Shimano Sports Camera CM-1000 - Review

Shimano is a brand that needs no introduction to any cyclist. However, when Shimano announced their entry into the action sports camera market earlier this year, there were a few raised eyebrows. While it's true that Shimano's Sports Camera CM-1000 isn't specifically targeted at the burlier end of the riding community - and is actually a product that's marketed across Shimano's three core areas of cycling, fishing and rowing - we wanted to give it a quick once-over it see how it performs and compares to other more well known offerings in what's becoming a pretty crowded market.

As with most of the cameras in the POV market, the CM-1000 offers a high degree of settings control via a WIFI connection to an app, running on a paired mobile device. With the CM-1000, Shimano have actually got rid of almost every button, leaving just two, and a pair of associated LEDs (more on that later), and while the app is quite responsive, we did notice a little bit more WIFI drop-out on this app, compared to others systems such as GoPro or Sony.

The details

• Shimano Sports Camera CM-1000 (comes with 16GB micro SDHC card*)
• 87g (with card)
• 70x44x30mm
• CAD $299.99, USD $299.99, GBP £239.00, AUD $449.00 (list price)

* this may depend on locally available packages

What's to like

Shimano reportedly put many years into developing the CM-1000, and there are some areas where this really does show through. For instance, the camera is fully waterproof to IPX8 (better than almost every other POV camera available), and doesn't require an additional case for mounting or protection. A second lens cover is also supplied for better performance and less distortion when using the camera underwater. The camera features a built-in stereo mic and an f/2.0 lens, whereas most POV cameras on the market feature an f/2.8 lens, giving improved low-light performance, and the unit is also very light - again beating almost every other camera currently on the market - with battery life lasting around 2 hours.

Overall, the camera's footage is good quality and like most other models, offers up to 1080p resolution in either 135 or 180 degree modes, although the 18Mbps data rate is quite low. In the real world, that means the footage is clean and crisp in good lighting conditions, but in duller light or if subjected to a lot of vibration, the picture quality can deteriorate quite quickly. However, the low data rate means that the camera is a lot less fussy with memory cards, requiring only cheap Class 6 micro SDHC cards, and actually comes with a 16GB card included (depending on where you buy it).

Another great feature is the 'Angle Free' mode, meaning the camera can be mounted upside down, sideways or right-way up, with footage being recorded with the horizon horizontal. One obvious flaw to this feature - though only really applying to those who regularly get inverted...or crash a lot - is that the camera automatically detects this given its orientation, meaning the footage would rotate halfway through a flip. The setting can of course be disabled, and it's well-intentioned and will certainly benefit more people positively than it affects negatively.

Finally, for the more data-conscious, the CM-1000 offers the ability to wirelessly pair to ANT/ANT+ compatible device (such as heart-rate monitors, speed and cadence sensors and power meters - a full list is here) as well as Shimano's own Di2 sensors. We didn't have access to any sensors during to test the pairing or data recording, but understand that the CM-1000 records data from paired sensors in 1 second intervals, storing these as .CSV files alongside the video clips.


What's not so good

As we mentioned earlier, under good lighting, the quality of the footage from the CM-1000 gave us a pleasant surprise, however, one major gripe was that under certain lighting conditions the camera's lens cover produced a fairly noticeable internal reflection. This isn't something you'll see all the time but it's not something that should crop up on a product like this. Another gripe is that in the 180 degree mode, all four corners of the image show the camera's housing, which is not something we'd expect to see!

With these issues aside, our main issue with the camera is the hard to interpret LED system and multi-function buttons, meaning the unit is VERY confusing to use. With no quick-glance display for battery life or modes, and the camera's paper manual and quick set-up guide being not much more help, you have to learn to interpret the colours of the two LEDs (which work in conjunction to flash different messages at you), and listen for audible beeps. This lead us to numerous 'is it actually recording?' moments, and a fair few 'oh, it just took 10 photos then stopped' results. With the LEDs also only on one side of the unit, mounting it in different orientations also means it's sometimes difficult or impossible to see what mode it's in, presuming you've memorised all the LED and beep configurations. The app does of course simplify this a lot, but for quick operation, this setup isn't ideal.

In photo mode, we found the images to be very low resolution (6MP) and not the best quality either, with the images cropped to 4:3, not the more common 16:9 (wide). Switching to interval photo mode gave us a stack of even lower resolution images (3MP), with limited control over the capture interval.

With its fully waterproof body, Shimano have also compromised on other features, such as not including an HDMI or external mic port, using a non-removable/replaceable battery design and not allowing the camera to use memory cards larger than 32GB (although a 32GB card will give you around 4 hours of recording time at 1080p resolution). The CM-1000 also has no GPS sensor - kinda strange, seeing as it pairs to so many other sensors - offers no 'enhanced' modes like Protune on GoPro or XAVC-S on Sony Action Cams, and no way to override full auto settings in either video or photo modes. In fact the CM-1000 doesn't even allow users to switch from the 30fps mode to other frame rates (such as 25fps), and although it does offer a 120fps mode, this is only available at 720p resolution, and image quality takes a significant hit, with quite a lot of image noise.

The CM-1000's mounts are also very limited, although compatible with 3rd party models like K-Edge, and the ones - sorry one - provided, bears a striking resemblance and is fully compatible with GoPro's mounts. Like the GoPro though, but unlike the Sony Action Cams, there's no built-in tripod mount.

Coming back to the sensors and data collection, Shimano initially stated that CM-1000 would be backed up with PC/Mac software, that would allow collected data to be displayed in users' videos. Unfortunately, after nearly 8 months after launch, the software is yet to be available and some of the software's other touted features, such as compensating for the image distortion in 180 degree mode, which might offer to correct the points we mentioned, are still out of reach.



Pinkbike's take


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