Aldi "action camera" £30

stirlinggaz · World Chat Champion Joined: 22 Jul 2007 Karma :

hi,
as per title, aldi has an "action camera" on sale from today (iirc)
at 30 quid its a wee bit dearer than the cheap chinese versions but aldi supplies a memory card & its waterproof (unlike the cheaper chinese knockoffs) but more importantly, it has a 3yr warranty.
worth a punt, no?

cheers,
GAZ

Teflon-Mike · tl;dr Joined: 01 Jun 2010 Karma :

Picture' OK, bit wobbler than I'd hoped on the handle-bar, but acceptable.
Sound? So-So.
Low-light performance is at best 'dire' and come sun-set, forget it. Works great on a sunny day; in over-cast or low raking light, t cant handle the contrast too well, and in low light come dusk, its useless.
Battery span a tad short. Lasts just long enough to almost fill the 4gb micro-SD. - Annoyingly, if battery dies whilst recording, segment is corrupt & segments are I think 30 mins long.
Runs off battery; you cant run it off a wire as far as I can tell, & you'd have to cut the water-proof 'enclosure' to get a wire in, if you tried.

Not an utter waste of time, and probably fair VFM for £30.. it was more successful than an old compact camera on a old L-bracket on the bars..

Whether its worth it depends what you want to do, and how much you value doing it. I just wanted to shut Snowie up asking me what her riding was like, and not believing me, or arguing with me when I told her what her road position was like, or where she was over-braking on approaches to corners and stuff... worked well enough for that, but I wouldn't expect to make broadcast quality home movies with the thing!
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Val · World Chat Champion Joined: 03 Nov 2012 Karma :

probably is fine given the fact its there and you do not need to wait for delivery.

If you can afford the wait you can buy seriously good camera for £40 which will be miles better video quality:

https://www.gearbest.com/action-cameras/pp_219132.html?currency=GBP&gclid=Cj0KEQiAj8uyBRDawI3XhYqOy4gBEiQAl8BJbWp34ycJZs-Ij_BOw65mTB3zkr7nEJj-W2SmXfsV1YMaAqQb8P8HAQ
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Matt B · World Chat Champion Joined: 01 May 2012 Karma :

Rogerborg · nimbA Joined: 26 Oct 2010 Karma :

ReVality Distortion Field.

Review of the Aldi one here, if you want to assume it's the same model. Video quality is potato. Green, mouldy potato.

https://ride.io/reviews/aldi-action-camera-review/
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ScaredyCat · World Chat Champion Joined: 19 May 2012 Karma :

DRZ4Hunned · World Chat Champion Joined: 15 Apr 2014 Karma :

Aren't the SJ4000's about £40? I've heard they're pretty good. Think they come with water 'resistant' cases but probably no SD card.
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Andy_Pagin · World Chat Champion Joined: 08 Nov 2010 Karma :

'water resistant' = "Lets water in, but not straight away" in my experience.
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Minty · World Chat Champion Joined: 23 Dec 2005 Karma :

My SJ4000 is about 18 months old, used through all weathers and has remained dry.

Havent taken it swimming mind but certainly weatherproof.
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stirlinggaz · World Chat Champion Joined: 22 Jul 2007 Karma :

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Teflon-Mike · tl;dr Joined: 01 Jun 2010 Karma :

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xlf1/v/t1.0-9/11401039_1006696166021967_2610454087434441922_n.jpg?oh=be7c6b4af73e5a68de9c2d943d6f22a0&oe=56DD6920
That one, cable-tied on the brake res.
Not sure about sticking it on my hat.. the mount is slotted for straps, but no straps in the box. + I wear a flip.. where could stick it?!
Box says "Maginon - vision HD Video resolution 1280x720
90 minutes recording
4x dgital zoom
135Deg Wide Angle Lens
3 year warranty
4Gb micro SD
Helmet Mount
Underwater Housing

And Snowie got me to get it from Aldi, in the Spring and I paid about £30 for it, so I guess its the same one. certainly sounds similar!

If you want t use it as a stills camera? Forget it! Its dire. it really is. have a ten year old 5Mpix compact, that doesn't even have a lens, that takes better stills, and has a flash!

Photographically, I'd say its 'about' the equivalent of a mediocre phone-camera... if that, with convenience of being a stand-alone device, in specialist housing you can attach to a bike or hat or canoe or whatever, and cheaper than a camera-phone. Over-The-Counter convenience, as you say, rather than waiting around for one to turn up from China of e-bay, and cheaper than anything n Argos.

As alluded to; before I got it, to show Snowie what she was up to on the italian-tractor; I had cut up an old L-Bracket and bolted it to the brake lever clamp, so I could attach a conventional compact to the handle-bars on the tripod mount... First one tried was that old lens-less 'Vivitar' copy, that proved the principle, but ever took great video, and vibration saw to go completely to pot at every harmonic engine revs! A 'better' Kodak compact I had salvaged from the smashed remains of two the kids broke, worked better.. but the camera was fucked before I began, and again, vibration did for what was left of it! Daughter then bequeathed me a Cannon sure-shot compact, that sort of worked but no image stabilisation, vibrato was still pretty bad;. Then I stole Snowie's Nikon Bridge-Thing, always considered a better video camera than stills compact, it was promising, but too heavy for the bars, and IS just couldn't cope. Hence, Snowie's suggesting that £30 for an out the box' solution, might be worth a punt. So I punted, and yeah.. sort of does the job. Maybe not all I had hoped; as sad it hasn't got the HD quality implied, certainly not that of the stolen Bridge or our SLR's, but then little probably has.

Ultimately, its all subjective, and its a £30 camera, how good do you expect it to be!

I have spent four times that, this year, on silver-halide film and developing chemicals, with no greater expectation of getting anything 'useful' from it... so what the heck?

Lets not try kidding ourselves this is in any way a 'serious' bit of photographic equipment! And as your 'only' camera? Well, I wouldn't put the 'action cam' qualifications of the 'underwater enclosure' and pritt-pad hat mount as worth the compromises on photo-resolution or sensitivity you would get from even a £50 compact camera.

EXIF data tells me it has a 4.5mm focal length lens; so its reliant on that incredibly short focal length to deliver very large depth of focus, to effectively make it 'focus free' rather than auto-focus, and to get a the 'wide angle' Field-of-View, a very large crop-factor, from a TINY sensor, probably a 'phone-cam sized micro-sensor.

So as a cut-down, and re-packaged 'phone-cam, and not a particularly high end one, image quality on a par with that makes sense and is 'acceptable'... if that's all you expect from it.

Sowie got a £20 bullet cam from China.. the had to buy an SD card for it.... no screen on it, bit hit and miss trying to mount it level! NOT that t mattered mush.. Italian tractor managed to keep vibrating it around inside its bezil anyway! Not as high resolution, and no better image stabilisation (Though Italian-Tractor wasn't exactly giving it an easy time!)

So I would hazard, that in this sub £50 price range, nothing is goig to be particularly fantastic; and fro what I have seen, to start getting a awful lot 'better' you have to go an awful log way up the market.

But, bottom line is its a action cam. Its not a 'proper' general purpose camera. And its a cheap one.

I would not try using it as my 'only' camera. And even as 2nd or back-up? Well, if I needed luggage space and had to leave the SLR at home? wouldn't think " Its OK, I have the Aldi-cam on the Handlebars".. I'd be slipping the Cannon Compact in my pocket, or trying to find a bit of extra space for the Nikon Bridge-Thing! Or even asking my daughter if she had her 'Smart-Phone'!
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My Webby'Tef's-tQ, loads of stuff about my bikes, my Land-Rovers, and the stuff I do with them!
Current Bikes:'Honda VF1000F' ;'CB750F2N' ;'CB125TD ( 6 3 of em!)'; 'Montesa Cota 248'. Learner FAQ's:= 'U want to Ride a Motorbike! Where Do U start?'

stirlinggaz · World Chat Champion Joined: 22 Jul 2007 Karma :

stirlinggaz · World Chat Champion Joined: 22 Jul 2007 Karma :

Teflon-Mike · tl;dr Joined: 01 Jun 2010 Karma :

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Rogerborg · nimbA Joined: 26 Oct 2010 Karma :

Can't speak to the Drift Biggun, but the Drift Stealth seems to be fine in rain. The LCD fogs up when it's damp, but actually clears in proper rain. I've run a thin smear of grease around the rotatey CCD/lens as a precaution.
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Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike