Stepping into the ring with the household name that is GoPro, TomTom has announced its own 4K hand-held recorder today: the Bandit camera.
The Bandit is the second product in a new catergory that TomTom will release this year, and is scheduled to be available for online purchase in May.
The Bandit features motion detectors as well as – you guessed it – GPS to read a user’s movements in an effort to establish when to record, and automatically tags captured footage by speed, altitude and G-force. Manual tags can be added as well for sorting convenience.
The Bandit is waterproof to a depth of 50 metres once fitted with a water-tight lens cap, and records through a wide angle lens.
The camera features a large 16-megapixel sensor that should capture fine detail; video can be output in 720p or 1080p, in addition to other options including 4k15 and 2.7k30.
The Bandit will also be capable of slow-motion and time lapse functions, and will also function as a stills camera, capturing images in either single shot or burst mode.
The camera will integrate into a fledgling TomTom ecosystem through pairing with the company’s Runner watch; once paired, the Runner will detect a heart rate and signal the Bandit to record once there’s a significant spike or elevation in pulse.
The camera will come alongside an iOS app that will launch alongside the camera, which allows quick previews and editing of footage. The app will also collate the highlights of your video – tagged in the camera’s timeline through motion sensors – through shaking the smartphone paired with the camera. An Android version of the app is expected to be released at a later date.
The Bandit is expected to offer about three hours’ worth of battery capacity, and is expected to retail for $475.
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