Garmin VIRB

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LSAF2011

Active Member
Location
Nottingham
Haven't posted for ages

Has anyone got one? any issues?

I've got one on order, from peeps at The Hut, I got it at £89.99.

The thing that got me was the amazing recording time that I've heard, 3hrs, can anyone verify this?
 
I'm using a Virb Elite well impressed with it have managed 2 and a half hours with it recording GPS and linked to my Cadence Speed and Heart Rate Sensors.
Just a hell of a lot to edit out...do like the Time Lapse function when using on a ride makes excellent Hyper Lapse videos.
 
D

Deleted member 23692

Guest
I've got a VIRB and it all seems to be OK. Adding gpx file from an Etrex is easy enough with VIRB edit.

The only issue with mine is that since using it no-one has cut me up, brake tested me or in any way acted like a nobber in my vicinity. Neither have I had cause to shout out a passing car's reg number or needed to post a video on the web in order to get my frail ego massaged. I think it might be faulty. Luckily it's still under warranty.

Here's the eventless dross I end up with :sad:


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DhJMB5fNQ4


The original is far better quality than this - I dropped the res/quality down for Youtube
 
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Mr.Si

Active Member
Have a virb elite and rate it highly. never ride without it. Got it for its GPS functionality so that I could upload to strava rather than use my phone and the app. Love that it doubles up as a "dashboard camera"
 

crdf

Well-Known Member
Location
Croydon
Haven't posted for ages

Has anyone got one? any issues?

I've got one on order, from peeps at The Hut, I got it at £89.99.

The thing that got me was the amazing recording time that I've heard, 3hrs, can anyone verify this?


Yes, plenty of issues. I would not recommend that camera. MY camera (and after researching others as well) used to freeze when switching it off. Now after the firmware update the device shuts itself off on half charge. I find the camera completely useless as I may turn it on start cycling and find out it has not recorded at all, or has made a short video only (again I am not the only person experiencing this issue)
 

NorthernDave

Never used Über Member
Bought a Virb Elite this week and its a mixed bag.
The instructions in the box are sparse and basic, and the full PDF manual on the website isn't wonderful. More importantly the mini USB lead supplied is rubbish. Very short and its a very poor fit, meaning it wouldn't charge or reliably connect to my PC. Fortunately I had a spare lead which did the job just fine, but come on Garmin these things must cost you pennies on something that retails north of £200! Remember this is the only way of charging or connecting the camera supplied, so it's an important bit of kit.
I'd bought the optional handlebar fitting kit, which worked fine and was straightforward to set up, although it could be argued that £20 as an accessory is a bit steep when cyclists must be one of the main target customers?
Out on the road the camera works great - very simple to operate, just push the button forward and its recording, along with all the GPS overlay. Quality at 1080 with image stabilization on is spot on and it coped well with the bumps when I ventured off road.
The battery life looks promising with the display showing I'd only used about a third of the battery in a ride of 1hr 50mins constantly recording with GPS on.
However, back home the problems due to the lack of instructions surfaced again. It connected to Garmin Express and Garmin Connect OK, producing an accurate map of my route and good stats - I was particularly pleased with my maximum speed of 146mph...not bad for a fat bloke on a hybrid :smile:
Creating a video using Virb Edit is beyond me - I imported the footage OK, but no video shows on the screen, although the sound is there. The overlay for speed, route etc is also present but shows no info.
So as it stands potentially a great bit of kit if I can figure out how to get everything working as it should. If anyone can point me in the right direction it would be appreciated!
 

NorthernDave

Never used Über Member
My Virb is going back. The net is awash with people having problems and I was no different.
Second day out it suddenly flashed up that the memory card was missing after a good hour on the bike. I stopped at the top of the hill and restarted it, seemed to be working OK so carried on.
A couple of miles further on it just switched itself off. Switched it back on and continued, but less than half a mile on and the power symbol appeared on screen and it locked up.
As I was only a mile from home I left it, but when I got in the only way to sort it was to open the back and take the battery out. Memory card was only 80% full and the battery was showing just under half so neither of them seemed to be the problem. I'd also updated the software as soon as it arrived.
On synching, all the GPS data had been lost when it first crashed and despite being able to view the videos in media player, Virb Edit still only showed a black screen.
Enough is enough, its going back for a refund and I'm going to get a GoPro and use MapMyRide for the stats.
 
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BSRU

A Human Being
Location
Swindon
My Virb is going back. The net is awash with people having problems and I was no different.
Second day out it suddenly flashed up that the memory card was missing. I stopped at the top of the hill and restarted it, seemed to be working OK so carried on.
A couple of miles further on it just switched itself off. Switched it back on and continued, but less than half a mile on and the power symbol appeared on screen and it locked up
Should get yourself a Sony, work no problems straight from the box.
 

crdf

Well-Known Member
Location
Croydon
Northern Dave to be fair most of my issues were firmware related and in the end it all was fixed (one way or another), however when the issues comes up and you are cycling thinking you are recording it is not very nie when you discover it has recorded nothing. I also find the camera quite heavy for a helmet use. Regardless the quality is great, but I don't have the Elite as I'm not paying more then double for something that is of the same quality but with additional features.
 
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Deleted member 22722

Guest
I've had quite a few action cams over the years from the likes of Contour, Sony etc before eventually settling on 2 different ones which I liked. These are the Virb and the Shimano Sports Cam.

I have two Virb Elite's. They are well built and very rugged and waterproof out of the box and I do like the fact that you can overlay speed/HRM etc data using the Virb Edit software (although you strictly don't need a Virb camera to use this free software). I only use the video function of the Virbs and do not use the GPS or sensor features, so could have made do with the standard version of the camera. At the time I did not realise that I could easily use the GPS/Speed and other data from my Garmin Edge's gpx file.

I was happy with the Virbs for almost 6 months until one of them started playing up. It wouldn't power off correctly and would frequently freeze and then the battery would drain. Curiously this only happened with the one and both my devices were purchased around the same time so I knew there was an issue.

Garmin support weren't particularly helpful when I contacted them but I think this was due more to the fact that the person I was speaking with couldn't understand what the issue was. At one point he was trying to tell me that what was happening was part of normal operation and that how I was turning the device on and off was not the correct way, even though this was stated as on of the ways it could be done in the manual.

In the end, I had to send both of my cameras off to Garmin (even though the one had no issues at all) so that they could compare the two. After they'd had the cameras for 3 weeks I gave them a call. It was clear that no one had looked at my cameras yet by the excuses that they gave. However a week later my cameras were returned. Well, the working one was returned but the faulty one was replaced with a refurbished Garmin Virb Dark unit (both were originally the white versions).

I did a lot of reading on the Garmin forums before I eventually returned the Virbs and there are a heck of a lot of people having issues with these cameras. Just like most Garmin products (and I've have a lot), Garmin build great hardware but their software is appalingly buggy.

I paid full price for my Virbs and i've noticed that these have been heavily discounted by various retailers over the past few months. Garmin have recently announced the new Virb units so this explains why. I think for sub £100 they are still worth taking a punt on and are probably much better than any other budget camera out there for quality & features (i've never liked Go Pro's due to the shape of them).

If I were looking to invest in a camera now though I wouldn't look beyond the Shimano Sports Camera. I've had one since they were available (had to import mine) and this just works flawlessly. Image quality is great and the size can't be beaten. It's not as feature rich as a lot of camera's and you'll need to use your own editing software as Shimano have not released their own even though this has been promised since release.

The only real negative for me (and I know that this will be an issue for a lot of people) is that the battery is non replaceable. I figure that by the time the battery does give up the ghost i'll be in the market for a new camera by then anyway. The battery lasts for somewhere between 2 - 2.5 hours so this more than covers a couple of days commuting.

I'd gladly swap my two virbs for another Shimano Sports Camera though.
 
I was looking at getting a regular virb for the time lapse & video, but am wavering... Thought also about a JVC Adixxion XA1. I think with both JVC & virb one can take a spare battery and swap over. Am keen on having software that auto generates the time lapse video - which I beleive the Sony doesn't have. Though, I've heard the Sony has the best image-stabilsn...
 
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