GoPro accessories seem to be a big market these days, with most adrenaline junkies owning a GoPro. There’s always going to be something that the biker, snowboarder or scuba diver needs to widen their filming opportunities.

But an action sports video light? To be honest with you it has never crossed my mind that it was something that I would need but Australian bike accessory brand Knog have already become the first to fill that gap with their Qudos action light!

The Knog Qudos is a robust looking light with a aluminium casing, complete with a mount to sit the GoPro and Qudos on, side by side.  Unfortunately I found that they’ve used a different charger to the GoPro itself, to me it would have made more sense to have the inputs the same for ease of charging whilst away.

The light sits tightly next to the GoPro in such a way that all buttons on the go pro are still fully useable. Weighing in at 150g, this doesn’t seem like much until you mount it next to the GoPro and put it onto your helmet. Trying to hold your head up with this weight whilst riding a cross bike proved extremely difficult. The weight also meant that my helmet, even though tightened to its full extent, became lopsided within seconds. I also had to keep my head tilted to watch the replay on my computer.

Back to the drawing board I went and mounted the Knog Qudos and GoPro onto my handlebars instead. This was much better and the camera stayed in place, even on the bumpiest of rides!

The Knog Qudos light intensity ranges from 400 lumens on the high powered ‘action sports’ mode, down to 70 lumens on  the’ambient’ ultra wide angle. Battery life is expected to be 40 minutes on the brightest to 4 hours on ambient lighting. These times are very accurate, so much so that when using the Knog Qudos just as a riding light I could time my rides door to door just in time for it to run out!

There are two brightness settings for each of the three beam options; wide angle action sports, narrow angle target spot & ultra wide ambient. From my experience of testing on countless rides, the setting that drains the battery the fastest is the most obvious, the wide angle action sports mode. So don’t plan any long rides or filming sessions if you are also counting on this light to see you to the end of the ride!

Modes are indicated on the back of the Knog Qudos by small illuminated icons, but generally I could tell which setting I was in just by looking at how it had illuminated the surroundings.
If you are planning to film the rider in front, you are going to have to ride rubber to rubber to catch the rider in the light if no other lights are being used, but for just filming the trail as you ride, it’s a great accessory.

The battery supplied is lithium so it shouldn’t be affected by adverse temperatures. When charging it when it’s completely flat, note that it takes nearly 6 hours to fully charge.

The Knog Qudos is also waterproof for up to 40metres, so there’s no worry of damaging the light on wet rides!

Click here to watch a clip of the light in action.

Pros
– Can be used on its own as a light on an existing GoPro helmet mount.
– Works with all Go-Pros on the market (new and old).
– Tripod mount so can be used with SLR’s.
– Not just cycle specific.
– Waterproof.

Cons
– Poor battery life on the high powered action sports mode.
– Different charger to Go-Pro itself.
– It will not provide enough light to capture a rider in front unless you are really close.

Verdict: A great addition to the GoPro if you regularly go on night rides!

Price: £74.99 (RRP £89.99), available from Vanilla Bikes.