Q6 Action Camera Review.

nutsey

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Technical Specs:

  • SoC: Allwinner V3
  • Sensor: 1/3.2” 8Mp Sony IMX179s (1.4 micrometer pixel size), Exmor R technology
  • Lens: 170-degree diagonal FOV
  • Display: 2" LCD TFT screen, 320x240
  • Video resolutions and format: 4K@30 fps, 2.7K@30 fps, 1080P@60/30 fps, 720P@90/60/30 fps. MP4 file format.
  • Photo resolutions: 2M/5M/8M/12M/16M
  • Connectors: microHDMI, microUSB
  • Wireless features: Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n
  • Additional features: UVC webcam, 4x digital zoom
  • Storage: microSD up to 64GB
  • Battery: removable, Li-ion 900mAh
  • Dimensions: 59.1 mm * 41.1 mm * 24.8 mm (30.8 mm with lens)
  • Weight: 60 g (43 g without battery)
Package and Accessories

The external dimensions of the package are 265 mm * 162 mm * 62 mm (~2.7L of volume). The outer package cover contains detailed information about the camera features and accessories.
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The box is made of high-quality cardboard. It has a transparent plastic window showing the camera inside the waterproof case.
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Inside we have a user's manual and a warning leaflet.
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The camera bundle has a good and practical selection of standard mounting elements and accessories. It also includes a 1A europlug wall charger and a plastic frame with two 1/4" tripod screws allowing to mount the camera upside down.
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Camera Design

The camera body is made of black plastic, the front panel is painted with silver paint. Q6 camera is also available with black front panel. The protective lens rim outer diameter is 21.09 mm, the lens protrudes forward making it necessary to keep in mind protection against scratches. The camera design is very common for a modern action camera, its front panel is distinctive by the two horizontal edges. There is also a white LED under the lens, it can be set to off and on or to blinking mode. The LED can be useful when shooting in complete darkness, however it is not powerful enough to light up anything more distant than 1 meter or so. Square window to the right of the LED might be there for remote control, more of this in teardown section below. Camera feels solid and the materials applied do not raise any questions.
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Screen
Q6 action camera uses the most popular among Allwinner V3-based products Sitronix ST7789v LCD driver. It works with 2-inch LCD display with mediocre viewing angles, the colors become inverted only when you turn the camera to the left. Brightness is enough for shooting under different lighting conditions. The screen is not touch sensitive and is covered with glossy transparent protective film.
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Controls
The front panel has the power / mode button, it is also used for navigation through the menu. The shutter / ok button is located on the top. The left side has two buttons on it: up (short press - digital zoom in, long press - wifi) and down (short press - digital zoom out, long press - mute).
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Indicators
There are two LED indicators located on the back side of the camera. The red one lights up when the battery is charging, the blue one is permanently on when the camera is powered up. Another red LED is on the top, it starts blinking after switching on the WiFi connection.

Connectors
All connectors are located on the left side. Of these, there are microUSB and microHDMI sockets and a microSD card slot.

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Power
Removable battery compartment is located on the bottom of the case. Its door is not very easy to open, but it seats safely when closed. Battery dimensions are 33 x 30 x 11 mm, the weight is 17 g. Battery is compatible with the most common “SJ” form-factor. The battery capacity is marked as '900mAh', this will be checked below in the Teardown section of this review. Another thing to mention here is that Q6 cam stays fully usable being connected to an external power source. You can record videos and shoot stills with this cam while charging. The Q6 has a dashcam mode, which powers up and starts recording when a power source is connected and stops recording and shuts the camera down when it’s off.

Fully charged battery lets 60 minutes of continuous shooting (4K30 mode, LCD on).
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Functions and Settings

Video modes
video-modes.png
Encoding profile: Main@L5.1

Audio: mono, AAC 8kHz 15kbps

User interface and Settings menu

The user interface is similar to other Allwinner V3 based action cams. The OSD indicates current mode, resolution, remaining card space (in gigabytes) and its status, battery level, current date and time, audio recording and looped video icons. Short press of the front button sequentially switches between following working modes: Video (opens by default), Photo, Slow Motion, Playback and Settings.
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You need to press OK button when in Settings mode to get access to settings. Camera settings are grouped into four sections: Video, Photo, General and System settings. The front button is used to switch between them. The fifth item is for quitting the menu.
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Almost all menu items available are pretty obvious to use from their names and options, so I put some ♦ notes only for a few of them.

Video settings
Video Resolution: see table above. Note: the maximum frame rate for this camera is 90fps in 720p video mode. Other similar cameras like Excelvan Q8 can record 120fps in this mode.
Recording Sound: Off, On
Time-lapse: Off, 0.5s, 1s, 2s, 5s, 10s, 30s, 60s
Loop recording: Off, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes
♦ If set to 'Off' the video length will be limited by 15 minutes for all video modes.
Slow Motion: 1080P 60FPS, 720P 90FPS

Photo settings
Photo Resolution: 2M, 5M, 8M, 12M, 16M
♦ The sensor is 8 Megapixels so only 8M setting lets shooting stills without any interpolation.
Timer: Off, 3S, 5S, 10S, 20S
♦ This option sets shutter delay
Auto: Off, 3S, 10S, 15S, 20S, 30S
♦ This option sets photo timelapse interval
Photo Burst: Off, 3P/S, 5P/S, 10P/S

General settings
Exposure: -3 - +3 EV in increments of 1
White Balance: Auto, Sunny, Cloudy, Incandescent Light, Fluorescent Light
WiFi: Off, On
Image Rotation: Off, On
Driving Mode: Off, On
♦ If enabled the camera will turn on automatically when the power source is connected and will switch off when it is removed. This option also sets ‘Loop Recording’ to ‘2 minutes’ and enables ‘Auto Shutdown’ feature.
Light Source Frequency: Auto, 50Hz, 60Hz
LED Indicator Light: Off, On
White LED: Off, On, SOS
Auto Screensaver: Off, 10s, 30s, 60s
Auto Shutdown: Off, 1minute, 3minutes, 5minutes
Time Watermark: Off, On
♦ This option sets date stamp for both photo and video modes

System settings
Language: English, Japanese, Korean, Russian, German, French, Italian, Polish, Dutch, Thai, Turkish, Czech, Chinese
Date-Time: date and time settings (Use Up/Down buttons to change value, Shutter to switch between input fields)
Format: prompts to format memory card
Reset To Factory Setting: prompts to reset camera settings to defaults
Firmware Version: shows camera model, current firmware version and date (no model displayed, 20161008V2.3, 20161008)

WiFi connection

The camera switches into wireless access point with 'Action Cam' SSID and '1234567890' password after long pressing the Up button. The strenght of Wi-Fi signal is very good, it allows remote controlling the camera with a smartphone from reasonably long distances.
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USB PC connection

After connecting the cam to a PC with a microUSB cable a mode selection prompt appears. There you can choose between USB Mode, PC Camera and Charging Mode. The first mode is used for file transfer. The camera in this mode is recognized by PC as a standard USB storage device.

Selecting the 'PC Camera' mode (use the wifi button to change selection and the shutter to confirm) enables web camera mode. Webcam is a standard UVC device with 720p30 (MJPEG) video mode.

The last ‘Charging Mode’ turns the camera on with or without battery in place.

Camera Teardown

Here you can find a step-by-step teardown photo guide made with Q6 camera: https://www.goprawn.com/forum/allwi...-with-two-horizontal-edges-on-the-front-panel

Video and Photo Quality and Samples

FullHD 30fps video mode has bitrate value up to 32Mbit/s which is enough for any shooting conditions without having compression artifacts. All three 720p recording modes have the widest available horizontal field of view (~108 degrees). The lens is typical for a camera of this price range, it provides adequately sharp image in the center with almost no softness in the corners. Footages recorded in 60 and 90 fps modes do not show frame skipping for bright lighting conditions (sunny day). Q6 photo quality is not a strong point for this camera the same is true for other Allwinner V3 based cams, however, stills produced are good enough for social media use.

Raw (not processed) video samples: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B4tyaJWIqCb_T2RIdVNmNVpVSlE?usp=sharing

Dashcam usage example of Q6 camera:
 
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Conclusion

Pros:
  • Affordable price
  • 4K video resolution is 3840x2160
  • Solid build quality and good materials
  • LED light on the front panel.
  • LCD is covered with protective film
  • Strong wi-fi signal strength
  • Adequate bundle
  • Standard battery form-factor
Cons:
  • Lack of 120fps recording mode
  • 4K30 video bitrate could be higher
Where to Buy

Gearbest (black front panel)
Gearbest (silver front panel)
 
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