We can win only if we will return back to sellers the false advertised products! More returns, more changes to win.
The golden rule: right now is not possible to buy a real 4K camera under $250.
Most of old members from this forum know how to look at cameras details to avoid a fake advertised camera, but I want this thread to help all people.
The old trick was bigger CMOS size, for example 12-16-20MP instead of real 2-4MP, but starting from 2015 a lot of cameras are advertised as 4K resolution. Most of the sellers are using the 4K in product names just for selling purposes and most of them are excusing their false information because of manufacturers
People are invited to report all cameras with false specifications, even is only in stores product name.
How they lie:
1. Fake 4K "video-picture". The recorded resolution is 3840x2160 but the video is obtained by 10 or 15 consecutive photos/second and by adding a PCM audio so you will watch a picture slideshow with sound. The quality is much much worse than next category, fake 4K resized.
Usually these cameras price is about $60 and overall quality is bad, no firmware support, avoid these cameras because their goal is low price.
Eken H9 4K original video download, thanks to
@Pavle .
After analyzing the video with Mediainfo people should know that the video is obtained from JPEG pictures, there is no video codec used to create a Heken H9 „video”.
The FPS is low because the chipset can not create at least 24 JPEG consecutive pictures in one second.
So when you are watching a Eken H9 4K video in fact you are looking at a very fast pictures slideshow with audio. They are using this trick because chipset and/or image sensor is not supporting 4K video.
Here is a part of mediainfo information and with italic font I wrote my comments:
Video
Format :
JPEG - picture, not video ( here must be AVC or HEVC for a 4K video)
Codec ID :
jpeg - picture, not video (here must be something like avc1 or hvc1 for a 4K video
Bit rate : 49.1 Mbps
(50mbps for such poor quality is wased space)
Width : 3 840 pixels
(OK)
Height : 2 160 pixels
(OK)
Original height : 4 320 pixels
(original height captured by sensor but downsized to 2160 to match 4K resolution and obtain 16:9 aspect ratio)
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
(OK)
Frame rate : 10.000 fps
(real 4K should be over 24fps)
Do you think that a real 4K is looking so bad?
View attachment 20062
2. Fake 4K resized. The recorded resolution is 2880x2160 which means real 3K, but the camera is advertised as 4K just because the 2880 is interpolated by the player to 3840 resulting in 3840x2160 which match 4K. For example SJCam SJ5000X is advertised in product name titles on all online stores as 4K even on their gift box, but somewhere on a page is wrote that their 4K is interpolated.
Usually these cameras price is over $100 and overall quality can be good, search for people feedback before buy.
A 4K video recorded with SJ5000X analyzed by
Mediainfo is showing:
Video
Format : AVC
(OK)
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
(OK)
Codec ID : avc1
(OK)
Width : 2 880 pixels
(OK)
Height : 2 160
(OK)
Display aspect ratio :
16:9 (Here is the trick: when a player see the 16:9 aspect ratio it will override the real 4:3 recorded resolution of 2880x2160 and will resize the 2880 to 3840 just to obtain the correct 16:9 aspect ratio)
View attachment 20064
3. 4K cameras with not 4K sensors. There are 4K cameras which can record at 3840x2160 but with 4MP sensors which are not capable to offer 3840x2160 video. For example the OV4689 CMOS which have 2688x1520 active pixels, smaller than 3840x2160.
4. Fake CMOS size, this is already an old trick. Here is easy: if for example the camera is taking 12MP photos resized from real 4MP CMOS, the cameras CMOS is advertised as 12MP. For example
SJCam M10+ is advertised as 12MP even the sensor size is 4MP and at least
one member of our forum is returning it because of false specifications. Everybody should do the same because now the laws are better for buyers.
View attachment 20063
5. Fake SONY CMOS advertised, which is usually the IMX117 used by
GoPro. Instead of a cheap camera with Sony IMX117 CMOS you will pay for Omnivision OV4689 CMOS which is not bad, it is good for a chinese sensor, but
is not a SONY.
View attachment 20413
7. Fake chipset: they can pretend or even print another name on original chipset.
For example the mysterious A12 chipset used in XiaoMi dashcam which in reality is the NT96660. Yi used the A12 code trying to make people believe they are using the Ambarella A12 chipset which is used by
GoPro.
enjoy,
Mtz
