Gear Review - Sena 10C

[bblass]

My lovely wife got me a Sena 10C for Christmas. I've used it a few times since then and wanted to share some pro's and con's I've discovered with the unit.

Pros:
1. Can work with 3 other Sena units and records your chatter on the video. To me, the best part of the video of riding with your buddies is the commentary.
2. Single unit that automatically syncs up with all of your gear and is roughly the size of a normal sena headset.
3. Can charge and record at the same time. We'll touch on battery life in the cons, but this was a very redeeming feature.
4. Camera cuts off with 20% battery and still gives you around 2 hours of intercom talk time.

Cons:
1. It can be difficult to hear the voice prompts whether you're recording or not when using intercom. It would be nice if the unit could cut out your intercom long enough to hear what's going on.
2. No voice commands. As a long time Sena 20S user this is the feature I miss most.
3. Battery life while recording is approximately 2 hours. This can be tripled or more with an external USB battery but then you have to deal with a cord.
4. Only works with 3 other units at once whereas the 20S can do 8. This has existed for a while now; not sure why it's not a part of this unit.
5. Syncing with multiple other units is trying to say the least. Quite a few times we said to heck with getting everyone on comes and settled for smaller groups of 2-3.
6. Only shoots 720 or 1080. This isn't a deal breaker for me but maybe to some of the more tech minded among you.

Ultimately this was the right unit for me due to convenience and easy of use. If you want to start a moto-vlog you'll probably want something a bit higher quality with more features. However, if you're in the market for an intercom, want to record videos of your friends falling down and capture the laughter that follows - this is an excellent unit.

If you're curious about it, I'll try to answer any questions you may have.

Sample video shot with 10C

[Chitza]

Thanks, Ben. I've been looking at these for awhile. I was hoping someone else in the group would be our guinea pig  ;D

[kylepeterson]

i just learned more about these things in the last five minutes then ever before

[bblass]

Kyle, you make a cameo appearance at the very end of that video

[IceCold4x4]

I've got the sena backpac for the go pro and love the audio i get from it, however if i could listen to music while i ride and record the intercom it would be perfect. just kinda split myself on which way to go. I'll be interested to see how the 10c evo works out (if they ever release it)

[jrou111]

Excellent review. I had thought about getting a Sena 10C but wound up going a different route. I do wonder if it'd be possible to run a multi-bike chat video through my setup though.

[bblass]

@ Ice - It looks like the 10C Evo is going to feature a better camera and battery life but not include the voice commands or 8 way intercom. My guess is that they'll save that for a 30C iteration and skip a 20C?

@ Jrou - If you're shooting on an older GoPro (Hero 4 or below) Sena makes an add on that will layer in your voice tracks to video. Unfortunately, GoPro has dropped 3rd party support starting with the 5 series. But this does mean you can find the Sena backpac on ebay for a reasonable price.

If you want to go a little lower tech and don't mind wires, I saw where a couple of people use a splitter on their speakers and run it to the microphone port on the camera. Advantages to this is you're not taking up an extra channel and everything works like normal. Here's a link discussing it for older model GoPro's.

https://www.howtogeek.com/267795/how-to-connect-an-external-microphone-to-your-gopro/

[jrou111]

@ Jrou - If you're shooting on an older GoPro (Hero 4 or below) Sena makes an add on that will layer in your voice tracks to video. Unfortunately, GoPro has dropped 3rd party support starting with the 5 series. But this does mean you can find the Sena backpac on ebay for a reasonable price.

I'd been using a GoPro 2 for years and last year switched to a Garmin Virb Ultra 30. I compared it with the GoPro 5 and the big selling points were having a rocker "on-off" switch I could know 100% if it was recording, and for the bluetooth microphone support.



It's sync'd with the DWO3 bluetooth intercom built into my Bilt helmet.

I like my set up for chatting/vlogging. I think if I upgraded my intercom to a Sena I could probably to a multi-rider Vlog. Maybe, I need to test it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2RHubfRoas

[bblass]

You're welcome to test it out next time you're in town. You can even take the Katoom or TTR for a spin down memory lane!

You've got a way better setup with the garmin than the 10C when it comes to A/V quality. Really dig the track and intel overlay on the right side. What's the battery life for one of those?

As far as multi-rider recording goes, I'd guess the garmin would just be considered a channel and leave you with 7 other open ones to pair up to?

[jrou111]

You're welcome to test it out next time you're in town. You can even take the Katoom or TTR for a spin down memory lane!

You've got a way better setup with the garmin than the 10C when it comes to A/V quality. Really dig the track and intel overlay on the right side. What's the battery life for one of those?

As far as multi-rider recording goes, I'd guess the garmin would just be considered a channel and leave you with 7 other open ones to pair up to?

I really miss that KTM. It lofted the wheel over obstacles so easily. Prob won't be riding in the Ham again though  :-[

The battery life on the Garmin...honestly IDK maybe 1-2 hours? I flip the switch on and off all the time just to snag clips of the good stuff. I know I can ride almost all day on 1 battery and fill up a 32GB card of 2.7k 60fps video before the battery goes. I have two wasabi spares I keep with me but rarely need to swap.

I'm hoping the multi-rider recording will work that way on the Sena. Sounds logical. If not, it should work that way.  :D