st599
Well-Known Member
Shush, you've been told in the past that a Chinese knock off go-pro is almost as good as an ARRI Alexa - especially if you use it for a really long oneshot with no edits. ;-)
Go Pro -vs- Chinese 'copy'
- Thread starter Sailingsaves
- Start date
Shush, you've been told in the past that a Chinese knock off go-pro is almost as good as an ARRI Alexa - especially if you use it for a really long oneshot with no edits. ;-)
blackdogsailing
Well-Known Member
Anyone know if the Go Pro accessories fit the SJ4000 ? Thanks.
Chris
Chris
sand_dune
Well-Known Member
The camera records good sound, but not when it's sitting in a waterproof case as I'm guessing in this video. SJ4000 also comes with a splash proof case lid to replace waterproof. That door has openings that sound penetrates easier.
Yes except for waterproof case, that has a slightly different button configuration for SJ4000. The camera still fits inside though.
SJ4000 is so much better than a gopro for creative filming, as it has screen and you can position the camera so much better for taking a nice shot.
Garry & June 'Friendship'
Well-Known Member
As stated the SJ4000 needs its own waterproof case. The new SJ5000 can use all gopro extras including waterproof case. The SJ4000 uses a small screen on the back for controlling the camera when filming /taking shots...the gopro and the SJ5000 uses wifi to connect to an android/apple phone or tablet. You have to download a special app which is simply done from google play then you have full control of the camera settings and have a camera image on the screen of your phone/tablet.
You do have to research the reviews of the various camera's to find out which are good ones however please remember these are all clones/copies to a certain degree. I find it quite funny in some of the reviews that people slate certain camera's just because they are a copy ....'of their copy'!!! The SJCAM version being a prime example !! It is good but so are quite a few other makes.
When connected to a phone/tablet the gopro or SJ5000 is just as easy...in fact no it is very often easier to use than the SJ4000 with its screen,.ecause if you are using it remotely you can still see what the camera is capturing. where the SJ4000 does score with its screen is when taking individual photo frames as then when stood behind actually holding the camera it comes into its own.
Bav34
...
Several mentions of the SJ having a screen. My GP 4 has a screen too.
nigelmercier
RIP
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Storyline
Well-Known Member
got into photo/video on a Phantom Vision this time last year and the conclusion I (& others) eventually came to is that in order to get quality stills and video the holy grail is a platform that you can hang a Sony RX100 off (& good quality 3 axis gimbal).
Edit: Have spent a chunk of the day deciding which video camera to buy after having made our first ever video log of last year's cruises which were shot on a mixture of phone cameras & an ancient Lumix point & shoot still camera. The quality was poor which was a shame considering it took ages to edit together 20 minutes of footage including charts etc.
The conclusion I have come to after studying some of Dylan's films and other people sailing videos on action cams is that for me the action cam/gopro/gopro rip-off is the way to go rather than the Panasonic hand held type. It is hard to quantify the differences when Dylan has the film making techniques that most other people cannot match. Some of the action cam footage was sharper & had better/nicer colour (imo) than Dylan's Vimeo downloads but where natural sound was present then Dylan edged it. Interestingly the sharpness of the action cam footage looked better on a new smallish HD LCD in the kitchen but Dylan's films looked sumptuous on our main hi end plasma TV. Sort of difference between CD & vinyl I suppose.
The sensors in the new action cams are very similar to the Panasonic handhelds - in fact, cheekily the SJ5000 has the same Panasonic sensor that is in their latest models. The thing that swung it for me was the flexibility of mounting an action cam, either stuck on the boat somewhere quietly filming or on a stick or tripod for use by hand. After my experience with my quadcopter I also plan to buy a hand held electric 2 axis gimbal for the action cam for completely smooth video on the boat in any kind of sea. Sound is an issue but most of the footage I enjoyed the most had a soundtrack so I can live with that and this year when I included natural sound in our log it was OK out of the p&s.
There is also the issue of price and the action cam clones (would never consider a genuine gopro) are astonishingly cheap. It is a mad technological world out there with breathtaking video footage available for £50 - £100 !
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martybox
New Member
Word of Warning
After reading this thread and following one of the links to Amazon, I bought a sj5000. I have to say it is a pile of s##t. As soon I plugged the power lead in, it broke the camera power input. None of the mounts screw up properly and the front of the camera is coming away.
I immediately got a refunded from Amazon. Whatever people say about Gopro's, I'm just going to buy one. Buy cheap, buy twice.
Total rubbish Chinese tat.
After reading this thread and following one of the links to Amazon, I bought a sj5000. I have to say it is a pile of s##t. As soon I plugged the power lead in, it broke the camera power input. None of the mounts screw up properly and the front of the camera is coming away.
I immediately got a refunded from Amazon. Whatever people say about Gopro's, I'm just going to buy one. Buy cheap, buy twice.
Total rubbish Chinese tat.
I just wondered - where are GoPros made? Most, all, modern electronics, especially cameras and phones are made in China - are they all tat?
Jonathan
Storyline
Well-Known Member
Are you sure you got a genuine one as there are a lot of fakes around ?
The one I got last week is simply amazing, had to update to the new Dec25th firmware but now swmbo and I just cannot believe the quality of the images it produces. It really gives my DSLR a run for it's money and today we mounted it 6" away from some bird feeders and the video as viewed on a HDTV is genuinely astonishing.
Storyline
Well-Known Member
Think they are probably also made in China. The main difference (as I see it) is that gopros have a much, much higher level of support behind them in terms of QC and R&D. These clones seem to be made on a bit of a shoestring and from I can work out you are on your own when it comes to working out how to get the best out of them. That saying, if you get a good one (and they are ludicrously affordable) the hardware they use does indeed rival the gopro (similar sensors and chipset) and the image quality is very good. If you are tempted and are not put off by being an early adopter then for £100 or so they offer a lot. The one I have has wifi so all control is done on my tablet and it is a bit like having a very high quality remote camera on it which can be mounted anywhere in any weather. Great fun
Storyline,
I would wholeheartedly agree with you but add that GoPro appear to have some of the best marketing around - mention 'action cam' or something similar and people think 'go pro'. Of course someone needs to pay for the level of marketing (and support).
I have seriously cheap, stg40, Chinese action cam that I specifically bought for underwater filming, checking AF, anchors etc. and to use in the rain. It is basic, no wifi (but not necessary underwater as it would not work) and very, very simple. But I bought it on a 'disposable' basis. Unless you buy expensive stuff water, cameras and electronics do not seem to mix. I could not consider a GoPro as a disposable purchase - so an adequate and cheap product (origin does not matter) fills a neat marketing niche that GoPro have exposed but did not (or does not) fill. I will use the video at lectures - and it will be infinitely better than no vid even if it never meets Dylan's standards.
I also agree, great fun - but it takes longer to edit and splice than take the images! and I do wonder how many bother.
I was more concerned at the xenophobic comment associating 'China' with 'tat'! Too easy to say and basically unfair, unless you have not heard of an iPad, iPhone, Mac, Canon and not forgetting Burberry, many brand name sails and including items we actually rely - like most anchor chain bought in the UK etc etc
Jonathan
I would wholeheartedly agree with you but add that GoPro appear to have some of the best marketing around - mention 'action cam' or something similar and people think 'go pro'. Of course someone needs to pay for the level of marketing (and support).
I have seriously cheap, stg40, Chinese action cam that I specifically bought for underwater filming, checking AF, anchors etc. and to use in the rain. It is basic, no wifi (but not necessary underwater as it would not work) and very, very simple. But I bought it on a 'disposable' basis. Unless you buy expensive stuff water, cameras and electronics do not seem to mix. I could not consider a GoPro as a disposable purchase - so an adequate and cheap product (origin does not matter) fills a neat marketing niche that GoPro have exposed but did not (or does not) fill. I will use the video at lectures - and it will be infinitely better than no vid even if it never meets Dylan's standards.
I also agree, great fun - but it takes longer to edit and splice than take the images! and I do wonder how many bother.
I was more concerned at the xenophobic comment associating 'China' with 'tat'! Too easy to say and basically unfair, unless you have not heard of an iPad, iPhone, Mac, Canon and not forgetting Burberry, many brand name sails and including items we actually rely - like most anchor chain bought in the UK etc etc
Jonathan
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Storyline
Well-Known Member
Absolutely, China is a truly extraordinary country and all human life is there, from highly qualified research scientists and product designers to the most blatant con artists you can imagine. There has been a recent upsurge in small Chinese companies exporting direct to western markets and as you are no doubt aware with some very, very low prices. You choose your price point and take your pick.
Agree with you about gopro. No doubt the user experience is much more smooth but at a price, after all someone has to pay for all the R&D and expensive marketing. You can also take advantage of those that follow in their wake with cameras having similar specs. (If you are in the market for a replacement for yours the best two to consider (imo, after a lot of research and some first hand experience) is the SJ5000 wifi or SJ5000+.
Another example of buying branded or unbranded is a pole I also got to go with the camera. This is a bit like a 'selfie' stick but with a proper tripod head. The market leader is called Gopole and no self respecting hipster working in IT would ever be seen filming bmx stunt bikers with his Gopro in Covent Garden with anything else. You can imagine the price. The one I got was £6.99 with proper tripod head and padded foam handle and extends to just under a metre. Stiff as anything when it arrived but after some judicious use of some P600 on the tripod ball head casting and the application of some Teflon Turbo Gel to the telescopic part it works a treat
martybox
New Member
From the sound of it I must have bought a copy. Despite Jonathan's accusations about being 'xenophobic' (a very sweeping judgement to make based on the use of one word, reflective of my experience and disappointment of this one incident, as opposed to patronisingly being lectured about Apple & Burberry products and anchor chain!) I was truly frustrated in my purchase.
There are lots of very good quality products coming out of china but there is also an industry of making copies of those good items and this was clearly a copy that was never going to work as advertised.
I actually think Amazon should take responsibility in their product control of their suppliers. But they did and immediately refunded me the purchase price.
So I am now left in the position that I will buy a Gopro because although they cost more, it will hopefully be a product that actually works as it should.
Having 'branded' things isn't important to me but after ordering the previous camera, getting it delivered, it malfunctioning immediately and being wrong, emailing Amazon who then got me to email the manufacture, who then sent numerous emails asking me if I'd plugged it in correctly (despite telling informing them that the main issue was a broken charging input!!) then more emails and waiting for responses from Amazon, the whole experience has been frustrating and disappointing.
So I was just saying to people, be careful what you buy, that was all!
There are lots of very good quality products coming out of china but there is also an industry of making copies of those good items and this was clearly a copy that was never going to work as advertised.
I actually think Amazon should take responsibility in their product control of their suppliers. But they did and immediately refunded me the purchase price.
So I am now left in the position that I will buy a Gopro because although they cost more, it will hopefully be a product that actually works as it should.
Having 'branded' things isn't important to me but after ordering the previous camera, getting it delivered, it malfunctioning immediately and being wrong, emailing Amazon who then got me to email the manufacture, who then sent numerous emails asking me if I'd plugged it in correctly (despite telling informing them that the main issue was a broken charging input!!) then more emails and waiting for responses from Amazon, the whole experience has been frustrating and disappointing.
So I was just saying to people, be careful what you buy, that was all!
Storyline
Well-Known Member
@ martybox Yes, it ihighly possible you had a copy - some of the other factories blatantly call their cameras 5000 and one even has a 6000 hoping that people will think it is the new model !
To be honest, the first experience with mine was very frustrating. Had never heard of this generation of gopro clones before reading about them on here a few days ago. So I just bought one on impulse after nearly a solid day of research online and it arrived the next morning. So I was quite excited to open the parcel having read so much about them. Unpacked it, switched it on and nothing happened which was a downer. I then thought the battery was flat so plugged in the micro usb and it came to life so I left it for a couple of hours to charge. Unplugged cable and switched on - nothing
. After faffing around with it on & off charge I removed battery only to see it appeared damaged in one corner with some white plastic exposed. Then went online and after googling discovered that some (but not all) are shipped with some tape on the battery. In my case this type had become twisted so it took a magnifying glass to see what had happened. Anyway, removed tape and joy of joys it switched on . The only one problem was it then only switched on once out of maybe 25 attempts !
At this point I had not even taken a photo and I was ready to send it back for an exchange or refund as it appeared terminally faulty. Then after some more reading online (but no mentions of my failure to start problem) I discovered some new firmware had been released. Downloaded that and followed the instructions which were to follow the onscreen display once I had put the firmware on the sd card. Just one problem, no onscreen display ! Anyway, somehow the firmware took and since then has performed perfectly.
There are some bugs in the Android app which is how I operate the camera wireless from my tablet but I am sure they will be ironed out in future firmware.
So it is not a very user friendly experience at first and I can imagine a gopro would be completely different.
Just one word of advice (imo), if gopro do a wireless model go for that one. It is so much easier operating the camera from your tablet than fiddling around with the camera itself. Now I think of the camera as just being a portable sensor attached to the tablet which you can put anywhere, like yesterday when in under a minute I mounted it inches away from our bird feeders and then spent a happy hour or so with swmbo in the kitchen watching the birds on our HDTV. The camera was streaming the images wirelessly and we were in the warmth watching them really close up in great clarity. Even with our really nice Nikon birdwatching binoculars we had never seen anything like as detailed as they were - every feather. You could see in complete detail how the different species each removed the sunflower heart from the feeder. Next is to do some recording and play around with the slow motion features
So I think you can tell I absolutely love this little thing - bargain basement gadget porn !
(The case cost buttons !)
Edit: Should also say that this is an exciting new area of photography for me. In the past I have been used to taking photos with a nice DSLR for which I am lucky enough to have some lovely Nikon lenses. Then spending ages selecting the good ones and working on them in photoshop on quiet evenings and have produced some images I am quite proud of (mainly boaty but some landscapes and still life). Now, with this little camera I have discovered Snapseed (an Android app). This is a rare bit of Google altruism, the app had become a very popular paid for download but Google purchased the company and made the app free. It is of course nowhere near as powerful as ps but gosh it is good fun - attach the action cam wirelessly, set exposure/white balance etc on tablet, shoot, import into Snapseed, crop, adjust levels (not strictly levels but lots of options - brightness/contrast/saturation/shadows etc) and in moments you are looking at a high resolution post processed image. Another world !
Edit 2: Just wish the little thing would output in camera RAW - have emailed the factory that makes them and pleaded
To be honest, the first experience with mine was very frustrating. Had never heard of this generation of gopro clones before reading about them on here a few days ago. So I just bought one on impulse after nearly a solid day of research online and it arrived the next morning. So I was quite excited to open the parcel having read so much about them. Unpacked it, switched it on and nothing happened which was a downer. I then thought the battery was flat so plugged in the micro usb and it came to life so I left it for a couple of hours to charge. Unplugged cable and switched on - nothing
. After faffing around with it on & off charge I removed battery only to see it appeared damaged in one corner with some white plastic exposed. Then went online and after googling discovered that some (but not all) are shipped with some tape on the battery. In my case this type had become twisted so it took a magnifying glass to see what had happened. Anyway, removed tape and joy of joys it switched on . The only one problem was it then only switched on once out of maybe 25 attempts ! At this point I had not even taken a photo and I was ready to send it back for an exchange or refund as it appeared terminally faulty. Then after some more reading online (but no mentions of my failure to start problem) I discovered some new firmware had been released. Downloaded that and followed the instructions which were to follow the onscreen display once I had put the firmware on the sd card. Just one problem, no onscreen display ! Anyway, somehow the firmware took and since then has performed perfectly.
There are some bugs in the Android app which is how I operate the camera wireless from my tablet but I am sure they will be ironed out in future firmware.
So it is not a very user friendly experience at first and I can imagine a gopro would be completely different.
Just one word of advice (imo), if gopro do a wireless model go for that one. It is so much easier operating the camera from your tablet than fiddling around with the camera itself. Now I think of the camera as just being a portable sensor attached to the tablet which you can put anywhere, like yesterday when in under a minute I mounted it inches away from our bird feeders and then spent a happy hour or so with swmbo in the kitchen watching the birds on our HDTV. The camera was streaming the images wirelessly and we were in the warmth watching them really close up in great clarity. Even with our really nice Nikon birdwatching binoculars we had never seen anything like as detailed as they were - every feather. You could see in complete detail how the different species each removed the sunflower heart from the feeder. Next is to do some recording and play around with the slow motion features
So I think you can tell I absolutely love this little thing - bargain basement gadget porn !
(The case cost buttons !)
Edit: Should also say that this is an exciting new area of photography for me. In the past I have been used to taking photos with a nice DSLR for which I am lucky enough to have some lovely Nikon lenses. Then spending ages selecting the good ones and working on them in photoshop on quiet evenings and have produced some images I am quite proud of (mainly boaty but some landscapes and still life). Now, with this little camera I have discovered Snapseed (an Android app). This is a rare bit of Google altruism, the app had become a very popular paid for download but Google purchased the company and made the app free. It is of course nowhere near as powerful as ps but gosh it is good fun - attach the action cam wirelessly, set exposure/white balance etc on tablet, shoot, import into Snapseed, crop, adjust levels (not strictly levels but lots of options - brightness/contrast/saturation/shadows etc) and in moments you are looking at a high resolution post processed image. Another world !
Edit 2: Just wish the little thing would output in camera RAW - have emailed the factory that makes them and pleaded
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mjcoon
Well-Known Member
..., like yesterday when in under a minute I mounted it inches away from our bird feeders and then spent a happy hour or so with swmbo in the kitchen watching the birds on our HDTV. The camera was streaming the images wirelessly and we were in the warmth watching them really close up in great clarity. Even with our really nice Nikon birdwatching binoculars we had never seen anything like as detailed as they were - every feather. You could see in complete detail how the different species each removed the sunflower heart from the feeder. Next is to do some recording and play around with the slow motion features
How does it do in low light levels? (With use in a nest box in mind; this is the season to put one up!)
Mike.
Just_sayin'
Well-Known Member
Can you tell me how you did that? I understand viewing on a phone or iPad using wifi. Thanks
mjcoon
Well-Known Member
Well, if it were me with my Hudl-1 Android tablet I would use my HDMI cable to connect it to my (non-HD) TV...
Mike.
Just_sayin'
Well-Known Member
Aha. I need an Apple Composite AV Cable. Just found it. Didn't know I could do that, basically because I have never needed one, but like the idea of GoPro on TV.
I use a thunderbolt connection from Mac to TV but Mac doesn't have the GoPro app.
Excellent.
I use a thunderbolt connection from Mac to TV but Mac doesn't have the GoPro app.
Excellent.
Storyline
Well-Known Member
Yes, connected wirelessly to my Hudl and then by hdmi to entry level LG FHD TV (v. highly recommended btw).
As regards low light levels, it copes well in low outdoor light but doubt inside a nest box. Maybe you could look at Techmoan's youtube channel where he recently reviewed a wireless cctv camera which had good imaging. You could make a hole in the nest box and poke the lens & it's IR lights through - then you could fill in darkness. These cameras have motion activated function so you could just leave it going and it would start start to film when the parents flew in or when the eggs hatched. Tempted to get one myself and give it a try
As regards low light levels, it copes well in low outdoor light but doubt inside a nest box. Maybe you could look at Techmoan's youtube channel where he recently reviewed a wireless cctv camera which had good imaging. You could make a hole in the nest box and poke the lens & it's IR lights through - then you could fill in darkness. These cameras have motion activated function so you could just leave it going and it would start start to film when the parents flew in or when the eggs hatched. Tempted to get one myself and give it a try