Fitting it to your bike
It’s much simpler than a GoPro, and while it feels heavy at 192g, my Hero 3, with the case you need for bike use, weighs 216g. The mounting system is inspired, being very easy to clip on, and it is secure, yet removable, even with winter gloves. The camera rotates in its own bracket, so it’s easy to get a good position while keeping a low profile against your bike or lid. And with the optional 360° pitch mount, it can be positioned almost anywhere. Along with two adhesive mounts, a Go-Pro mount adaptor is included… the only slight omission for me is a tripod screw mount, though one is available as an option.
The video quality is great. You can shoot in 1080 at 30fps or 60fps, and 720 at 60fps or 120fps. Slow motion video is also easy (and retains the audio), at 2x in 1080, 4x in 720 and 6x in WVGA (800x400). Timelapse movies can be created in 1080 or 4K resolution, with intervals of 1, 5, 10, 15, 30 or 60 seconds. Cinematic modes also offer 15fps at 4K and 30fps at 2.7K, though of course you can only shoot in the full wide mode, not the narrower ‘normal’ of the others.
Where the TomTom does lose out is in the audio – the microphone at the front is great for general use, but picks up all the wind noise when riding. The waterproof lens cover reduces this significantly (and is vital if you ride in the rain, making the camera waterproof to a depth of 50m), but it still suffers from a sharp ‘rattle’ when mounted on the bike, which seems to be caused by play in the brackets.
I tend not to use the audio when riding anyway, but an optional microphone can be easily plugged in to pick up sound from inside your helmet, or from elsewhere on the motorcycle. Personally, I find the ease of use in all circumstances outweighs the poor audio for riding.
One thing to note – as you’re using wi-fi to connect your phone directly to the camera, any other connections are lost. This means that if you upload a video straight from the app to Facebook, YouTube etc, you’ll be using your mobile data. To avoid this, simply save the movie to your phone and then send it when you’ve disconnected the camera.