Product Review: Replay XD1080 HD Camera

Generally speaking, being on the cutting edge of technology is a fact of life for ATV enthusiasts. Sure you could hold out on the glory days of carburetors, pull starters or balloony tires but sooner or later tech has a way of creeping into the closets of even the most diehard old-schoolers. Whether it’s the composites of your riding boots, the polymers in your helmet lining or the electrolytes in your sports drink, there’s a pretty good chance the 21st Century has managed to make itself a part of your riding life.

This all brings us to the subject of action cameras. A few years ago the concept of strapping a camera to your helmet to film the experience of riding required a budget like ESPN’s and even still the quality of the footage was shaky at best.

These days a few hundred bucks and something worth filming are all that separate you from Youtube stardom. We got to spend a few weeks with the Replay XD1080 to find out if it’s money well spent or if technology has a ways to go to earn a place on your helmet.

The Hard Facts

Featuring a water-resistant, hard anodized, rugged aluminum housing for extreme conditions, the Replay XD1080 is the smallest and lightest full HD video action camera on the market.

Simple, ON/OFF and Start/Stop make the Replay XD1080 camera easy to operate. Simply turn it ON and Press Record to Start. The built-in LED & Vibration Feedback tells you that you’re ready to go. Replay XD1080 also features One-Touch recording for easy recording.

The unit weighs in at 3-oz and is made of an aluminum outer shell. A unit exactly like ours can be yours for $249.99 and the full details can be found at the official website.

Mount Up

Unlike say a GoPro Hero, the Replay is constructed of a high-strength aerospace aluminum body with a double o-ring sealed lens bezel, rear cap, and top push buttons to keep out harsh elements without requiring a clear outer case.

Mounting options are plentiful and the kit actually includes a variety of mounts to get you underway: 2 Flat SnapTrays and 2 Curved SnapTrays with 3M adhesive to securely mount to smooth surfaces: metal, paint, powdercoat, LSE & HSE plastic and the like. You also get a HeimLock mount (swivel/tilt) and a LowBoy (fixed) mount. There are optional billet-aluminum pro mounts available if you need more than the plethora of plastic goodies aren’t enough for your needs.

We were able to slap the included fixed mount to the side (or top) of our helmet and lock the tubular Replay into place. Setup was all of twenty minutes or so with some time spent positioning the camera for what we felt was the best angle to capture the riding experience.

In Action

Someone at Replay’s R&D department spent some time in the saddle at some point because getting the unit on and off, even while fumbling blindly with riding gloves on proved to be a non-issue thanks to large, clearly positioned external buttons.

The fact that the camera body is cylindrical means making adjustments or rotating the unit entirely doesn’t require swapping out mounts. Additionally part of the Replay’s charm lies in its lens, which at 135º, is considerable narrower than the 170º wide-angle offered by its competition. This may sound like a bad thing on paper but in practice the idea here is to eliminate distortion that generally accompanies the field of view borders of overly wide lenses. What this means in English is a slightly less stretched and rounded image from the center of the screen out toward the borders.

Sound recording is almost always an issue for what we do and this generally has more to do with the nature of a revving engine and the flow of air through the camera’s microphone than it does the hardware itself. Replay gives you an option around this dilemma by including a 3.5″ external mic jack- the logic here? If you don’t like the microphone included in the camera body, feel free to use whichever microphone you feel can do better. That being said, we never felt the need to experiment with external mics on account of the fact the the internal unit did an admirable job cutting down wind noise (even if it did tend to muffle the shrieks of the engine a bit in the process).

Modes

Just because the Replay XD1080 HD is capable of recording in full HD (1080P @ 30 frames per second (fps)) doesn’t mean you’re forced to do so. Memory card conscientious users will be pleased to note the unit also offers 960P @ 30fps, 720P @ 60fps, 720 @ 30fps, and 5mp still photos @ 3, 5, 15 & 30 sec intervals.

Another nice feature is a dedicated mini-HDMI output on the camera- perfect for viewing your footage on the big screen TV even before burning it down to DVD or uploading it to the web via computer (it also has a mini USB port and optional WiFi adapter).

Complaint Department

As good as any product is, there is almost always something that could use a bit of improving (or in this case, is subjected to our nitpicking). While the Replay XD1080 HD packs some serious value and impressed with its versatility, do keep in mind that it is water and weather-resistant but not waterproof. This means if you drop it in your wash bucket at the end of the ride or take an impromptu swim in the river while filming, there’s a good chance your wrecked it.

Additionally the 135º lens does a good job of limiting distortion as promised, the narrower scope is a bit of an acquired taste. Some riders preferred it while others wished for a wider field of vision.

Conclusions

We’re glad we don’t make an action camera because quite frankly this market is as competitive and cutthroat as they come! A few years ago we played around with a Replay XD1080 HD (when it was still $299) and came away concluding the GoPro Hero 2 had a slight edge on it. Now Replay has significantly improved nearly every aspect of the XD1080 and even managed to lower the MSRP in the process. GoPro, however, has since released the wildly popular Hero 3 line. It’s still really close but there are a few aspects that we may appreciate on the XD even over the Hero- not the least of which involves a much more user-friendly physical shape and a camera body more specifically designed for the type of conditions we put them through.

It’s still a very close battle but it’s the customer who wins this war.

For an idea of the unit’s performance, we uncovered a decent Youtube clip (compressed, of course) that shows it in action: