Veho Muvi HD10 bundle

The Veho Muvi HD10 is a full HD camera with a waterproof case, an LCD screen and a remote control. It's overkill for recording the daily commute but a really versatile option if you like filming your riding, or other outdoor activities.

First things first: you're bound to want to know how it stacks up against the GoPro Hero HD, so here's a quick rundown. The image quality isn't quite as good, but there's not a great deal in it, and the Muvi comes with more stuff and it's cheaper. There.

Okay, time for a bit more detail. Our HD10 came as a bundle with the waterproof case (rated to 30m), helmet mount, bar mount and crocodile clip. As standard the camera also comes with a remote control. More on that later.

You can get other accessories for the HD10 too, such as a chest cradle if you're into skydiving or white water rafting, a monopod for those amusing "my face as I jump off the waterfall" shots, flatboard mount for snowboarding and surfing, and more.

The camera itself is tall and thin, with buttons arranged about the edges. There's a slot for a micro SD card (4Gb supplied) and a 1.5" LCD screen on the back.

Like the GoPro the lens is super-wide (160° field of view), though slightly less so in full 1080p mode. Unlike the GoPro, it has a 3x digital zoom (720p mode only).

Capture rate is 30fps for full HD, with a 60fps option in 720p mode.

The Muvi is designed to be used with or without its waterproof case, and as such it has a proper tripod mount in the base. That means you can use it with any of its mounts without the case, if it's going to be dry.

The back panel has a number of touch-sensitive buttons, for menu options, zooming and suchlike. They're easy enough to use (even with gloves on) but also easy to accidentally hit when you're handling the camera.

An LCD screen means you get a full menu of options for setting record mode, time and date and all the other stuff. It's fairly easy to find your way around although it's not the most intuitive; there's a good range of video sizes plus decent still options too, including a continuous shoot mode for anything from every two seconds to once a minute.

You can play back your vids too; the camera has a speaker, albeit a small, tinny one, and you can slow down and speed up the footage. There's a 2.5mm jack for video/audio out too.

One of the big pluses of the Muvi is the remote. It's a chunky thing with three buttons: start recording, stop recording and still photo.

I was a bit puzzled as to why you needed separate buttons for starting and stopping recording until I actually tried it. Generally you can't see what the camera is doing so if you want it to go you can hammer the record button a few times just to make sure.

If that button turned the camera on and off, you'd never know if it was recording. As it is, you can be fairly sure. The camera powers down after a while and takes about 10 seconds to fire back up again, but I found the remote to be pretty reliable.

I used the camera in lots of different conditions, mostly in 720p mode, and was impressed with the results. The capture from the fixed-focus lens is good with bright colours and decent exposure.

Although shooting into the sun flummoxes the HD10 a bit, the level of flare is pretty good. At night things get grainy but they're still recognisable and the camera manages to keep a good frame rate even in really poor light.

It's comparable to the GoPro in terms of quality but it's not quite as good; if you're after really high quality action capture then that's still the benchmark.

Mounting was a little bit of a mixed bag. The shape of the camera (tall and thin with the lens at the top) meant it was more juddery than some when the bar mount was used. On a helmet it's okay if a little big, but no heavier than a GoPro.

The crocodile clip allows you to fix it to a rucksack strap which isolates it from the worst of the road shocks. Handheld it's very good, not least because you can frame what you're shooting much better thanks to the LCD screen.

Overall I found the HD10 a good all-round camera for outdoor recording. I don't think I'd pick it just for recording the daily commute, but if you're into making films of the outdoorsy stuff you do then it's a good all-rounder.

The mounting options, remote control and waterproof case mean you can use it for just about anything and the quality, if not class-leading, is plenty good enough for most home projects.

Verdict

Versatile and well-specced camera for more than just recording your commute.