An action camera needs to be tough, and it also needs to be capable. If it’s not tough, or capable, then it needs to be really cheap.
Meet SJCAM, the king of the GoPro knockoffs. It looks identical to the GoPro, and sports most of the features of this year’s Hero Silver, like Wifi, a screen, and lots of shooting modes. It can even shoot in 4k, which is only available on the Hero Black.
At $120 on gearbest.com, the SJCAM is within the means of most riders, but how good is it in reality? I’m pretty skeptical about features like 4k on products this cheap, but I was actually impressed.
I used it for a few shots this weekend, which made it into my Grapefruit trails video. Here is some stabilized riding footage I took with it. The only reason I didn’t include any of this footage in my video was that the camera was angled too low. On future rides, this might be a great secondary camera to mount to the bike or to someone else.
Full disclosure: This camera was given to me by Gearbest for review. It is what it is, so let the footage speak for itself. If you ask me, it's worth every bit of $120, but is far inferior to a GoPro.
It would also be interesting to pair this camera with a cheap single axis gimbal, and try to piece together a stabilized helmet cam for under $200. Between my $400 Hero Black, and my $300 gimbal, I’m riding around with $700 worth of very breakable electronics on my helmet while I careen through mountain bike trails. To get comparable results out of a much cheaper rig could make this more practical for the average rider. I might experiment with that.
While this SJCAM does have pretty decent video, the audio is almost unusable. See here. Now here’s my GoPro. That’s a night and day difference, but we’re also comparing two cameras that are priced very differently.
For me, the SJCAM will always be a spare, but for a lot of riders it could be a great primary camera to bring out on the trails. Whether you’re filming your friends or mounting it to your helmet, it should survive the abuse. Of course, it also comes with this bulky case which makes it totally indestructible, but like the GoPro it makes it heavier and blocks the microphone. If you feel like you’re riding with a cat on your head, it’s because you’re using your action camera like this, instead of like this.
For me, video is a really important part of mountain biking. It’s a way to share your experiences with friends, and maybe even convince them to take up the sport. It’s a way to rub in your coworker’s face what you did on your day off, or just prove to your riding buddies that you finally did that drop from last time.
A lot of you guys have been asking about video, and that’s why I’m showing you this affordable camera today. Let me know in the comments what you think, and check my website for the exact settings I used on my SJCAM to get the best quality.
Here are the settings http://www.sethsbikehacks.com/product/sjcam-elite/
Camera link: http://goo.gl/aLSqbq
Get the slim housing for GoPro here: http://www.sethsbikehacks.com/product/go-pro-open-housing/
Stabilizer Gimbal: http://www.sethsbikehacks.com/product/z1-rider-m-camera-stabilizer/
We have shirts now! http://www.sethsbikehacks.com/product/hardtail-shirt/
Meet SJCAM, the king of the GoPro knockoffs. It looks identical to the GoPro, and sports most of the features of this year’s Hero Silver, like Wifi, a screen, and lots of shooting modes. It can even shoot in 4k, which is only available on the Hero Black.
At $120 on gearbest.com, the SJCAM is within the means of most riders, but how good is it in reality? I’m pretty skeptical about features like 4k on products this cheap, but I was actually impressed.
I used it for a few shots this weekend, which made it into my Grapefruit trails video. Here is some stabilized riding footage I took with it. The only reason I didn’t include any of this footage in my video was that the camera was angled too low. On future rides, this might be a great secondary camera to mount to the bike or to someone else.
Full disclosure: This camera was given to me by Gearbest for review. It is what it is, so let the footage speak for itself. If you ask me, it's worth every bit of $120, but is far inferior to a GoPro.
It would also be interesting to pair this camera with a cheap single axis gimbal, and try to piece together a stabilized helmet cam for under $200. Between my $400 Hero Black, and my $300 gimbal, I’m riding around with $700 worth of very breakable electronics on my helmet while I careen through mountain bike trails. To get comparable results out of a much cheaper rig could make this more practical for the average rider. I might experiment with that.
While this SJCAM does have pretty decent video, the audio is almost unusable. See here. Now here’s my GoPro. That’s a night and day difference, but we’re also comparing two cameras that are priced very differently.
For me, the SJCAM will always be a spare, but for a lot of riders it could be a great primary camera to bring out on the trails. Whether you’re filming your friends or mounting it to your helmet, it should survive the abuse. Of course, it also comes with this bulky case which makes it totally indestructible, but like the GoPro it makes it heavier and blocks the microphone. If you feel like you’re riding with a cat on your head, it’s because you’re using your action camera like this, instead of like this.
For me, video is a really important part of mountain biking. It’s a way to share your experiences with friends, and maybe even convince them to take up the sport. It’s a way to rub in your coworker’s face what you did on your day off, or just prove to your riding buddies that you finally did that drop from last time.
A lot of you guys have been asking about video, and that’s why I’m showing you this affordable camera today. Let me know in the comments what you think, and check my website for the exact settings I used on my SJCAM to get the best quality.
Here are the settings http://www.sethsbikehacks.com/product/sjcam-elite/
Camera link: http://goo.gl/aLSqbq
Get the slim housing for GoPro here: http://www.sethsbikehacks.com/product/go-pro-open-housing/
Stabilizer Gimbal: http://www.sethsbikehacks.com/product/z1-rider-m-camera-stabilizer/
We have shirts now! http://www.sethsbikehacks.com/product/hardtail-shirt/
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