandit’s top. Cinematic mode shoots in 4K, but at 15 frames per second compared to 30 on GoPro’s Hero4 Black, so motion can look stilted. 2.7K shooting at 30fps is offered as a compromise – just enough to look good, and smooth, on a 4K screen. Slow Motion defaults to 720p and 120fps, yet both are adjustable.
It’s when using the accompanying app that the Bandit really comes into its own. It shows the camera’s feed with little delay – a step up from any other action camera – and you can quickly switch modes and settings. There’s also a speed and G-Force overlay. The ‘Create a Story’ mode is where things get interesting; shake your device and it uses highlights identified from the camera’s sensor data to create a video in seconds.
Video quality is excellent, showing plenty of detail and well saturated colour, and coping very well with changes in exposure. There are better hi-res options, but the Bandit best balances features and quality, and it’s great value. Nick Odantzis
Simple to use and packed with great features, the Bandit takes action camera moviemaking to the next level.
Quick to edit and share videos
Simple on-screen terminology
Records three hours (1080p)
50m waterproof cover is £30