My main goal was to find a portable camera that could record REAL 4k video AND had a wide angle lens. (And "cheaper" price).
This is one of the only cameras that I could find that fell into this categories. Other 4K ones did not have a wide angle lens (though I wish it were a little bit wider). The ones that did have a lens were "fake" 4k. I wish it were a little wider though. The video quality does seem to be significantly better than 1080.
Now the bad:
Night video is very noisy because of the auto ISO. There is an ISO setting that lets you change the ISO setting but it doesnt have any effect. You end up with noisy video or the thing you are trying to record (if it is being lit) is all washed out.
The deal breaker though is that the battery contact is defective or very poor/worn either on the camera or all three batteries. When I insert the battery, it doesnt seem to make contact because nothing happens when I press the power button and it wont charge. I found that if I slowly pull the battery out a little, it suddenly does make contact. This doesnt always work and I have to pull it out and reinsert it many times until it finally makes contact and works. But then if I shut the battery door and/or push down on the battery door, it slides the battery in slightly further and then the contact is loss. This is totally unacceptable since there are many times you need to use a camera and can't afford to take 15-30min to fiddle with the batteries to get them to mate properly to the camera because you will have missed the moment. I can't tell if the issues is on the camera side or with all three batteries. Even when it seems to work, it's not reliable. I tried recording a few videos and it seemed to work fine, but when I went to hit stop, I noticed that it stopped on its own at some point already. Imagine recording your priceless moments only to find out your camera decided to stop on its own. I also noticed at least one instance where the screen started flickering and the whole camera just turned off. I assume this was due to the battery contact issue. I have no idea if the recording stopping on its own has anything to do with it.
Finally, they include a SJ6 Charger. The SJ6 battery contact is on the other side so the SJ7 won't physically fit. It was packaged with two SJ7 batteries so someone screwed up.
So this one is being returned and my search continues. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.
So now my requirements are: Real 4K, Wide angle lens (~170deg), Manual ISO control.
This is one of the only cameras that I could find that fell into this categories. Other 4K ones did not have a wide angle lens (though I wish it were a little bit wider). The ones that did have a lens were "fake" 4k. I wish it were a little wider though. The video quality does seem to be significantly better than 1080.
Now the bad:
Night video is very noisy because of the auto ISO. There is an ISO setting that lets you change the ISO setting but it doesnt have any effect. You end up with noisy video or the thing you are trying to record (if it is being lit) is all washed out.
The deal breaker though is that the battery contact is defective or very poor/worn either on the camera or all three batteries. When I insert the battery, it doesnt seem to make contact because nothing happens when I press the power button and it wont charge. I found that if I slowly pull the battery out a little, it suddenly does make contact. This doesnt always work and I have to pull it out and reinsert it many times until it finally makes contact and works. But then if I shut the battery door and/or push down on the battery door, it slides the battery in slightly further and then the contact is loss. This is totally unacceptable since there are many times you need to use a camera and can't afford to take 15-30min to fiddle with the batteries to get them to mate properly to the camera because you will have missed the moment. I can't tell if the issues is on the camera side or with all three batteries. Even when it seems to work, it's not reliable. I tried recording a few videos and it seemed to work fine, but when I went to hit stop, I noticed that it stopped on its own at some point already. Imagine recording your priceless moments only to find out your camera decided to stop on its own. I also noticed at least one instance where the screen started flickering and the whole camera just turned off. I assume this was due to the battery contact issue. I have no idea if the recording stopping on its own has anything to do with it.
Finally, they include a SJ6 Charger. The SJ6 battery contact is on the other side so the SJ7 won't physically fit. It was packaged with two SJ7 batteries so someone screwed up.
So this one is being returned and my search continues. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.
So now my requirements are: Real 4K, Wide angle lens (~170deg), Manual ISO control.