2 month old Drift HD 1080 Dead

[Miggs7170]

Went to turn on my camera last night and I got NOTHING. No green light. No blue light when I plug it in. Removed the battery and card. Tried again. Nothing worked. Contacted Drift last night to send in for a replacement. Any suggestions would be appreciated - I've heard they're fairly good with warranties, but I guess I'm going to find out. I've used the thing to make 7 videos and babied the hell out of it.

We'll see. Maybe they'll replace it with a Ghost (ha).

 

[Mr AusAdventure]

I had a similar problem with my HD170 Stealth Drift a couple of weeks back. A mornings riding and only half my files were any good.

Then I could not even turn it on at all. Nothing! I could not even get the computer to recognise the camera either. I had to remove the memory card and put it into another camera in order to get the files on to the computer. In fact, I am trying to upload today's footage now and it still will not recognise the camera! :shock:

I contacted Drift as well but two weeks later, have heard nothing back from them.

Luckily though, it is at least filming again now. I filmed with it this morning. But how long it will work for, who knows? :?:

 

[Premises187]

Wow that sucks. Another drift dead. :/
My old ContourHD1080 has been through hell. Dropped it a few times & broke numerous mounts. I even had to clean water out of the lens and circuitry area after I failed to close it properly in the rain. It's 2 years old and still alive.

 

[Miggs7170]

Heard back from Drift. They basically told me to do a master reset, take everything out, plug it back in . . . etc etc etc.

The email ended with, "Please let me know if helped. If not - feel free to claim your warranty contacting the shop where you bought the camera - they will replace the unit straight away to you."

Being in South Africa, I had to import my camera from abroad. Let me tell you the chance I have of getting the ebay vendor I used to mail me a brand new camera. :|

Ended with, "What is Drift, as the manufacturer, willing to do if the ebay seller is unable/unwilling to supply a replacement? I've copied my paypal payment below."

I imagine I'm out $300. That was about four hours ago. No response. We'll see if Drift is going to step up to the plate and do the right thing, or if I'll live to regret the months I spent urging people to give them a shot and be patient while they updated firmware.

Drift? You reading this? I had your back. You going to return the favor?

 

[Grandsatsuma]

This happened to me, but it was just cold or something. I took out the battery and powered it up on the pc and it fixed it.

 

[OoxTruExoO]

Any suggestions would be appreciated

If they replace it. Stick the replacement on eBay and get yourself a GoPro. Drift replaced my one after it broke, and the second one also broke within a few weeks. They are an expensive paperweight. Nothing more, everything less.

 

[Miggs7170]

Noted. :-/

 

[Miggs7170]

Shocker. Let this post be a warning to anyone considering buying Drift.

Let there be no mistake, "Nothing much we can do." ----> "Nothing we are willing to do." The online vendor no longer exists. Shame on me for trying to save a buck and purchase from a power seller via ebay. A power seller that has since decided close shop.

What they COULD do is check that I registered the camera with a warranty on their site and offer to replace the garbage product they made with one that actually works. Hell - I'd even be willing to pay for shipping both ways at this point. Instead they've lost a would be customer for new cameras/accessories I inevitably would have purchased in the future.

In addition, there are probably hundreds of people, members and guests, who will pop into the Camera Setup section, read this post, and (hopefully) avoid their company all together.

Drift - I hope all that was worth the price it would have taken to stand behind your product. I should have listened to my gut and a ton of folks on this forum. GoPro is apparently the way to go. Live and learn I suppose.

----------------------
Hi,

Thank you for your email,

However, as you imported the camera from US, nothing much we can do - as your warranty is valid in North America.

 

[Friz]

This is in no way directed towards any particular person, ESPECIALLY Miggs7170, but I seriously can't work out why anyone on this forum would ever buy (or otherwise come into possession of) a Drift camera.

They are constantly breaking, and don't even offer the best recording quality, ease of use and practicality of wearing on the helmet. I just don't get it.

 

[Miggs7170]

No offense taken. I really don't know what the thought process was. I honestly just liked the profile/rotating lense/interface and a few of the vloggers I watch had used it with great results. Don't ever let anyone tell you celebrity endorsements don't work! :roll:

I knew I was rolling the dice, and normally I have pretty good luck in that respect. I guess I probably shouldn't have bought a product where I felt I was chancing anything. Now that GoPro is an even smaller package, it seems much more attractive than it did before.

I do have to update the above rant to chime in that Drift is replacing my camera, but I'm having to comp about half the value of the camera in shipping. Less than ideal, but at least it's getting replaced. They're also shipping it 4-5 day without having the broken camera in hand. (shrugs)

Vlogs back up and running in a week or so.

 

[MotoRick]

This is in no way directed towards any particular person, ESPECIALLY Miggs7170, but I seriously can't work out why anyone on this forum would ever buy (or otherwise come into possession of) a Drift camera.

They are constantly breaking, and don't even offer the best recording quality, ease of use and practicality of wearing on the helmet. I just don't get it.

Don't take this personally, but BS. I've been using both for months now, and Drift is way easier to use. I've had to send my Hero2 back for warranty service twice. My Drift has never even hiccuped. Quit spewing this generalized nonsense all the time. Not everybody's experience has been the same.

 

[Mikesmotorbike]

I've had some pretty good experiance with my drift too

 

[Footle83]

I've had some pretty good experiance with my drift too

+1 never had any problems with mine. What I liked was the fact it has an lcd and is still compact. Just makes it that bit more vlogger friendly IMO.

 

[Mikesmotorbike]

not to mention being waterproof with the mic in, and not actually having to mod it to include a mic

 

[Friz]

This is in no way directed towards any particular person, ESPECIALLY Miggs7170, but I seriously can't work out why anyone on this forum would ever buy (or otherwise come into possession of) a Drift camera.

They are constantly breaking, and don't even offer the best recording quality, ease of use and practicality of wearing on the helmet. I just don't get it.

Don't take this personally, but BS. I've been using both for months now, and Drift is way easier to use. I've had to send my Hero2 back for warranty service twice. My Drift has never even hiccuped.

I don't know what you mean by "both" since I'm only talking about the drift. I'll overlook that for now.

Anything can develop a problem. I'm also not saying that you shouldn't get a drift - just that I, personally, cannot work out why anyone would ever buy one. You need not look far on this forum (or the internet in general) to find a wealth of drift help threads. This forum has actually become particularly known for it. Surely it's not just that drift owners are more vocal about their problems? That would be far too coincidental.

There are far better cameras out there.

Not everybody's experience has been the same.

Of course not everyone's experience will be the same - but if you go for something renowned for failing you've got a much higher chance of having it fail on you. This is simple, straightforward logic.

Quit spewing this generalized nonsense all the time.

I take offense to this and, quite frankly, there's no reason you should have said it.

 

[CurlyBlakey]

I've only ever had a VERY minor issue with my HD170, Drift took it in, tried to fix itm couldn't but replaced it free of charge, the issue was purple footage in 60fps mode, other than that it has given me and entirely reliable service for more than a year. I'm afraid it's true that you can't generalise about them Friz

 

[Mr AusAdventure]

I've only ever had a VERY minor issue with my HD170, Drift took it in, tried to fix itm couldn't but replaced it free of charge, the issue was purple footage in 60fps mode, other than that it has given me and entirely reliable service for more than a year. I'm afraid it's true that you can't generalise about them Friz

I am getting purple/pink footage with my camera too. Not every time, just every now and then. I am not happy with the camera, but I do love the design of it and how simple it is to change mounting points. It is the perfect camera as far as that goes, but it just has a few flaws.

There are some people who are very vocal against the Drift, but there are also some that love it and have no issues with it. Those that do have issues should really accept that there are happy Drift customers out there and just move on.

 

[Friz]

I'm afraid it's true that you can't generalise about them Friz

You can generalise everything. That's the whole point.

I, however, am not generlising just for the point of it.

I'm making a statement based on evidence and informed opinion. You don't have to agree with it.

 

[Trinith]

Quit spewing this generalized nonsense all the time.

I take offense to this and, quite frankly, there's no reason you should have said it.

Frankly, there's plenty of reason for it to be said, it's a correct statement. Several people seem to make it a mission to piss and moan about Drift whenever someone mentions a problem, but when someone with a gopro mentions the same problem it goes totally unnoticed. I agree with him, and so I'll back him up by saying this: We get it, you don't like Drift. STFU about it already.

BTW - I've had my Stealth for almost 2 years now and it hasn't had a single problem. I'd buy an HD Ghost in a heartbeat if I had the money.

 

[gpzDave]

The Drift is the camera equivalent of a hand grenade, the first time you switch it on the pin has been pulled