I recently had a good conversation with Jack Parow about the gear he uses when on tour. The one item he kept coming back to was the TomTom Bandit Action Camera so I did some research. I was quite impressed, and you might think that it's just a competitor to the action cameras like Gopro's range, but you'll be quite surprised when you see what this camera has to offer. It’s a much more automated experience than the Gopro workflow. The action camera market has been dominated by the likes of Gopro since the niche action camera market grew into the commercial entity it is today, with professional teams increasing their production value by being able to mount a camera anywhere they want. Let’s compare the Bandit with the Gopro to see where the improvements are.

How the TomTom Bandit Differs from the Gopro

Just like the Gopro the Bandit captures 4K video. It captures the whole shoot - with an optional addition of a 3 hour battery which is double that of the Gopro Black, and edits all the highlights of the shoot into a powerful video automatically. So let’s see how this works:

Firstly, you get the heart rate monitor that syncs with the camera. After a shoot session, you literally shake the camera and it edits together a movie of all the shots where your heart rate was above average. So, in essence, all the best parts of your footage is put together in an instant, shareable video.

This is quite a big deal, especially if your time is limited. Jack Parow can't have videos edited the day or week after a show. It has to be loaded up socially the same day of the event. The auto-edit makes it much easier than scrubbing through footage to put together a video.

Highlights:

• It has sensors for Speed, G-force, Altitude, Rotation and Heartbeat and you can set it up for each of these sensors.
• It has mounts just like the Gopro, and also a mount that fits onto GoPro mounts, so you can easily interchange which cam goes where if you already have a Gopro cam.
• It shoots 4k video
• It can shoot for 3 hours with a cable free battery pack.
• A Remote Control, Handlebar Mount, Pole mount, 360 Pitch Mount, Power Cable can be added to your kit.

Where will you use it other than getting on stage in front of thousands of people? It really depends on how adventurous your life is. You can use it when biking, trail running, skydiving, cycling, or anywhere you want. The aim is to get one, and to get out there.