I have had this camera for a few months now and feel I can now make a fair assessment of the ins and outs of it with fairness. So to get the one elephant out of the room to begin with, yes this is a clone/copy/knock off of a GoPro. Yes it is coming out of the typical Chinese copycat companies that are all over the electronic industry.. But before the GoPro fanatics get out the pitchforks I would like to point out a couple of things. Firstly it is a rare thing to find any electronics that have not come “made in China” anymore. You can get some small start-up companies that will do in house assembly but the chips still come from Asia. The best example I can think of is the Five Finger shoes, they were being made in a factory in China, however someone in the same building started making knock offs. They used the same machinery, almost identical materials, and the actual boxes used in the originals, the only real difference was the patterns and technics used. The knock offs were using methods a year old as they did not have access to the latest specs. So when folks start crying out about knock offs and how bad they are, the first thing they should do is check just how much of that great original brand is made using home workers and not outsourced. Generally the only real differences now is big brands make big profit margins.
So now all that is out the way I can make one quick point before moving on. Yes the GoPro Hero 4 Black is a great action camera, but for anyone who will knock this camera by using a Hero 4 stick, you are and oddball at best and deluded at worse. The Hero 4 Black still comes in at 7 times the cost of this camera and so you would expect something 7 times better. As such this is not an attempt to say the latest GoPro sucks and this is better, but a simple review of what I feel about this actual camera as it stands against products priced in a similar range.
So the camera is quite well spec’d with the main things as below:
1080p 30fps
720p 60fps
720p 30fps
12M still shots
MicroSD card up to 32GB
Now first things first one of those specs are false, this camera does not shoot in 60fps, the chip is not capable of doing it. What actually happens is the camera shoots the same frame twice giving a false 60fps. Video software will read it as 60fps and if your footage is reasonably still it would look good but if you are filming high action stuff you will gain zero benefit from using the 60fps mode. Instead just go with the 1080p mode and save space on the card. In general I never take my camera off 1080p as I Never have any need to cram extra stuff on a card, I would rather just take a spare card with me and have the better resolution. In addition the still camera is not actually 12M, like many smart phones it has a lower resolution sensor that the hardware then up scales, in truth you only have a 2M sensor for still images. However the still pictures are still very good when compare with smart phones.
So on to the general stuff out of the box you do get a lot of different mounts to start with, which is excellent as many brands will sell these as add on items that push the cost up. Here is a quick picture of what comes with the standard camera.
Here are a some views of the actual camera along with the waterproof case.
The last shot shows one thing I do not like about this camera, that is the battery cover can be a pain to get off. If you were outdoors using just your hands it would be a struggle. The battery though does have a tab attached for ease of removing, by leaving that tab hanging between the door flap you can pull it to easily remove the cover. This in no way hinders the operation of the cover, and still fits snugly inside the waterproof case.
I have ended up buying a couple of extra batteries as at 1080p recording, you will get around an hour of battery life, so for something like a full day or multiday trip extras are essential. Recording is in mov format, and you will get around 3.5 hours at 1080p on a 32GB card.
The handy thing is this camera has a standard screw method for all the mounts, so it will happily fit with all other types of mounts such as GoPro or any of the no name brand hand poles etc. The lcd screen at the back is very small but it can be handy for reviewing shots, if you are worried you got the view you wanted you can check quick and redo the shot if not happy. There is a screensaver feature in the options menu, this lets the screen turn off after 1, 5, or 10 minutes. The camera is still recording though, and it helps again to save battery life. Some of the mounts do suffer with an issue of friction, I am not sure if this happens to the GoPro stuff to or not though. The problem is they are a smooth gloss plastic, as such sometimes you do not get a full grip no matter how much you tighten a nut. The easy solution to this is a quick scuff with sandpaper and they work a charm afterwards.
Two things I have got for my camera which were extras are a chest strap and head strap, these were to let me go hands free when recording. First up two versions of the chest mount.
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Now this horrid bouncing around is a product of Adobe Premiere not the camera, there was quite a bit of camera shake on this test and I figured I would try out the stabiliser feature of Adobe, this is what it did to things. The problem though was the original footage was pretty bad, as I was running off road my body was not exactly in a stable position. As such the camera moved as I did and I was doing a fair pace at some points.
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This was again with the chest mount, but this time it is raw footage with no attempt to stabilise anything. As you can see there is still some shake but I expected that to happen with it being strapped to my chest. Unless you made some kind of gimbal then you just will not get professional smooth shots. This was also a test of the waterproof case, I will admit to being a little soft and not doing a full swim as December 30th is a wee bit chilly for it. But I managed chest height and gave things a good soak. The case works perfectly and there was not a drop of moisture anywhere inside. I would happily take this thing shallow diving without any worries.
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This was made with a head strap and I think it makes a huge difference to stability. Again it is raw footage but simply being on your head allows your neck to act like a gimbal. It also gives a smoother action when looking around, though if you are trying to take footage you need to remember to move your head slower than normal. Part of this I think is how we have movement in our head and our eyes, whereas the camera only faces where you move it.
Next up two still shots taken using the camera as a standard digital point and shoot.
I can’t comment too much about these as I have little knowledge of photography, I tend to look at a picture and either like it or dislike it. However this is not using the full 12M mode, as I said the camera only has a 2M sensor. So in the options I set the pictures to use a 2MHD mode, this means I should still be getting the same resolution but without any possible tearing etc from the up scale. There are also the usual options such as face detection, and anti shake (still shots only). You also have some basic setting with regards to exposure and ISO, nothing fancy but about what you would expect for a smartphone. In truth though if someone is that concerned with still picture settings they probably already own a DSLR. One thing that can be handy is a sort of timelapse mode, you can set the camera to take pictures at various intervals. Here is a couple of examples.
There is some shake to be expected as this was the chest strap once again, but I was impressed as it is just an added extra as far as I am concerned but handy.
Overall I have been very happy with this camera and would go so far as to call it a GoPro killer in some aspects. As I started out by saying I am in no way trying to compare this to the likes of the Hero 4. But recently GoPro have released the budget model, and here are the reasons I think this camera kills the GoPro equivalent.
Micro vs Mini USB, the GoPro uses a mini usb connector, as small a pick this may seem it is big for me. I have tried to keep all my stuff working on mini usb as it has been the most widely used format. Having something that needs an additional connector means additional cables lying around or more needed to take away if charging outside.
Removable case, the GoPro budget comes as a fixed unit with only the back of the case being able to be removed. For me this alone is a death sentence for the GoPro for two reasons. If you happen to crack or damage any part of the main case you are stumped. You have to buy a new camera or forget about any more fun in water. Secondly this also means you cannot remove the battery, when you consider these batteries are 2+ hours to fully charge from a 2A wall socket, then not being able to change the battery is daft. You get your hourish of recording and then it is dead for at least the next 2-3 hours if using a decent power pack.
Price, again an issue for me partly related to my opening lines. When I pay more for something I expect one of two things, either that I am paying for a better quality item, or I am paying for keeping the product as a home industry that has not been outsourced to China etc. Since just about all electronics are using chips from China this only leaves the quality argument. The GoPro budget does have two things going for it, it does have a better quality way of doing timelapse and being able to take multiple shots in a single shutter press. But in truth I think that is not something I look for from an action video camera. The GoPro does support a true 60fps mode, and this is a nice feature that is great for high speed activities or water sports.
However those two things for me do not justify the price difference. After a quick check the GoPro budget retails for around £90, for that you get the camera and nothing else.
Now I did save myself quite a lot of money through savvy shopping. I got my SJ4000 from Banggood, and opted for the direct from China postal service, this meant I did have a long wait, and it took around 4 and half weeks for all the parts to arrive. However I payed £83.50 in total and for that I got the following.
SJ4000 Camera (with all mounts and spares as shown in the picture above)
Chest strap
Head Strap
Car window mount (for using as a dashboard camera)
3 spare batteries
Usb battery charger (used for charging spare batteries out of the camera so I can have continuous recording)
Carry case with foam cutouts
So I saved myself a fiver and got a total package that I can take on multiday trips.
The model I got is the base version but I do have a wifi model on order, this is exactly the same as the SJ4000 but has the ability to stream to a wifi app on your phone and allows you to have a remote control via the phone app. You can get this camera in the UK with no problems but the base pack retails for around £70, if you have too much money (give it to me) or no patience you can go that route, but I used the extra 20 quid on spares instead. In general I think this is a great camera for those wanting to capture footage but unsure about the idea of shelling out £200 or more on something like a GoPro.
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Topic: SJ4000 action cam review (Read 6426 times)