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  • Blackview Hero 1 in depth Action Camera Review

    Blackview Hero 1 in depth Action Camera Review

    Blackview, a Hong Kong based company founded in 2013, decided to step up and enter the competitive action camera market by launching two action cameras, controversially named Hero 1 and Hero 2.

    Blackview Hero 1 action camera
    Blackview Hero 1 action camera can record video in 2k at 30 fps and full HD as well as take photos at 16 megapixels.

    Okay, hold your horses – Hero? Isn’t that supposed to be a…

    Yep, we all know a brand that has Hero series, so lets just skip the part in which we talk about GoPro and their clones, or whatever you want to call them.

    I am sure plenty of people, including myself dislike the product name. So if you agree, lets skip the GoPro talk and  leave it to them to settle it in court if that is something they would like.

    Instead, let’s focus on capabilities and performance of this camera. Lets dive deep into it, and see its features. Most importantly lets together see if it worth the 139$ price-tag.

    I had few weeks to experiment with the Blackview Hero 1 camera and test out its performance and all options it offers. This will not only be a in-depth review but also a guide on how to use it and get the most out of it.

    What separates this WiFi camera from many other so-called GoPro clones (the terms so-called GoPro fanboys use) is the ability to record full HD videos in 60 frames per second, but also take photos at 16 megapixels. Additionally it supports 2k resolution (2304*1296 30 frames) and has large LCD screen (2 inch) compared to competitors in the same price-range.

    Blackview Hero 1 specification

    Lets take a quick look at the specs first. In the table bellow you will see official product specification provided by the manufacturer.

    [go_pricing id=”blackview_hero_1″]

    Difference between Blackview Hero 1 and Hero 2.

    As I already mentioned, there are two models of these newly launched cameras. Below is a table which compares them side by side by emphasizing differences only.
    [go_pricing id=”blackviewhero1vshero2″]

    As you see, the Hero 1 has big-brand Sony sensor in it, which is why it supports 60 frames per second. However Hero 2 has pretty neat remote wrist watch as an additional gadget, which allows you to control recording and taking photos via the wrist watch controller.

    If you are curious to see how these RC watches work, besides checking the YouTube reviews of Hero 2, you can check my review of SooCoo S60, which has similar feature.

    I must say I personally do not have a Hero 2 to compare image and photo quality, so I can only make a logical assumption that Sony sensor is better. So if you would need more fps and probably better video and image quality, you should go with Hero 1, but if you like the remote control via the RC watch, you can buy Hero 2.

    Everything else is pretty much the same, according to the official specs. Battery, size, weight, 64gb storage space, etc.

    Box content

    First thing that made me fall in love with this cameras was the packing. Okay, okay, I admit it, I mostly buy cheap gear with crappy packing. So for me this was pretty new and interesting.

    Lets also disregard that my mailman played soccer with my package prior to delivering it. My box arrived dented. At leas I am hoping they had great time shooting on a goal with it.

    Hero 1 is packed inside a box with a plastic top cover. Packing is quite elegant. I really like the fact that on the box there is not only a specification table but also an accessories list. Once you open the cover, you can remove the camera from the mount and open the “secret” compartment which hides a bunch of bells and whistles.

    Package of Hero 1 action camera.
    Hero 1 action camera package.

    Just in case you are wondering what’s inside the box, here is a list of all accessories :

    • 1x Blackview Hero 1 camera
    • 1x waterproof case
    • 1x bicycle stand
    • 1x 1050 mAh Lithium battery
    • 1x waterproof backdoor
    • 1x wall charger
    • 2x 3M adhesive tape
    • 1x wire rope
    • 3x plastic ribbon
    • 1x USB cable
    • 2x base mounts
    • 2x flat adhesive bases (helmet base)
    • 3x switch support
    • 1x bracket (for mounting camera onto a tripod)
    • 1x clip (used in combination with a bracket to attach camera to a belt)
    • 1x adapter
    • 1x fixed base
    • 1x cleaning cloth
    • 4x bandage

    As you can see, there is a ton of gear that this cam comes with. Do not think you will use all of these, as not all of them are useful for everything and everyone. I like the fact that battery comes separately in the box and not inside the camera, which means it won’t drain the first time you use it. Meaning, you will have a battery to test out the camera right away without having to charge it for the first time. But better charge it full, anyway.

    Additionally it’s great that Blackview included a wall charger. The one I got is for EU type sockets. I am not sure if there is one specific for US. If you are in the US, make sure to ask vendor if they have at least the adapter. Usually sellers will be glad to ship one to you free of charge. At least guys at will. Make sure to leave them a note at the checkout.

    Unlike the problem I previously had with SooCoo 10 which did not have a bracket for mounting a camera onto a tripod, Hero 1 comes with this useful tool. It’s worth mentioning that three plastic ribbons and a wire rope are pretty useless. I have no idea why Chinese manufacturers love to include them, probably because they are cheap and look useful, even though they are not.

    If you already had a chance to own a cheap action camera produced in China, you should know that the amount of gear is nothing unusual. You can check out other action cameras I reviewed just to compare.

    Accessories that come with all of these cameras are nothing of super high-quality, but it will be more than okay for most people. I personally never had a problem with the gear quality. I have been using it on my hiking trips, in high temperatures and it did good job for me.

    It should be mentioned that the manual (or rather a flyer) itself is quite brief and does not offer anything but the basics. It’s one of the shortest user guides I have seen. It is on English only.

    Design

    Camera does not come in different colors. There is only a single color to chose from – white. Even though the shape and size is certainly nothing new to the market, I really liked the design and the clean look of the Blackview Hero 1.

    The black line surrounding on-off button and lens give Blackview Hero 1 an interesting look. It’s interesting that nowhere on the camera itself will you see Hero 1 branding. Only Blackview.

    Camera comes in one color - white and leans towards minimalistic design.
    Camera comes in one color – white and leans towards minimalistic design.

    Size

    When it comes to shape and size of the camera, Blackview Hero 1 dimensions are 5.927 x 4.113 x 2.5 cm / 2.33 x 1.62 x 0.98 inches. If you are interested in the box (package) size, it is 26 x 11 x 11 cm / 10.22 x 4.32 x 4.32 inches.

    Weight

    Since I reviewed a handful of similar cameras, I did not need a scale to realize Hero 1 is heavier than most of the models I reviewed. It weights around 71 g with a battery inside, and 53 g without it. As you can see it’s not the lightest camera on the market, but can’t be considered heavy as well.

    LCD Screen

    One thing worth mentioning, is that camera has a 2 inch LCD screen, which allows you not only to preview what you are recording, but also post-view your videos and photos, and change settings. Display resolution is 960 x 240.

    Buttons and ports

    Overview of all buttons and ports on Hero 1 Blackview camera
    Overview of all buttons and ports on Hero 1 Blackview camera

    Video

    • 2304*1296 30 FPS 16:9
    • 1920*1080 60FPS 16:9
    • 1920*1080 30FPS 16:9
    • 1280*720 60 FPS 16:9
    • 1280*720 30 FPS 16:9

    One thing that was quite appealing to me is that camera offers resolutions that are very useful. They did not stuff video resolution choice with bunch of useless settings which were cool in the 90’s.

    So all of these resolutions are pretty neat and I like the supported options. As you can see, the camera supports 2k resolution, but also 60 fps and 30 fps in full HD. This means that people who like creating slow motion or like to slow down the aerial videos recorded with a drone will be happy.

    As you might know, 30 fps are okay for most of the users, but at 60 fps the footage looks more realistic.

    However realistic a video is not something that you always want to achieve, so if you want movie-like silky effect, you can use 30 frames per second. One thing I wish the camera included is perhaps 120 fps, at least in 720. This would allow better looking slow motion videos, since the more frames per second the footage has, the better it will look in slo-mo.

    Download sample footage in different resolution on this link.

    Photo

    With 16 megapixels lens and Sony sensor, Blackview Hero 1 fulfilled my expectations. Photographs produced are very good. These are quite sharp and come in true 16 megapixels that can easily  compete with Xiaomi YI, which was one of the best quality action cams when it comes to taking photos. The image sensor used is Sony IMX206.

    Photo samples bellow are compressed in order to load faster on the website. I recommend you to download original samples I’ve taken on this DropBox link. Preview them on your own PC and check if it satisfies your needs.

    In my opinion, photo quality is really good. Colors look natural. The lens is quite sharp, and once you zoom into an image, you will realize it’s the true 16MP and not interpolated.

    Beautiful field,in Vrgudinac, a village in Serbia.
    Beautiful field in Vrgudinac, a village in Serbia.

    Close up yellow flower at around 30 cm. It is obvious that the camera blurs the flower a bit ,while the background is perfectly sharp. This is normal with any action camera, since their lens is not intended for close up photography. However this camera does very good job at it.

    Yellow flower close up Blackview Hero 1 Test (compressed quality)
    Yellow flower close up Blackview Hero 1 Test (compressed quality)

    Landscape photo test under strong sunlight. Camera preforms quite well, though slight rainbow reflection is visible when camera faces direct Sun. Important thing is that image does not darken once it faces sunlight, which is the case with many similar cameras.

    Landscape photo test under strong sunlight. Camera preforms quite well, though slight rainbow reflection is visible when camera faces direct Sun.
    Landscape test when facing sunlight from the side

    Bellow is a close up test at around 50 cm distance. Camera produces great, sharp images of objects in front and background.

    Close up at around 50 cm.
    Close up at around 50 cm.

    The image below shows how camera gives quite a lot of barell-roll distortion. While this is normal for all cameras with wide angle lens, I noticed  that this camera produces wider angle, but also gives more distortion then few others I tested.

    You can see how this old stable in the background looks oddly shaped, while the subject in foreground looks normal. However what amazed me is the wide angle, camera managed to capture both corners of the house without any problem.

    What annoyed me is data stamp in the right corner, it too high. I would prefer if it was in the corner, so that it does not distract. Not a huge deal, but its worth mentioning. Of course you can turn date off, like I did for all above images.

    Blackview Hero 1 photo quality test barell roll chicken

    Preview

    Third and final mode, called preview, is used to enable you to take a look at images or videos you took. Like any other camera it allows you to browse through footage or images. You can playback videos as well, or just delete both photographs and films that you do not like.

    Battery and memory card

    Camera uses removable 1050mAh battery, which gives around 100 minutes or recording time in 1080p 30fps and around an hour in 60 fps. As you see, battery life is not impressive, therefore I always recommend you to get one or two spare batteries and a power bank if you intend to use camera longer then that.

    Power supply is  5V / 1A. Battery is rechargeable and can be charged via the USB cable or AC adapter.

    Hero 1 supports up to 64gb MicroSD memory cards, which is twice the capacity of some of their Chinese competitors. Additionally it has 2GB of internal memory. For best video results, it is highly recommended that you use reputable memory card brands of class 10. Though you can use whatever class and capacity you wish, at your own risk.

    I have tried this camera with 3 different memory cards : Samsung 16GB MicroSDHC, Sony 64GB MicroSDHC and Sony 16GB MicroSDHC. All worked great.

    User experience and navigation

    If there is one thing that really pissed me off about this camera its the user experience it provides.

    To make things funnier, on their product page, it says

    “Every tiny detail on the device is optimized for your user experience.”

    What the… Seriously Blackview? Optimized? Sorry, but this camera is everything but user-friendly. You have a mountain to climb. Software needs to be improved.

    Blackview Hero 1 is probably one of the most annoying interfaces I have seen.

    The fact that manufacturer wanted to simplify and eliminate additional buttons made usage of the camera quite frustrating. I literally wanted to pull my hair out while browsing through the interface, trying to explore various settings. It is quite a learning curve, even for me, a guy who has tens of action cameras.

    In the next two paragraphs I will explain you how to do some basic functions with the camera. I wrote them in order to make things easier to you, but also to illustrate the amount of effort it goes to do some basic stuff with the camera.

    Turning camera on/off

    How many times has it happened to you to accidentally call someone on the phone, or turn some options while the device was in your pocket?

    Come on, be honest.

    Well, to turn on Blackview Hero 1, you simply need to press an ON/OFF button. No need to hold it. Camera turns off very quickly, but in my experience, it is much better to have to hold button for a second or two instead of pressing it quickly.

    Okay, I might be exaggerating a bit, but imagine you are hiking, camera turned on accidentally, and just when you are about to reach the top of the mounting with a breathtaking view you realize battery drained and the only footage you have left is the inside of your pocket. I really hope they will fix this in future updates, even though its not a big deal.

    Until then, you can set the camera to turn off automatically after 1-3 minutes of inactivity and prevent accidental turning on.

    To turn the camera off, you need to hold the very same button for 2 seconds.

    Switching through different modes

    If you think I was whining unnecessarily about on-off, I dare you to try to switch through different modes. As I mentioned camera has different modes : video, photo and a preview. To switch between different modes, you have to hold (hold, not press) the upper navigation arrow (UP ARROW).

    Maybe I am an idiot, but it happened to me few times to hold button shorter then it should so instead of switching modes I entered the setup, etc. Quite frustrating. I would prefer if a on/off button had modes option and left and right arrows… Well the arrows should do what an arrow should do – be used for up/down navigation.

    It certainly takes some time to get used to the interface.

    If you notice that you videos have no sounds, its because you probably pressed (DOWN ARROW) once you were in video settings. I have no idea what they wanted to achieve with this sort of user interface, which is everything but intuitive and user friendly.

    Settings

    Now that I managed to find a way, through rather annoying navigation, its time to show you the settings this camera offers. Even though, most of action cameras in similar price range have lots of options that can enhance your creativity, this camera is pretty limited when it comes to changes you can do to your photo/video through the camera itself.

    There is no white balance or exposition setup. Camera apparently does that automatically. Besides some standard options which are pretty self-explanatory such as date stamp, format, sound on off, language, camera has these set-ups available :

    • Quality
    • Auto Power Off
    • Anti-flicker
    • Auto Back-light
    • Button sound

    And that was everything as far as setups are concerned. So if you are one of those guys who loves to “hack” the footage by playing with various options, you should know that this camera is pretty closed and limited for now. I am not sure if the future firmware updates will bring something more.

    On the other hand, by eliminating lots of these features, camera became quite simplistic and its good for people who just want to turn it on and take photos or record a video and not worry about setups, ISO, exposure and other more advanced stuff.

    Quality

    If by any chance you wish to downgrade the quality of your video, you can do that inside the quality setup :

    • Super fine (highest)
    • Fine (medium)
    • Normal (lowest)

    Auto Power Off

    This great option allows you to set time interval in which camera should turn off if its idle. So if you are not recording or touching any buttons, camera will turn off automatically. This is a life safer, since if you are oblivious like I am, you probably will forget to turn off the camera at one point.  You can chose from these intervals :

    • Off (to disable auto shutting down)
    • 1/3/5 minutes.

    You will hear a countdown timer if you have the button sound enabled before camera automatically turns off.

    In order to save as much battery as possible I keep mine at 3 minutes.

    Auto Back-light

    Similar to auto power-off, auto backlight option will turn off the display only. Depending on which time you specified, display will blackout, which again, saves quite a lot of battery.

    You can pick from :

    • off
    • 10 seconds
    • 30 seconds

    Once the display gets turned off, you can activate it again, by simply pressing any of the buttons. Its similar process to the screen saver on your PC.

    Button sound

    If you are irritated by the beep sound camera produces, you can disable it. That’s all this feature does.

    Blackview Hero 1 App – Third part software with additional features

    Even though I do not like the fact that the camera does not have its own application and uses third-party one that plenty of cameras with Ambrella chipset use, I was pleasantly surprised that it unleashed few additional features that are not available in the camera settings.

    Besides extra settings exclusive to the app itself, user experience is pretty simple and straight to the point. There is not much to think. Few simple buttons, not many options to be tweaked.

    But lets go step by step. The manual recommends the use of LinkinEyes app.

    There is always a risk with third-party apps, and I would really like to see Blackview having their own app which they will work on and adjust solely to their cameras. While there is nothing wrong with the app at the moment of writing this review, you never know what LinkingEyes developers will do.

    How to connect to an app?

    In case you do not want to read the manual, here is a brief tutorial on how to connect to the Blackview Hero 1 – LinkinEyes app.

    Enabling camera WiFi

    First, turn on your camera. Hold the OK button to enable the WiFi. If you turned on the WiFi, first you will see a large WiFi icon all over the camera LCD Screen. Next, you will see a password. Leave the camera now, take your phone/tablet.

    Connecting Blackview Hero 1 to LinkinEyes app

    Now that you turned the camera WiFi, its time to connect to that WiFi network. I assume you already installed the LinkEyes app previously. Good. Go to your phone WiFi Settings, and find a network with the name amba_boos (yes, seriously, whatever that means, that’s the one you need). The default password is 1234567890.

    Enter it and connect to a network. You are all set, now just find the LinkinEyes app on your device, and enter it while being connected to amba_boss network. If you did everything the right way, your camera is now connected. This password entering step is required only for the first time. If your device remembered the password, it should automatically pair with the camera WiFi next time.

    App Interface Explained

    As I mentioned previously, app is quite simple and intuitive, you should get used to it quite quickly. It does not offer many features, but hey, neither does the camera, so its logical. Bellow is a simple overview of app interface. I understand this should not be explained to everyone, but its good for the newbies.

    Simple overview of LinkinEyes App and its functions
    Simple overview of LinkinEyes App and its functions
    1. WiFi indicator (indicates weather or not you are connected to a camera network)
    2. Resolution Button (if you are in video mode, it will show video resolutions, or photo res in image mode)
    3. Video Mode – Chose this if you would like to remotely record a video, then click record button (#8)
    4. Photo Mode – For taking photos (chose this then click #8 button to take an image)
    5. Date and time
    6. Settings – Here is where you can change some basic camera settings remotely. Whever you select here will reflect and change to your camera as well.
    7. Preview mode – Preview image and footage, download them to your phone directly or share them on Social Networks right away.

    App Settings

    Besides nearly all settings that you can adjust with the camera, there is one option that seams to be exclusive to the app. Inside the Settings (button #6 on the image above) chose Capture Mode. You will see that capture mode allows burst shooting together with normal and time lapse.

    This is interesting feature for those you who like photographing fast moving objects, or sport events. By enabling this, your camera will take 3 continuous images once you press the shutter button. I have no idea why they excluded this feature from the camera setup. We can only hope they will add it in some of their firmware updates.

    Mass Storage Problem with Windows 7 and 8.1

    UPDATE 7/15/2015

    If you are having issues with your PC not being able to read the camera, please use ONLY original USB cable that came inside the box. None other are working apparently. This solved the mass storage issue described bellow.

     

    I really had so much fun with Blackview Hero 1 action camera until I decided to plug it into my PC and transfer videos and photos. Holly crap! I am not sure if this is a problem exclusive to my camera, or all other have same issue, but once I plugged this fella into a PC  my Windows 7 did not recognize the device.

    I tried so many times. I tested different USB cables. Tested it on Windows 8.1 – nothing. Both my laptop and PC were unable to recognize this camera. Huge, huge, huge disadvantage and problem, that I truely hope can be fixed. Maybe its my memory card problem? I tried 3 different types of cards, still nothing.

    Because I was unable to transfer files directly from the camera, I pulled the Micro SD card and put it into a card reader. If you have a device either a mobile phone, tablet or a camera that supports that very same card you can easily transfer the files. But if you do not. God help you. Lets hope these issue will be fixed in some of their firmware updates, because if it does not, its going to be a major issue.

    I would really appreciate if anyone who owns this camera already, can leave a comment and let me know if you are facing this same issue. Or its just my item with the problem.

    Customer Support

    Updated 8/3/2015

    When it comes to after-sale support, I expected much better treatment from Blackview.  Even though, there is an option to send an email to them, the chances they will reply are equal to ones me winning a lottery. Its been over a two weeks now, and I never received a reply about firmware updates for instance.

    That is why I tried to contact them on Skype. This way I got instant reply from one of their representatives. Even then, I did not get my issue resolved.I was given a link which did not work. After that I was told they can not put a link immediately.

    It is great that  you can contact them on Skype, but it is unthinkable that they ignore emails. So if by any chance, you need to reach out to customer support, use Skype, and add after-sales representative. Funny, but it works.

    Summary

    Blackview Hero 1 is great camera. It produces great 16 megapixels photographs and sharp, videos in fantastic wide-angle. It can record in 2k resolution and in 60 fps in full HD. Huge advantage is great Sony sensor which makes sure that the camera preforms good even under the direct sunlight.

    The WiFi app it has is pretty simple and easy to use, which is a huge plus. Packing of the camera is fantastic and it comes with a lots of additional gear. 2 inch display that camera has is a huge advantage.

    One more thing in favor of this camera is that it has decent battery life considering it has a large screen. I like the fact that it allows you to control battery consumption by selecting screen saver and auto power off.

    Besides its weird name that obviously tries to resemble to a  GoPro, it is however priced 40% more then most other Chinese action cams and gives slightly more of a fish-eye distortion. I must agree that for what it offers and the gear that comes with it it justifies the price.

    User interface and navigation is annoying and gives a lot of headache. Additionally my camera had problem with transferring file to a PC as my computer did not recognize camera. (NOTE: I am not sure if other cameras have this same issue, I can not confirm).

    I do not like the fact that camera leaves not much to a consumer to play with. It does everything automatically and sets everything up. You basically can not do much. No white balance switching, no ISO control ,etc. For new users, this probably is an advantage, but for people who want to have more creative freedom its a disadvantage.

    NOTE : You can buy Blackview Hero 1 here (price includes free worldwide shipping)

    To sum up, after a few weeks of using this camera on a regular basis in both indoors and outdoors, I can say that is is pretty decent product that has few bugs that have to be ironed up in the next software update.

    If you are a tech-savvy person, you will get used to navigation after few days, but if you are not be aware that there is a learning curve. Even though it can not be called under 100$ camera, it is pretty good choice for people who can stretch to 140$.

    If the camera is a bit pricey, you can check some cheaper alternatives I reviewed | All Action Camera Reviews here|

    Questions, suggestions and your opinion

    As you might not, I highly valuate you, the reader. Your questions and ideas are always more then welcome. If there is something you would like to know that isnt presented in the article, just leave a comment.

    If you already own a Blackview 1 or even 2, it would be awesome if you could comment and let me and community know how it works for you.

    I hope this review managed to help you in a way.If you found any mistake, or want me to add something up, just let me know.

    Until next time, happy recording.

  • How to store, organize and protect action cameras?

    How to store, organize and protect action cameras?

    Ever since I got a hold of my first action camera, I struggled to find the most convenient way to store not only the camera, but also bunch of gear that came along with it. After few unsuccessful attempts, I finally managed to find  few ways which I will show you in this post. So this post is are all about storing and protection of our precious action cams.

    Action camera storage cases and bags
    There are no limits when it comes to action camera storage. Be creative, use whatever you have if you are on a budget.

    Bear in mind, that there is no perfect way to store and organize anything. We are all different, have different tastes, preferences,needs and are attracted by different things.

    Personally for me, it was important that the camera and a gear are easily accessible, tidy,safe and not expensive. Since I do not have much space in my room, I strived to find solutions that will not take half of it.

    It is important that you evaluate what matters for you. Is it the money, design, function or something else? Everything can be found online these days. You just have to be creative. If you are willing to experiment and do few DIY projects, possibilities are limitless.

    My priorities for action camera storage are :

    • Accessibility – So that I can get camera and gear quickly
    • Minimalism – does not take much space
    • Safety  – protects my camera and gear
    • Price – I am on a budget, so I need affordable solutions

    No matter if you have a GoPro, Xiaomi, SJCAM, Sony or any other camera, I hope that this short article of mine will give you some ideas and get your creative juices flowing.

    Toolbox – Perfect for storing multiple cameras with a lots of gear

    Since lately my collection of these tiny looking cameras increased, I found toolbox perfect for storing them inside the comfort of my home.

    It looks decent and you can fit plenty of additional gear inside.

    Additionally, the cameras and gear are neatly organized and quite accessible. Usually toolboxes have multiple “floors” and dividers, so you can grab what you need pretty fast. The best thing about that is that you can store ton of stuff in them. Not only cameras and basic gear, but also tripods, power banks, cleaning kits, you name it.

    GoPro and other camera storage toolbox
    Toolbox is great for storing large amount of gear and cameras. You can store tripods and plenty of other bulkier accessories.

    One additional convenience is that most of us already have a toolbox. They are available in nearly any DIY or tool shop, even supermarkets have them. I am using a pretty beaten up plastic box which my father no longer use for his  tools.

    So I “borrowed” one from him. Ehem, okay you got me. 🙂 I took it, but lets call it a long term loan. So dad, if you are looking for your toolbox, I don’t have it.

    Problem with these toolbox is that most of them does not look stylish. I mean, take a look at mine. Its pretty beaten up. I wont lie, it even has a hole on it, which I promise to fix this weekend. If you take a better look at bottom right corner, you will see a gigantic whole caused by me dropping the whole toolbox. Luckily cameras and gear were undamaged.

    Another downside is that toolboxes are usually bulky and heavy to carry around.

    I love displaying my cameras in a toolbox, but I do not use it on a go.

    Seriously? Oh come on? Are you absolutely sure you do not have one? Well, if you want to buy one, there are tons (and I mean tons) to chose from on Amazon. They come in various shapes, size and most importantly price.

    >>> Buy toolbox on Amazon (link)  or eBay (link).

    I am certain that as my gears and camera collection increases, I will have to get one of those fancier, more durable ones and finally return this one to my pop.

    Foam case – James Bond style

    Foam cases are without any doubt the fanciest way to kill two birds with one stone. Look and functionality. The main problem with foam cases is that they are heavy and non mobile (especially the larger ones). Similar like with toolbox, they are mostly used indoors as they are too bulky to be carried around often.

    GoPro foam case for storage
    Foam cases are awesome way to store cameras, but like toolboxes, they are bulky and heavy for the outdoor use. – Image Credits – Goprocases.au

    Your camera and gear will look tidy and less cluttered. However, no matter how spacious these cases look, they leave plenty of room that you can not use, due to thickness of a foam. So besides their price, the biggest con is that they have lots of unused space.

    >>> If foam case is something you would like to get here are some links to get them online :

    Tool organizer – Great for storing cameras accessorizes

    Tiny plastic tool organizers are probably the best way to organize plenty of  base mounts, adhesive tapes, spare batteries and gazillion of  screws. They are cheap, light-weight and easy to fit into a backpack if you are hiking for instance. The main disadvantage is that most of these toolbox are too small for you to fit your camera or any larger piece of gear.

    This means that you will have to have a separate bag for the camera. However, if you hike and you have a camera on your chest or head, you can slide the organizer in the backpack, as they are not heavy at all.

    I must admit, that like with larger toolbox, I already had this organizer. Well my father had it for his fishing gear, but I borrowed it 🙂 I promise Ill get it back dad, eventually!

    Small tool organizers can be found everywhere, but if you prefer online buying :

    If you have a tool store nearby, check it up, you might find some good deals there as well.

    Smaller toolbox GoPro storage and protection organizer for accessories
    Small, plastic organizers are prefect for smaller pieces such as mounts, straps, bases and screws. However camera can not be stored in them due to their size

    Action Camera Bags – Great overall

    Main purpose of most action camera bags is to enable best way for you to fit both cameras and accessories in one. Since there are litterraly hundreds of types, it is very hard to classifiy them. The easiest way to somehow distinguish them is by size :

    • Large
    • Medium
    • Small
    Large, small and medium action camera cases bags
    Larger, medium and smaller storage bags for action cameras. All have pros and cons, but are great value overall.

    Larger protective bags can carry out 2-3 GoPro sized cameras and lots of additional accessories, depending how you organize them. They have foam surface, so you can cut it to suit your particular storage needs.

    Medium bags can usually hold only one action camera. Like bigger sized ones, they have foamy interior so its easy to customize them according to your needs.

    Smaller sized bags are so tiny that most of them can fit into your pocket. While they are the least expensive ones, they are the hardest to find. Usually you have to buy a smaller sized earphone case and put some foam to achieve the look you wish. They are made to hold one camera with waterproof case on it (or two without a waterproof housing) and only few tiny pieces of gear such as screws, etc.

    [phpzon keywords=”GoPro case” num=”4″ country=”US” trackingid=”pevly0d-20″ templatename=”columns” columns=”4″]

    These tiny fellas are best way to carry your camera in your pocket or a smaller sized handbag. You can not put much gear in them on the other hand, which is their biggest disadvantage. Also as mentioned, there are not many brands that produce smaller bags, so it usually requires some DIY work. Trust me, its worth it. I love to carry my camera in it, when I do not require any additional gear.

    If you plan to use your camera under water, you should know that there are waterproof and non waterproof ones. Usually the ones that are resistant to water are more expensive and harder to find. However there are some brands that specialize in water-resistant items for GoPro, but you can fit nearly all other cameras in it. I will not pay attention to particular bag brand however. Lets leave this for some other time.

    Storage and protection bags for action cameras large, medium and small on pile
    Size always matters. Smaller ones are perfect for carrying on hike, where as larger ones can hold great amount of gear and can easily be slipped into a backpack.

    Summary

    To sum up, obviously there are no rules when it comes to action camera storage. You can be creative and experiment. These are just my ideas and how I protect my cameras. For any questions, feel free to leave a comment bellow. I hope that I managed to throw some ideas with this post.

     

    How do you store your GoPro or any other camera?

    If you already have a method of storing your camera and gear, please share your way in the comments bellow. I will be more then happy to update this post with more ideas and organizing methods. Do not be shy, just click that post comment button and you are good to go 🙂

  • Xiaomi Yi vs SJCAM SJ4000 – Which camera is better?

    Xiaomi Yi vs SJCAM SJ4000 – Which camera is better?

    In this article I would like to compare two popular action cameras : Xiaomi YI and SJCAM SJ4000. I will determine differences between the two and perform various tests.

    Specification

    The best way to begin comparing any camera is to compare their official specs. In the table bellow, you can see what both of these cameras have to offer and what is the difference between Xiaomi Yi and SJ4000 according to specification.

    [go_pricing id=”xiaomiyi_vs_sj4000″]

    According to the official specs, YI has a better hardware, where as SJ4000 is more feature-rich and versatile. Since I never judge a book by its covers, nor gadgets by their specs, I performed different tests and compared these two action cameras side by side.

    Simply click next to go to the next slide, or if you have keyboard press left/right arrow to slide. Lets begin!

  • Amkov AMK5000S WiFi Action Camera Review

    Amkov AMK5000S WiFi Action Camera Review

    In this article, I would like to walk you through the setups of this camera, show you its features and tests its performance. There are not many serious reviews of this particular model online, so I decided to create one and present you my experience of using it.

    At first glance, AMK 5000S does not look different than any other action camera produced in China this year. However, there are some features that make it stand out from the crowd. 

    Amkov AMK5000S action camera
    Amkov AMK5000S action camera is slightly improved version of previous AMK5000.

    AMK 5000S is more advanced successor of AMK5000. The difference between the 5000S and 5000 version is that newer, S version offers 20 megapixels images and supports TV out mode, which is essential for people involved in areal photography with their RC quad-copters.

    Everything else, including the design are the same. In my opinion Amkov AMK5000S brings improvement made in firmware, not the hardware, but its still better than its predecessor.

    Unlike few other action cam brands from China, it is very hard to find something out about Amkov. At the moment of writing this review they do not have an official website, but I was informed they are working on one. Amkov as a brand is quite new to the market.

    AMK5000s is manufacturers latest product. Camera comes in three different colors and offers full HD video recording and apparently 20 mega pixels photographs.

    Amkov AMK5000S Specifications

    In the table bellow you will see a complete specs with a list of features both hardware and software that the camera has.

    [go_pricing id=”amk5000s”]

    What‘s inside the box?

    The first thing I did not like about AMK5000S was immediately visible on the packing. Nowhere on the box will you see the name of the camera or a brand.

    The only title on the box says : “SPORTSCAM – Excellent mate for your phone and tablet”.

    What on earth does that mean? Mate? I want to know who produced the camera, not a slogan that an 8-year old could come up with!

    Reasons for this may be different, I suspect that there are multiple action camera factories and brands that use these sort of boxes produced by third-party company which designs them. For many customers inability to see and identity the manufacturer of the camera causes weird feelings inside a stomach.

    Box itself is pretty similar to the one that SJ4000 camera has. Even the camera that you see peeking through the plastic boxed windows does not have any mark at the front except modest 1080p sign and a WiFi icon.

    Only when you open the box and turn the camera to its back, will you be able to see tiny logo AMKOV 5000 at the battery back door. Either Amkov does not like branding their products, which makes no sense or someone else is producing cameras for them and they simply add a back cover. These are just my guesses, it does not have to be like that, as I have zero proof for this.

    In my opinion, if you made a camera that you are proud of, why hide your company name on the back? Display it. If you are not proudly displaying your brand, does that mean you do not want people to know you made it?

    Like lots of other action cameras from China, this one also comes with a huge amount of accessories. Here is a list of everything you get :

    • 1x camera
    • 1x battery
    • 1x manual
    • 1x waterproof case
    • 1x spare back door for waterproof case (this one is not waterproof, it enables you to have much better sound while camera is inside the case)
    • 1x wrist band
    • 1x USB cable
    • 3x screws
    • 1x base mount
    • 2x switch supports
    • 2 x buckle wire (ribbon)
    • 2x adhesive 3M helmet mount base (flat and curved)
    • 1x base mount curved

    Design

    The camera looks identical to a GoPro Hero 3. It has 0.65inch screen on the front and a  power button in the left corner. LED lights on front are tinier than the ones that Hero 3 has. Obviously the idea behind the design was to make camera identical to a GoPro.

    Amkov AMK5000s vs GoPro Hero 3 design
    Nothing new about the design. Camera has a front LCD and the style is the same as GoPro Hero 3.

    I personally do not like when manufacturers do this. I prefer innovative designs that will distinguish camera and not make it identical to big-brand ones. On the other hand I understand the decision, because their customers expect action cameras to look like big brand one, so that they can brag that they have a 100$ GoPro 🙂

    Lets now leave all the GoPro rant on the side, this is not a place to talk about their cameras. With that in mind, design of the camera is attractive. Camera is made out of plastic materials where as the top,side and bottom are rubberized. Rubber prevents scratching, which is pretty useful.

    Buttons and ports

    At first glance it seams that camera has too many functions and buttons. But most of these are necessary and enable you quick access to camera functions. Bellow is an illustration which shows all the buttons and ports that Amkov AMKA5000S has.

     

    Amkov AMK5000S action camera buttons and functions
    Camera buttons and functions overview chart. For detailed description of each button check bellow.
    1. Shutter Button – Take photos or start/stop recording a video
    2. WiFi – Enable/Disable WiFi
    3. Power/Mode Button – Turn camera on/off by holding this button. Switch between photo, video and different resolutions by quickly pressing it.
    4. LCD Display – Shows mode, amount of photos you can take or length of videos you can record based on your memory card. Right corner shows if memory card is inserted, left bottom corner shows battery status.
    5. Operation indicator (will be orange if camera is turned on)
    6. Charging indicator
    7. Lens
    8. LED light (flash green when camera is recording)
    9. USB port (used for charging via PC or transferring files to your PC)
    10. Micro SD Slot (this is where you put a MicroSD memory card which is necessary in order to take photos and videos)
    11. HDMI – you can use this port to preview photos and videos directly on your tv via mini HDMI cable.
    12. Back door lock. – Pull it gently to open the back door. This is where the battery is located

    Lens and sensor

    Camera has 170 degrees, f/2.8 lens and Sunplus 6330M sensor chipset. For detailed overview of the sensor, please check photography part of this review.

    Amkov AMK5000S action camera front lens and chipset
    170 degrees lens and Sunplus 6330M Chipset.

    LCD Screen

    Unlike many other action cameras I tested, AMK5000S has a different position of the screen. Instead of being at the back, which is where most of action cameras have it, it has a small colorless screen at front.

    The main purpose of the screen is to enable switching through different modes and resolutions quicker.

    Having this sort of LCD is handy, but I must say I do not like the way it works. Many times I was annoyed with having to click mode button few times just to switch resolution. Additionally since all the switching is controlled via one button, if you want to switch from photo to video, you need to click 5-6 times. The main problem is not clicking.

    The main problem is that changing resolution is too easy.  I was frustrated when I realized  that 70% of videos I recorded on my hiking trip, hoping to have nice footage to present to you, were in very poor 720p! I was furious, and I still am. But I learned my lesson. Before recording with this camera, I always make sure the res is set to 1080p x 30fps. It would be much better if resolution changes were moved to app, because lets be honest, nobody will use inferior resolutions that often.

    Besides switching resolutions and seeing battery life, screen is pretty much useless. You of course, can not preview photos/videos you have taken, you can not take a look at it while recording. Nothing.

    I must say that Xiaomi had much better solution with their YI camera. For battery they have an LCD screen, and for modes switching they implemented a top led that blinks.

    So my final judgement. If the camera has to have an LCD, than it should have many functions and make user slick user experience. Amkov is somewhere in between, it has a screen, but there is not much you can do with it. So it has a screen, but it does not have it, if you know what I mean.

    AMKOV AMK500 LCD Screen at front
    Tiny front screen is what makes AMK5000s different than other low-budget action cameras
    1. Photo/Video Icon – This shows the mode in which you are currently. You can switch modes by pressing mode (power on/off button) shortly. You can also change resolutions by pressing mode button.
    2. The countdown shows the remaining hours/minutes that camera can record with the SD card you are using. If you are in photo mode, it will show the approximate number of images you can take until your memory gets full. Pretty handy feature.
    3. The tiny icon in the left of the screen illustrates an SD card. If you see it, that means that the camera read the MicroSD card. Not the most necessary feature in my opinion.
    4. Battery icon shows how much battery you have left.

    Video

    Recording video is most important aspect of a video camera. Bellow you can take a look at a my full video review and see how camera preforms. Since YouTube always compresses videos, please download raw samples to see how videos look.

    Camera can take videos in 30 frames per second in full HD and HD resolutions.

    • FHD 1080p 30 fps
    • HD 720p 30 fps
    • HD 720p 60 fps

    In bellow video you can see not only image samples, but also an entire overview of this camera, if you prefer watching video to reading, you can find all info in this review of mine.

    Photography

    Like nearly any other action camera these days, AKM5000s allows you to take photographs. According to the official specification, camera can create images in following resolutions :

    • 20M (5152 x 3864)
    • 18M (4896 x 3672)
    • 14M (4288 x 3216)
    • 12M (4000 x 3000)
    • 10M (3648 x 2736)
    • 8M  (3264 x 2448)
    • 5M  (2592 x 1944)
    • 3M  (2048 x 1536)
    • 2M  (1920 x 1080)
    • VGA (640 x 480)

    Even though most of the people would believe the specs, experience thought me to be very careful, especially with action cameras. Most of manufacturers interpolate resolution. Simply, this makes your photo appear as it was 5152*3864 taken with 20 megapixels. However once you closely examine, or simply zoom in the image, you will see that image will get blurry even if you zoom it to 150%.

    Wait, I am getting a bit too technical. Simply, sensor determines what will is the true resolution. If your camera has a 3 megapixels sensor, that means it can not produce 20 mp photos, only 3 mp ones.

    Many other cameras on the market, including SJCAM products use this very same method. In my opinion this is quite deceptive, even though most of the users will not notice that the resolution has been tweaked out in software.

    Camera uses Sunplus 6330M chipset. I tried to find out more about this chip set and what is the actual maximum resolution it produced, but I was unsuccessful. Since Amkov does not have a website yet, I tried contacting the Sunplus, but at the moment of publishing this review, I still do not have a reply of an actual specification for this chipset.

    However, even without that I can assume that the real resolution is somewhere between 2-5 megapixels. If you are reading this, and have some info on camera real maximum res capabilities or the Sunplus 6330M, please let me know.

    One really strange thing I noticed while testing this camera is that larger resolutions reduce the field of view.

    Take a look at the image bellow.

    Field of view (angle of view) is much wider when the resolution is lower, which is quite strange.
    Field of view (angle of view) is much wider when the resolution is lower, which is quite strange.

    Obviously the angle is much wider on 2M 1920 x 1080 compared to 20M (5152 x 3864). After making series of photographs, I came to a conclusion that the wide angle on images can be achieved only in 2mp 1920×1080 resolution. This leads me to a logical assumption that the true resolution of these images is 2 megapixels, 1920 x 1080.

    Even with all these shady things such as hiding sensor, advertising unrealistic capabilities, Amkov 5000s produces decent photos for its price. Check few of the images I created during my hiking trip few weeks ago.

    Photos are taken in different environment and weather conditions.

    Do not forget,  this images on the site are compressed, which means their quality will not be the same when you download them from this site. That is why I uploaded some sample photos, and you can download them here. The white balance setup used here is mostly auto.

    Photo sample 2 Amkov AMK5000S

    Camera obviously handles well the blue and green color on a sunny day. I really can not complain much.

    Photo sample 3 Amkov AMK5000S

    Photo sample 4 Amkov AMK5000S

    Photo sample 5 Amkov AMK5000S

    For the price, images are pretty sharp, in both close up and long distance.

    Photo sample 6 Amkov AMK5000S

    One thing I noticed is that occasionally cam struggles to get proper exposure, or the image brightness. It is pretty bad when there is too many light. Take a look at the sky in the final sample image.

    Photo sample Amkov AMK5000S

    AMK i-Cam WiFi App

    Like any other action camera that supports WiFi, AMK5000S has its own app which lets you to control camera remotely within the WiFi reach. Within the app, besides taking photos and videos, you can also chose from different settings which you can only adjust inside the app, not on the camera. So the app gives you some extra capabilities.

    User experience and navigation is not complicated at all, though the design of the app could have been perhaps a bit more intuitive. There are many buttons on the screen, and its looks slightly cluttered. On the other hand, its easy to get used to it.

    Amkov Amk I-Cam app interface (Android)
    Amkov Amk I-Cam app interface (Android)

    In the right corner of the app you will see the remaining battery icon and white balance setup. On the left hand side, we have 3 icons. Those 3 icons will change their functions depending on the mode you are in – video or photo.

    First one allows you to change video resolution. Second one is movie clip time or duration.Final one, is a setup tool icon, where all the remaining settings are set up. One thing that annoyed me is that in video mode, there are not many settings to change.

    Speaking of modes, photo/video switch can be done by clicking on photo or video icon in the right corner of the app. Above it there are two digital zoom arrows which allow you to zoom video or photo.  Central button is shutter button which triggers and stops recording or takes photos.

    With app you can download photos/videos directly to your phone/tablet.
    With app you can download photos/videos directly to your phone/tablet.

    Video Mode options

    Bellow are the functions that you can change while you are in video mode.

    White balance setup

    By changing a white balance, you switch the warmth and the coolness of the video. There are 5 WB options to chose from :

    • Auto
    • Daylight
    • Cloudy
    • Fluorescent
    • Incandescent

    While most people use auto mode by default, in my tests the most natural footage came out when I used daylight or cloudy. It depends on weather conditions. Sometimes auto balance will give the best result, sometimes its best to change to daylight or cloudy. Remaining two setup, fluorescent and incandescent look dreadful. Bellow is just an illustration on how video quality changes, just by changing a simple settings – white balance (WB).

    What most people do not now, is that auto balance really looks inferior compared to daylight or cloudy.
    What most people do not now, is that auto balance really looks inferior compared to daylight or cloudy.

    Date stamp

    By leaving date stamp on, your videos or photos will have a date in the corner. I always try keep this off. Date stamping is available in both video and photo setup.

    Format camera

    By formatting the camera, you will actually format the memory card. Usually this option is called format memory card. This option will erase all data from your memory card.

    Reset setup

    Reset setup option will revert all settings to factory default. It will not delete photos or videos on your memory card.

    Movie Clip Time

    Within this option you can chose the duration of your clip. If you chose 1 min for instance, your camera will start a recording new video after 1 minute.

    • OFF
    • 1 min
    • 5 min
    • 10 min

    Unless you absolutely want to have many tiny clips on your memory card, keep this option off.

    Photo Mode options

    In both modes, many options are similar. Bellow are the ones that do not apply for video mode. As I said, photo mode has wider choice when it comes to setup tweaks.

    Continuous shooting

    One option that I love seeing in an action camera is continuous shooting. When enabled this option will allow your AMK5000S to take 3 or 5 photographs once you press the shutter button. This is fantastic feature if you want to capture fast moving object. Weather if its your friend who is snowboarding or your kid playing soccer. I prefer 5 photos of course, and I wish they added additional 7 or 8 photos option.

    • OFF
    • 3 photos
    • 5 photos

    Exposure

    Exposure will determine how dark or light your footage is. You can leave it to default 0. All of my videos and images are on default exposure. You can however manually set up adequate number by choosing any of these :

    • 0.0
    • +-0.3
    • +-0.7
    • +-1.0
    • +-1.3
    • +-1.7
    • +-2.0
    This sample image shows how two exposure extremes influence the brightness of your images.
    This sample image shows how two exposure extremes influence the brightness of your images. NOTE : Images are over and under exposed on purpose. Nothing wrong with the camera, just me playing around with settings.

    Self Timer

    When you want to take a selfie or capture a family or a group image, self timer is great option. Once you press shutter button on top of the camera Amkov AMK5000s will delay taking an image for 2 or 10 seconds. 2 seconds should be enough for a quick selfie on a monopod and 10 seconds for the group photos when your camera is on a tripod for instance. My opinion is that manufacturer should have added few more options, such as 30 sec or 5 seconds.

    • OFF
    • 2 seconds
    • 10 seconds

    AE Metering

    There are 3 metering modes. To learn more about metering, check this great article on Wiki.

    • Center
    • Multi
    • Spot

    ISO

    ISO value determines how sensitive your camera is to light. The lower the light, the higher the ISO value should be. Higher ISO values might grain your images in some cases. Unlike many other cameras I reviewed, Amkov A5000 certainly has the widest range of ISO values to chose from. You can use auto ISO for start, but also experiment with other values once you learn how to use other, more important options.

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

    Bellow is just an illustration of various ISO, starting with lowest 100 to 1600.

    Color effect

    Even though I expected color effect to be interesting setup it really does not do anything useful, at least for me. Perhaps, these settings that change color of your images are just not something that suits me, but I believe they should have done far better job if they wanted to enable users to be creative while taking photos. The only two effects I would even consider would be monochrome, which in essence is black and white photo, and sepia, which gives a vintage touch to your images.

    There are 7 options to chose from. My recommendation is to keep color effect to normal, but as always you can play around, perhaps you have more imagination than I do.

    • Normal
    • Monochrome
    • Sepia
    • Negative
    • Red
    • Green
    • Blue
    Color effect changes color of your photo, not the video. Perhaps its a bit extreme, don't you think?
    Color effect changes color of your photo, not the video. Perhaps its a bit extreme, don’t you think?

     

    Scene

    I have not found any practical use when changing scenes. What this does is it adjusts sharpness and adds a bit of dark or light tone.

    • OFF
    • Landscape
    • Indoor scenery
    • Portrait
    • Night scenery
    • Sport

    amkov amk5000s scenes

    What makes Amkov AMK5000s different then other cameras?

    One of the biggest questions I had is : Why should anyone chose this camera instead of tons of others that are available in the same price range? So here are some features that Amkov camera has over few others.

    • ISO 100-1600 (most others have 100-400 ISO range)
    • Smaller size
    • Color effect
    • Scene selection
    • Bridge between LCD cameras  which eats up the battery and one without LCD which are hard to navigate
    • Looks like a GoPro? (I do not like this, but some people do)

    As you can see, there are not many differences.

    In my opinion Amkov has to step up as a brand, establish a website and customer support before everything else. They can not hide behind retailers. It looks shady, even though it might not be. Additionally they need to stop copying GoPro. People appreciate brands that innovate, brands that reduce prices and offer different solutions. Since this is their second camera, I truly hope they will learn from their mistakes.

    Where to buy it? Deals, discounts and coupons

    Use coupon code AMK5000S. Get one on this link and get a discount.

    Price includes free worldwide shipping, which makes it the best deal I found online.

    Summary

    I was really excited when I first ordered this camera. Deep down inside, I was hoping it has a true 20 mega pixels photography, even though my mind told me that is not possible for the price. Besides plenty of accessories, small size, slightly longer battery life and pretty decent app there are not many things that make this camera stand out from the action camera crowd.

    Good thing is that software is pretty stable, camera boots up fast, takes photos quickly and is easy to navigate. Videos are decent and images are quite sharp for a low price-tag. I have not encountered any bugs while testing it out. Manual is above the average for Chinese action camera.

    Even though there are variety of options and settings to play with, not all of them are useful.

    Market is harsh, market is a battle. Amkov has a mountain to climb in order to establish themselves as a brand. They are on a good way, but there are many things they can do better. They need to be Amkov and not a Cheap Go Pro look-alike. Its not how you build your business and brand.

    Your questions and comments

    I really hope I managed to present this camera to you and help you decide weather or not to get it. I did my best, but there is a possibility I made some mistakes. If you spot a mistake, please let me know and I will update this post as soon as I can. If you feel that I should have focused on particular feature more, let me know, and I will try to add more info.

    Your questions are always welcome. Feel free to ask me anything about this camera, I would like to help you out. If you own this camera, please share your experience in the comments, it is always good to review a product from different angles.

    Thank you for taking your time to read this. Make sure to check out my other action camera reviews and hand-picked camera deals and discounts.

    Happy recording!

  • SOOCOO S60 WiFi Sports Action Camera Review

    SOOCOO S60 WiFi Sports Action Camera Review

    Recently I was approached by one of the employees who wanted me to do a review of SOOCOO S60 action camera. So, in this article I will do my best to present to you all the features, test the preference and show you pros and cons of this camera. Finally I will summarize my experience while using it for over a month.

    S60 is a WiFi action camera made by Chinese company SooCoo. It can record videos in full HD 1080p 30 fps and take photos at 8 megapixels. Additionally it comes with lots of useful gears and features that make it a bit more then an average under 100$ camera.

    Update 8/3/2015

    This is an update to my review of this camera, originally published on 9th May 2015. Firstly, I would like to tell you that my SooCoo S60 burned out, completely. All of its electronics died. Camera seams to overheat when used for longer period of time, especially when its charging while recording.

    I tried emailing customer support of SooCoo, but never received a reply about why my camera does not work anymore. This show their lack of respect towards customers. A brand that leaves customers without a support, cant be considered serious, nor could their products.

    Additionally, ever since the review is published, few people left a comment confirming their camera died after being used underwater. This is not a single case, few people here and on few other forums reported this.

    So, I would feel very bad if I left this review untouched from 9th of May. That is why I decided to update it.With all those troubles, I would recommend you to get another camera. A waterproof camera is not waterproof unless you feel safe using it. And with SooCoo S60, you just do not feel that safe.

    Please note that all points in the review are still absolutely valid. This was just an update.

    Specifications

    The quickest way to introduce you with this camera, is to show its specs. Do not worry if you do not understand all of them. I will clarify the most important ones a bit later in a this article. But for now, here is a specs overview for SooCoo S60.

    [go_pricing id=”soocoo_s60″]

    Design and packing

    First thing that I noticed about the camera is that it does not tend to have too much resemblance with other action cams. Unique design and shape is something that you have to respect. While most others try to copy GoPro, these guys tend to be different.

    SooCoo is serious about packing as well. Camera comes in sturdy cardboard box. But that’s not all. Camera and all the accessories are then packed in the firm, protective bag. All the parts are wrapped up in the zip-lock bags.

    What’s  in the box?

    SooCoo s60 comes with lots of stuff inside. Here is what you get inside the retail box :

    • 1x camera
    • 1x remote control watch/bracelet
    • 1x protective/storage bag
    • 1x bike mount
    • 1x base mount
    • 2x 3m adhesive tape
    • 1x wrist bandage
    • 1x buckle
    • 1x USB charger with adapter
    • 1x USB cable
    • 1x 1050mah Lithium battery
    • 1x user manual
    • 1x screw

    Accessories

    One thing that blew my away right away is that unlike all Chinese action cameras, SooCoo S60 comes with a gear that you actually need and can use. It comes with just about everything an average person needs. Many other manufacturers will include far more accessories that are totally unnecessary.

    SooCoo S60 gear includes RC watch, protective bag, charger, mounts
    Pretty much everything that most of the users will need

    Remote control bracelet

    RC bracket, or watch as manufacturer calls it (it does not show time, duh!) allows you to control your action camera remotely. You can not do any complex operations with the remote-control bracelet, but its not like you would want to change resolutions while you are riding a motorbike or diving.

    With it, you can start/stop recording videos or take photos and switch between photo and video mode.

    One thing I liked about the SooCoo S60 RC bracelet is that it is water-proof. I asked manufacturer and they confirmed that RC watch is waterproof for up to 60m, just like camera is. Good think is that this watch does not use WiFi, which means your battery will last much longer.

    SooCoo S60 RC watch or bracelet left, camera on the right
    RC watch enables you to remotely control camera. It is also waterproof

    I never had an action camera with this sort of gear, but I must admit I found it not only nicely looking, but also quite handy. One thing I would recommend is if you are allergic to any sort of rubber, you might want to change the rubber band that bracelet has and use something a bit more comfortable and breathable.

    In my experience rubber band was a bit uncomfortable and your wrist will sweat a lot. If you plan to use it for a extensive period of time continuously you might get a rash, because rubber wont allow your skin around the wrist to breathe enough. Okay, I am aware its a bit awkward I am telling you all this, but its good to know ,right?

    All in all, no matter how you call it, bracelet or watch, its very useful gadget especially when you are on the move. I hope other brands will consider this sort of gear instead pushing WiFi apps.

    How to connect SooCoo S60 camera and RC watch?

    1. Turn on your camera.
    2. Press menu button twice to enter the system settings.
    3. Use left and right navigational buttons and find remote match option.
    4. You will see “Waiting Remote Match” on the screen
    5. Press both buttons on your remote control watch.
    6. When camera and RC watch are connected, you will see “Remote match OK” on your screen.

    My only remark about the RC watch is that I would like if it was slightly faster to pair it with a camera.

    Waterproof up to 60m

    What makes it stands out of the crowd is the ability to be waterproof without any additional housing or case. Whole camera is waterproof for up to 60m according to the manufacturer. So far, all the cameras that I have were waterproof up to 40m or less. However, since I am not a diver, I was unable to test its underwater performance, but you can take a look at few videos on YouTube.

    Since I am sure many of you will ask : Yes, it really is waterproof by itself and does not require any additional case. It is basically a camera inside a factory sealed waterproof case.

    Even though this sounds fantastic, there is a disadvantage while recording, like with most of the cases. Camera will tend to smudge videos sometimes, especially when you are recording fixed object while moving around it.

    I am fully aware that huge portion of waterproof cases smudges videos, because of the plastic they are made of, but since this camera can not be pulled out of its case, I hope this is something they will improve in future releases as it is quite annoying.

    Buttons and ports

    Simplicity is not something that this camera has. Although most of the functions work out of the box, I feel that camera has too many button commands. Its not a huge disadvantage, but just personal preference.

    On the other hand having many buttons, means you can access many features quickly. Bellow is an overview of all SooCoo S60 buttons.

    Butttons and functions of SooCoo S60
    Buttons and their functions
    1. Power Button – Turns camera on or off. When turning on it requires to be held for 5-6 seconds. Only then your camera will turn on. This prevents accidental turning on. This button can be also used to delete files once you are in playback (photo/video preview mode)
    2. Record Button – Depending on mode you are using (photo or video) this shutter button is used to take photos or record or stop a video.
    3. LED lights – Lights will be turned on, off or flash when you press LED Light button (#5)
    4. Mode Button – Switch between photo, video and preview mode.
    5. Lights ON/OFF
    6. Navigation arrows (used for navigating through the menu settings). These keys can also be used to zoom in or out (4x digital zoom). If you are in preview mode, by pressing these arrows you can increase or decrease the volume level.
    7. Settings – immediate access to the settings
    8. OK Button

    On the side, camera has nice two ports that are hidden behind the cover :

    • USB port (used for charging your camera and transferring files to your PC)
    • HDMI (you can use this one to preview images or videos onto your TV)

    Both of these ports are sealed with a cover, that you need to unscrew with a nickel to open it. This way ports are protected from the water. You always should be careful when unscrewing this cover. Because of the plastic material camera is made of, you can easily scratch it. Use only a nickel. One more thing to be careful about – if you are going underwater, make sure that the cover is firmly closed. Otherwise water can enter into your ports.

    UPDATE 6/14/2015 – If you want to have better sound quality on your SooCoo S60, you can remove the side cover which covers USB and HDMI ports. Sound improves drastically. However if you plan to use camera underwater, make sure this cover is sealed, do not leave it open. Huge thanks to Manuel for this trick.

    Video

    While SooCoo S60 outranks huge portiion of low budget action cameras when it comes to accessories and usability, video recording is not as good as I expected. Do not get me wrong, camera can record full HD videos that are quite sharp.

    Even when recording close up and distant objects, camera preforms quite well in terms of sharpness.

    Video color on the other hand is quite cold and does not look as natural as it should, especially if you using Auto White Balance option.

    You can of course have influence on video warmness by switching through different white balance. It will take a while until you figure out which option works best for your environment and weather condition.  But I will talk about white balance a bit later in this article.

    In my experience, the best possible results came when I used cloudy or fluorescent white balance. But, lets talk about it a bit later in this review.

    Though I believed colors would be the only problem with SooCoo S60, once I tested how it preforms when facing direct sunlight, I knew what is its biggest issue was. When camera is exposed to strong, direct sunlight, it will darken the video from time to time. In my opinion this is an issue with exposure.

    Take a look at my full video review of this action camera that includes a lot of samples.

    Download sample videos and photographs

    If you want to download some sample photos and videos that I took, please check this link on DropBox and watch them on your PC to fully see how raw videos and photos look.

    Photos

    Bellow are sample images, taken by myself on few of my hiking trips. Please note that images have been compressed in order to load faster on the web page. However, I have uploaded original, uncompressed photos to DropBox, and you can download them here freely.

    Similar to SJCAM SJ4000 and M10 cameras SooCoo advertises that camera can take photos in 10 megapixels. This is a false claim. Even though inside the settings you can set up 12mp your image quality will not increase. The only thing that will increase is the size file.

    When you zoom in the image, it is obvious that SooCoo S60 takes photos in 3.5MP (according to the image sensor specification). Like with video, depending on the weather, some of your photos might look bleached out, or colorless. For better color quality, you will need to set proper white balance inside the settings.

    Keep reading and I will let you know how.

    I highly recommend you to download original size photos to your PC and take a look at how images look.

    SoocooS60 Sample Photo Flowers
    Flowers. Compressed image quality
    SoocooS60 Sample Photo Nature Waterfall
    Small waterfall. Sample image. Compressed quality.
    SoocooS60 Sample Photo Nature 2
    Each image can have a time stamp in the right corner. Time stamp will show date/time of your photos.
    Rabbit sample image taken with SooCoo S60 camera
    Images in white balance set to Auto, look bleached.
    SooCoo S60 photography sample field grass sky
    grass field, white balance cloudy, compressed quality
    SooCoo S60 photography sample flowers tulips
    tulips, white balance cloudy, compressed quality image

    If you noticed last two images look far more natural when it comes to color. That is because for those shoots, I switched white balance option from auto to cloudy. Results are much, much better.

    4x digital zoom

    SooCoo S60 has 4x digital zoom. You can zoom in or out by holding navigation arrows (up zoom in, down zoom out). Here is a sample image of zoomed tree. This is what you can expect from digital zoom. In case you do not know, there is huge difference between optical and digital zoom.

    SoocooS60 Sample Photo Nature Tree Digital Zoom X4
    Tree zoomed in 4X

    Digital zoom only crops photo, reducing its quality. The same effect you get when you crop image in Photoshop or any other photo editing software.

    SoocooS60 Sample Photo Nature Tree
    Normal view without zoom

    Settings

    SooCoo S60 has pretty similar user interface and menu like SJ4000 camera or SJCAM M10 Cube. It is however a bit less cluttered and has less options.

    Capture mode

    Capture mode is an option which allows you to set up camera to take single photos once you press the shutter button or work like timer (delay taking photo for certain interval, great for group photos)

    • single
    • 3s timer
    • 10s timer
    • 30s timer

    Image resolutions

    Here are the resolutions of images that you can select inside the settings. Once again, please note that these resolutions are inaccurate. No matter which res you choose, images will look the same, but only increase in size.

    • 12M 4032 x 3024
    • 8N 3264 x 2448
    • 5M 2592 x 1944

    Sequence

    Sequence is quite confusing name for what this option does. Basically when sequence is turned on, and you are in the image mode, the camera will take 3 images instead of a single one. This is very nice feature for sports photography and fast moving objects. However I would really like to see more options, like 5 or 7 photos per second.

    This mode is quite similar to Xiaomi Yi Burst mode, but has only one interval to chose from.

    Quality

    One of the useless features that manufacturers love to include is quality of video or audio. By choosing fine, your video quality is the best. Why would anyone want poorer quality of photos or videos?

    • Normal
    • Fine
    • Economy

    Sharpness

    Inside sharpness option you can chose from 3 different setups :

    • Strong
    • Normal
    • Soft

    I have been keeping my to normal, the default option.

    White Balance

    Changing white balance can have a significant boost to your video. SooCoo S60 has 6 types of white balance options :

    • Auto
    • Daylight
    • Cloudy
    • Tungsten
    • Fluorescent
    • Underwater
    White Balance option SooCoo S60 action camera
    Proper white balance settings can influence your video a lot.

    As you can see in the photo above, different settings give different color balance in your pictures or video making them look cooler or warmer. Even though auto mode seams like a reasonable option for people who are just starting out, in my experience auto WB is pretty poor.

    You will get most natural looking colors when you chose cloudy, tungsten or fluorescent. To learn more about white balance in general, check this article.

    Color

    Unlike white balance which changes warmth or coolness of your images or video, color option will entirely change how your videos and photos look. There are 3 choices to chose from :

    • Color
    • Black and White
    • Sepia

    ISO

    When you adjust ISO setting, you’re changing your camera’s sensitivity to light. ISO settings that SooCoo S60 offers are :

    • Auto
    • 100
    • 200
    • 300
    • 400

    Lower number like 100 makes camera less sensitive to light, where as high number like 400 make it more sensitive. I have not been paying much attention to ISO. I always live it on the Auto, since it works pretty well for what I am using my cam. To learn more about ISO , this is good video.

    Exposure

    There are different exposure values you can set inside the settings. I keep my camera at a default +0.0, but you can experiment and determine what works best for you. More on exposure here.

    • +0.0
    • + -1/2
    • + -1/0
    • + -3/2
    • + -2.0

    Image Rotation

    When turned on, image rotation will flip your video or photo upside down. This is useful setting if you want to mount your camera upside down, because the video output will look like it has been recorded normally.

    Even though S60 is not a dash camera, this option can come handy if you wish to set it inside your car, mounted on suction cap mount.

    [phpzon keywords=”SooCoo S60 camera” num=”4″ country=”US” trackingid=”pevly0d-20″ templatename=”columns” columns=”4″ paging=”false”]

    Anti-Shaking

    Even though anti-shaking sounds like a useful option, its not. There are two most common questions when it comes to this :

    • Does this mean my video has stabilization? – No.
    • Does this mean my images will have stabilization – Yes.

    Video Settings

    • off
    • 30 seconds
    • 1 minute
    • 5 minutes

    Cyclic Record

    When cyclic record is on, S60 will record a video file under specified interval (2, 5, 10 minutes) and save it to your SD card. When memory gets full, it will start overwriting new files over your existing ones/ The oldest video gets overwritten first. I recommend you have this option off, unless you want to use SooCoo S60 as a car camera.

    Note: There is a 1 frame overlap between videos.  The last frame of the file saved becomes the first frame of the video.

    • OFF
    • 2, 5, 10 minutes

    TV Out

    Camera supports TV OUT via HDMI, so you can preview your videos and photos directly onto your TV.

    Motion detection

    If you want to use this type of camera for home survailnace (which I do not recommend) you can turn on motion detection and camera will start recording video once it detects a motion. I will not go deep into this feature, as it is the same as the one in SJ4000. So if you want to read more on motion detection, please check this link and find motion detection paragraph.

    Web camera

    SooCoo S60 can serve you as a perfect web camera. I have been using it when calling someone on Skype, and large amount of my friends noticed that my video looks great.

    To use it as an action camera, plug it into your PC. You will see two options on your screen :

    • PC Camera
    • Mass storage

    Chose PC camera and click okay. Your PC should automatically add drivers and recognize it.

    Mass storage

    Mass storage is used for transferring files to your PC. If you want to export files from your camera, plug the camera via the USB into your PC. This time chose mass storage. Your PC should open a folder after few seconds where your files are located. Copy them onto a folder on your PC.

    LED Lights

    SooCoo S60 camera lights led
    Front LED lights can flash in two different ways.

    One of the most interesting features of the SooCoo S60 are the two LED lights that can be turned on. While they are not huge boost to recording in low light, they do improve the low light close up objects.

    The reason camera has SOS feature (lights will flash once you turn them on) is for diving purposes as far as I was able to understand.

    Battery

    Camera can be charged via USB cable when plugged into your PC USB port or via the AC charger in the wall. Great thing is that you get the AC adapter. Depending on where you purchase your camera, make sure to tell seller where you live so that they can send you a proper adapter.

    Battery backdoor
    Battery backdoor

    During charging, camera LED light will be red. Once charging is complete, red button will turn off. To improve charging efficiency, you can turn off the camera while charging. Important thing to note, is that camera can record while being charged.

    Approximate 1050mah lithium battery life is around 2 hours of continuous shooting in 1080p 30 fps mode.

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    Summary

    SooCoo S60 is one of those cameras that do not get as much attention as they should. What I really love about this camera is accessories. I think that camera offers nearly everything an average action cam user needs. I wish they somehow included a head or chest mount, but I am more than happy with everything that came inside the box. Camera has an LCD screen which makes things much easier when recording.

    Call it RC watch or bracelet, but this is one of the most amazing pieces of gear I have ever used. It makes recording in extreme situations easier. When I am hiking, I put his fella on my wrist, camera onto a head or chest mount, and focus on hiking instead of the camera.

    The biggest advantage of SooCoo S60 is that it is waterproof and does not require any additional case for that. Huge bonus is that camera can be used as a web camera, which for me was quite handy, as I use Skype often.

    No matter how awesome the camera looks, I must admit I do not like plastic material it is made of. The only reason for this is that it easily gets scratched, so you must be very careful with it. Funny thing is that its an action camera and they should have predicted people will not pay much attention when using it.

    Additionally I am not a huge fan of video quality, especially if you do not set up white balance correctly. Even though video is very sharp, colors are not as good as for instance Xiaomi YI. Because of the waterproof case, video will something smudge. When faced to direct sunlight, camera will sometimes darken a video.

    While its not a perfect action camera, SooCoo S60 has lots of features to offer for a very cheap price. I am looking forward to SooCoo ‘s new products. With few tweaks and better lens and sensor, they can become quite serious competition to  cameras in 400$ range.

    Who should buy it

    In my opinion, this is good camera for people who do not want to invest action camera gear, since it comes with nearly everything you’ll need. Because of its waterproofs body, divers will be happy with having camera that does not need an additional case.

    SooCoo S60 is great camera if you are just starting out, or if you want to give this to someone as a present. It is great present to younger users, as it not only looks like a 500$ camera, but it will do the job for most of the youngsters.

    Unlike some others action cameras I used, SoooCoo S60 can be used in extreme situation.

    Where to buy it?

    Alternatively, you can take a look at eBay or Amazon.

    Your questions are always welcome

    I truly hope that you found this article helpful. I did my best to present this camera objectively. If you already own a SooCoo S60, it would be great if you can tell us about your experience on using it.

    If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave a comment bellow. I am always more than happy to help you guys out.

    After this camera, SooCoo also released new model called C10, you can check its full review here.

    Happy recording!

  • Xiaomi Yi Action Camera Review – Is it really a GoPro Killer?

    Xiaomi Yi Action Camera Review – Is it really a GoPro Killer?

    The tech world has been buzzing (going insane) about recently released Xiaomi Yi Sports Action Camera. The adjective that was used to describe it is – a GoPro killer.

    Xiaomi YI is low-budget action camera that can record videos in 2k and create 16mp photos.
    Xiaomi YI is low-budget action camera that can record videos in 2k and create 16mp photos.

    Now with all that hype, paid media releases and other nonobjective articles by crappy paid bloggers it was inevitable that according to their articles Xiaomi created a zillion times better camera then a GoPro for just a fraction of big brand‘s price.

    If you are here to read how this camera is a GoPro killer and other crappy rant, you can stop reading this review right away. Yeah, that’s right.

    I do not write those sort of stupid comparisons.

    I was not paid by anyone. I will not say cool stuff about a product that I have not tested, like many other people in this virtual space do. If you are here just to see if a camera is really a GoPro killer, its not so here is your answer.

    There is no way that a normal person can think that a an 64-90$ camera can beat 400$ one.

    It is not realistic.

    It happens from time to time, but…

    Has Xiaomi brought a new interesting product that is better then most other GoPro alternatives? Will the product have huge influence on the market? – Yes.

    Is it a perfect action camera? No it is not.

    Now that my rant is over, if you are still reading this, lets get to the point.

    In this review I will do my best to do the most objective and in-depth review of Xiaomi YI that you can find on a web. My review is not a paid one, I bought my cam with my own money, so you can count I will be completely neutral and unbiased.

    Additionally this article, can serve as a manual to all of you who already bought the camera and want to learn how unleash its power. I hope that this sort of introduction did not scare you. I was just really mad with way people market products. Lets now dive into this review and see how this camera preforms.

    Xiaomi YI Action Camera Overview

    Xiaomi YI, is lightweight camera, that can record videos in full HD in 30 and 60 frames per second. Moreover, camera can capture still images in true 16 megapixels. Its biggest advantage is its price and overall value that you get from this low-budget device.

    YI camera comes in two different editions :

    The only difference between these two models is that, a travel edition comes with a monopod, or a selfie stick that you get inside a box. If you are a selfie addict and do not have a selfie stick yet, you can get the travel edition.

    The selfie stick itself is really neatly looking one, and definitely looks much better then most cheap ones you will find online. I personally got a standard version, and I am glad I did, since I am not addicted to taking selfies.

    Specifications

    Table bellow features Xiaomi Yi specifications according to the manufacturer. I have added few more details and enriched the table with all relevant information.

    [go_pricing id=”xiaomi_yi”]

    Whats inside the box

    Once you open a box of Xiaomi Yi Standard edition, here is what you get :

    • 1x Xiaomi Yi Camera
    • 1x USB to microUSB cable (used for charging and transferring to your PC)
    • Rechargeable 1x 1100 mAh battery

    Travel edition includes all form above plus the :

    • 1x selfie stick

    Design

    There is a reason why Xiaomi is regarded as a Chinese Apple. The company pays so much attention to packing, design and compatibility that its no wonder why their CEO is called the next Steve Jobs.

    I had a chance to own few Xiaomi products, and I must say I was never ever disappointed with design and packing. Minimalistic approach is visible even on a cardboard box.

    The battery and the USB cable are packed so neatly together with a camera, that at first you will not even notice them. When it comes to color choices, the YI camera comes in two colors :

    • Green
    • White

    It is really a shame that there are not more colors to chose from. Obviously if you would like to stand out, take the  green chartreuse. White one looks simple and those who prefer minimalism, should go for it. When talking to few other action camera geeks, many agreed that they should have had black color as well.

    Actual built quality of the camera is on a high level. It is quite firm and you can feel that it was built from better materials both inside and out then most of cheap action cameras.

    Since I prefer to have a device that looks well and works well, I regret that company sacrificed functionality of the camera for the sake of simplistic design. That is one of the reasons there is no LCD screen.

    Update 11/12/2015

    There is now a solution for attaching external LCD screen to Xiaomi YI including external battery which gives twice the recording time. For more information, please read my review of LCD + external battery.

    Additionally all the settings in camera have to be changed via the app only, which is a hassle at first, but once you set your options, I guess you will not have to switch them frequently. So you can indeed use YI without the WiFi app, but to fully unleash all of its options, it is a must.

    YI camera size hands holding
    Camera is light weight and tiny

    The Size and Weight of Xiaomi YI

    Camera size is 60.4mm x 21.2mm x 42mm / 2.4 x 0.83 x 1.7 inches  and  weights somewhere around 72 g / 2.54 oz (with battery). I noticed that it is slightly heavier then few other cameras I reviewed previously, especially SJ4000 and SJCAM M10.  You do not need a scale to notice its heavier.

    The size of Xiaomi YI Sports Action Camera is Camera is tiny and can easily fit any pocket. Size 60.4mm x 21.2mm x 42mm
    Camera is tiny and can easily fit any pocket. Size 60.4mm x 21.2mm x 42mm

    Price

    Even though it has been announced across the web that the price for the camera will be 69$, there is no a single place online which sells this camera at that price at this moment. Apparently the 69$ price tag is only for Chinese market , where as everywhere else camera costs  89$-99$ for standard and 110-119$ for travel edition.

    Since I bought mine very first day since the camera has been announced I paid top dollar – 99$ for it on eBay as a pre-order.

    Update 8/30/2015 : The price of the camera has decreased drastically, and has leveraged with the prices in Chinese retail stores. Great thing, camera is now much cheaper then it used to be few months ago.

    Best places to buy, deals, discounts and coupons.

    Camera is quite easy to find online. Multiple stores sell them, however only a handful of them offers them at very low prices.

    Here are best places to buy it, with few deals and discounts I was able to dig out:

    *Some of the coupon codes are not working when items are on sale already. The promotions change frequently on these sites, so if you are having trouble validating your coupon, let me know in the comments, and I will try to find one for you. I will try to update this section regularly and ensure we have coupons that actually work and save you few bucks. If you prefer eBay, here are some auctions ending soon.

    [phpzon keywords=”Xiaomi YI camera” num=”4″ country=”US” trackingid=”pevly0d-20″ templatename=”columns” columns=”4″]

    Lens and Sensor

    Camera has: Ambarella A7LS high-performance image processor, Sony Exmor R BSI CMOS 16 MEGA Pixels image sensor and ST High Performance 3-Axis G-sensor.

      • Sensor : Ambarella A7LS high-performance image processor Sony Exmor R BSI CMOS image sensor ST triaxial high-performance gravity sensor
      • 16 Mega Pixels
      • Lens : Aspheric surface FHD photology glass lens, F2.8 aperture, 155° wide angle

    Buttons and ports

    There are not many buttons and ports in Xiaomi YI camera, which makes it easy to navigate and use. Bellow is a list and a short description of each button and port.

    Xiaomi YI Buttons and ports functions
    Button, ports and led meaning

    Buttons

        • #1 Front Button – ON/OFF Power button. Button allows you to turn camera on or off and also switch between photo and video mode.
        • #2 Top – shutter button – Depending on the mode you are in, when pressed it will take a photo or start/stop video recording.
        • #3 Side – WiFi button – Turns WiFi ON/OFF

    Ports

        • #4 – 1/4″ tripod mount
        • #5 – Micro SD Slot
        • #6 – USB (used for charging and file transfer)
        • #7 – HDMI (connect camera to a TV. Previewing images and videos you have taken on TV)
        • #8 – Battery clip (press to open battery door)
        • #9 – LED Indicators (indicate weather camera is recording or not, circular LED shows battery life by changing colors, read more in battery section)

    Video

    Camera allows you to take full HD videos in different modes and resolutions including 1080p 60/30 FSP for NTSC mode or 1080P 25/50 in PAL. With recent update camera can take 2K videos as well in 30 fps. Sony Sensor and wide angle lens really give fantastic, natural color to your video, nobody argues video color.

    Without any doubt, colors that this camera pulls out of the scene are warm, realistic and much better then any bellow 100$ action camera that I have.

    I will be completely honest and tell you that after the bombastic announcement all over the web, I expected a sharper video quality out of this green thingy.

    While colors are exceptional, I really feel that video has to be clearer especially in 60FPS.  In 30FPS is looks sharper though. Many action cameras from China advertise 60FPS where as in the reality they only do double frame of 30FPS, but YI can record in a TRUE 1080PX60 frames per second.

    Bitrate for this camera is only 11000-13000 kbps. Obviously this has to be improved in the firmware updates. You can use custom firmware built by one of the DashCamForum members, but as always anything unofficial is a potential risk to your camera.

    Good thing is that video quality can certainly be increased in the upcoming firmware updates.

    Update 8/30/2015 – bit rate of the camera has been boosted in few regular updates, and is now at around 21000 kbps.

    I was really disappointed with videos taken in lower resolutions, especially the 840X480 200P 16:9 which you probably will never want to use. Normally, I would not never record in this fps or resolution, but I accidentally selected it on while recording my hiking trip. It was only later I realized that my video in this mode looks like crap. I had a feeling that if a washing machine could take videos in 840X480 200P 16:9 it would look better then YI!

    Please download here few short video samples that I have taken, to check the quality of the video yourself. Additionally check out my video review bellow for more shots, but be aware that on YouTube footage is compressed, which means it will look worse then in the reality.

    PAL and NTSC

    One particular thing that this camera offers when it comes to video recording settings is ability to chose from PAL or NTSC standards. In case you do not know what these are, you can read about them here. Briefly, NTSC is video format used in USA and few other countries, where is PAL is used in all other parts of world.

    To switch between these two formats, you only have to change in of the YI app. I was really happy with the ability to switch between these two video formats in the app. Here are resolutions that each of these format allow you to chose from :

    Update : There was huge update in September, and Xiaomi YI camera now allows video recording in 2k resolution.

    NTSC

    The NTSC mode has been set as a default mode in your camera, and it allows these resolutions and FPS (Frames per second) :

        • 2304×1296 30P 16:9
        • 1920×1080 60P 16:9
        • 1920×1080 30P 16:9
        • 1920×1080 48P 16:9
        • 1920×1080 24P 16:9
        • 1280X960 60P 4:3
        • 1280X960 48P 4:3
        • 1280X720 48P 16:9
        • 1280X720 120P 16:9
        • 840X480 240P 16:9

    PAL

    Since I am in Europe, I have been using PAL format for all my videos. I mostly used 25p, because it gives a film-like effect. On the other hand, for quick, more realistic videos of sports or any extreme situations, I recommend 50p. For videos that you want to make in slow motion in post-production, the higher FPS, the better it will look when you slow the video down.

        • 2304X1296 25p 16:9
        • 1920×1080 50P 16:9
        • 1920×1080 25P 16:9
        • 1920×1080 48P 16:9
        • 1920×1080 24P 16:9
        • 1280X960 50P 4:3
        • 1280X960 48P 4:3
        • 1280X720 50P 16:9
        • 1280X720 48P 16:9
        • 1280X720 100P 16:9
        • 840X480 200P 16:9

    Photographs

    I was really pleasantly surprised with quality of photographs that this camera makes. All the photos are taken in true 16 Mega Pixels. Colors look quite natural. Images are decent and much sharper then the video.

    Even when the camera is turned directly into the Sun, image does not get darker. Bellow are compressed images. Images on the web should be compressed because it allows a page to load faster. For uncompressed, true quality photos, download these photo samples I uploaded on DropBox. I highly recommend you to download image samples. You will definitely see the difference.

    Xiaomi YI image sample Wide field of View FOW
    Wide angle lens enables you to capture breathtaking wide field of view images. Image from on of my hiking trips through South Serbia.

    Sony 16 mega pixel CMOS sensor that camera has does not disappoint even when camera faces direct sunlight. Many other action cams will show darker image once lens is faced with direct sunlight. Xiaomi YI preforms remarkably well in this area. Take a look at a photo I took at a park. Colors look perfectly natural and are not darkened.

    Fascinating performance when faced with strong Sun (compressed quality)
    Fascinating performance when faced with strong Sun (compressed quality)
    Xiaomi YI photo sample tiny steam
    Tiny stream on a sunny day in Serbian village Vrgudinac (compressed quality)
    Yellow flowers - compressed image quality (taken in noon, bright sunlight)
    Yellow flowers – compressed image quality (taken in noon, bright sunlight)

    Xiaomi YI sample - road

    Xiaomi YI image sample - forest

    Time-lapse

    If you are one of those guys that enjoy making Nat-Geo like videos which include time lapse, you will be happy to know that Xiaomi Yi has Time-Lapse mode. This option can be set inside your app. Basically this allows your camera to continuously take photos in the intervals you set. You can set time lapse to 0.5/1/2/5/10/30/60 seconds.

    For instance, if you set time-lapse to 5 seconds (which is the interval I most frequently use) your camera will take a photo every 5 seconds. One thing I did not like in the time-lapse mode is that the camera itself does not make a time-lapse video out out of your photos, which would make things much easier.

    So if you leave your camera for 2 hours (180 minutes * 60= 10800 seconds) and set interval to 10 seconds you will end up with 1080 frames or photos which you need to import into your editing software and make a video out of it. If you shoot at 1080p 60 fps = 1080 frames/60 will give you 18 seconds of time lapse video. Its not that hard as it sounds, you can check plenty of tutorials on YouTube on how to create this sort of video.

    Video Time lapse

    Update 8/30/2015

    Time lapseis one of many changes that happened over the last few months. Developer team pushed an update, and it is now possible to create video time lapse right out of the box. Instead of having bunch of images, that you need to put together in video editing software, you can now have video right away, by selecting an interval in the app.

    Here are available intervals :

    • 0.5s (15x speed)
    • 1s (30x speed)
    • 2s (60x)
    • 5s (150x)
    • 10s (300x)
    • 30s (900x)
    • 60s (1800x)

    With these selected intervals, you chose a speed of your video. You can also select time lapse video length, which is great feature:

    • off
    • 6s
    • 8s
    • 10s
    • 30s
    • 60s

    Let me give you an example. If you chose an interval length of 6s with a interval of 0.5 seconds, this means that camera will take photo each half of the second. This one photo represents one video frame. In order to have a video length of six seconds (provided that you want 60 frames per second video), camera needs to make 6*60 (60 frame for 1 second of a video) = 360 frames. 360 frames/0.5 interval = 90 seconds.

    To conclude, this means that for 6 seconds video in 0.5 interval, camera needs to record in time lapse mode  for 90 seconds. Same formula applies for any interval or duration. Great thing is that the app will calculate everything for you, and above each interval, you will see a headline how long output you will get.

    Self-Timer

    Even though lots of people confuse time-lapse and self-timer there is a difference between the two. While time lapse shoots unlimited amount of photographs at particular set interval, self-timer shoots a single shoot. Self timer gives you a delay when pressing a shutter button.

    This is useful option for group photographs where you as a shooter can set up a Xiaomi Yi on a stand and it will automatically take a photo for you. To learn more on self-timer, check this article on Wikipedia.

    Timer can be set at :

    • 3s
    • 5s
    • 10s
    • 15s

    Snapshot (Sight)

    Snapshot (Sight) is probably the least useful photography option for me. It is a proof that Yi camera is focused more on social media, sharing and being viral then on actual needs of a action camera consumer. With Snapshot you can create a short animation at ridiculous 640 x 480 / 4:3 / 30p. You can then chose an output format of animation. You can select either MP4 or GIF.

    In a most recent firmware and app update, this feature is now called “Sight”. It does the same, but they ironed up some bugs that previously occurred when trying to share this useless video on social media.

    Burst

    If I could chose one feature that left me speechless its the burst mode. By setting burst mode on (you can select it within the app inside the photo modes) your camera will take multiple photos in just a second! For instance if you set burst mode to 7p/s in just a single seconds your camera will take 7, yes SEVEN photos.

    This feature is incredible if you want to photograph fast moving objects, sport events or any other extreme situation. With 4 different burst modes to chose from, I am sure you will finally manage to capture a perfect photo of yourself jumping, running or kicking a ball.

    Let me just start by telling you that many high-end DSLR cameras do not have such good burst option. And oh boy those cost above 500$.

        • 3p/s
        • 5p/s
        • 7p/s
        • 7p/2s (camera will capture 7 frames in 2 seconds)

    For instance my Sony Mirorless camera cost 800$ and it has a single 11p/s burst mode, which is slightly better then Yi, but damn it costs ten times more! More details on burst photography here.

    Settings

    Like with any other new camera you get, there are always settings and options that you can use to improve your video. If you are like me, you probably do not know what all these options mean. That is why I took a while to test the performance of each, and here is an overview of all of them.

    Below is a guide that will explain you how to use Xiaomi YI much better then the manual, even if you do not know Chinese!

    UPDATE 10/26/2015 I have created a unique Virtual Guide to Xiaomi Yi, make sure to check it out, it presents all features in interactive and easy-to-understand way.

    Metering

    Metering mode helps your camera decide how to figure exposure out.

        • center
        • average
        • sport

    I keep mine at center, since it gave the best results, but if you would like to learn more, you can read this Wiki article.

    Auto Low Light

    Apparently this feature should allow better video and photo quality when shooting in areas there is not enough light, so called low-light areas. Not only that I had not noticed a better quality with this option is set on, but I also noticed that videos taken by night look even worse.

    I was quite confused about this feature so I emailed Xiaomi and asked what this option does and when it should be turned on. Here is what they said :

    The auto low light in settings is a feature wherein if there is low light in the area where you are taking a picture or shooting a video, you can switch the auto low light feature in the Yi camera and it would still be able to capture a nice picture or video.

    From what I understood this option should be turned off unless you are in low light situation. I personally keep it always off. Until they improve it via firmware upgrades, I do not want to risk sharpness of my video.

    Loop recording

    With loop recording you can set your video to record and allow continuous recording. Be careful this also means that once your memory card is full videos will overlap each other, meaning video that has been recorder previously will be overwritten by the next one.

    There is not much reason why you would like to enable this option unless you want to do some sort of surveillance camera experiment. My advice is turn it off, its useless for average consumer.

    Lens rectification

    Every action camera has wide angle lens. This sort of lens allows you to capture wide field of view up to 170 degrees which is equal to what human eye can see. Which is incredible! However these sort of lens give a barrel roll distortion or a fish eye distortion as some may call it.

    Basically this means that on occasions your video might look curved. While some of us like this sort of effect, not everyone are huge fan of it. So far not many action cameras had an option to correct wide angle distortion.

    With 95% of action cameras you have to fix these sort of distortions in post-production. Not with Xiaomi YI. Lens rectification can be turned on or off. Once its on it will give you a bit narrower field of view, but you will not see curved buildings for instance.

    No more fish-eye distortion. Good job Xiaomi! Take a look at the image bellow. On the left, option is on. There are no distortion, however the tree is barely in the scene. On the other hand, second image depicts more wider angle, but the ground looks curved slightly.

    lens rectification ON on the left, off on the right. Noticeable reduction of barrel roll distortion. However field of view gets narrower.
    lens rectification ON on the left, off on the right. Noticeable reduction of barrel roll distortion. However field of view gets narrower.

    AV Output

    If you are looking to attach this camera to your quad-copter, you will be happy to know that since the latest 1.0.7 firmware update, this camera has an AV output.

    Video Rotate

    With the 1.4 update, users are now able to flip their video for 180 degrees. Video rotation is useful when you have car suction cup adapter. When turned ON, flip will record video and show it normally, even if your camera is turned upside down. Quite useful feature, especially if you plan to use this camera as a car cam of some sort.

    Accessories

    I have no idea why this paragraph is called accessories. Unless you buy Travel version which comes with additional monopod, inside your box you will get zero, zip, zilch, nada. It is obvious that Xiaomi wanted to create quality, affordable camera that can cause lots of hype.

    Update 9/26/2015 – I wrote a brief article about Xiaomi YI best accessories, check it out for more info.

    With camera having Sony 16MP sensor, manufacturer had to reduce costs somewhere and eliminating accessories was a logical move. Of course, this does not mean there are no additional mounts, gadgets and gears for your YI camera, it just means you have to purchase them separately.

    What left a bitter taste is pricing for additional gear. For instance right now waterproof case costs around 30$. On the other hand, similar case for competitor SJCAM SJ4000 costs 10$. Note currently waterproof case is on sale on BangGood for 18$.

    That said, Xiaomi will not make much money out of selling camera, but will increase their profits through distributing a bit pricey gear. Good news is that most of the mounts, brackets, straps, monopods are compatible with each other, so you do not have to buy Xiaomi bike stand for instance, you can get a non branded one and it will work just fine. Lots of people have asked if YI case is compatible with some other like SJ4000 and the answer is – no.

    Additional gear

    At the moment of writing, this is an official gear that Xiaomi released for Yi Action Camera :

    I recently wrote about my favorite action camera gear, and most of those listed are 100% compatible with YI at a fraction of a cost.

    Mounts

    Xiaomi Yi uses a standard 1/4″ tripod mount, so if you have any sort of gear from previous action or any other camera, it will be compatible. One thing I really liked is that a mount whole is located directly on the bottom of the camera.

    This is really good because to mount it onto a selfie stick or a tripod for instance, you do not need any additional brackets. This for me was very important and reduces both cost and the time when the camera has to be mounted.

    Xiaomi Yi – Yi Cam App

    Even though the app name sounds like something you do not want your better half to see on the screen on your phone, the Xiaomi Yi XXX action cam app user interface and experience overall is pretty neat.

    Xiaomi YI WiFi app allows you to download videos and photos, preview them, change settings and control your camera remotely from your mobile device.
    Xiaomi YI WiFi app allows you to download videos and photos, preview them, change settings and control your camera remotely from your mobile device.

    Edit : In the latest version name of the app has been changed from XXX Cam App To Yi Cam App which makes a lot more sense and is less embarrassing! At the time of writing this review, the 1.3 app version is still a mix of Chinese and English.

    WiFi App is really intuitive and easy to navigate even, and with all the updates, it is now fully translated into English. So far it is much better  and easier then any other camera app I tried. When hopefully all bugs get ironed up, it should work even smoother.

    There are lots of things you can do in app itself besides controlling your camera, you can see popular videos uploaded by other users, you can register and share your own videos.

    One thing that really bothered me is that lag that happens when recording a video and previewing it on your phone. Its probably one of the worst lags I experienced with action cam apps. It got slightly better in 1.3 app version, but its still far from perfect.

    Of course the lag will not appear in your video, just when you are viewing it live while you record. Big minus, as live preview feature is completely useless this way and looks like you are recording with a washing machine or Tetris.

    The app is an integral part of this camera. There are not many things you can do without it. Like it or not, its just the way the Xiaomi Yi action cam works. You can record and take photos without the app, but for settings change, photo preview and anything else, it is essential. When you open the app you will see 3 main sections :

        • Video
        • SnapShoot
        • Photo

    Since I already explain how each of these functions work, I will just mention that within an app you can set many various options for each recording/photo/snapshoot mode.

    App interface is slick and easy to use. It is constantly updated and improved by Xiaomi developers.
    App interface is slick and easy to use. It is constantly updated and improved by Xiaomi developers.

    Xiaomi Yi App installation

    Although it took quite a while, YiCam, an official Xiaomi YI app is now available on Google Play. Here is a download link.

    In past, it was not available so if you had a phone with a crappy camera, you had to have a manual download link, because older phones could not read the app code on the packaging. All of that has now been settled with releasing a an app for Android.

    One more improvement has been made, since the original release of the YI. Xiaomi launched an official iOS application, which can be downloaded on iTunes.

    Battery

    Yi cam uses Panasonic LiPo Battery – 3.7V 1010mAH which (according to Xiaomi) allows up to two hours with WiFi on and in 1080 p 30 frames per second. Comparing to SJCAM SJ4000 for instance, battery is slightly better and gives more recording time.

    Still, I would love if the battery life could be longer. Surely, if you intend to take longer videos it would be a good idea to get a spare battery or at least have a power bank (I highly recommend this Xiaomi Power Bank).

    Xiaomi YI Sports Action Camera Back with usb port and hdmi output
    Camera Back with USB port and HDMI output and batter door opened

    In case you are wondering how can you know how much battery you have without and LCD screen there are two ways to do it. First is to take a look at a circular on/off button. LED lights that are surrounding it, will flash in three colors and indicate how much battery you have remaining.

        • Blue LED color (more then 50%)
        • Indigo (15-50%)
        • Red (Bellow 15%)

    Another way is to connect to your YI app and at the top of the screen, you have info on both your phone and camera battery.

    Memory Card

    Yi supports up to 64GB Micro SD and Micro SDHC memory cards. When it comes to cards type and brand,manufacturer highly recommends at lest Class 10 Micro SD cards from reputable brands. I have been using Sony 16 and 64GB SDHC cards, and I did not have a single issue. You should be OK with most big-brand cards. But I must advise you to stay away from cheap, 2-4$ cards, that are useless for action cameras.

    File storage and location

    All the images and videos are saved into the DCIM/101MEDIA folder on your memory card. Another folder that you will see once you plug the camera into the PC is MISC. This folder contains important camera settings in a itm.bin file. It is highly recommended that unless you know what you are doing, do not mess with MISC folder.

    However if you know what you are doing, like experimenting, and do not mind breaking your camera down, you can tweak with code and create your own custom firmware. There are many forum topic online on how to modify the YI, but I personally use only official stuff.

    Xiaomi YI Chinese vs US Version

    Update 12/5/2015

    Xiaomi released an US Version of Xiaomi YI camera. This was a huge delay, considering that Chinese version was launched few months before. Even though I do not have an US version of the camera, I was informed that differences between Chinese and US are minor.

    US edition has minor differences compared to one released in China few months earlier.
    US edition has minor differences compared to one released in China few months earlier.

    The U.S. version is compatible with U.S. Wi-Fi network environments and voltage, along with U.S. environmental standards. It also has slightly  different packaging (box) and (wait for it) an English-written manual. (Finally!). Possibly the most interesting difference is battery. US Xiaomi YI version has 1100 mAh Sony battery, where as the Chinese one has 1010 mAh battery (Not a Sony battery).

    Similar to its parent, this one comes in two variants :

    • Basic (camera + USB) priced at 99$ (link here)
    • Travel bundle (camera + selfie stick + Bluetooth remote shutter + USB) priced at $139.95 (link here)

    In my opinion, it does not matter much which one to get, though because of the fast Amazon shipping, it makes sense to get US one if you are in the US. As for manual, you can use virtual xiaomi yi manual I created that will help you way better then a manual manufacturer made.

    Customer Support

    Unlike many other Chinese brands which give you zero support after you purchase their product, Xiaomi has really good customer support team. I had emailed them few times and always got a prompt and satisfactory demand.

    One thing I did not like is that live chat option is available only on Mandarin language. Additionally Xiaomi Global offers should offer support to consumers outside China, India, Philippines and Singapore. I tried emailing Xiaomi Global few times but their email kept returning some sort of an error.

    So if you are having any troubles with your YI, feel free to email any of their departments, they all got back to me with a 72 hour reply in fluent English.

    Summary – Go Pro Killer or a victim of superfluous expectation?

    To sum up, upon my 30 days of extensive use of Xiaomi YI Sports Camera, I have come to a conclusion that currently it is not better then a GoPro Hero 4.

    As already said, even though, camera has remarkable sensor and creates fantastic images, at the moment of writing this review the video should be sharper and with higher bit rate.

    I really like the burst image mode which allows you to take fantastic shoots of moving objects. However for the price (camera can be bought for 85-99$) I do feel that this is the best choice for people who do not mind lack of LCD screen.

    Video colors are fantastic and I am sure that no other on-budget camera can beat Xiaomi at this point.

    Secondly, my personal feeling is that Xiaomi YI is more a camera for regular people who enjoy sharing photos and videos on social media. When using YI in non extreme situations, I found it fantastic and easy to use and did not mind using WiFi and App.

    On the other hand in circumstances where you are more focused on climbing on a mountain or jumping, I found it very annoying. Many times I have failed to record a jump, just because I was unable to see if its recording or not. It takes 5-6 seconds to turn on, which in extreme situation can mean missing a memorable moment.

    This camera is not a true action camera.

    Finally I would like to say that even though Xiaomi did not kill GoPro Hero 4 as originally announced, it definitely defeated all other GoPro alternatives in this price range. You also should not be fooled by the 89$ price.

    If you plan to use it as a true action camera, which includes recording in extreme situations with fast speed and unpredictable environment, you will have to buy additional gear such as head mount, chest strap, waterproof case. All that adds up, so unless you plan to record every day life situations of your kids running around, Xiaomi YI requires additional gear investment.

    If you are looking for a camera of slightly inferior video and image quality but with all the gear, SJCAM SJ4000 is still a good choice for entry level users who are on a budget. It is fantastic that action camera market has Xiaomi as a company. Since this is their first product in this niche, I am positive we can expect more well-priced, quality products.

    Bravo Xiaomi, your first camera certainly frightened a competition. But you still have to decide if your target market is a action camera user or regular consumer who wants to record holiday? You cant target everyone! Focus.

    Who should buy it?

    I would strongly recommend this camera to regular guys who would like to record their holidays, take selfies, make videos of their friends and family. For those purposes, you do not have to buy any additional gear. However if you are hardcore adrenaline junkie, you must be aware that there are better cameras for that purpose because even though it certainly can be used for sports, it is far more frustrating then it should be.

    Download video and photo samples

    Here is the link where you can download samples.

    I have a question for you

    Once again, I hope that this lengthy article helped you decide weather Xiaomi YI is right for you. Please, if you have any additional comments or suggestions based on your experience, please let me know, I am very curious to hear your two cents.

    As always, for any questions or help, feel free to leave a comment bellow, I would be glad to help you out if I can. Some new features can be seen in my 360 Virtual Xiaomi YI Tour.