Market: In 2014, bicycle giant Shimano entered new technical territory with its first Actioncam CM-1000. A compact form factor and the bike-specific orientation showed promising approaches, but technically the Shimano Cam could not quite keep up with the top dogs from GoPro and Co. However, this should change with the new generation – the ANT+ connectivity, which can be used to control the camera automatically, also plays an important role.
After Shimano's promising Actioncam debut two years ago, things have been quiet in this area for the past few months. As part of the Dura Ace press camp in Calpe, Spain, a new generation of cameras from the Japanese component giant was surprisingly presented. Two models will be available from specialist retailers in the coming weeks. The CM-1100 is the direct successor to the 2014 model, the CM-2000 is a further development with some exciting additional functions.
Before we come to the actual highlight, namely the automated control via ANT+ and GPS, some key technical data on the new camera generation:
Maximum resolution: 2.560 x 1.440px / 30 fps
Image Stabilization: Electronic
angle of view: 130 ° / 120 ° / 90 °
Waterproof: Up to 10m
Both the lack of 4K resolution and no high-resolution slow-motion recordings with more than 60 fps are quite surprising. On paper, you are a bit behind the market leaders technically - but Shimano still has an ace up its sleeve that allows you to stand out from the competition, namely automatic recording triggered by Bluetooth, GPS or ANT+.
Shimano Actioncam CM-2000 / 1100: Automatic recording when attacking, climbing or descending
A real unique selling point of both new models is the ANT+ functionality, which can be used to start and stop recording automatically. The camera 'understands' not only speed or cadence sensors, but also Shimano's Di2 drives or common power meters. An example scenario would be automatic recording as soon as you pedal more than 200 watts or are traveling at more than 60 km/h. Programming is done via the free Shimano app for Android and IOS. This even allows different data to be linked. A slightly more complex example would be: The recording starts when you pedal over 250 watts, go faster than 50 km/h and are on the largest chainring. A really exciting feature that opens up a multitude of different application possibilities.
The top model CM-2000 even has an additional option: If you connect to your smartphone via Bluetooth, you can start recording when you pass certain GPS coordinates and stop it again automatically when you reach a second point. Perfect, for example, for automatically recording your favorite segment on Strava via camera.
New PC software Shimano Camera Editor
Together with the new cameras, the new Shimano Camera Editor software for Windows and Mac was also presented. With this, the recorded videos can not only be edited, cut and converted, but as is now common, you can also embed the recorded ANT+ data directly into the video. For example, you can always see how fast you were, how many watts you pedaled or what gear you were in.
Shimano Actioncam CM-2000 / 1100: prices and availability
We are currently unable to provide 100% reliable information on prices or availability. However, the prices should be around €350 (CM-2000) and €300 (CM-1100). The new action cams should already be on the shelves at retailers in the coming weeks.