Varia RCT715: incident recording possible with camera set to off?

I occasionally go on 8+ hour rides, and I want to stretch my Varia RCT715 battery for as long as possible while preserving the peace of mind offered by the incident recording function.

If I set the recording mode to “off” and incident recording to “on”, will my Varia still automatically switch to continuous recording once an incident is detected? 

  • FWIW I've run my 515 for long overnight rides with an external carger pack plugged in.

  • In Off mode, the camera will not record any video. It will continue transmitting radar data. Listed below are a couple ways to override the Off mode:

    • If an incident is detected, the camera will switch to continuous recording mode and a 1 minute video save will be initiated. After the 1 minute video is saved (locked), the camera will remain in Continuous recording mode until you manually switch it back to Off mode.

    • If you press the camera button on the side of the RCT715 it will switch between Continuous recording mode and Off mode, or visa versa.

      support.garmin.com/.../
  • Note the following regarding Incident Recording, especially when using with an Edge bike computer:

    Incident Recording

    • When an incident is detected, the Varia will lock the footage 15 seconds (Varia Vue) or 30 seconds (RCT715) before the incident and 60 seconds after the incident is detected. This will produce a video that is locked and cannot be overwritten.

    • If connected to an Edge® cycling computer with a Light Network formed, the Varia defers to the Edge incident detection algorithm. However, if the Varia is not connected to the Edge as a light, it will use its onboard incident detection algorithm. In this case, the Varia algorithm is more sensitive to false positives than the Edge. This may result in locked footage building up more quickly on the SD card.

    • If you have "Incident Recording" enabled, the Varia device will always switch to continuous recording mode when an incident is detected. This is to ensure that the device is always recording when it suspects a potential incident. The only way to prevent this behavior is to disable Incident Recording on the VariaTm app.

    • Footage saved from an incident detection event is saved to the EVENT folder on the SD card.