VIRB ... The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

Somehow its reminds me that story with EDGE 810 & 510 which was full of bugs :(.

To sad for Garmin especially if they want to compete with the leader GOPRO

Well, I went through this with the Edge 705 and the Fenix. I got a 705 when it was first released. As I recall, I swiftly realized that I needed to carry my 60CSx every time I went out with the 705, to make sure I didn't lose a track for some reason or another. I got pretty good at patching and editing .tcx files. For the first month, I was afraid to touch the 705 after starting it, for fear that changing the screen or touching a button would cause a problem. (Last week when I took my VIRB out, I did the same thing. Didn't touch it after starting it for fear something would happen; I only touched it when the screen froze.) After about a month, the 705 became reliable enough to leave the 60CSx at home, but as I recall it was about 6 months before the last big problem (a barometric altimeter with no way to calibrate) was solved. For 3 1/2 years, the 705 was utterly reliable for its primarily function, with the only real problem being that it wasn't always capable of routing correctly. Finally the 705 got beat up enough that I replaced it with an 800, which, since I bought it well after it was introduced, has never caused me any problems.

The problems with the Fenix were more mechanical. There were big "vapor behind the glass" threads all last winter, and my Fenix leaked water during the only swim I took with it and had to be replaced under warranty. I rely much less on the Fenix than on my Edge, though, so its problems aren't as serious for me. At this stage I'd say that the Fenix is reliable, and much improved over the early days, although I've never gone swimming with the replacement, and don't know if I'd dare now that it's out of warranty.

So I suspect that in 6 months the VIRB Elite will be something that I just turn on and forget about. It'll link with whatever ANT+ sensors I'm using, will never lose any data, and will otherwise be completely reliable. I'm hoping that by the time the snow flies here it will at least be reliable for recording video without losing any.