Cheap action camera

[Heisenberg71]

I am looking to buy a cheap action camera for my son, for Xmas. I know some of you guys have had quite a bit of success with some of the cheaper eBay cameras. It doesn't have to be fantastic, but I guess 1080 HD records to a SD card etc, decent picture and sound, waterproof etc.

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

 

[400bhp]

I have an SJCAM SJ4000 and am pretty happy with it. I didn't use the standard handlebar mount that came with it but bought an under the bar mount for it. It's as good an image as the Garmin Virb, which i borrowed off a mate before commiting to buy.

Low light isn't great, but good enough to capture an incident, but number plate recognition (at night) is hit & miss.

The only real downside is the lack of a light in an obvious place to tell you it's recording.

 

[Heisenberg71]

I have an SJCAM SJ4000 and am pretty happy with it. I didn't use the standard handlebar mount that came with it but bought an under the bar mount for it. It's as good an image as the Garmin Virb, which i borrowed off a mate before commiting to buy.

Low light isn't great, but good enough to capture an incident, but number plate recognition (at night) is hit & miss.

The only real downside is the lack of a light in an obvious place to tell you it's recording.

Thanks for the tip. How much was it and where did you buy it from?

 

[marknotgeorge]

Thanks for the tip. How much was it and where did you buy it from?

The trouble with the SJ4000 is that there are a lot of clones about with variable firmware support and image quality, despite the SJ4000 itself being a GoPro copy. I bought mine from BangGood, who do sell the genuine SJCAM models as well as some of the clones and other makes. The SJ4000 seems to be about £53 currently.

 

[Heisenberg71]

The trouble with the SJ4000 is that there are a lot of clones about with variable firmware support and image quality, despite the SJ4000 itself being a GoPro copy. I bought mine from BangGood, who do sell the genuine SJCAM models as well as some of the clones and other makes. The SJ4000 seems to be about £53 currently.

Thankyou

 

[mjr]

B+M stores currently has a £20 action camera with a screen. Comes with various mounts. It'll record up to 15mins/GB at VGA or less at HD (720 I think). Probably more reliable results than the eBay lottery.

But if you want to play, I've a £5ish MD80 which records SD so 6+hrs to 16GB but there's no screen to help aim it, so I get 6+hrs of sky or ankles sometimes.

 

[400bhp]

Thanks for the tip. How much was it and where did you buy it from?

£50 from amazon.

The latest versions are wifi enabled too apparently.

 

[bikeman66]

I am looking to buy a cheap action camera for my son, for Xmas. I know some of you guys have had quite a bit of success with some of the cheaper eBay cameras. It doesn't have to be fantastic, but I guess 1080 HD records to a SD card etc, decent picture and sound, waterproof etc.

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

I have a Vivitar which is OK, but struggles with transition to dark/light conditions. It takes a few seconds to adjust if you ride out in to bright sunlight from the cover of trees etc. Actual picture quality is pretty good though and it comes with helmet mount, handlebar mount etc. Cost me about £60 from Argos.

Also well worth looking up the Kitvision HD 10. It has a small LCD screen on the back which can help with composition. Originally saw this one for around £100, but have also seen them as low as £55. There are a couple of good reviews of it on YouTube, which give you a good idea of picture quality. Thinking of replacing my Vivitar with an HD 10.

 

[greekonabike]

Argos have some cheap Vivitars for £25 at the moment. There are a few video samples on youtube and they don't seem too bad, not sure if it's the same model @bikeman66 is referring too.

http://www.argos.co.uk/product/5659...fSOmBkQQVyeqAVxj-jPuMfxtW_eFzvkpUBRoCc_zw_wcB

GOAB

 

[Bobby Mhor]

One of the SJ4000 clones..

HERE

Oops, you must buy an SD card...(Micro and Class10 rated)

I may press buy myself at that price..
(I already have a SJ4000)

 

[bikeman66]

Argos have some cheap Vivitars for £25 at the moment. There are a few video samples on youtube and they don't seem too bad, not sure if it's the same model @bikeman66 is referring too.

http://www.argos.co.uk/product/5659...fSOmBkQQVyeqAVxj-jPuMfxtW_eFzvkpUBRoCc_zw_wcB

GOAB

Different to mine. Think mine is a DVR 968 or something like that. Almost sure it has an 8 mega pixel sensor too.

For £25 the one you linked to has to be worth a try though!

 

[bikeman66]

I am looking to buy a cheap action camera for my son, for Xmas. I know some of you guys have had quite a bit of success with some of the cheaper eBay cameras. It doesn't have to be fantastic, but I guess 1080 HD records to a SD card etc, decent picture and sound, waterproof etc.

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

I found with my Vivitar, that as soon as you enclose it in its waterproof casing you pretty much lose any sound. Don't know if other cams are able to pick up finer sounds through their casings or whether it is something you just have to live with. The Vivitar will pick up the rumble of the road and the clicks of gear changes from the levers on the bars, but not much else. When out of the casing, I would say sound quality is pretty good.

 

[mjr]

I found with my Vivitar, that as soon as you enclose it in its waterproof casing you pretty much lose any sound. Don't know if other cams are able to pick up finer sounds through their casings or whether it is something you just have to live with. The Vivitar will pick up the rumble of the road and the clicks of gear changes from the levers on the bars, but not much else. When out of the casing, I would say sound quality is pretty good.

Similar for others, I think. It picks up passing cars but not chatting cyclists. I think the Vivitar is very similar to the intempo one B+M are selling that I mentioned: http://www.bmstores.co.uk/products/intempo-action-camera-305941

I think they're both variations on a model called 123S or something similar to that. There are many eBay sellers, but I had two goes and both had dead batteries and a firmware that went into USB Mass Storage whenever USB was connected, so it couldn't record while on external power. Both sellers refunded and one let me keep the box so I have a second set of mounts for the intempo. The intempo functions normally when on USB power (no Mass Storage mode - you remove the SD card and stick it in a computer to get the videos off), but when its internal battery dies I'll have to drill the waterproof case to allow the power connection.

Here's a video edited together from footage recorded with it - it was in the waterproof case, so I removed the sound and told youtube to put an instrumental on it:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwOTALjG-6k

 

[greekonabike]

Yeah I was considering getting it just because it's so cheap. I've seen some sample footage on YouTube and it's actually very good for the price of the camera. It also comes with helmet and bar mounts that are apparently compatible with go pros so it's probably worth spending the £25 just for the mounts.

GOAB

 

[jarlrmai]

Firefly 6S is good, uses GoPro accessories and does 1080p60

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FPV-FIREF...603874?hash=item3d21e42122:g:x-gAAOSwCGVX6nOB

7S is new, has LCD on the back.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hawkeye-F...943408?hash=item5690591030:g:5x8AAOSw44BYKuxh

https://www.rcgroups.com/aerial-photography-128/

These guys keep up on all the latest Chinese cameras.