The Virb Elite might be the easiest camera to operate in the whole bunch. If you hate wondering what all the little buttons on your camera are supposed to do, you’ll love the simple layout and the intuitive menus that pop up on the Garmin’s LCD screen. Setting up shots, dialing in the perfect settings–I was able to do it all the first time out without ever referencing the user manual (something I call ‘the typical guy’ test).
Once I graduated beyond acting like an illiterate monkey, I was amazed
at all of the Virb Elite’s options. In addition to plenty of control of the
primary camera settings (pixels, frame rate, etc.), the Virb lets you get
chatty via ANT+ with several Garmin products. You can control the camera through
a Garmin Edge 510, 800, 810 or 1000 and overlay your heart rate, elevation,
speed, distance and other ride data on top of your video. If you don’t own one
of Garmin’s GPS units, the Virb Elite contains its own GPS sensor, which
records your location, distance and so forth. Finally, you can use the Garmin
app to control the camera through your Android or iPhone.
The Virb Elite does a hell of a lot, but what about the actual video
quality? It’s very good. GoPro and Sony have the edge here on crisp and stable
imagery, but the Garmin is right there in the hunt and offers more to play with
for the data-hungry rider.
Garmin’s iPhone app works well and the editing software is nearly on
par with GoPro’s excellent Studio suite. The Virb Elite is admittedly a larger
camera, but that also enabled Garmin to sneak a bigger battery into it. The end
result: excellent run time from each charge. Right out of the gate, Garmin has
done a lot of things right.
PRICE 270$
