News: TomTom Launches Bandit Action Camera

TomTom, previously known for their GPS products, is following Garmin and their jump into the action camera market. To help differentiate themselves from industry giants like GoPro, the Bandit “comes with a built-in media server, eliminating the need to download footage before editing it,” according to TomTom. The companion smartphone app syncs to the camera, and …

TomTom, previously known for their GPS products, is following Garmin and their jump into the action camera market.

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To help differentiate themselves from industry giants like GoPro, the Bandit “comes with a built-in media server, eliminating the need to download footage before editing it,” according to TomTom. The companion smartphone app syncs to the camera, and by simply shaking your smartphone it will automatically generate a highlight reel that can easily be shared to the internet.

As TomTom elaborates in their press release,

“We know that the biggest frustration people have with action cameras today is the time and effort it takes to edit,” says Jocelyn Vigreux, President of TomTom, Inc. “With TomTom Bandit we’ve cut the editing time down from hours to minutes – all it takes is a shake!”

“We took a simple, but radical approach to solving the editing problem,” says Slobodan Stanisic, lead engineer, TomTom. “With all existing action cameras you first need to download gigabytes of footage to a powerful PC, a process that can take a long time. Then you need to find the highlights, put together a story and format it. We know this often takes hours. Not with the TomTom Bandit. We have designed a camera where the footage is processed on the camera itself, making the editing process far easier and much faster.”

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TomTom decides where the highlights are thanks to in-camera motion and GPS sensors that automagically note the key moments based on speed, altitude, G-force, acceleration, and heart rate (if you have a separate heart rate monitor). If you want to, you can manually tag a highlight with an on-camera button, or with a separate remote control.

Want to see it in action? Check out this promo video where Danny Hart demos the camera and app use:

We asked our friend Danny Hart to put the #TomTomBandit #ActionCamera to the test. This is the result…

Posted by TomTom on Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Key stats:

  • Video at 1080p30, 1080p60, 720p60, 720p120
  • Cinematic at 2.7k30, 4k15
  • Native time lapse at 4k30, 1080p30 (various capture intervals)
  •  Native slow motion at 1080p x2, 720p x4, WVGA x6
  • Single and burst photo up to 16MP at 10/s
  • Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Smart and USB3.0 connectivity
  • Multiple accessorie
  • Smartphone app available on iOS only at launch.  An Android version of the app will be available soon.
  • Available in June via TomTom.com
  • MSRP: $399