Four Top Budget Action Cameras Side by Side - including battery life test

[bobflyman]

A video test I just made comparing 4 of the best action cameras I've tested recently and their battery life. Might be of interest if you are looking for a camera? Very close thing really, though quality online suffered after YouTube compressed the video to death. Battery life differed by as much as 17 mins with the best being 1 hr 40m continuous recording. I think the SJCam 5000xElite was very very slightly better video-wise, though not top for battery life. The new Firefly 7S is priced sub £65 at the moment. A 26% reduction. Links on the video.

Prices suffering though because the pound sterling is at a 31 year low.

 

[Nigel]

So the conclusion is that the bigger and more detailed your video files are, the longer the battery will last

 

[bobflyman]

So the conclusion is that the bigger and more detailed your video files are, the longer the battery will last

Quite interesting to see that bigger data rates don't necessarily mean hugely better quality though. You can shoot in RAW with some of the cameras. Didn't try the data rates for that.
But longer recording obviously leads to more data on the card.

Firefly 7S bit rate 24,000 - 25,000 kbs
SJCam M20 30,000 - 31,000 kbs
SJCam 5000xElite 31,000 - 32, 000 kbs
GitUp Git 2. 36,000 - 38,000 kbs

They all have similar Novatek 96660 and Sony Exmor CMOS, IIRC though maybe some have better quality batteries than others, or better circuitry?

 

[Nigel]

The higher rates will be more detailed, but you only really notice the higher data rates if you edit the videos and make big changes to contrast/gamma/colour balance, just watching them normally the only noticeable difference is that the low data rates can give a blocky/pixelated appearance in smooth skies when there is a lot of motion to be encoded. You don't always prefer the most detailed image though, other things are important as well.

The Git2 and M20 share the same image sensor so it may be the sensor making most of the difference, even though at 16MP it is also the highest resolution.