Cheap Chinese video cameras?

dunndog

dunndog

Eats Squid
All I know is, you get what you pay for, and the poor man pays twice.
That said, if it's this or noting, this would be better.
 
TheBug

TheBug

Likes Bikes and Dirt
Check out the 'techmoan' reviews of these things (on his site and his youtube channel) before buying if possible.
He's quite professional and very thorough with his reviews on these cheaper cameras.

I like the look of this one - review (with sample clips) here.

Reliability may be hit and miss but I have a little 720p 808 #11 pinhole (small and light enough for R/C planes). Have dropped it many times but still work exactly as they did when I first used them.
 
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Wellsey

Wellsey

Likes Bikes and Dirt
We got given one of those "Aiptek" ones for Xmas. Works perfectly, great for just filming the kids doing cute stuff etc.

Having said that, I wouldn't have bought it myself, I prefer to use my iPhone.
 
S

sedifus

Likes Dirt
At the lbs we know a guy importing some and so have a few for the bikes. Great quality (https://vimeo.com/36881612 or https://vimeo.com/36135679) video and easy to use and mount, its small and can use micro SD cards up to 32GB. But he did mention it was very hit and miss with QC trying to find something good. So yes you can get a great deal, but you might have a bit of trouble finding it.
 
Shoryuken

Shoryuken

Likes Dirt
I bought a 808 HD 720p from ebay a few months ago for about 40 bucks shipped.
It works well for what you pay for. I can understand the appeal when using them on RC cars and rockets etc.
But for mtbing you can do so much better.

Its not a bad camera, just not that great. Its supposedly one of, if not the best of the bunch.
In Bright day light it does a good job. If your flying down a track which is covered with trees and there is shadows everywhere it lags.
In low light it really freaks out. Will lag and even skip frames.

The main issue i had with it was the Focal length. Or lack of. The view is far to narrow. (as you can see in my videos below)

As its a pinhole type camera, it has trouble with the edges of the picture getting dark.

Below is a Bright Sunny day with the 808. (Both cameras mounted on my helmet and in 720p on similar days)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vIQBOmmBgM&list=UUJgaDWCmftpfatMmRUm4CNQ&index=3&feature=plcp

Here is the same couple of jumps with my GoPro2. (yes i know the GoPro2 is completely different yada yada)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=U...feature=player_detailpage&v=Be-x337Bst0#t=31s

The worst was a DH run with shadows and trees all over the track. The 808 flipped out. It wasnt fast enough to change between sun and shadow.
Then as a result is lagged and the reso dropped to like 200x200 (from 720p) a few times.

One last thing to point out is the mounted options for the camera...they stuck....you have to DIY it.

As someone mentioned before http://www.techmoan.com/ does great reviews of all the cameras out there and which buyers get them from.

Hope this helps :)
 
Fansta

Fansta

Cannon Fodder
After a lot of research, I had a Chinese dashcam: http://www.szswill.com/car-camera.html

It feels well made and not easily broken like the cheap one, 720P and 1080P are great and are both their own quality, its nice and smooth in both modes, does about 60-70mb per minute of 1080P which is cool as well, and the microphone is awesome, the old one would clatter and bang and distort at any bump, this one does lose a bit of volume in bumps but its nothing..

Already caught some footage of 2 drivers being utter wankers and refusing to give way - one of them turns out was the neighbor ahahah! hes a bit of a wanker so it never hurts to keep the footage archived.....

The dashcam will do the job just fine for me ..
 
johnny

johnny

I'll tells ya!
Staff member
The bike shops here in Canboring are awash with these $100 jobbies at the moment (and I mean like stacks of 50+ on display in the shop).

They look like a GoPro knock off, different shape but same basic concept.
 
fridgie

fridgie

Likes Dirt
What about a second hand gopro (hero2)? Can pick them up reasonably cheap since the hero 3 came out....
 
fridgie

fridgie

Likes Dirt
Have a mate who picked up the motor sport edition (same as the one I have, think the only difference in these models were the mounts) for $120

Few of them on eBay atm at around the $100 mark but not sure on bidding interest. Depends how patient you are I guess.

 
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M

MTB Pilot

Likes Dirt
Buying cheap might sound good and make sense, but I've learnt that for a lot of things like cameras, bike stuff, fishing equipment etc, saving up a little more in the first place for something and buying the most suitable/feature packed/ etc etc that will more than do the job, is well worth it. Buying second rate stuff is just not good economic sense. You end up busting it, selling it or packing it away, etc so you've wasted money and end up buying what you should of saved for and bought in the first place. I don't want to think about how much money I've lost learning that lesson. It just doesn't make good sense in the end!
 
WarbyD

WarbyD

Likes Dirt
Personally, I think it depends on your reason for wanting to buy a camera..

If you're wanting something to record a commute to/from work each day, where you will likely be riding in mostly good light and don't need fancy mounts etc then just about anything will do the job. The mobius/808 eBay cameras are very popular for this. If however you are wanting to record DH runs, jumps, etc then you will start running into the issues that Sharyuken pointed out - there is a reason that pretty much every "half decent" video on YouTube is using a GoPro (or similar - Ghost, Drift, etc). If you want to produce something that you will actually want to share then spend the extra up front and you should get years of use out of it.

One thing I would caution though is that if you haven't had one of these before and are just looking to buy in because it seems to be the latest craze and you want to be as cool as the kid next door, first go down to Target, Big W or K-Mart and buy one of the $50 GoPro knockoffs to try. They all come with helmet and bar mounts, and will give you an idea of whether or not you will actually end up using a GoPro as much as you think you will. This is what I did, and quickly realised that as much as I enjoy watching the videos that other people produce, I really CBF producing them myself - this camera now resides on my commuter (where I'm actually reasonably happy with it for $50 and have been considering getting a second one to mount rearward facing).

Dave
 
duacc

duacc

Cannon Fodder
I don't care about chip-sets. If it does what I want it for, at a reasonable price, and I'm happy how it looks, that's what I want. Good pictures. Good construction. Easy to program. Good features.
http://www.szswill.com - worth a try?
 
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V

vtwiz

Likes Dirt
duacc said:
I don't care about chip-sets. If it does what I want it for, at a reasonable price, and I'm happy how it looks, that's what I want. Good pictures. Good construction. Easy to program. Good features.
Click to expand...
If you want the things you have just listed, I'd say just get a GoPro White or Silver. The cheap cameras don't come close to GoPro on Picture quality and construction. There are plenty of good aftermarket bits on ebay for GoPro and it will be far easier to sell a GoPro in good condition if you find you are not using it.
 
J

JRXS

Squid
Got an SJ4000 with all the attachements off eBay for under A$130 delivered (inc chest mount). Vid quality is very good, and the car suction mount is very stable. Mainly used for a car cam, but will use it MTBing if the need arises. Heaps of samples and reviews on YouTube.
 
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