I recently purchased a Sena 10C EVO. It's a camera and Bluetooth headset in one unit. Sena has been making these for quite a few years, starting with the 10C and then a few years ago, the 10C Pro. Each time, the video and still camera resolution increased. The models before the EVO model looked similar with a distinct camera lens on the front. The EVO model tries to get around that by enclosing the lens.
I've owned the two earlier models, the 10C and 10C Pro. They had some distinct advantages.
There are some improvements to the EVO. The camera lens is now hidden, if that's important to you. Video resolution has improved once again. There's a caveat to that though. You can't take a single snapshot while recording...unless you chose the lower resolution the Pro model records in.
One of the changes of the EVO vs the Pro, was the lens. It caused a major problem when I tried mounting the EVO to my Shoei Neotec. There's a way to adjust the lens to make the recording vertical. But the only way to adjust the horizontal alignment of what you're recording, is the placement along the bottom edge of the helmet. In the case of my Neotec, the side is curved. Where the Pro installed, didn't work at all for the EVO. The horizontal alignment put the center of the recording off to the left about 15-20 degrees. To try aligning the camera to where my head was pointed, I mounted it as far forward as I could physically do so. At that point, I had to put a piece of plastic inbetween the clamp and the helmet, otherwise the clamp interfered with the chin piece on the modular helmet closing. Yes, it could be done...but it was a kludge fix for a $400 item.
Then when I tried to use it as a still camera, I think at best, I got about an hour of battery life before the camera came back and told me it was shutting the camera down. I wasn't recording the whole time, just occasionally taking a single snapshot. That is about half of what I got with the Pro model.
Okay, so I can work around this...sort of. With the 10C and Pro versions, I could connect a USB cable to the power connection and charge while using it. But those power connections were on the underside of the headset body. With the EVO, the power connection is on the top of the unit. Water runs down, the last I checked. Why is the power connector in a non-waterproof place on a camera with an extremely short battery life?
The EVO has some nice features on it. I liked how loud the unit was, and the sound quality on the intercom was great. But I boxed it up to return as soon as I returned from my ride.
Chris
I've owned the two earlier models, the 10C and 10C Pro. They had some distinct advantages.
- Despite not being rated as "waterproof", I was able to not only record on them in heavy rain, but to have a battery pack connected and charging the units in the rain.
- The pictures weren't perfect, but they captured moments that would've gone by otherwise. There's times when it isn't safe to stop on the side of the road for a picture, or convenient when riding in a group. This allows you to capture those moments.
- You could take snapshots of individual pictures...while recording video. It was handy to use the still picture to act as a "bookmark" while the video was recording, and then go back and pull an individual frame to post online.
There are some improvements to the EVO. The camera lens is now hidden, if that's important to you. Video resolution has improved once again. There's a caveat to that though. You can't take a single snapshot while recording...unless you chose the lower resolution the Pro model records in.
One of the changes of the EVO vs the Pro, was the lens. It caused a major problem when I tried mounting the EVO to my Shoei Neotec. There's a way to adjust the lens to make the recording vertical. But the only way to adjust the horizontal alignment of what you're recording, is the placement along the bottom edge of the helmet. In the case of my Neotec, the side is curved. Where the Pro installed, didn't work at all for the EVO. The horizontal alignment put the center of the recording off to the left about 15-20 degrees. To try aligning the camera to where my head was pointed, I mounted it as far forward as I could physically do so. At that point, I had to put a piece of plastic inbetween the clamp and the helmet, otherwise the clamp interfered with the chin piece on the modular helmet closing. Yes, it could be done...but it was a kludge fix for a $400 item.
Then when I tried to use it as a still camera, I think at best, I got about an hour of battery life before the camera came back and told me it was shutting the camera down. I wasn't recording the whole time, just occasionally taking a single snapshot. That is about half of what I got with the Pro model.
Okay, so I can work around this...sort of. With the 10C and Pro versions, I could connect a USB cable to the power connection and charge while using it. But those power connections were on the underside of the headset body. With the EVO, the power connection is on the top of the unit. Water runs down, the last I checked. Why is the power connector in a non-waterproof place on a camera with an extremely short battery life?
The EVO has some nice features on it. I liked how loud the unit was, and the sound quality on the intercom was great. But I boxed it up to return as soon as I returned from my ride.
Chris
