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  • Dazzne P3 Sports Action Camera Review

    Dazzne P3 Sports Action Camera Review

    P3 is a third in a row action camera launched by Chinese manufacturer Dazzne. Their latest model Dazzne P3 with a 2inch screen can record video in 1080p 60 frames per second and capture still images in true 16 megapixels.

    Dazzne P3 can record in full HD 1080p at 30/60 fps and take 16 megapixels images.
    Dazzne P3 can record in full HD 1080p at 30/60 fps and take 16 megapixels images.

    Unlike some other producers from China, Dazzne was never interested in selling low-budget cameras. As the matter a fact, all of their previous products had a mid-range price tags.

    Dazzne P3 is not an exception. Being priced at around 155$, it belongs to  a group of “pricier Chinese cameras”. The main challenge with this camera, will be to determine its overall value for the money.

    Special deal : Use Coupon Code DazzneP3 and get discount |Link here| (best deal I was able to find).

    Come on. Lets be realistic, there are few more cameras that have similar recording and photo capabilities and on top of that cost less. So what is it that Dazzne P3 makes so special?

    In this review, I will try to give an answer to this, and plenty other questions, that people like you, who are thinking about buying this camera have. I have been using this little action cam for over 2 weeks now, and I will gladly tell you everything about it.

    So, shall we begin?

    Product Specification – Dazzne P3

    Lets start with the most important thing. Below is a technical specification table which gives good product overview.

    [go_pricing id=”dzp3″]

    Box content

    Dazzne P3 camera comes in a pretty poor quality made box. Even though it seams to be packed safely, for the price, it would be better to have more suitable packing. The quality of the package reminds me of SJ4000 and M10 cameras whose price tag is half as the DZP3.

    What is interesting about the box is that a camera is widely exposed, wrapped with plastic around it. This was probably done for brick and mortar stores purposes, for buyers to immediately see how the camera looks, without having to open the actual packaging.

    Box is pretty thin, and for the money it appears products packing should have been better
    Box is pretty thin, and for the money it appears products packing should have been better

    Overall print on the packing is nothing special. Pretty standard stuff. Brand name on the top, “multiple function sports camera WiFi” sign on the bottom, specification on the back and list of all the accessories on the side. Once the box is opened, inside there is a plastic wrapper which you have to lift in order to have an access to the camera and all  the accessories.

    What really surprised me is how well-organized the gear is. Unlike plenty other gear-rich cameras I had, where all the accessories were stuffed in the box, this one has neat plastic divider, for each piece of gear.

    Yeah, yeah, I know what you are thinking : “Who gives a damn about how box looks? Show us whats inside you prick!”

    Right, hopefully the “prick part” was not on your mind, but here is a list of accessories that come with Dazzne P3, or DZP3 as some call it :

    • 1x Dazzne P3 camera
    • 1x Waterproof housing
    • 1x Manual
    • 1x HDMI cable
    • 1x USB cable
    • 2x removable Li-ion polymer battery 1000mAh 3.7wh
    • 1x dual battery charger (DC 5V, 1000mAh, Output 4.2V 450mAh)
    • 2x screw
    • 2x 360° movable flat adhesive base mount
    • 2x 360° movable curved adhesive base mount
    • 2x J-shaped (curved) base mounts
    • 1x three-way hinged shaft
    Camera comes with some interesting accessories, such as dual charger, two batteries and an HDMI cable.
    Camera comes with some interesting accessories, such as dual charger, two batteries and 4 rotatable self-adhesive base mounts.

    Compared to some other cameras, Dazzne P3 does not have insane amount of additional accessories. However, all those extras inside, are very useful. They probably could have added few more crappy items inside and exclude spare battery or a dual charger. I am glad they decided to go for quality and usefulness instead of a quantity.

    By including two batteries and a dual charger, Dazzne did excellent job, and totally blew me away. So far, I haven’t seen a company including two batteries, let alone dual charger as an accessory inside the box. Usually spare battery and chargers like that had to be bought separately. These two pieces alone are worth at least 15$, so its great to have them included.

    One more piece of gear I liked are rotatable self-adhesive mounts. These four pieces are very well built and can turn 360° around their axis, which is quite neat. Again, most of Chinese cameras include usual, static mounts, so these movable were quite nice addition to a whole package.

    To be honest, I never thought I would be so happy seeing a cable. But once I saw that HDMI cable is included with Dazzne P3, I was blown away. This is one more piece that you have to buy separately with most brands. This HDMI cable is used for previewing your footage directly from the camera onto your TV.

    I know that this does not matter much, but all the accessories are numerated and have name such as : DZ-369, DZ-20, DZ15 ,etc. This is not a breakthrough for sure, but it will be handy for people who want to buy a spare accessory without having to ask a seller if it will fit the camera. Plenty of big brands such as Sony does this and its nice to see smaller brand that pays attention to details like this.

    DZ P3 camera manual comes in two languages Chinese and English. It consists out of 13 pages for each language. The information in it is brief, but more than enough to get most of people started fairly quickly. Besides some basic instructions, specification and how to operate steps, this tiny leaflet has a nice symbol explanation, for each icon that appears in the menu once the camera is turned on. In my opinion, manual goes quite in depth compared to other Chinese brands. And did I mention its written in English? 🙂

    As far as other accessories are concerned, they are pretty standard, nothing special. All those mounts are GoPro compatible and can fit into SJCAM mounts as well.

    One little piece of gear that was not included in the package nearly made me pull my hair out. I can not believe that a simple thing such as camera bracket (holder) does not have its place inside the box.

    Thanks to not having the holder, it is impossible to mount a camera onto a selfie stick, tripod, car suction cup mount, or anything else without having to put camera inside a waterproof case. Very frustrating experience to be honest, especially due to the the camera specific shape, so it did not fit an SJ4000 or Amkov AMK5000s holder. So all of my dash cam videos had to be recorded in a bloody waterproof case.

    Okay, so there is no camera holder, even though I hate it, I had to make peace with it, and buy one. Cool, lets go buy one. Oh wait, it appears not to exist! There is no such mount on manufacturers website (which by the way takes 5 minutes to load). So if you intend to use Dazzne P3 on a head strap or a chesty, you need to put it inside the waterproof case first.

    Perhaps next time, if they are unable to include a bracket, maybe they can drill a hole onto a camera that supports 1/4″ screw, that would make a life a lot easier.

    Size and weight

    Since all action cameras lately tend to have “boxed” design, I want expecting anything different from Dazzne P3. In terms of the shape and size, camera is identical to its predecessor, Dazzne P2. Size of the camera is cca 6 x 4.5 x 3 cm / 2.36 x 1.77 x 1.18 inches.

    According to my measurements, weight of the P3 is 95 grams, with 1000 mAh battery inside. Without the battery weight of the camera is 73g. When in waterproof housing with battery, weight goes up to 173g.

    Compared to some of the other action cams I reviewed, this one is one of the heaviest. The reason for that might be the built quality

    Design and built quality

    This rectangular-shaped camera is made out of nonskid plastic material, which should prevent it from slipping away while you hold it.

    I personally have not noticed that so called non-slippery surface does anything useful. As the matter a fact I kinda prefer rubberized edges on cameras, rather than plastic. What is a bit weird, is that camera will easily get dirty with this material, but surface the cleaning is much easier then with rubber-made cameras. (Off topic : If you want to know how to clean action camera properly, check this video of mine).

    As far as the appearance is concerned, camera looks quite bad-ass. It does not feel cheap while you hold it, and it is quite obvious Dazzne did quite an effort to make well-built camera, which increased the total weight slightly. It reminds me of Git1  and Foream X1 which are also well-crafted products.

    Those who prefer colorful, bling-bling fancy tech, will be disappointed to know that Dazzne P3 comes in single color – black.

    The only thing that was built cheap is a side cover, made out of thin plastic. This side cover prevents dust from getting into MicroSD and HDMI slots. But it is very hard to open it, and every time I did it, I had a feeling it will break anytime. I was really disappointed that well built camera got ruined with a cheaply made plastic cover. If you do not want to deform it, try not to open it that often. Mine got deformed already and it looks quite bad when put back on its place, it stands out.

    The battery compartment cover is however quite opposite. Its easy to open and close and its detached to a camera.

    LCD Screen

    Having an LCD screen on an action camera is not something many people need, but I assure you that even the most extreme users, find navigation and overall experience much smoother when camera has a screen.

    Changing settings is quite easy with 2 inch lcd screen at the camera back.
    Changing settings is quite easy with 2 inch lcd screen at the camera back.

    Screen size of the Dazzne P3 is 2″. It belongs to a group of cameras with slightly larger display (Hero 1 by Blackview or X1000 and 5000X by SJCAM also have screen size of 2 inches).

    Screen of this size is not only perfect for improving composition of your photo and video, but also for overall navigation). On the other hand, having a screen always drains battery faster. Luckily there is a screen saver option which will save your battery. I will explain how that works later throughout the article.

    Buttons and ports

    Buttons and ports
    Buttons and ports
    1. On/OFF/Menu/Navigation/ button – turns camera on, or shutting it down. Entering the menu. Right navigation button for menu.
    2. Shutter button – starts/stops video recording, takes a still image and use it as OK button to confirm certain option inside the menu
    3. WiFi /Navigation – turns WiFi on/off. Left navigation menu button.
    4. LED Indicator
    5. Microphone
    6. Lens
    7. LED indication
    8. WiFi indication
    9. Battery compartment
    10. LCD Screen
    11. HDMI
    12. USB
    13. Micro SD card slot

    Camera Modes

    Dazzne P3 has several operating modes. Each of them does different things and has different options and abilities.

    • Video
    • Photo
    • Time Lapse /Timer
    • Burst Photo
    • Playback
    • Settings

    Video

    Here we are, the most important feature in each and every camera – video recording.

    When it comes to video, P3 can shoot video in tons of resolutions and fps (frames per second). Here is an overview :

    • 1080p x |25, 30, 50, 60 fps| (1920 x 1080, 16:9)
    • 960p x |24, 30, 48, 60 fps| (1280 x 960, 4:3)
    • 720 p x |24, 30, 48, 60, 120 fps| (1280 x 720, 16:9)
    • WVGA x |24, 30, 48, 60, 120 fps| (840 x 4800, 16:9)

    When 720p x 120 fps is selected, camera will automatically create a slow motion footage at 30 fps, this is quite similar to Sony super-slow motion in their AS100V.

     

    Quality of the footage is quite good. I am satisfied with it. I mostly shoot in 1080p 30 fps and 60 fps and have no complaints about it. While I was recording I noticed that in some cases camera will struggle to get proper exposure, especially when facing a back-light.

    If you wish to download raw video samples, go to this link. Make sure to download files on your PC and preview them using VLC and QuickTime (for Mac), as those are players which will play all codex and formats.

    Photography

    Camera captures still images at various resolutions. Maximum res is 16 megapixels. Thanks to its Panasonic sensor, this is true megapixels resolution.

    • 16MP(4608×3456)
    • 12MP(4000×3000)
    • 8MP(3200×2400)
    • 5MP(2592×1944)
    • 3MP(2048×1536)

    Please note that image samples below are compressed in order to enable faster page load. For best possible experience, I highly recommend you to download sample images in high resolution on this link.

    I believe that photo quality is great for the price. It is certainly one of the biggest advantages of this camera.

    Dazzne P3 fruits image color test

    For its price, camera provides quite sharp images. Pansonic sensor does great job.
    For its price, camera provides quite sharp images. Pansonic sensor does great job.
    Dazzne p3 photo sample 2
    Cloudy, foggy, rainy day. Photo taken through waterproof case.
    Dazzne p3 photo sample 3
    Hikers going through the woods on a rainy day on Jastrebac mountain. Photo taken through waterproof case.

    Dazzne p3 photo sample 4

    Aquarium sample. Not an underwater image.
    Aquarium sample. Not an underwater image.
    Different light sources, daylight and bulb light.
    Different light sources, daylight and bulb light.
    Aquarium sample. Dirty glass on it might seam as the camera has spots, but in fact id does not, take a look at image below and you will see.
    Aquarium sample. Dirty glass on it might seam as the camera has spots, but in fact id does not, take a look at image aboveand you will see.

    Playback

    You can preview photos and videos when in preview mode. Obviously for best possible quality, it is much better to transfer them to a PC or view on TV with HDMI cable. You should know that camera creates two video files each time. Normal quality one, and .thm file, which is a low-sized and low-resolution video made for playback mode. If you wish to disable double videos, just turn the “dual stream” off.

    Settings

    There are literary tons of options you can set in Dazzne P3 menu. This is awesome, especially for those of us who like tweaking their output. One thing I did not like is how these options are organized. Even if the menu is easy and fast to navigate, options are organized in quite cluttered way.

    You have general setup, video setup and camera default options. Its just a personal preference, but I found this quite confusing.

    Resolution

    This function allows you to switch through different video resolutions and frame rates. Depending on the video standard you selected (PAL or NTSC), you will see different FPS options (25 and 50 / 30 and 60).

    Resolutions will remain the same. (1080p, 960p, 720p and WVGA).

    Photo size

    If for any weird reason you want to have lower resolution image than the default 16 megapixels, you can select here from (3mp, 5mp, 8mp, 12mp and 16mp).

    Delay settings

    One more quite ridiculously named options, that causes more confusion rather then clarification is a Delay Settings. Bloody hell? What is that?

    Its a timer. Nothing more. Why didn’t they name it a self-timer simply? Don’t ask me.

    So if you wish to have a self-timer while you are photographing (by the way, this means that once you press shutter inside the “Time Lapse” you will have few seconds delay before the camera captures an image. Since camera does not have actual self-timer, it will continue to capture infinite number of images at specified time period.

    You can set self-timer to : 2, 5, 10, 30 and 60 seconds. Please do not be confused, because delay settings is a combination of self-timer and time-lapse.

    Video Settings

    Here are features exclusive to video mode only. Changing them will not affect photo or any other mode.

    Rotation

    For people who want to mount a camera upside down either on a windshield of a camera, or even a helmet or a bike, Dazzne P3 can rotate the whole interface and a video output upside down.

    Meter

    There are three choices when it comes to metering.

    • auto
    • spot
    • center

    PIV (Photo in Video)

    Interesting function, called PIV (no, its not what you think). Its actually photo in video, which when enabled will take  a still image in specified time period, while you are recording.

    Loop recording

    Loop recording can be set in :

    • off
    • 3 min
    • 5 min
    • 20 min

    When certain period is selected, it will stop video once it reaches 3 minutes, and start recording another. Once your memory card gets full, it will overwrite the oldest video and record over it. This is a feature for people who want to use this camera inside their car.

    These settings will only have an effect on video.
    These settings will only have an effect on video.

    Protune

    One more feature that causes quite a lot of confusion. In theory, Protune feature should be turned ON, only if you would like to have neutral looking colors for post-production. So Protune should not be used, unless you seriously intend to do color-correction in video editing software.

    GoPro has a protune option, and here is how they clarified it :

    Basically, the main purpose of the ProTune setting is to help you get more dynamic videos from your camera. We really wanted to meet requests from members of our professional community, many of whom edit footage from their GoPro cameras together with footage from other cameras.  The stripped down video makes it easier for them to do that.

    What this means for the every-day user is that Protune footage requires more editing to get that traditional GoPro look.  That’s great if you want to spend more time editing your footage to put your own unique spin on it, but if you want to do simple editing and already like the GoPro look and feel that you’re used to, we’d recommend leaving Protune turned off.

    For more, go to this GoPro support page.

    How about Dazzne P3, does it work the same way?

    It appears that this feature should be renamed to quality, as it has nothing to do with a real protune setting. What it does is changes the video bit rate, nothing else.

    Since I was unsure about this, I talked with Mat (Techmoan) who already did a nice review of this camera, here is what he said :

    I think they used the GoPro’s Protune menu description because it sounded cool, but on the Dazzne range it’s really it’s just a quality menu that’s been relabelled. It’s the same way they added a RAW menu option in the White Balance menu on the P2 – which doesn’t have anything to do with RAW video.
    Dazzne Customer support explained to me what this option does :
    After you use this ProTune,it helps you to save memory for both photo and video. Eg: if you take a photo,it is 2.29mb,after you use Protune,it is 2.27mb.this is a little saving your memory,but if you are using this for a 64GB card,it can save more memory .
    This final quote confirms that protune is far from what it says, its basically a video quality feature and you probably should turn it off.

    White balance

    Changing the white balance will influence how warm or cool video/photo looks. Even though this option is located inside “video settings” it indeed works for still images as well. You can chose from 5 WB ranges :

    • Auto
    • 3000k (Light bulb)
    • 4000k (Fluorescent)
    • 6500k (Overcast day)
    • 7500k  (Shade)
    Different white balance options have a big impact on how warm or cold the output footage looks.
    Different white balance options have a big impact on how warm or cold the output footage looks.

    K stands for Kelvin, and if you want to learn more about this feature in particular, here is one good article to read.

    Dual Stream

    Turning dual streaming on, creates two video outputs for one recording. One is normal video file, and  the other is .thm file. Thm file is a lower resolution video. It is probably a good idea to turn this off, unless you do a lot of live video preview via Dazzne App.

    AE Bias

    Auto Exposure bias determines the amount of light that can go through the camera sensor. Basically, if White balance determines the warmth, exposure sets brightness of your outputs. There are quite a lot of intervals to chose from. I mostly used 0.0, but you can experiment in different situation to see what works the best for you.

    Exposure can be set from +2 to -2 range, and it will brighten up or darken the footage.
    Exposure can be set from +2 to -2 range, and it will brighten up or darken the footage.

    System Settings

    Options that are generic are called “System Settings”. Changes made here will reflect all modes.

    Boot mode

    Handy feature called “boot mode” sets the priority mode in which camera will be ready to shoot as soon as its turned on. So if you select photo, next time you turn on the camera, you will immediately be in photography mode, same goes for video and burst.

    • Video
    • Photo
    • Burst

    This can save few seconds of your time, if you shoot more videos, you can set video, or if you are more a image kind of person, chose photo.

    A key mode

    This was one of the most confusing options to me personally, as I had no idea on what an “A key” mode is.  So what does this option do? When turned “ON” it will command your camera to start recording as soon as its booted. When turned “OFF” of course, you have to press shutter button to initiate recording. This can be quite a useful option for people who want to use this as a dash camera.Dazzne P3 DZP3 action camera default settings

    NTSC and PAL

    Dazzne P3 allows us to switch between two most commonly used video standards – NTSC and PAL. While some other cameras I tested gave zero difference when switched from one mode to another, P3 gives different frame rates when switched from PAL to NTSC and vice-versa.Resolutions do not change, only FPS do, just have that in mind.PAL frames per second rates :

    • 25 FPS
    • 50 FPS

    NTSC frames per second rates :

    • 30 FPS
    • 60 FPS

    LCD OFF and Auto Shutdown

    Even though it sounds that this option turns off your LCD entirely, that’s not true. What “LCD OFF” function does, is putting your camera into “sleep mode” after certain amount of time, which you can chose manually (1 min, 5 min, 10 min).

    Whenever your camera is inactive, LCD will turn off or go to sleep. You can wake it up, by pressing any button on the camera. It works absolutely the same as your lap-top or Kindle when their screen turns off after you are not working on them.Same thing goes for Auto Shutdown function, except shutdown will not occur while you are recording, where as the screen will turn off when you are recording.These are great settings, as they helps saving a battery life.

    Other system settings

    Here is a list of functions in the default system settings, which do not require much clarification. However I wanted to cover them as well.

    • Time Setup – you can change date/time
    • Language – chose between English and Chinese
    • OSD – On screen display – if you turn it off, you will not see information on the screen while you are in photo or video mode (information such as : resolution, date/time, white balance, exposure, etc)
    • Ver – (Version) – here you can see a firmware version, WiFi network name and a WiFi password.

    Battery

    1000mAh 3.7v Li-ion polymer battery powers this little camera. Battery life depends on plenty of factors. Lower FPS and LCD screen set to sleep significantly extends battery performance. Below table shows how much approximate working time can you get in continuous recording.

    Resolution/FPSSettingsBattery Life
    1080p / 60 FPSLCD OFF83 min
    1080p / 60 FPSLCD ON81 min
    1080p / 30 FPSLCD OFF103 min
    960p / 60 FPSLCD OFF96.2 min
    1080p / 48 FPSLCD OFF113.5 min
    960p / 30 FPSLCD OFF115 min
    960p / 24 FPSLCD OFF134 min
    • *LCD OFF – Means that camera had 1 min screen off activated, which turns LCD to sleep, after 1 minute of inactivity.
    • *Each option in battery life is average and may defer from situation to situation. Each test has been preformed at least twice, and average value from two or more tests was taken as battery life.
    • *During that time camera was not turned on or off, test was preformed in continuous recording.

    On LCD screen you can see how much battery you have left. I do not like that there are only 5 levels showed (100%, 75%, 50%, 25%, 0%). It would be much better of course, if camera could show level a bit more precisely. Especially when battery runs low (20%, 10%, 7%, 5%, etc). Since when it reaches 25% you never know when it will get exhausted.

    Memory

    Even though the camera specs claim that you can us up to 64gb memory card, to my surprise, after inserting a 64GB Sony MicroSDH, I got an error message in both video and photo mode and was unable to use the camera.

    The error in video mode said : “Card limit for video recording”.

    The one in photo mode claimed :Storage IO error

    Imagine that you bought the camera in a hurry, because you are going on a beautiful Bahamas right away.

    You are thrilled.

    Cant wait to start recording your family having fun. Unluckily, you bought Dazzne P3, which has an error in firmware. How could you know that? Right? Luckily, I was not in that kind of situation, but if I was, I would certainly smack a camera with a hammer and return it to manufacturer in pieces.

    Second, the warnings are completely useless. Card limit for video warring sounds like the card is full. And he storage IO error? What on earth is that?After doing little research on the web, plenty of people had the same problem.

    Nobody was able to get 64GB cards to work. The firmware version my camera had (Default Settings<Version) is FW150803 1.04.I inserted my 16GB Samsung Evo Class 10, and it worked.So, I guess I have to update the firmware in order to fix this inexcusable error.

    The next paragraph, explains how to update Dazzne P3 firmware.Update: After I successfully updated the firmware to latest version, which at the time of writing was V1.10_20150922 , micro SD64GB card worked normally. Hooray.

    Audio quality

    To be honest, with action camera I do not expect an impressive sound quality, especially when they are priced below 100$. However Dazzne P3 price tag is a bit higher than that, so I really expected in worst case scenario decent quality of a sound. It turned out that the sound will be my biggest complain about DZP3.No matter what I tried, the output audio had a hiss. At first I thought it was a problem with interference or something similar. I tried to record sound outdoors and on other places, but problem persisted.

    Each and every time, there was a slight hiss in the audio.Again, I am unsure if the issue is just with this particular unit I have, or all their cameras have the problem. There are several other reviews online that have complains about the audio being muffled.

    I do not think poor audio sound can be fixed through firmware updates. They can probably lower the audio in order to make hiss less noticeable, but then the sound levels would be too low. I remember that Git1 camera by GiUp had exactly the same problem with background noise.Luckily, camera has an external microphone support, so if audio matters to you, you should probably get an external mic and a converter. I personally, always add music to my videos, so for my action videos, it will not be as important as it might be for some other users.

    External microphone

    After seeing some reviews in which people were unable to connect Dazzne P3 to an external microphone, I contacted the manufacturer, and they confirmed that camera has external mic support. I however did not set it. If someone reading this article managed to test external microphone with P3, please leave a comment below.

    Firmware update

    The following steps show you how to update Dazzne P3 firmware without external card reader. Process is the same for card reader updates from steps 1-10. After that you just format card reader.If you do not have a card reader, you can still update without any issues with memory card being placed inside the camera. Here is how.

    1. Download latest firmware from official website here.
    2. Unzip the downloaded file.
    3. Plug the camera with a Micro SD card  into your PC with the USB cable you received in the box.
    4. Turn the camera on by holding power button for 2 seconds.
    5. From your PC, copy the firmware.bin file from the downloaded and unzipped folder to the root folder of your camera/memory card.
    6. Camera should automatically power off. If not, turn it off.
    7. Turn it on now.
    8. You will be prompted to update the firmware. Confirm by pressing mode button to select “Yes”, then press shutter button to confirm.
    9. Wait for the process to finish all the steps.
    10. When you see : “Firmware update success” you updated successfully.
    11. Turn the camera off, and once again ON.
    12. When asked to update the firmware again, chose NO.
    13. Remember, all this time, camera is connected to the PC.
    14. When camera turns on, enter the root folder from your pc and delete firmware.bin file to avoid camera asking you to update each time you turn it on. Do not forget to do this.
    15. That’s it, you successfully upgraded your DZP3 camera.
    [phpzon keywords=”Dazzne p3 camera” num=”4″ country=”US” trackingid=”pevly0d-20″ templatename=”columns” columns=”4″]

    WiFi App

    Dazzne P3 has a built in WiFi, which enables us to remotely control it, shoot videos and photos, download media, all from our mobile device or tablet.Here are links for Android version and an iTunes version.

    There are two ways to activate the WiFi. You can go inside Settings<WiFi<ON or simply hold the WiFi button for few seconds, until you see “processing” on screen. Once turned on, the green WiFi icon will appear on display and front LED indicator will slowly flash blue.

    The next step is to connect to a Dazzne WiFi network. Go into your phone/tablet Settings<WiFi and find “Dazzne”. Process is the same like connecting to any WiFi. Click onto a network and enter a password. Default password for Dazzne P3 App is dazznep3.

    So, we turned on a WiFi on a camera, connected to that WiFi via our phone. The next step is to start the app.

    App interface is quite good looking and easy to use. I must admit that sometimes I had issues connecting to it. On some instances it worked like a breeze, and sometimes I had to turn camera off, and try to connect again.As mentioned, app can be used to trigger shutter button remotely, take photo, change settings, download photos, videos and preview live what your camera is recording, all from your phone.

    Even though most of the options inside the app are the same as the ones in camera, there are few that are differently named. Protune is called quality. There is no 720p 120fps resolution. One additional feature is Photo Quality which allows you to chose quality of a photo (best, better, general), which is quite unnecessary if you want my two cents.

    Overall, app is quite easy to use and navigate. What annoyed me was the fact that each time I exited the menu, camera needed 2-3 seconds to reconnect. Live preview is pretty good, there is not much lag, even less when you start recording.

    Customer support

    Dazzne customer support is quite responsive and got my questions answered within 24 hours. I must say that their English is not perfect, neither is mine, so I cant complain a lot about it. For product support you can reach out to their contact page.One thing to complain about is their website speed, which in some cases takes 5-6 minutes to load. I assume this is because of slow servers in China.

    Where to buy Dazzne P3?

    There are several online sites which sell this camera for a reasonable price.

    • Buy from Dazzne official store on Amazon| Link here|
    • Buy from Dazzne store on eBay |Link here|

    There are few more but, these are the best prices I was able to find.

    Summary

    To sum up, upon my few weeks of using Dazzne on regular basis both indoors, outdoors on day and low-light situation, I can say that its pretty decent camera for its price. I really liked the image quality which is probably the biggest advantage of this action cam.

    I enjoyed having two batteries and a dual-charger that came in a box, which were precious time-saver when I was hiking.Speaking of gear, rotatable mounts were also fantastic addition, where as I hate that they did not include a tripod bracket or a wall charger adapter.

    Video recording quality was very good, though when faced with a bright back-light, camera can struggle to get proper exposure. Videos seamed to be a bit darker at 0.0 exposure, so if you want a bit brighter footage, you boost AE bias slightly.

    It should be mentioned that camera has no image or optical stabilization, but for the price, its hard to expect that.Built quality is also a huge advantage of DZP3 and this action cam certainly looks like a well-crafted recording device.

    The materials used add a bit more of weight (95g is a total weight), so this cam is certainly not one of the light-weight ones. I found a USB port cover quite handy, though it was made out of thin plastic, which ruined overall great impression on toughness of this action cam.

    Even though, I have not tested this one under water yet, waterproof case allows up to 20m of use in the water. Clip on top of the housing was flimsy and its easy to pull it out.There are many settings you can adjust and the overall user navigation and experience are good.

    I do not like the fact that settings are a organized in a bit cluttered way. One more thing is that the camera can not record while being charged, so if you plan to attach a power bank, you should consider some other options like Xiaomi YI camera.

    If you have questions about this cam, feel free to leave a comment below, I will be glad to help you out. If you already bought one, why don’t you post your own experience and share it with me and other readers? Come on, we do not bite, just press “Post a comment” button.Thank you very much for reading, and happy recording.

  • SJCAM SJ5000x vs SJ X1000 vs SJ5000x Elite Limited editions – difference?

    SJCAM SJ5000x vs SJ X1000 vs SJ5000x Elite Limited editions – difference?

    As SJCAM recently started to “print” tons of new limited edition models and release them in very short time period, plenty of customers were confused and overwhelmed with so many “new-old” action cameras.

    SJCAM Limited Editions SJ X1000 and SJ5000x SJ5000x Elite

    After receiving few emails from few of the readers, I decided to finally overcome my procrastination and put everything on a paper. Well not exactly a paper, but lets call it the “virtual pergament”.

    In this table-rich post, I will  try to explain to you what is the difference between newly launched SJCAM SJ1000x, WiFi, SJ5000x and SJCAM5000x Elite, and once for all clear out all the confusion, that producer caused with launching this many cameras in short time-span.

    Why are they launching Limited Edition cameras?

    Probably the most reasonable question of all, is : why the heck are these guys launching these cameras in limited quantity? Are they insane?

    While there are many theories among members on different forum communities, there are two sensible theories. Other theories include alien abduction and a Big Bang story, so lets not go that far 😛

    First theory says : SJCAM wants to reach out to more potential customers by reducing the prices slightly and expanding their product line. Also because of their recent problems with marketing partner, they finally want to let people know who is an official manufacturer and owner of SJCAM brand. Additionally in the quiet winter season that is arriving, they still want people to talk about their company and cameras.

    Second theory, the evil one, SJCAM had some problems recently with their SJ4000+ and SJ5000 series, which did not sell quite well. So now they are repacking the remaining hardware in order to sell some more cameras and increase volume of their sales.

    No matter which theory you believe in, one thing is sure – customers are confused.

    I bet that one of these questions (if not all of them) bother you, that is why you are here after all, right?

    1. What is the difference between the X1000,SJ4000,SJ4000+ and SJ5000x?
    2. Are those limited edition cameras better then the one I bought already?
    3. Should I hurry up and upgrade?
    4. Which one is better to buy?

    Do not worry, allow me to brake it down to you, one step at a time. Lets begin.

    What is the difference between SJ X1000 vs SJ5000x vs SJ5000x Elite?

    Now, lets go through differences between these new Limited Edition models. The best way to show you what is different is in a table. For best experience, it would be good if you can preview these tables on your desktop, as they will appear side by side.

    [go_pricing id=”sj5000vssj_560bd257822ea”]

    SJCAM SJ x1000

    The first product released from the limited edition series is SJ X1000. It sounded to me as if that they waned to honor their first, SJ1000 camera with this. So at first I thought it has to be something with that camera. Well, I was wrong. X1000 has nothing to do with SJ1000, instead this camera resembles more to SJ4000.

    SJ4000 vs SJ X1000

    There is no change when it comes to chipset, both cameras use Novatek 96655. Sensor is the same 3.5 megapixels, Aptina AR0330. Battery is also the same. So what is the difference between SJ4000 WiFi and SJx1000?

    Allow me to present it in a table. Its much easier, and then I will clarify it a bit more.

    [go_pricing id=”sj4000_sjx1000″]

    First visible difference is a 2 inch LCD screen at the back, which replaces old 1.5″ and gives better view while you record. One more thing is that this kind of LCD will drain a battery slightly faster, since the battery remained the same – 900mah.

    Camera menu is multilingual and supports 20 languages (English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Traditional Chinese, Russian, Korean, Polish, Czech, Slovakian, Hungarian, Danish, Dutch, Turkish and Vietnamese. Its crazy how many different languages are there. I do not remember seeing a product with this many available options for non-English speaking people. Compared to SJ4000 it has 3 more options.

    Should you upgrade from SJ4000 to SJ x1000?

    You would have to be crazy to buy x1000 if you already have SJ4000 WiFi or non WiFI, as differences are nearly non-existent. Unless you are some sort of a action camera collector, I really do not see a point in upgrading from SJ4000 to SJ1000x. Obviously manufacturer added a display and a lens hoping to sell more of the SJ4000 WiFi cameras under different name. Oops.

    However, if you prefer slightly larger display, which certainly gives better view while recording  and do not have an action camera yet, SJCAM SJX1000 is pretty good for beginners.

    |Buy SJ x1000 now|

    SJCAM SJ5000x

    SJ5000x, is actually a repack of  SJ4000+ model with a larger screen for the same price. Sounds familiar? Of course it does.

    5000x, is a pure repack of SJ4000+, but brings some features that make it better buy.

    I am under impression that they repacked SJ4000 Plus, due to the poor reviews it got, and are now trying to sell it as a Limited Edition with a larger LCD screen, under 5000 series name.

    Nothing impressive to be honest, but still better deal then with disappointing SJ4000 Plus standard.

    SJCAM SJ5000X vs SJ4000+

    Even though differences are not huge, there are some that are quite significant. Please understand that here I am comparing SJ4000+ non Gyro edition. (difference between Gyro and Standard)

    [go_pricing id=”sj4000plus_sj5000x”]

    First huge improvement : SJ5000x has Gyro Electronic stabilization, which should stabilize video. This was huge problem with SJ4000+, and if you watched my review about it, you probably remember me whining about lack of stabilization. SJ4000+ Gyro version has this stabilization, but first few batches of SJ4000+ do not have any sort of stabilization.

    Besides different lens and an LCD screen, and Gyro stabilization, the only “innovation” is different user interface, which reminds me of GitUp Git 1 in a way, though its not the same.

    Should you upgrade from SJ4000 Plus to SJ5000x?

    So considering same price SJ5000x now has, it is certainly a better deal then the SJ4000+, however if you bought that one already, I do not think its worth upgrading, unless you can get a refund and buy this one. If you are tinkering about 4000 plus and 5000x, I think its ob

    |Buy SJ5000x now|

    SJCAM5000x Elite

    At the time of writing this article, Elite version of SJCAM SJ5000x is due to be released in late October, early September. From the information I managed to get, this version of the camera will finally introduce Sony Sensors inside SJCAM products, which is quite a big news.

    The announced 5000x Elite, will have a 12 megapixels Sony Sensor. It is yet unknown if it will bring some more improvements and novelties. After asking some questions to one of the SJCAM representatives I managed to find out that the sensor will be IMX078CQK, which is a 12 megapixel sensor.

    Update 11/15/2015

    Elite version of SJ5000x has been released. Standard SJ5000x was a limited edition and will not be produced anymore. Even though originally announced as 16 megapixels still image camera, it has only 12 mp. Also it is the first SJCAM camera to have 4K video.

    However, manufacturer explained that 4k video is not really a 4K, its just upscaled 2k. Besides Sony Sensor, 4K interpolated video at 24 fps Elite version offers a built in Gyro sensor which stabilizes video much smoother. Additionally there is an option to switch between wide and narrow field of view.

    I plan to review SJ5000x Elite in the upcoming weeks, so make sure to check back or bookmark the website for more information on Elite model.

    You can buy Elite on

    Update 5/19/2016 : You can read the full SJCAM 5000X Elite Review on this link.

    Summary

    As you can see, even though it sounded exciting, new Limited Edition cameras are nothing impressive for people who already bought some of their previous models. They certainly give more value for them money, especially 5000x compared to SJ4000+, so if you are indecisive which one to get, limited edition models seam to bring more bang for the buck.

    However, according to the specifications, SJ5000x Elite is the real deal, as it offers big improvements in video and photo quality.

    If you have any questions or you managed to find something that is not written here, feel free to leave a comment below. Even if you just want to say “Hi” 🙂

  • Best accessories for Xiaomi YI camera

    Best accessories for Xiaomi YI camera

    Xiaomi YI, has been creating buzz ever since the day it was released. This tiny, low-budget camera gave a headache to all of its competitors by providing excellent value for its low-price. You can read my full review of this camera here.

    Xiaomi YI best accessories list

    However, one of the reasons why YI has a very low price tag is lack of accessories inside the package. YI camera comes pretty bare-boned. Inside the box, you get an USB charger, manual (on Chinese) and  a selfie stick if you bought a travel version.

    Oh yeah, you are probably here because you bought this powerful fella, aren’t you?

    Then you know that additional accessories that come inside a box are non-existent.

    But do not worry. In the beginning, it was hard to find any original Xiaomi YI gear, but now, with the sales booming, manufacturer released bunch of accessories. Additionally, lots of other companies produce mounts ,screws and even waterproof cases that are compatible with this camera.

    In this article, I would like to give you the most extensive list of Xiaomi YI accessories.

    So lets get started with a list. To go to next slide, please click orange arrow saying next slide, or press right/left arrow on your keyboard.

  • GitUp GIT 1 Pro Action Camera Review

    GitUp GIT 1 Pro Action Camera Review

    Few weeks ago I received an email from yet another new action camera manufacturer from China called GitUp. They offered me one, of two of their latest action cameras – GitUp Git 1.

    I have been using this camera on a regular basis, basically every day, after I git up (lame joke I know 🙂 ).

    In this article, I will do an extensive review of this 109$ priced fella which comes with lots of interesting bells and whistles.

    Git1 is an action camera produced by new company on the market - GitUP. It comes in 2 versions and has some features that no other low budget camera currently offers.
    Git1 is an action camera produced by new company on the market – GitUP. It comes in 2 versions and has some features that no other low budget camera currently offers.

    Article contains an overview of all functions and best practices, which will hopefully help you decide weather or not this camera is right for you.

    Update 2/14/2016 : If you are looking for GIT 2 information, please check the full review on this link.

    Gitup Git 1 pro specification

    Bellow is an official specs table of GitUp Git 1. Specs apply to both, pro and basic version.

    [go_pricing id=”gitupgit1″]

    GitUp is a brand new company based in China. As the matter a fact, this camera is their first public product. In order to make Git1 different, they added few options that no other cameras in this price range has – external microphone support and an instant AV video output.

    It has a Sony CMOS IMX322 image sensor and Novatek 96650 chipset. The fact they included this sensor speaks a lot about the quality they want to achieve. Since sensor is one of the most important things you should look when buying a camera, you should know that this one is 2 megapixels sensor and creates very decent colors and sharp videos.

    Git1 is comparable with all GoPro mounts and can take 12megapixel photographs (2 megapixels in reality, 12mp is interpolated) and shoot full HD video in 1080p at 30 frames per second.

    One more thing that makes it stand out from the crowd is the remote control watch, which enables you to take photos and record movies remotely. Quite handy for hikers and people who want to carry the camera on a head strap or a chesty (chest mount).

    Packing and design

    Camera comes inside a rectangular cardboard box wrapped within an grey and orange thick paper wrapping. Once you remove the branded wrapping, you have a thick white box to open. Inside, on one side there is one smaller packet, opposite it is a camera inside a waterproof case surrounded with foamy and spongy structure, to prevent possible damage.

    I quite like the way this whole package looks.  It arrived perfectly save without a dent. And trust me, if a package, delivered by my mailman arrives untended, it is packed pretty well, since this guy loves to play football and other ball sports with my packets.

    Retail box of GitUP Git 1 PRO version.
    Retail box of GitUP Git 1 PRO version.

    Inside a smaller box, there is whole bunch of accessories, screws and mounts. Lets talk about them in a moment. First, lets see how camera itself looks.

    Git1 is available in a single color – black. The camera shell is made out of plastic. The edges are rubberized which prevents slipping and scratches as well. It is quite similar to Amkov 5000S when you look at a it from a front side.

    The size of the camera is 59 x 30 x 41mm. Without a waterproof case, which makes camera waterproof up to 30m , Git1 weights around 64 grams. With a housing that protects it underwater its hits up to 154g.

    Housing has an interesting lock mechanism that allows camera to go 30m underwater. This way of opening camera is quite unique, and according to manufacturer offers much safer underwater protection and prevents accidental waterproof openings. It is a bit hard to figure out at first how to pull this damn thing out of a case, but once you get used to doing it (took me 10 minutes at first:D) it is a breeze later.

    Git 1 action camera in waterproof case black (pro version)
    Camera weights 154g with a waterproof case. 64g without it.

    LCD Display

    Besides the LED indicator, located at top right corner, at the back side of the camera there is a 1.5 inches LCD screen. Having a screen is big deal. It helps you to improve video/photo composition by allowing you to preview while you are recording. It is also a huge time saver, when it comes to changing settings and adjusting camera, previewing photos and videos.

    One difference between this any plenty other cameras with a screen, is that Git1 LCD is not totally flattened with camera back. It actually goes a bit inside. This is good because, you can lay your camera onto its back sometimes, without having to worry that screen will scratch.

    On the other hand, this sort of a design makes things easier for tiny pieces of dust to get onto margins of the screen. That is why its necessarily to maintain it properly.

    1.5 inch LCD screen makes user navigation much easier, and nearly eliminates a need for WiFi and apps.
    1.5 inch LCD screen makes user navigation much easier, and nearly eliminates a need for WiFi and apps.

     

    Buttons and ports

    Front view of Git1 - overview of buttons and ports
    Front view of Git1 – overview of buttons and ports
    1. Lens
    2. On/Off/ Mode switch button – turns camera on or off and allows changing through video, photo, preview and default settings modes.
    3. LED charging indicator
    4. LED recording indicator
    5. Memory card slot ( supports MicroSD and MicroSDHC up to 64gb)
    6. WiFi indicator
    7. Settings/WiFi button (press it when in photo/video mode to enter settings, hold it to turn WiFI on or off)
    8. Shutter/OK button (take photos, start/stop recording videos or confirm options inside a menu)
    9. Microphone
    10. HD port for AV output (TV or FPV for quad copters)
    11. USB Port – transferring files to PC/charging/external microphone port
    Gitup Git 1 side functions butttons and ports
    Side view of Git1 by GitUP – overview of shutter button and side ports.

     

    Accessories and different versions

    GitUp GIT 1 action camera comes in two versions :

    • Standard (Priced at 89$)
    • Pro (Priced at 109$)

    The difference between these two versions is in additional accessories. Standard version includes only most basic equipment :

    • 1x camera
    • 1x lens cap
    • 1 x 950mAh Removable Battery
    • 1x USB cable
    • 1x battery

    On the other hand, for additional 40$, Pro version offers quite a lot of additional stuff, which if you already own an action camera or some of the gear, might not be necessary for you. GitUp Git 1 Pro packaging includes :

    • 1 x 30M Waterproof Casing
    • 1 x Lens cap
    • 1 x 950mAh Removable Battery
    • 1 x Bike Roll Bar Mount
    • 1 x USB Data Cable
    • 1 x Flat Adhesive Mount
    • 1 x Curved Adhesive Mount
    • 1 x Long Screw
    • 1 x Short Screw
    • 1 x Long Connector
    • 1 x Short Connector
    • 1 x Quick Release Buckle

    If you are familiar with action cameras, you probably remember that SJCAM had two versions of their M10 camera. Same thing goes for the Git 1 Standard and Pro. Gear is the only difference.

    Everything else, is absolutely the same between the two. Camera, software, interface, the gear is the only thing that makes a difference.

    As I mentioned already, in this post I will review the GitUp GIT 1 PRO, but everything else applies to Standard as well.

    Besides lots of additional gear that comes in the Git 1 PRO box, there are few additional gadgets that can be purchased separately.

    Additional Gear – Microphone, RC watch, AV cable

    Microphone, RC watch and an AV cable are being sold separately.

    • external microphone (priced at around 19$)
    • RC watch (priced at 29$)
    • av cable

    External microphone

    First thing that makes this camera different, is a support of an external microphone. I haven’t had a chance to test it, but manufacturer created a nice side by side comparison. Obviously external mic makes huge difference in sound quality. Not everyone needs this though. For musicians or people who want to do voice overs for their videos while riding a bike or hiking it is highly recommended.

    >>> Buy external microphone on Amazon – here or on GB where you have free worldwide shipping. (link)

    If you already 3.5mm jack MIC, you can buy this adapter, and it should work with this camera as well. There are also lots of other adapters which will suit just fine.

    Remote Control Watch

    One of the features I absolutely loved is a remote control watch which smoothly allows you to take photos and videos without having to touch camera itself. Watch itself is water-resistant up to 3m underwater.

    So, you can not use it while diving, which is a shame, but for surfing and similar activities it is a life-saver. I used it while driving, to take photos and short video samples. It is quite similar to the one SooCoo S60 has, but works much smoother.

    It is made out of rubberized materials, where as the strap is some sort of cloth. I really like that the strap is not rubber, as some previous watches caused skin redness, especially when you sweat. This one is quite comfortable to wear.

    The range of a RC watch is around 5-7meters. So you can also use it as a remote shutter while camera being on a tripod, or on top of your helmet. For larger distances, you would have to use a WiFi app.

    It consists out of 4 simple buttons and allows you most basic functions :

    • WiFi button (turns WiFi on/off)
    • Video button (start, stop, switch mode)
    • Photo button (take photo / switch mode)
    • Power off (turns off your camera)

    Please note that the camera has to be turned on or on standby in order for a RC watch to work. You can not turn camera on via the watch, it has to be done manually. Also you can not do any complex operation, such as change settings or white balance via the watch. Which I do not mind at all.

    Retail price of this great piece of gear is 30$. However if you buy a camera from GearBest, for the same retail price of 109$, they also include a RC watch. This way you save 30$ right away. Huge saving, and if you need a watch (who doesn’t, its awesome!) you should go get camera on GB. Link here.

    >> You can also buy watch separately on Amazon.

    All the extra gear can also be found on official GitUp website.

    How to pair the Git1 with Remote Control

    It is quite easy to pair your camera with a watch. In some cases your camera might be paired right out of the box (mine was). However if your camera does not “listen” to a watch, you have to pair it by following steps below.

    1. Turn on your camera and go to system settings by pressing power button.
    2. Inside system settings find RF Pairing and press shutter button to confirm.
    3. Pairing process has started.
    4. On a RC watch, hold video and photo buttons for 2-3 seconds)
    5. When you see a “RF Pairing success” on your screen, you are good to go.

    Video

    Camera allows recording in full HD at 30 frames per second. Additionally it offers few other resolutions, which you probably wont use. As you can see, there is no 60 fps in full HD nor 120 fps in some lower resolutions. Which means that slow motioned videos wont look as good.

    Video resolutions :

    • 1920 x 1080 – 30 fps
    • 1280 x 960 – 30fps
    • 1280 x 720 -30fps
    • WVGA: 848 x 480 – 60fps

    For most people 30 fps in full HD will be more then enough. Thanks to its Sony sensor, Git1 produces great videos. Low light performance is also decent.

    However, if you are looking for a 60 fps camera, you can take a look at Xiaomi Yi or Blackview Hero 1. Xiaomi offers no equipment, but is cheaper then this one. Where as Blackview H1 costs 50% more. The upcoming Git 2 will bring 60 fps video and 2k video, at a higher price tag then this its predecessor however.

    Video quality is quite good. It is quite sharp, has great wide-angle and natural looking colors. Con is that it lacks support of 60 fps in 1080p, which is what most of manufacturer are striving for last few months. It creates better video compared to SJ4000, one of the most popular cameras these days, but at the same time it cost a bit more.

    I also noticed that wide dynamic range on videos is quite good. Camera will produce sharp footage even of objects that are in distance and in shadow. Quite good feature and I recommend you to have WDR on.

    One thing that came along as a problem is that when camera moves fast, there is some sort of smudging or a distortion of objects that are not moving. Its hard to explain, but take a look at this and you will understand what I mean. This usually happens when a camera is inside a waterproof case, but with this camera it happens when the camera is not in a case. I assume it has to do with wide angle lens they are using. In a below video review you will see my entire video review including samples.

    Image

    While the video quality is quite good, with natural looking colors, and better then most of its competitors, photography is something that Gitup 1 cant be proud of. While the photos are decent for social media, for anything more serious then that.

    Advertised image resolutions :
    • 12MP (4032*3024)
    • 10MP (3648*2736)
    • 8MP (3264*2448)
    • 5MP (2592*1944)
    • 3MP

    Even though camera allows you to chose up to 12 megapixels of photo quality, the truth is that this sensor supports only 2 mp. Which means that, like many other Chinese action camera, photo resolution is interpolated.

    Once you try to zoom the photo, you will realize that this is nowhere near the apparent 12 megapixels. If I would have to compare photo quality, it is quite similar to more expensive SJ4000+ in terms of sharpness.

    Colors on photographs are quite good. White balance setup allows you to customize it to incredible matters. Take a look at the first sample image I took. It looks amazing when it comes to colors.

    GITUP GIT 1 Camera Photography sample 1 Sunlight
    Image captured from a car in motion, controlled with a RC watch. I saw that the sunset is kinda reddish, so I set up white balance to light red. Result is one of the best looking sunsets I have ever taken with an action camera. Its all about setting the white balance correctly.
    GITUP GIT 1 Camera Photography sample 2 Apples close up
    Camera does decent job in close up. Close up of apples.
    GITUP GIT 1 Camera Photography sample 3 sunset on auto wb
    Even when facing the direct sunlight, camera manages to provide decent image. Not the best one, but quite good.

    GITUP GIT 1 Camera Photography sample 4 Goat

    Gitup Git 1 Image quality test - landscape chruch

    Gitup Git 1 Image quality test - landscape
    This scenery is good proof that camera does decent job in with blue and white colors. For instance SJ4000 give quite unrealistic blue. Gitup1 produces quite natural colors, though they do seam a bit bleached out in auto mode.

    Sound

    The overall audio quality is average for a camera in this price range. Git 1 has mono built in microphone inside that captures sound quite OK in terms of volume. On some of my videos I noticed that there is a hiss or some sort of a background noise in my videos.The WiFi was not turned on, so there was no interference. It is just the quality of the mono mic inside is not the best one.

    This did not bother me much, as I mostly edit my videos in post production and always add music to them. However if the sound is important to you, you probably should get an external microphone which this camera supports.

    Settings

    One quite interesting thing about Git1 camera is gives user quite a lot of settings to experiment with. I will talk about user experience at the end, but I will say that I really like how they separated settings. You have 3 different settings :

    • video settings (when you press setting button while in video mode)
    • image settings (when you press setting button while in image mode)
    • system settings (when you press on/off buttons while switching modes)

    Even though it seamed to me quite confusing and unnecessary to have 3 different menus just to change settings, I realized that categorization like this makes options changing much faster and logical.

    All of these 3 menus offer different options which will be covered in the next few paragraphs. I hope this can help new users to figure out options that camera offers, but also help people who already own a camera by providing brief explanation of each function by giving real-life examples.

    Video settings

    While you are in a video recording mode (remember, to switch between different modes photo, video, preview and setup, you have to press on/off button rapidly) press settings button to enter video settings.

    Loop recording

    Loop recording means that the camera continuously records videos in selected intervals (2,3,5,10 minutes) without stopping. Once it reaches 2 minute video, it will stop it and start recording another 2 minute video. As your memory card gets full it will erase the oldest file and overwrite new file over it.  I recommend you to keep this option off, unless you want to use Git1 as a car camera.

    Video Time Lapse

    Be aware that if you want to have a 30 fps videos, you will need at least 30 images for 1 second of a time lapse video. So for 30 second video, you will need 900 frames. Assuming that you selected 10  fps, means your camera will have to be recording for 900/10=90 minutes.

    I was a bit puzzled with these fps options at first, but I managed to figure them out eventually. One thing I believe should be improve in future firmware update is to allow more options for video, at least the same as image time lapse.

    • 1 fps
    • 5 fps
    • 10 fps
    • off

    Self-timer mode

    Taking group photographs can be daunting experience if a camera does not have an automatic self timer. Luckily, Git 1 has it and offers these intervals :

    • off
    • 5 sec
    • 10 sec
    • 20 sec
    • 30 sec
    • 60 sec

    If you select 20 seconds, once you press shutter button, there will be 20 second delay between a click and a camera taking photo. This gives you and your friends enough time to say “cheese”.

    White Balance

    If I could chose one camera that gave me most control over a white balance, it has to be this one. Gitup Git 1 action camera has a wide range of options for those of us who enjoy experimenting white white balance. There is a total of 10 different WB scenes to chose :

    • Auto
    • Cloudy
    • Daylight
    • Tungsten
    • Fluorescent
    • Blue
    • Light blue
    • Red
    • Light Red
    • Custom

    In my experience, auto mode works quite well, and it gives the most natural look. However the setup will certainly depend on the light conditions in which you are recording. In one of the images above, you can see a sunset that I took in Red white balance and it looks fantastic, like the whole sky is burning.

    Oh yes, I forgot to clarify what is white balance. It allows you to change warmth of your video according to a scene in which you are recording or taking photos. In case you want to learn more on this, quite important setup for action cameras, you can take a look at this page.

    Image below illustrates how a single change in camera menu can give different look and evoke different emotions. Not that these flowers  I photographed in my fathers garden can awake emotion, perhaps if someone accidentally stepped onto them, my father would kick his ass. But imagine a breathtaking scenery or a beautiful portrait instead of these 😛 Bam, you see the emotion white balance can produce? Or at least different warmth of your photo/video.

    Unlike some other action cameras, this one works pretty well on auto and gives even custom white balance setup.
    Unlike some other action cameras, this one works pretty well on auto and gives even custom white balance setup.

    Exposure and WDR

    By setting exposure to different levels, you basically change how bright or dark your video or image looks. This is quite basic explanation. If you would like to learn more about exposure in photography here is a link to Wikipedia.

    WDR is quite complex term, but in laymen words ,Wide Dynamic Range (WDR) helps the camera to produce more realistically looking and sharper images in situation where the light and illumination vary excessively.

    For instance, while recording you have a situation where one subject is in bright light, where as the objects behind are in shadow. This is good example of different illumination. So, by turning WDR on, camera will record with more details, more contrast. WDR helps sensor to determine more accurately different light intensities and then increase details, or sharpen them in this case.

    Plenty of cameras have WDR, but in most of them, it makes zero difference. However, wide dynamic range is quite good. Take a look at the image below. It illustrated how WDR makes huge difference, as more details are visible.

    Git1 WDR Wide Dynamic Range test
    Image created by TechTronic9000.

    There is also a video comparison with WDR on and off created by Romanian YouTuber TechTronic9000.

    Field of view (FOW)

    The camera has quite a large field of view. While in most cases this is great, sometimes you might want to reduce the field of view. FOW can easily be changed to a narrow 120°. This also reduces the fish-eye distortion effect. Quite interesting and handy option.

    • wide angle 170°
    • narrow angle 120°

    Be aware that sharpness of video is slightly better on wield angle. This is because wide view is uses the entire width of the image sensor where as 120° utilizes center part of the sensor. The difference is not huge, but is certainly visible.

    Already mentioned TechTronic has also good explanation of these WDR and FOW on this page.

    Motion detection and G-sensor

    With motion detection turned on, your camera becomes a sort of a home survailance camera. In theory it will start recording as soon as it detect a motion. However this option is not as reliable. So use it only for fun. For safety of your home, you must have specialized cameras. Action cameras are not meant to serve as a surveillance camera.

    G-sensor is a dash camera feature. Its main purpose it to start recording as soon as it detect shake. You can set G-sensor sensitivity as from High to low. High means camera will start recording at slightest shock, low does quite opposite.

    I have not tested this feature in car, but when trying it out on my head strap, it did not show as a reliable. Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not. Like motion detection, this option is not specific nor useful for true action camera users. But G-sensor can be handy when you want to record traffic, though its not highly reliable according to my amateurish test performed on it. (Sorry I do not like wasting time on features I found useless, blame my laziness for this one 🙂 )

    Image settings

    Options described above are not all exclusive for video mode. Some of these appear in image settings as well. Since they all do same thing, I will not explain the ones that are overlapping between the two modes.

    Here are options that appear only in image mode. Some setups such as exposure, white balance, etc are available for images as well, but I wont bore you by repeating same thing over and over again.

    Time lapse (image sequence)

    Similar to video time lapse, image time lapse will take photograph in selected interval continuously. So if you chose 5 seconds, camera will take photo each 5th second. Difference between the image and video is that in image mode you get tons of images. This is for people who enjoy creating time lapse videos on their own, in video editing software by merging images.

    • off
    • 1 sec
    • 2 sec
    • 5 sec
    • 10 sec
    • 30 sec
    • 60 sec

    Color

    If you are one of those people who like old school effect on their photos, you will certainly use color settings which allows you to change image colors. 3 options are available :

    • Normal (default)
    • Black and white
    • Sepia

    GITUP GIT 1 Camera Photography sample color options Black and white, Color, Sepia

    System settings

    System settings will influence both video and photo mode. These are most basic things that each action camera has.

    System settings menu in Git1 action camera by GitUp
    System settings menu in Git1 action camera by GitUp

    Languages:

    Camera supports multiple languages. The default one is English, but you can easily switch to 9 more languages. By selecting one of the language, your camera menu will transform to the chosen one.

    You can chose from :English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Italian, Russian, Chinese (3 types of Mandarin)

    Image rotation

    If you are mounting Git1 upside down, on a helmet or a windshield on your car, you can rotate the video as well by turning image rotation on. This way, the output video will look normal, even though the camera had been facing the ground.

    OSD (On screen display) info

    Lots of info appears on the screen while you record video or take a photo. If you find those information distracting, you can turn them off by selecting off in the OSD setup.

    Screen auto sleep and auto power off

    Since the battery is always a problem for action cameras, having a choice of reducing the battery consumption is handy. With screen auto sleep turned on, your LCD will be in standby mode. This means that it will be idle, but your camera will still record. You can wake it up by pressing shutter button once.

    Auto power off, is for oblivious people, who often forget to turn of their devices. If you select 1 minute, your camera will turn off after a minute of inactivity. This does not mean it will turn off while you are recording or browsing through the menu, since it is in active state.

    My tip is to keep screen auto sleep at 3, and auto power of at 1 minute. It will save your battery quite a lot.

    Car mode

    When Car Mode is On the camera will start recording when the car starts up and shutdown when the car is turned off. You will have to connect it with a car charger which is sold separately. By turning this on, and setting loop recording on, you will transform Gitup Git1 Pro to a car camera (dashcamera).

    PC Camera

    With a current firmware version, Git 1 can not be used as a web camera. Even though Novatek platform support this function, GitUp decided not to implement it.

    We did some change for charging procedure and removed the web camera function on GIT1.
    For GIT2, we will keep the default setting, so it supports web camera function.

    Battery and memory card

    Removable 950mAh Lithium-Ion battery powers this camera. Approximate battery life is little less than 2 hours of continuous recording in 1080p 30 fps. This means that battery will approximately last for 100-120 minutes if you record continuous video, without turning it on/off, while the WiFi remains turned off. You can get a little bit more of time if you turn on screen sleep.

    Battery life is far from perfect, but at the same time is slightly better then some of the competitors. For instance all SJCAM cameras are powered by 900 mAh batteries. I have tried to fit a battery from my SJ4000 and it fits perfectly as well.

    There is also comparison of SJ4000 vs Git1 Battery here (done by GitUp, so its not quite independent, though there is no real reason not to believe the research, since its a common sense conclusion after all).

    According to manufacturer, camera can record 126 minutes with a screen turned off and 10 minutes less, 116 when the LCD is on.

    Problem with battery back cover

    After I initially received this camera from a manufacturer, I had a huge problem with it. It appears that GitUp somehow “forgot” to put some sort of a support on the battery back cover, which caused battery to wiggle. A lot. This wiggling meant- constant turning off on the slightest shake. I immediately informed customer support, and was assured that this quality controlled issue is of course by mistake, and that they were aware of it already.

    I was told that this problem happened only on cameras sent to initial beta testers and reviewers. While I really can not confirm if this is a true or not, but there is no reason not to trust to their support, since they were quite opened from start.

    If you already bought a camera and have troubles with its accidental turning off, put some sort of foam or tiny piece of sponge, cloth or even plastic to stop battery from wiggling. Additionally if you have this problem, please post it in the comment section bellow, I would like to know if anyone else has this sort of issues.

    For an action camera that moves constantly, this is quite a serious issue. Luckily its quite easily fixable once you reveal the cause of sudden turning off.

    Camera supports up to 64GB MicroSD memory card. I have only tried a few of them, all of them  worked. Both of my Sony 16gb and 64gb worked, as well as Samsung EVO 16gb. All of them are class 10 cards, which is something I always recommend. Again, compared to some cameras in similar price range, it offers double the storage space, which is quite neat.

    This problem apparently appears only on tiny number of cameras sent to reviewers. It can be easily fixed, even with a toilet paper :) Though I would not advise you to do that, better use plastic or foam.
    This battery wiggling problem apparently appears only on tiny number of cameras sent to reviewers. It can be easily fixed, even with a toilet paper 🙂 Though I would not advise you to do that, better use plastic or foam.

    User Interface and navigation

    If you asked me to pick one thing about this little cam that I never expected to be so good its the user interface and navigation, without any doubt. Having tested tens of Chinese cameras, I am used to all sorts of bugs, idiotic setups and frustrating UI.

    This camera is everything but that. Its navigation is fast, smooth and easy. At the same time, its much different compared to other action cameras I tested. Differentiation is something I love.

    In my opinion software developers did a great job, and I cant wait too see in which direction will their WiFi apps and menus go in future. The only physical thing that lacked are navigational arrows. Mostly because of a digital zoom and faster navigation through the menu.

    Even though I never use digital zoom on any camera, because its crap, there are people who like to zoom things. So they will not find this camera as a good choice for zooming.

    On the other hand, I quickly got used to a fact that navigation is different, yet simple.

    Once again, to enter video or photo mode setup, press Settings/WiFi button on the side. (#7 on button illustration image above). To cycle around the settings you should press power button on the front. (#2).

    To change different options within a setting you use the shutter button on the top  (#8).

    WiFi App

    This camera has its own built in WiFi. With it, you can connect to your mobile device or tablet and take full remote control over it. Action camera apps usually allow you to download photos and videos directly to your phone.

    However, at the time of writing, Git1 is on the market, but its WiFi app is not ready yet. On one hand, I am quite disappointed that manufacturer released the WiFi camera without the app. On the other hand, I understand that they are new company to the market and that it takes time to make everything work.

    Until their app is ready, GitUp suggest users to use alternative one which is called Final Cam.

    Since the app has not been launched yet, I will not review the alternative one, as it makes no sense to me. I was informed that both iOS and Android application should be available somewhere in October, which indeed is quite a lot. Hopefully they will keep their promise and finish it on time. Lets hope other consumers are as patient as I am.

    Customer support

    Unlike many other Chinese brands (not only one related to action cameras) that have bad support, the customer relationship form the GitUp guys have been great in my case. Perhaps because they know I will be writing a review on their camera? 🙂 Well I tried with a different email address and a fake name, and got a reply equally fast.

    Their team is quite helpful and replies within few hours. They were not bothered to reply multiple questions that I had either. I also appreciate them being honest about 2 megapixel sensor, though it would have been better that it is put somewhere on the manual at least.

    I also noticed that Bill from their customer support is quite active on few forums. He replies to customer questions about other cameras as well. Of course, this helps them spread awareness of their brand, but its also nice for people who need help.

    Also some of their support team also replied to few questions about other products on this site, which I really liked. Replies were quite professional and never revealed their brand though. You have to appreciate this kind of support.

    They obviously want to find out what their potential customers need. Lets hope that as the brand becomes popular and volumes of emails increase, they will manage to keep this level of customer support.

    Where to buy Gitup Git 1 camera?

    Summary

    For a new brand, trying to break through the competitive market, GitUp did quite good job. In my experience of using this camera for a few weeks, I haven’t encountered any software problems. Videos recorded are quite sharp and colors are natural looking as well. Camera has Sony Sensor which gives decent results even when facing direct sunlight and in low-light condition.

    Camera comes neatly packed and with bunch of gear. Even though lens cap is quite cheap piece of gear,  it is very useful and I really loved it. Optional accessories show how serious this company is. I found RC watch absolutely amazing. It allowed me to create bunch of photos on a go, as well as the videos.I like that it enables recording videos and taking photos while being charged and also allows shooting photos while recording videos at the same time.

    I like tons of options that camera offers, especially the white balance, which offers insane amount of scenes to chose from. Support of an external microphone is also great addition and will be huge thing for guys who need good audio solution, provided that they buy good microphone. User navigation is absolute breeze. Customer support is responding quite fast via email. I also like the fact that their team is active on forums ,which shows their willingness to research the market and have actual conversations with customers and better understand our needs.

    However, there are few cons that come along with GitUp Git 1 camera. I will not be as strict as usual on some matters, since I understand they are new to the market, however I will stress out all cons, as always straightforward.

    Sound volume is quite good, where as the quality is pretty average and can not be considered great. There is a some sort of hiss that camera will pick up due to the quality of mono microphone. Luckily you can always use external microphone to boost your sound significantly.

    When it comes to video, I have two objections. Considering the price of the camera, it would be great if they managed to squeeze 60 frames per second video. Especially because some companies have that option for a little more or little less. But its not a huge deal.

    Bigger issue with video is that sometimes camera struggled with an exposure, which happened with few other cameras I tested. Also when camera is moving fast, objects which are not moving look a bit stretched and smudged until the movement stops.

    Photo quality is decent but could be a lot better good. Camera has 2 megapixels which makes image sharpness an issue. Even though for any sort of web sharing or social media it wont be a huge issue, for printing on a larger formats it might be a  huge bummer.

    Lastly, I had an issue with battery which wiggled and I hope this wont happened to anyone else, as the manufacturer assured me. Also the WiFi app has not been finished at the time of writing this review, which is certainly not good, even though they have an alternative one until the official one is ready.

    To sum up, I must say I am very pleasantly surprised with GitUp Git 1 camera. I think it provides good value for the money  (especially if you buy it with a RC watch packet). GitUp showed how serious they are about their products and customers as well. With its pros and cons, camera justifies the price tag. Now that their first product is good, criteria from reviewers and consumers will certainly lift, for the upcoming Git 2, which will bring new features, but will also cost more.

    Your questions and experience

    I hope this review was of some help to you. I assure you that even though product was supplied by manufacturer, it was written completely independently and without anyone (except my parrot) influencing my opinion.

    If you have any sort of question, concern or you just want to share your experience with this camera, please feel free to post a comment below. I reply to each and every question as soon as I possibly can, and so do other readers as well.

    Happy recording.

  • SJCAM SJ4000+ Plus Review – WiFi 2k Action Camera

    SJCAM SJ4000+ Plus Review – WiFi 2k Action Camera

    The road that Chinese action camera manufacturer had over the last 12 months can be described as : as per aspera ad astra (from the mud to the stars). But also as : from the stars to the mud all over again.

    Note: If you want to save few bucks, use coupon SJ4PLUS when buying.

    Can the new SJ4000+ overthrow the SJ4000 from throne? Or is it just another money-waste?
    Can the new SJ4000+ overthrow the SJ4000 from throne? Or is it just another money-waste?

    It all started with their SJ4000 camera, which was and still is a great success and certainly one of the best action cams that provides excellent value for the money. Company became world-famous low-budget GoPro alternative in just few months. They sold thousands of cameras, despite the counter-fake issues they faced along the way.

    However, after a massive success, they hit the rock bottom.

    Their newly launched, three times as expensive SJ5000 series had so many software problems, that even I (yes, an action camera freak) did not want to waste time on reviewing. It was overpriced and unfinished product rushed out just to get more money from already existing customers.

    Now SJCAM is  back to square one. They obviously gave up on the SJ5000 series, and went back to their roots. Few weeks ago, manufacturer released, brand-new SJ4000+ (also known as SJ4000 Plus).

    In this article, I will provide you with an in-depth review, and serious overview of all features and functions on their latest model.

    SJCAM SJ4000+ action camera brings new features compared to its predecessor. Most important ones are: better image sensor,video recording in full HD at 60 fps and in 2K. SJ4000+ is a WiFi action camera that can record videos and take photographs in various resolutions and sizes. It comes in eight different colors and its menu supports 17 different languages.

    Front of the SJCAM SJ4000 Plus camera. I got a golden color.
    Front of the SJCAM SJ4000 Plus camera. I got a golden color.

    With previous model being priced at 90$ most, Plus version will certainly raise a few eyebrows with its $120 price-tag.

    Some of you, who already have an SJ4000 or even SJ5000 (unlucky you) will certainly ask :

    1. Should I upgrade from SJ4000 to SJ4000 plus?
    2. Is it worth the money, or are these guys playing the same “Money on my mind” song all over again?

    Have SJCAM engineers created something that will make their customers astonished by the price/quality ratio and defeat competitors? Or have they yet again, created a camera that is not worth mentioning, let alone spending money on?

    I have been using this camera for 15 days now. Various tests have been performed and bunch of videos and photos have been created in different light environment and different setup.

    So, I will be more than happy to answer these and many other questions in this post.

    Fasten your seat-belts, take a cup of coffee or ice-cold beer, its going to be long and bumpy ride! 🙂

    Update 10/28/2015

    I should mention that after this review was published, SJCAM released an updated version of SJ4000+ called SJ4000+ Gyro. This one is referred as standard. While I have not tested Gyro edition (nor I intend to), I would like to explain the difference between the two. Once again, SJCAM managed to confuse as all, so here is a simple explanation.

    Standard version of SJ4000+ is the one featured in this article. Gyro version was lanuched 2-3 weeks after it, as an attempt to improve stabilization, which was terrible. Gyro edition contains far better video stabilization due to the built in Gyro it has.

    I assume that this is only software stabilization. Obviously its not optical. Meaning camera will narrow the angle of view, but the video is certainly less shaky.That is the only difference between these two cameras.

    So, if you really really want SJ4000+ (though I do not see a reason why), you probably should get a Gyro version. You can buy Gyro version  Amazon |Link|. I have not seen it being sold elsewhere for now.

    Update 11/14/2015

    Differences between SJ4000+ Standard and Gyro have been covered quite in-depth in this post.

    SJ4000+ specifications

    Bellow table illustrates official specification of SJ4000 Plus provided by manufacturer. I have however, enriched it and added few more details that were not pointed out in the specs, though they are quite important in my opinion.

    [go_pricing id=”sjcam_sj4000_plus”]

    Packing and design

    SJ4000 plus comes in complete different packing then its predecessor. It seams that SJCAM borrowed the minimalistic approach in packing from Xiaomi YI.

    Camera comes in a single, tiny-looking cardboard box. At first glance I though that it is impossible to pack everything in it. However once you opened a retail box, inside there are 3 different mini-boxes.

    New SJ4000+ provides much better packing, with everything being packed in 3 mini-boxes.
    New SJ4000+ provides much better packing, with everything being packed in 3 mini-boxes.

    Two of the mini-boxes contain accessories, where as the third one has camera and a waterproof case. Packing is fantastic. Everything is easy to pull out, but at the same time product seams to be protected inside the sturdy boxes quite well. Quite an improvement.

    Yeah, I know that the packing cant still justify the 50% increase in price nor improve video quality, but it does look much better, then the cheap and flimsy boxes in which SJCAM M10, SJ4000 and Amkov AM5000s were packed.

    What’s Inside the box?

    Once you pull out all the boxes, here is a list of everything you get :

    • 1x camera
    • 1x waterproof case
    • 1x spare plastic case back door (not waterproof, for better sound recording)
    • 1x manual (44 page, multilingual)
    • 1x 900mAh battery (inside the cam already)
    • 1x USB cable (for charging and transferring files to PC)
    • 1x bicycle stand
    • 2x helmet self-adhesive base
    • 3X switch supports
    • 1x bracket
    • 1x clip (for bracket)
    • 1x base mount
    • 1x base adapter
    • 1x base curved
    • 2x 3M adhesive double tissue tape
    • 2x bandage
    • 1x cleaning cloth
    • 2x SJCAM stickers

    I am quite happy that they finally ditched wire rope and plastic ribbons which were included in their previous models. These tiny but cheap accessories gave only an illusion of camera habing more gear, though they were quite useless and cheap.

    Compared to SJ4000, the only new piece of gear is a sticker.Besides ditching useless ribbon and rope, this time they did not include an AC power adapter, which means you will have to get a separate one if you want to charge your camera via the wall plug. In my opinion this is a huge omission. I am sure that many of us find wall charging more convenient, especially on the travels. In case you are wondering, yes camera can be charged via the USB port on your PC.

    Speaking of gear, to be honest, I was slightly disappointed by the choice of the gadgets. Its standard. Nothing new, nothing impressive. Tens of other action camera from China have these very same accessories in their boxes. I expected SJCAM, as a Chinese action cam leader, to step up and at least add something new, but they decided to do what everyone are doing.

    Do not get me wrong, the gear is OK, but its not impressive nor extremely useful.

    Manual is on 44 pages and its pretty similar to SJ4000 manual. They pretty much copy-pasted huge portion of the previous version instructions. The piece of information provided this tiny booklet is pretty brief and cant get you all set up. But do not worry, I will clarify all the options that SJ4000 Plus has and reveal best practice when it comes to video and photo making.

    One great thing worth mentioning is that due to the huge amount of counter-fakes of their SJ4000 that appeared on the market, the plus model now has the security scratch and check code, which you can enter on their website, to check if your purchased product is genuine one. All SJ4000+ have the code on the box. So if yours does not have one, return it right away.

    Buttons and ports

    Even though the design hasn’t changed not a single bit, here is an overview of all buttons and ports of SJ4000 Plus together with their function.

    An overview of all buttons and ports of SJ4000+
    An overview of all buttons and ports of SJ4000+
    1. OK/Shutter button (for recording video or taking photos, or to confirm particular option inside the settings)
    2. WiFi indicator (flashes orange when the WiFi is on)
    3. Navigation arrows (for browsing through the menu, or zooming in or out. Upper arrow is WiFi button which activates WiFi when you hold it)
    4. ON/OFF or Mode button – used for turning camera on or off, as well as switching through photo, video, preview and settings modes.
    5. Lens
    6. HDMI port – for connecting camera with TV
    7. Memory card slot (Micro SD Class 10 card is highly recommended. Camera can use cards that have storage space of 32GB maximum).
    8. USB Slot – for charging or exporting files to PC.
    9. LED recording indicator (flashes blue while the camera is recording)
    10. LED indicator charging indicator (red light when the camera is being charged)
    11. LCD Screen

    Video

    SJ4000 offers six different video resolutions to chose from. Biggest change is recording in 2K (2560*1440) at 30 frames per second. Additionally, unlike previous SJ4000 model, Plus version allows recording at 60fps in full HD (1080p) and HD (720p).

    • 2K (2560*1440 30FPS)
    • Full HD (1920*1080, 30 and 60 fps)
    • 1080*720 at 30/60/120fps)

    In my opinion, video quality is quite good. I like the fact that there is an option of recording at 60 frames per second. I really haven’t seen any significant improvement of recording at 2k resolution. Colors look better then its previous version, but video stabilization is nearly non existent.

    Footage I taken  at 30 fps looks quite shaky. I have no idea if there is something to be fixed in firmware, but I truly hope video can be a bit more stabilized then it is now. Video sound is decent bout on ground and underwater.

    Note : You can download true, uncompressed video file samples that I took on this DropBox link (download video raw samples at night, underwater, sounds test ,etc and preview them on your PC for best quality. Do not preview them on DropBox.) Make sure you are using a decent video player such as VLC or QuickTime.

    Images

    When it comes to image quality, I would like to be clear right away, even before I show you the sample. For its price, I am deeply disappointed with the quality of photos SJ4000+ provides. This is where low-quality OV4689 sensor comes to the fore. Images are not sharp as expected, and at a price of nearly 150$ there is no excuse for SJCAM.

    According to their price, they had enough space to put some better-quality sensor, like Blackview did with their Hero 1 by adding Sony sensor (and its 20$ cheaper then this pile of junk!). The sensor manufacturer put inside the camera, produces images at 4 megapixels top.

    If you do not trust me, take a look at the official specs of OmniVision OV4689. It says right away, in the first sentence :

    The OV4689 is a high performance 4-megapixel CameraChip sensor in a native 16:9 format designed for next-generation surveillance and security systems.

    Okay, so last time, with their 60-70$ camera, they had 3.5 mp sensor (which was great overall value for the money), and this time their camera has crappy 4.0 megapixels for much higher price.

    Who are these guys kidding? This is an absolute joke.

    Note : You can download true, uncompressed image samples that I took on this DropBox link (download images and preview them on your PC for best quality. Do not preview them on DropBox.)

    While this sensor is pretty okay for videos (even 2k video) for photos it is absolute trash if we have the price in mind. Remember, that when reviewing any feature of any product I always have price/value offered in mind. And in my humble opinion, you get pretty lame photos for 150$.

    You might be thinking I am going harsh on the company and perhaps its a true. SJCAM is the company that once inspired me to start this blog. They made me believe that video making does not have to be expensive and that there are cameras that will do the job for fraction of the price of a big-brand.

    So yes, I once trusted them, I worshiped them, all because of their products, which provided great overall value. So yes, I am going to be harsh when they try to cheat us, interpolating resolutions, increasing prices and offering no real reason for that.

    If you are still interested in image quality and resolution, here is a list of images resolution in which SJ4000+ can take photos. Note that all of these resolutions are interpolated, and are not true. Once again, huge failure for SJCAM.

    • 12MP (4032*3024)
    • 10MP (3648*2736)
    • 8MP (3264*2448)
    • 5MP (2592*1944)
    • 3MP
    • 2MHD
    • VGA
    • 1.3MP
    SJ4000+ Plus WiFi action camera photo sample 1
    Beach in Afytos, Greece.
    SJ4000+ Plus WiFi action camera photo sample 2
    One more image of a lonely beach in Afytos, Greece.
    SJ4000+ Plus WiFi action camera photo sample 3 Underwater
    Underwater test of SJ4000+.
    SJCAM SJ4000+ WiFi 2k action camera image sample direct sunlight
    Road to hell. Well thanks to the camera exposure failing under a direct sunlight.
    SJCAM SJ4000+ WiFi 2k action camera image sample goat
    Goat. “Is that the latest SJ4000+? Baaah Baaah.
    SJCAM SJ4000+ WiFi 2k action camera image sample red car on a lonely road
    Lawanda field in the background. Since its not the best time for Lawanda, view was not as nice as in the season.

    There is one positive though, close ups are pretty OK, considering the fact action cameras are not made for close up videos or photos. Camera has 30cm focus range, which means everything taken at distance farther then 30cm will be in focus.

    SJCAM SJ4000+ WiFi 2k action camera image sample
    Image taken at 12mp facing sunlight through the clouds. Due to the 30cm focus camera has, road is a bit blurry at the bottom , all cracks are quite clear, so after 30cm focus is good even in close up. I however quite like the blur effect, sometimes it makes quite a lot sense, especially on the images like this.

    And here is a fact. Colors on the images are pretty good and as natural as you can expect from an action camera. These images do not look that bad online. They are decent.

    But once you download original image samples you will see they they are nowhere as sharp as you can expect for 150$. Sharpness is a major issue. And that bothers me.

    I as customer feel deceived. While action cameras are mostly made for video, is this really all I get for the money I pay?

    Settings

    What I always liked about SJCAM video cameras is that they allow users bunch of options and settings which you can use to tweak, improve or change in order to get better photos or movies. While the user interface hasn’t change at all, camera still offers basic and some advanced features.

    Cyclic record

    When cyclic recording (also known as loop recording) is turned on, camera will record sequences of the entire footage. For instance, if you chose the 3 minute interval, while you are recording, camera will stop the video recording once you reach 3:00 and start recording new one.

    I personally always keep this option to off, since I do not see much use of it.

    • off
    • 3 min
    • 5 min
    • 10 min

    Motion detection

    By turning motion detection on, camera will start recording a video as soon as it detects a motion. This feature is not reliable and do not even thing about using SJ4000+ as a surveillance camera. Its something that might be interesting to use for experimental purposes, but when it comes to home safety, you should get a proper equipment for the love of God.

    Also if you notice that your camera is recording videos as soon as its turned on, it is probably because motion detection is turned on. Just switch to off.

    For more info on the motion detection feature, please check my SJ4000 WiFi review, since it works absolutely the same.

    TV Mode and TV Out

    TV mode setup allows quick change between two most commonly used video modes – PAL and NTSC. Strange thing is that no matter which one you chose, resolution options will not change, which makes this option quite useless.

    For those of you who want to preview video or photos onto your TV and show them off to your friends and family this way, you can connect your camera to TV. For this you will need a Micro HDMI to HDMI cable and TV out turned on.

    OSD Mode

    By default, LCD screen shows lots of information on the margins while you are taking photos or recording a video. You can see recording time, weather or not you have cycling mode enabled or is sound turned on.

    Additionally you will see battery life, date and few other things. I do not know why, but if these informative icons bother you, you can turned them all off by choosing OFF in On screen display (OSD).

    I guess this is helpful once you get quite familiar with the interface and you want to focus solely on footage instead of screen data.

    Video lapse

    Video time lapse is one of the most interesting features of SJ4000 Plus camera.

    But first, what is a time lapse?

    Timelapse photography is a technique whereby the frequency at which film frames are captured (the frame rate) is much lower than that used to view the sequence. When played at normal speed, time appears to be moving faster and thus lapsing.

    For more info on time lapse technique in general, check this Wiki-Page.

    By enabling this option, your camera will take photo at the interval selected. Unlike many other action cameras, it will not only create bunch of photos from it, but also create a video, right out of the box. You do not have to edit video in video software, it works right away.

    SJ4000+ video lapse has these intervals available : 1/2/5/10/30/60 seconds.

    White balance

    If you are one of those people who like to take full control of their movies/photos, it is always a good idea to experiment with white balance. This option will change warmth of your footage. Camera offers five different WB setups :

    • Auto
    • Daylight
    • Cloudy
    • Tungsten
    • Fluorescent
    Illustration of different white balance setups of SJCAM SJ4000 Plus camera.
    Illustration of different white balance setups of SJCAM SJ4000 Plus camera.

    In this particular situation, the most natural looking colors came when using Cloudy and Fluorescent. However it depends on light condition and situation you are photographing or recording in.

    ISO

    ISO is one of the most important things in photography. ISO controls how much light goes into your camera. Lower ISO number is used for situations where you have enough light. For low-light situation, you need higher ISO.

    While WB should not be left on auto as camera does not always recognizes what is best for you, it works pretty well white auto ISO. That is why I keep mine on automatic, but you can always play around and take manual control of this option.

    • Auto
    • 100
    • 200
    • 400
    • 800
    • 1600

    Exposure

    Like most the Chinese action cameras SJ4000+ gives you the manual control over the exposure. This means that you can set up brightens or darkness of your footage. Exposure value go from -2 to +2. It is not possible to lock on exposure. In my experience, +1/3 and +0.0 gave the best results. I usually keep it at these two setups.

    Capture mode

    Capture mode allows shooting in different modes :

    • S-Shot (single shoot)
    • 3s timer
    • 5s timer
    • 10s timer
    • 20s timer

    Single-shoot will create only one image after you press the shutter button. Timers will delay taking photo after you press the shutter at the specified interval, which is pretty handy for group photos.

    Language

    Though not a big deal for most people, the fact that camera offers menu in seventeen different languages is astonishing. Besides English which is a default language, switch your camera interface to be on :

    • English (default)
    • French
    • German
    • Spanish
    • Italian
    • Portuguese
    • 4 types of Chinese
    • Russian
    • Polish
    • Czech
    • Hungarian
    • Danish
    • Dutch

    Multilingualism certainly adds few points to user friendliness of SJ4000+.

    Auto power off and screen saver

    After I have updated the SJ4000+ firmware, new features appeared. Here is what you get with this firmware update.

    • Continuous shoot
    • Stabilization
    • WDR (wide dynamic range)

    No worries, I will talk about how to upgrade the firmware as soon as I clarify all these additional options.

    Continuous shoot

    This feature is also known as burst mode. It allows your camera to take multiple photos continuously. You just need to press shutter button once and SJ4000+ will (depending on selected option) take 3, 5 or 10 photos. This is excellent feature especially if you want to photograph fast moving subject. One good example of this would be photographing soccer game, jumps, etc.

    What is exciting is that SJ4000 plus has a 10 continuous photos, where as some other action camera such as Xiaomi YI or Blackview Hero 1 can take to up to seven continuous images..

    Firmware updates

    Updating firmware is quite important with any tech gadget. Firmware updates usually fix bugs and improve features. One great thing about SJCAM is that they update their FW quite regularly. Though firmware update is something you have to do manually, no worries, its not a rocket science.

    How to update SJ4000+ firmware?

    1. Make sure to check official manufacturers site for correct FW  version
    2. Download FW
    3. Unzip the folder
    4. Plug in your camera into the PC via the USB cable.
    5. Turn it on and chose Mass Storage
    6. Enter the memory card
    7. Copy the firmware file with the name .BIN into a root of the MicroSD Card
    8. Turn off the camera
    9. Turn it on again
    10. Wait while it upgrades (30 seconds usually)
    11. If will turn on automatically
    12. Chose Mass Storage again, and DELETE .BIN file, otherwise  your camera will upgrade again
    13. Once .BIN is deleted, turn the camera off, and it should work on the latest firmware

    These is quite detailed step by step instructions, if you are having trouble updating, contact your seller or manufacturer. If you are having troubles understanding these steps, you have instructions on SJCAMHD website.

    One more tip about firmwares. Always double-check if you are installing the right one. Luckily this model has quite simpler FW structure, so the possibility of installing wrong one are almost impossible. Install only FW from the official manufacturer site. Anything non-official is always risky and do not attempt it, unless you really know what you are doing.

    WiFi and App

    Unlike previous model in the series, this one does give you the choice to chose over WiFi or non WiFi version. There is only one SJ4000+ model and it has built in WiFi. What this means is that you can connect to cameras wireless network and control it remotely. You can give some basics commands, switch through different setup and download photos directly to your phone without having to use an USB cable.

    This all sounds good in theory, but when it comes to practice, an official SJCAMHD app does not seam to be ready yet. It is absolutely not calibrated nor adjusted for their latest model. Inside the app you can not switch to 1080p 60fps or 2K.

    Therefore it is absolutely impossible for me to review an app that obviously is not ready yet. This is one more huge minus for this product, since I can not believe that they launched a WiFi product without having a ready to go Application for it.

    If you are curious on how the app works, it is absolutely the same as SJ4000, the previous version. Check out this video of mine for more info on the app itself. Lets hope that very soon developers will fix this android app.

    As far as I know there is also an iOS app, but I haven’t had a chance to test it out. So if any of you iPhone users would like to share your experience on using the iOS app, drop a comment bellow and let me know.

    Battery and memory card

    One thing I found problematic is zero improvement or whatsoever when it comes to battery life and memory card over a previous model. SJCAM SJ4000+ has a 3.7V 900mAh li-ion rechargeable battery, absolutely the same one its predecessor used.

    The maxim storage space is 32gb. It is recommended that you use MicroSD or MicroSDHC memory cards from reputable brands of at least class 10, for best performance and less headache later on.

    UPDATE : 11/6/2015

    I have tried my Sony MicroSDXC 40MB/s 64GB and it worked in both SJ4000+ Gyro and Non Gyro versions.

    Mass storage and PC camera

    Since I recently upgraded to Windows 10, I tried to make SJ4000+ works as a Skype camera, but I had no luck. So at the time of publishing this review, this camera is not compatable as a web camera on Win10. However its predecessor works just fine. It probably is a firmware that needs to be updated.

    To use it as a webcam, just plug it into your own PC and select PC Camera. It is most likely that your PC (Windows) will search for a driver automatically (Windows 7 and above, not sure about XP) and after a minute you can test it out on the Skype.

    Summary

    My overall experience with SJ4000+ can be described in one word – disappointment. I will be honest with you and say that in my opinion this camera is not worth its price tag. It provides great videos in 2k and full HD at 30 or 60 fps, which is its biggest advantage.

    Videos underwater look quite good, though I have not spend much time testing underwater performance, as I would have probably drowned.

    Colors on both videos and photos are quite natural looking, though the sharpness of the images is terrible. This is here SJ4000+ starts to fail. Photography. Photos are simply dreadful considering the price-tag the camera has.

    For some people poor quality of the photos might not be an issue, this is an action camera, for making videos, right? Well no. Images are important, especially if you want to survive on today’s the competitive market. People care about photos, especially if they pay 140$.

    Packaging is quite neat and I really loved the security check up code they implemented on the boxes. Huge progress on these two points.

    Manufacturer launched a WiFi camera without adjusting the app for this particular model, which means plenty of features were left out.

    Battery life could be better, and I can not understand why they didn’t include a better battery, especially since other competitors who have  cameras in same price-range have better batteries.

    Design is standard, nothing new, pretty much a repack with + sign on it.

    Let me now answer two questions, asked at the beginning of the article.

    Should I upgrade from SJ4000 to SJ4000 plus? –

    No. In my humble opinion existing owners of SJ4000 would not gain much considering the price. However if you do need 60 fps in your video, or want 2k, there are plenty of better and cheaper solution then the SJ4000+. This camera makes very good videos, but for its price it disappoints when it comes to images.

    Is it worth the money, or are these guys playing the same “lets-take-the-money-fast” song all over again?

    They are playing the same song over and over again. If they continue do produce products just to make profit, instead of satisfy the needs of their target customers, there will be no reason to buy their cameras soon. Competition has never been bigger, and SJCAM has never been in bigger crisis.

    I truly hopped they will create amazing cheap action camera, but they created average mid-range action cam, which has plenty of better, cheaper alternatives. If SJCAM continues to take the piss out of their products and customers, the light at the end of a tunnel is non-existent.

    You can also take a look at some alternatives which are cheaper, but preform better, like Xiaomi YI or Blackview Hero 1.

    Your questions, experiences and suggestions

    Like on any other article on this site, if you have any sort of question, idea, doubt or you want to tell us about your experience of using this camera, just click the post comment button bellow and leave a reply.

    I would gladly update this article, once more info is available, and if significant firmware update appears. Until then, happy recording.

  • SOOCOO C10 WiFi Action Camera Review

    SOOCOO C10 WiFi Action Camera Review

    It seams that Chinese manufacturer SooCoo is warming up to get into a big league of action camera creators. After their release of very interesting, but yet not perfect SooCoo S60, company launched a new WiFi camera on the market, humbly called – SooCoo C10.

    Camera has a WiFi, can record video in full HD and comes with lots of bells and whistles. Further more it has a waterproof housing which apparently is waterproof up to 40m.

    SooCoo C10 WiFi Action camera in waterproof case
    SooCoo C10 is a successor of S60. Can it beat the predecessor?

    In this article, I will review this action camera, preform various tests, but also show you how to set it up, present to you all the functions and ways to get the most out of it.

    The price for this camera goes as low as 79$, which is certainly pretty good for what it offers.

    SooCoo C10 Specification

    Bellow is a table which presents official specs of this camera. Specifications are great way to judge the quality of a certain product, but when it comes to action camera they can always be tricky, since all cameras seams to be similar.

    Check out the official specification table bellow. Do not worry if you do not get every single number and term, I will try to clarify and review most important ones a bit later in the article.

    [go_pricing id=”socooc10″]

    Design

    Since I previously had a chance to buy and review S60, I was so excited when I heard that a brand new camera by SooCoo appeared. I expected the company to push their own design and innovative solution and present something interesting, just like they did few mounts ago.

    Bummer.

    As soon as I opened a pack, I was disappointed. Not because they have fewer accessories inside the box compared to competitors or anything like that. My frustration was seeing SooCoo stepping down and decreasing costs when it comes to packing and design.

    Their camera looks like any other action camera from China this year. Nothing fancy. Nothing cool. Nothing funky. They managed to completely blend in in hundreds of others cheap action cameras originating from this Asian country.

    I do not think they are the only one to be blamed for this. Lets take a moment and blame the market as well. People expect action camera to have certain look, shape and design. If it does not look like a GoPro, it is not an action camera, right?

    Nope.

    This time, they did not go with crazy black and orange colors. Camera comes only in one color – silver and looks standard shaped and sized.

    Box itself looks slightly better and bit more quality then SJCAM or Amkov boxes for instance, but again, nothing groundbreaking when it comes to package and camera design.

    What’s inside the box?

    The additional gear inside the box is pretty standard. If you remember, their previous SooCoo model came with RC watch, waterproof case, wrist mount, etc. This time they drastically reduced the diversity of equipment which comes with the camera.

    Long story – short. Here is what you will get when you open the packaging:

    • 1x SooCoo C10 camera
    • 1x Waterproof housing
    • 1x 17 page manual (Chinese and English language)
    • 1x spare waterproof back cover
    • 1x USB cable for charging and file transferring
    • 3x switch supports (different sizes and shapes)
    • 1x fixed base mount
    • 1x mount adapter
    • 1x long neck base
    • 1x bicycle stand
    • 2x bandages
    • 3x ribbon
    • 2x 3M adhesive tape
    • 2x 3m self-adhesive mounts (flat and slightly curved one)
    • 1x wire rope
    • 1x cleaning cloth

    If you are totally new to action cameras, and never owned a one, you can easily get overwhelmed and think that its so cool to have all these additional gear. Of course, its great to have as much of these as possible, but trust me, not all of these are useful for everyone.

    Their previous model had a gear with a huge advantage – usefulness. This time its just OK. Nothing different, nothing special about the accessories. But also nothing wrong with it.

    Not until I wanted to mount a camera on a tripod have I noticed that something is missing. A mounting bracket. Huge disappointment.

    Without a bracket, you will always need to use a waterproof case to mount a camera on a tripod. Terrible. Especially because waterproof case always reduces the quality of footage.

    I can not believe what their engineers were thinking. Or lets better say not thinking. Excluding the bracket, possibly the most important piece of gear for cameras that do not have a mounting hole. Terrible gear choice SooCoo, shame on you! Bracket is essential piece of gear for cameras that do not have a mounting hole, and you forgot to include it? Oh dear.

    Luckily, since the cameras is identical in dimensions with SJ4000 I used SJCAM bracket. It is nearly a perfect fit and did the job. It fits a bit tighter then the SJ4000 and its a bit harder to pull out, but as long as it does not fall off, its great.

    Few words about the manual. It is on two languages only. Starts with bunch of Chinese marks, but do not worry, second part is on English. I am already used to the fact that Chinese action camera manufacturers do not give a damn about manuals.

    They do have some basic information, how to install the battery and connect to the WiFi, start and stop recording, but besides that you are on your own. Do not worry, I will clarify each and every option of these camera and show you how to use it, keep reading.

    Size

    SooCoo C10 WiFi action camera is pretty tiny. Its dimensions are 4 x 4 x 3 cm / 1.57 x 1.57 x 1.18 inches . Where as the box exterior dimensions are 27 x 18 x 7 cm / 10.61 x 7.07 x 2.75 inches.

    Weight

    If you are wondering what is the weight of SooCoo C10 camera, it weights around 46 grams without battery and 61g with a battery in it. It is without any doubt, one of the lightest cameras I have seen, which is huge plus. These measurements are done with my own scale, so slight variations are possible.

    Not that this info is useful, but just in case you are one of those guys obsessed with numbers – weight of an entire box with camera and all the gear is approximately 650 grams (0.65 kg).

    Weight of SooCoo C10

    Display

    Camera has a 1.5inch LCD screen. I wrote about pros of having a screen on a camera already, but lets revise :

    • Screen allows you to see what you are recording/photographing
    • Having an LCD screen enables faster access to the various settings
    Camera has an LCD screen which enables you to preview footage right away as well as set up various options.
    Camera has an LCD screen which enables you to preview footage right away as well as set up various options.

    Even though, this camera is WiFi and you can connect and change settings and preview footage from your mobile device, its always more convenient to do it via the screen. So, the screen comes as a big plus, though for some people its not necessary option. Bad thing is that screen always consumes more power, which means battery lasts shorter.

    Top left icon indicates in which mode you are photo/video/preview. Next to it are Timer and HDR settings together with microphone and battery indicator. Bottom of the screen shows time, date, and a length of video you are currently recording.

    Buttons and ports

    One thing I really like about this camera is that it reduced the number of buttons compared to its predecessor. Simplicity is great.

    For instance, the shutter button does 3 functions : It can be used to take photo or start/stop recording a video. It is also used as an OK button while you navigate through the menu.

    Finally, the biggest change is that while holding this button for few seconds you will turn cameras internal WiFi. However no matter how impressive this seamed to me at first, I realized later that it was not as good solution as I originally thought. It happens quite a lot of tries to turn the WiFi on, without starting to record at first. But after a while, I got used to it.

    Front of SooCoo C10 camera
    Front of SooCoo C10 camera
    1. ON/OFF – Mode button – Used to turn camera or on or off while holding it. When the camera is on, you can press it to switch between video, photo, preview and settings.
    2. 170 degrees lens
    3. internal microphone
    4. SD Card slot – this is where you slide your MicroSD card in. I recommend at least Class 10 card for all action cameras. Camera supports up to 32gb cards.
    5. USB port – this is where you put the USB cable to charge the camera or transfer the files to PC.
    6. HDMI – For previewing photos and videos on your tv as well as some other things such as Video Out, used for aerial photography mostly.
    7. Navigation arrows/ zoom in out – Used for navigating through the menu or for zooming in or out (4x digital zoom)
    8. Microphone
    Camera navigational buttons and microphone are on the side
    Camera navigational buttons and microphone are on the side

    Video

    SooCoo C10 is a WiFi action camera that can record videos in full HD at 30 frames per seconds. There are also various resolutions to chose from, though you probably wont use any of them except maybe for 720p 60 fps which is decent when you want to slow motion your video since you get smoother video the more fps you have.

    For normal recording, 30 fps is just fine. 60 frames per second in full HD is not possible with this camera. If 60 fps in 1080p is important, you can check Xiaomi Yi or Blackview Hero 1.

    Here is a list of all resolutions :

    • 1080p / 30 fps – 1920*1080 (default)
    • 720p / 60 fps – 1280*720
    • 720p / 30 fps – 1280*720
    • WVGA 848*480 60fps
    • VGA 640*480 60 fps

    Download free video samples

    I always recommend readers to download raw, untouched video files and play them on their own PC. Make sure to use decent video player such as QuickTime or VLC.

    On this link you can download sample videos I personally took. Note do not playback video in DropBox since, like YouTube it reduces video quality. Download files, do not preview them online.

    Photo

    Besides video, camera allows you to take still images in different resolutions.

    • 12M 4032 x 3024
    • 10M 3648 x 2736
    • 8M 3264 x 2447
    • 5M 2592 x 1944
    • 3M 2048 x 1536
    • 2MHD 1920 x 1080
    • VGA 640 x 480
    • 1.3 M 1280 x 960

    The quality and colors of your photos will depend on the setup. Be aware that you must learn how to adjust settings, to be able to get the most out of the camera. White balance is great option that can have a huge impact on how your video will look.

    SooCoo C10 is not that good when it auto WB. Try switching through different setups to see what works for you and what does not. Bellow are some photo samples I have taken with this camera. All images are compressed so that they can load faster on the website.

    I must apologize in advance for not being able to take more interesting photographs. I will try to add more images from this camera as soon as I come back from my next hiking trip. Due to my constant experimenting with resolutions and different quality, not all photos have been taken in correctly set quality. Some of them are in “fine”, where I should have taken them in “normal” since its much better.

    Anyway, I promise to add more photo samples soon. Until then, you can download raw samples on this link.

    SooCoo C10 Photo Sample Nature SoooCoo C10 WiFi Image sample

    Setting white balance correctly can have a huge boost to photo colors.
    Setting white balance correctly can have a huge boost to photo colors.

    SooCoo C10 WiFi camera photo sample trees

    Soocoo C10 photo sample 3

    That is why I recommend you to download original files here. Download them and preview them on your PC to see if this photo quality is satisfactory for you or you maybe need something better.

    One thing to note is that action cameras are primarily made for videos, so none of the action cameras creates perfect photos. None of them (for now) can not be compared with expensive DSLR or entry-level mirrorless cameras equipment.

    In my experience, SooCoo C10 makes decent photographs. Nothing impressive, but satisfactory considering its price.

    Settings and features

    There are quite a lot options that you can switch, turn on or off in this camera. Since C10  has an 1.5 inch LCD screen, its is quite easy to quickly go through options and set everything up. You can also change settings via the SooCoo App, but lets talk about the app in a moment.

    Camera menu is multilingual and supports different languages : English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Italian, Mandarin and Russian.

    Here are all the options. I did not cover some self-explanatory ones, such as format and date stamp, since they are pretty clear right away.

    Loop recording

    If your goal is to create shorter length clips and you do not want to worry about having to stop recording, you can turn on loop recording. By default its set to 3 minutes, which means whenever your video reaches 3:00 it will stop and start recording a new one. Personally for me this is not an option I need, so I always keep loop recording to off.

    • off
    • 3 minutes
    • 5 minutes
    • 10 minutes

    HDR

    If you are curious to learn more about HDR, you can check this article which explains HDR in details. This camera has HDR, but in my opinion it makes no difference weather if its on or off.

    Time Lapse

    Creating time lapse videos is one of the most enjoyable features of any action camera addict. Time lapse can be set to 1/5/10 fps. When on, it will take a photo every 1/5/10 seconds allowing you to create amazing videos. More on time lapse here .

    • off
    • 1 fps
    • 5 fps
    • 10 fps

    In order to make time lapse video, first you must chose the interval and then enter video mode and press record (OK) button. Make sure your camera is still. Using a tripod is also a good idea.

    CLARIFY TIME LAPSE INTERVALS HERE HERE HERE HERE

    G-Sensor

    All these features that SooCoo 10 offers are not new. Plenty of other Chinese action cams has them.

    However, if there is one feature that makes this camera stand out from the crowd, its the G-sensor. Even though it sounds like something extremely cool, it actually is not as impressive as it seams.

    When G-Sensor is turned of, camera will measure the movement in different directions and automatically start recording. This sort of info can help you when using it as a dash camera, or a camera inside your car. Camera will use G-sensor to detect significant or sudden movement and start recording. While this is great option for in car use, it can also trigger itself pretty randomly.

    Luckily you can adjust the sensitivity of G-sensor so that camera reacts to higher or lower shake.

    • off
    • low
    • medium
    • high

    In theory if you set G-sensor to high, C10 will be more sensitive on shake. Personally I haven’t noticed huge difference between these setups, though I have not tested sensitivities in a car.

    Exposure

    Exposure lets you manually modify brightness or darkness. It is hard to say which of these is the best as it depends on light and environment you are recording in. In most of the cases I use the default 0.0 exposure.

    • +2
    • +5/3
    • +4/3
    • +1.0
    • +2/3
    • +1/3
    • +0.0
    • -1/3
    • -2/3
    • -1.0
    • -4/3
    • -5/3
    • -2.0

    Capture mode / Timer

    Timer allows you to take single photo or photo each 2,5 or 10 seconds. This is great option for group photos. It also comes quite handy if you want to take a selfie with a monopod (selfie stick).

    • single
    • 2s timer
    • 5s timer
    • 10s timer

    White Balance

    I never get bored talking about white balance. Trust me, its because I have nothing better to do. It really has a major influence on how your video/photo appear. White balance will change warmth of your video or photograph. This cam has 5 different WB options :

    • Auto (default)
    • Daylight
    • Cloudy
    • Tungsten
    • Fluorescent
    White balance is important setting and can have a huge influence on how your video or photo look.
    White balance is important setting and can have a huge influence on how your video or photo look. (compressed photo sample)

    In the image above you can see how white balance changes colors of the images. In my personal experience, I got the best result when using cloudy and fluorescent in both cloudy and daylight situations. The colors are much better then on auto mode, which looks a bit bleached out. Daylight and tungsten are too warm for my taste.

    Color

    If you are one of those old-school guys who enjoys black and white and vintage looking images or videos, you will love the fact that you can change colors. There are 3 options to chose from :

    • Color (default)
    • Black and White
    • Sepia

    Bellow is a sample image of same object taken in all three setups.

    Different color options - color, black and white and sepia.
    Different color options – color, black and white and sepia. (compressed quality images)

    ISO

    ISO control how sensitive the camera is to light. You can chose from auto to 100-16000 ISO range. I noticed that camera handles light sensitivity pretty well automatically, so I always keep it on auto. The lower the light, the higher ISO should be. The higher the ISO, the more grainy footage will be.

    • auto
    • 100
    • 200
    • 400
    • 800
    • 1600

    TV Switch

    Switch to TV mode if you have the HDMI cable. This enables you TV Output, so that you can watch what camera is recording or simply to preview photos or videos on TV while you show them off to your friends or family (mini HDMI cable required, not supplied in the box).

    Motion detection

    Even though I always advice that in case you need a camera for home serious home surveillance, you should get a specific camera for that, its good to know that this camera has motion detection. This option in essence, activates video recording when it detects a motion. However it is too unreliable at doing this and can be used just for fun.

    Generally, it will detect only motion in close distance, not in the long one. I really do not know why Chinese software developers love putting this option in nearly any camera. In my opinion its pretty useless for this type of product.

    Sequence

    This is one of the options that confused me the most first time I reviewed their previous, SooCoo S60 camera. Even though it sounds confusing, it is pretty straight to the point. Once you turn sequence on, your camera will take few continues photographs instead of a single one.

    This feature is better known as burst mode in some other cameras. It is good for taking photos of objects or subjects in motion.

    Quality

    If by any chance (although I do not see why anyone would do this) you wish to change the quality of your video, you have 3 options available. Keep it on normal if you want the best setup.

    • normal
    • fine
    • economy

    Sharpness

    You can switch between strong normal and soft sharpness depending on your needs. I always keep mine to normal.

    SooCoo App – Worst App I have ever used

    Okay, we are now at the point at which I should explain to you how to use SooCoo WiFi App. In theory, camera apps should allow you to take photos, record videos, download them to your phone or tablet, control your camera remotely by having silky smooth experience.

    In theory.And if you are NOT using SooCoo App.

    The official SooCoo app is an absolute crap (pardon my language). It is pretty shame to even call it an app.

    Not only that camera app works slowly but half of functions are confusing and not working.

    Honestly, there is not a single thing I could do with this app. It managed to bug my entire phone and tablet. I even tried on 2 different phones – no success. As far as I am concerned, SooCoo needs to create an app.

    App is without any doubt the worst thing about the camera, which totally ruined a decent impression I had about it. If you are looking for a camera that you would like to control via a mobile device, you should avoid using SooCoo app, as it brings nothing but headache.

    There are 2 other alternative, unofficial apps that claim to work with SooCoo cameras, but I haven tested them, because I lost all my patience and nerves with the official one. I really hope manufacture will step up and finally fix this application that has not been working properly.

    If you are still interested in what this app brings and it features, here is a photo of its cluttered interface.

    Connecting camera to your PC

    In order to charge your camera via the USB, you have to plug in the USB cable in both camera USB port and your PC. Camera will charge only if its turned off. When the camera is turned on and plugged into a PC, you will see 3 options appearing on your screen :

    • Mass Storage
    • PC Camera
    • Video

    Mass Storage

    To transfer files from your camera to PC, simply select mass storage on the start-up. Camera should connect automatically. Simply copy/paste videos and photos to your personal computer.

    PC Camera

    If you already read some of mine articles, you probably are tired of me saying how much I love action cameras that you can plug into a PC and use it as a web camera. Well, this camera also offers web camera option. I have been using it and it works great. Why waste money on separate web camera, when this one will look decent for Skype talks?

    Video

    By enabling video option when the camera is connected to your computer, you allow the camera to be charged and allow you to record video and take photos at the same time. This is fantastic feature. Very important for people who have a power bank and wont to power their camera continuously.

    Summary

    Even though I was so excited when SooCoo announced their C10, I must admit it failed to meet my expectations in a certain way. I expected innovative approach and plenty of gear, since that is what they were famous for.

    However with SooCoo C10, manufacturer failed to create something new. Its pretty much similar to SJ4000. I am under an impression that the same company produces parts for both C10 and SJ4000.

    Price-quality wise, for around 80$ that this cameras is priced at, you get a pretty decent gadget. Software is pretty stable and I have not encountered any bugs while using the camera. It works pretty fast.

    User interface and navigation is pretty simple. I like the fact that the cam has only a few buttons which shows minimalistic approach. However with the minimalism in mind, they did not sacrifice the functionality.

    When it comes to video quality, camera handles pretty well in daylight situations but becomes slightly grainy in the night. Images are quite sharp but it seams that resolution has been interpolated, which means camera does not make true 12 megapixels photos.

    I am still quite mad that they did not include at least a bracket for this camera, so its impossible to attach it to anything that has standard camera 1/4 inch screw. It seams that engineers have been sleeping when determining the amount of gear that comes with this camera. I would rather see a camera bracket then plenty of useless wires, straps and cleaning cloth. If you do intend to buy this camera, you should know that it fits (not perfectly but fits) the bracket for SJ4000.

    The worst thing about SooCoo C10 action camera in my personal experience is the WiFi app. It is completely useless and buggy. If controlling your  camera remotely via the phone is important to you, you should probably check some other action cameras I reviewed.

    Because camera has an LCD screen, you are not tied up to an app. You can do everything without it.

    I hope that this short (ehm, well not so short) review and guide was helpful. If it was, feel free to drop a comment and let me know. For any questions or suggestions to improve this review, just click the post comment button. I am all fired up to hear what you have to say and reply to all of your questions regarding this product.

    If you think this camera is right for you, the lowest price I was able to find is on this link.