2013-04-01T21:00:00
Rated 3 out of 5
Nice protection but a bit inconvenient
I bought the silicon skin to protect my Drift HD, because I sometimes mount the camera on my son's handlebars to that I can capture his expressions as he learns to ride his bike without the aid of training wheels. After his first crash, the case got a little scratched up, so I thought that it would be a good idea to provide the Road Gods with a sacrificial lamb.
The cover seems to be very good quality, and it fits the camera snugly like a wetsuit. In fact, getting the cover on the camera is like trying to put a wetsuit on, which can be a challenge, but once it's on, it's great. It doesn't make the camera bulky and seems to provide a little more shock/scratch protection to the body. The lens, of course, remains exposed. Button controls remain easily accessible, but the feedback when pushing them is a little more subtle due to the silicon cover. The sleeve also covers the built-in mic a little, so you may want to set the mic sensitivity to the maximum level. This may actually be a good thing in my other use case for the camera, which is to capture footage from my motorcycle. The additional cover over the mic may help in reducing wind roar, but I haven't had a chance to test that out.
My only complaint about the skin is that it is not designed to allow access to the power or audio ports, even with the optional rear door which has openings for the mic and USB ports. In order to access the battery and memory slots, you have to remove the door, which means you have to remove the skin. This is a huge pain in the field when you need to change batteries, and when I'm on my motorcycle recording for long periods, this is an issue since the batteries only last ~75 minutes on average. I will most likely take an X-acto knife to the back end of the skin and cut it off, leaving the door exposed but accessible. This, unfortunately, costs this product 2 stars.
If the skin allowed some way to access the battery compartment without having to remove it completely, it would get 5-stars, but it's still better than no protection at all if contact with the ground is a high probability, so I would recommend it with some reservations.
Operator7G
