NCD...

New Camera Day.

After a lot of online research, I bought another "action camera."  I have had a GoPro (Hero 3 Black) for several years.  It was GoPro's top of the line camera when I got it, and I disliked it from the very beginning.  In order to get much use out of it, I had to buy accessory mounts and a couple batteries and a charger.  After giving it several good tries, I moved from the "dislike" camp straight into the "this thing is a giant pain in the ass" camp.  Small buttons and a painfully non-intuitive labyrinth of button pushes in a sequence that made no sense to switch from still camera to video, coupled with no viewfinder... it has been sitting in the case for a couple years.  Oh, every once in a while I'd pull it out, thinking it might be fun on the scoots, and then I'd remember that it hadn't gotten any easier to use and I'd put it away again.

GoPro recently released their Hero 2018 "entry level" camera that seemed to address all the stuff I didn't like about the one I paid good bucks for.  I decided to shop around...

My choice was pretty quickly narrowed down to the Akaso V50 Pro.  It is 40% less expensive than GoPro's new model, and has more features and better resolution.  It comes with 2 batteries and an external charger... but, wait - there's more!  It also has a waterproof case, a remote control in a watch form factor, and a convenient selection of mounts and attachments.  It can do 4K video and has 20mg still image capture; of course, you can also reduce both video and still resolution/file size, if desired.  Another biggie: 6-axis stabilization, to keep the "shakes" out of the video capture.

The camera arrived today, and I put it through some paces to check it out:

The presentation...

The camera is in its waterproof case in the presentation box.  The bottom of that box is filled with all the accessories that come with it.  The camera itself is even more compact than the GoPro it replaces...

I put one of the batteries in it along with a micro SD card and fired it up.  The touch screen LCD on the back of the camera is easy to use; I did the usual set up with language, date, time, and my preferences for still and video capture.  That screen is also your viewfinder and playback screen; nice!

One other nice feature of this camera is the different lens angles:

Narrow...

Medium...

Wide...

And super-wide (170º)...

That is a really nice feature - most action cameras are just extreme wide angle, which makes them less useful for snap-shots and other captures where you don't want the nearly fish-eye look.

What I have in mind for this camera is attaching it to the scooter, to take the place of a camera on a strap around my neck.  It comes with a handlebar mount that is made for a bicycle.  Not being enough to fit the grips on the scoots, but that placement wouldn't be great on the Vespa anyway.  I added some non-skid to allow the mount to be attached to the mirror stem...

The watch-style remote works good on the left grip, making it easy to take a photo without taking my hand off the handlebars...

I rode around the park a bit, testing the video and stills (a few stills shown)...

Proof of concept: it works.  I will add a Ram Mount ball with a tripod screw (yes, this camera has a tripod mount on the bottom) that will allow faster attachment and removal on the scooter; first, I wanted to make sure this concept works.  It does.

Video is a bit of a pain to put on here, but I will likely put something on YouTube later - the tests I did with it today were impressive.

It works fine as a hand-held camera, too...

So, all things considered, at first blush I am quite pleased with this inexpensive, yet capable, action camera.

One other item we ordered came today: a Cuisinart grill.  Joan wanted something small just for the coach.  We have been using one of the inexpensive black grills, but it was less than accurate with flame control.  This looks like a good solution.  Plus, Rufus likes the bag/case Joan ordered to go with it...

Hmmm... I wonder if I could attach the camera to Rufus's collar to get his POV on being out and about?  ;-)

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A poster on the Vespa forum asked about the video capability of the camera.  I posted this short YouTube test, taken into the sun, stabilization not turned on...