RunCam, GoPro, iLook+, Vivitar camera comparison
1This will be my comparison of these four "action cam" models:
- GoPro Hero 3+ Black
- Walkera iLook+
- RunCam HD
- Vivitar DVR 787HD
I'm sure we all expect the GoPro to be the hands down winner, but it will be interesting to see how close the other (much less expensive) cameras stack up.
One of my peeves about camera comparisons is when the video isn't all recorded at the same moment from exactly the same angle. Changes in lighting and angles occur when a reviewer attempts to replicate "about the same angle and movement". So in my case, I attached all four cameras to a board, and will record all four examples at the same moment. Angles won't be exactly the same, because the cameras are spread out by a total of 10 inches, but it's close enough for my satisfaction:
All cameras will be set as close as possible to the same configuraion. All four support 1080p/30, so that's the baseline. White balance, exposure, etc. will be set to the defaults for all cameras. All stills and video will be "raw". No post-production corrections of any kind will be applied.
This will be a bit more time consuming than I had originally anticipated, so expect this thread to grow as I record more video and take more stills. Assembling the video footage is quite labor intensive, so I appreciate your patience through the process.
- 3 comments, 12 replies
- Comment
Let's start with a frame-grab from each camera. These were grabbed using Adobe Premiere Pro's Export Frame function, saved in native resolution.
GoPro Hero 3+ Black:
Walkera iLook+:
RunCam HD:
Vivitar DVR 787HD:
I'm working on assembling some video now. Once uploaded, I'll start posting those.
I'd say GoPro did the best job capturing the color of the sky, but totally washed out the reds and greens. Excellent job on contrast and detail though.
iLook+ is the closest match to the purple/red flowers and detail is fair, but it barfed all over the green leaves, and the contrast certainly leaves something to be desired.
RunCam didn't excel at color or contrast in this test. Note the various hot and low spots throughout the frame. But detail is good.
Vivitar did a pretty good job on the green leaves, but detail is a train wreck. Look how grainy the sky is, not to mention over-saturated in the blue.
@ruouttaurmind Good job! I enjoyed this :).
Here's a video comparison. In this clip we're looking at how each camera reacts in changing light and shadows, in direct sunlight, and various angles of the sun.
@ruouttaurmind Thanks! Great idea on a place to get difficult lighting, btw.
The thing that impresses me most is that they all (well, mostly--not wild about the vivitar) do a pretty decent job. Sure, there are things to nitpick side by side but the ilook+ and runcam certainly hold their own for less money. Even the vivitar isn't terrible, tbh.
I'd much rather risk crashing a runcam than a gopro, and I don't feel like it's sacrificing that much in video quality to do so.
@djslack RE: Crashing runcam (or having it fly away) versus my GoPro. GoPro is definitely a better camera with many more features, but is the RunCam good enough? For my "snapshot" videos, absolutely.
RE: Vivitar... it's no GoPro to be sure, but for $28 at Walmart, it has a touch-screen LED display and it included waterproof housing, and 12 different GoPro compatible mounts including windshield mount, two helmet options, body strap, 2 handlebar mounts, surfboard mount and more adapters than you can shake a stick at. Like the RunCam... is it good enough? Sure, I think so. Several of the videos I've posted here were taken with the Vivitar.
@ruouttaurmind good point. When you put them side by side you can nitpick them, but every one of them films HD video in difficult lighting in a package small enough to fly on our toys, for not much money. That's pretty amazing.
@djslack Side note RE: RunCam... it's recording in 05:01 segments. So if I record for 15 minutes, I wind up with 3 five minute files. When I stitch them together the timing is off throughout. I'm not sure if it's dropping frames as it ends one file and starts another, or if it's a result of Premiere Pro stitching together the files, but I can have the videos from all four camerasa lined up in the beginning, and the end will be a few seconds off for the RunCam video. I haven't had the patience to sit through 25 minutes of video, monitoring where it's happening, but that's on my to-do list. Along with RTFM to see if I can turn off the segmented recording feature.
@ruouttaurmind Hmm... Murphys Law states that those will be the crucial few frames when something awesome happens. That could be an annoying behavior.
Video #2. Let's have a look at color, sharpness and clarity:
@ruouttaurmind The GoPro runs away with it on bringing it out detail in shadow areas. The others aren't even close.
Also reinforces how different the color representation is between these models.
@djslack I just read the RunCam manual and didn't really learn anything, but perusing their website I found a configuration utility that allows me to set a number of options, including the default recording time. I can now increase the file size to 25 minutes (like the GoPro).
Also, there are a host of other configuration options:
With some effort, I think I can tweak this thing to come closer to GoPro image quality. Not the same as, but I bet I can get it closer to GoPro.
@ruouttaurmind I kind of like the deep blues... or perhaps.. They all look normal to me, maybe I don't know that I have some color blindness going on.
Runcam looks like it'll do just fine for recording the Runner action.
@ruouttaurmind Look at the rainbow effect on the vivitar :). The all did a great job except the vivitar caught my eye because of the number of times these rainbow effect showed up when you crossed the sun.
@garyhgaryh, the Vivitar was the least expensive of the three and, as expected, provides the least desirable picture. But still usable. As I mentioned to @sportykev, most of the videos I've posted on YouTube were recorded with the Vivitar. Though I think it's better suited as the third-person-view ground cam or the "hey, I wonder what would happen if I tried..." cam. Though the picture quality lacks, the LCD display has it's advantages, and the battery life is many hours.
@djslack, I installed the latest firmware on the RunCam and discovered they enabled WDR. That should make a BIG difference in the contrast issues I was seeing in the videos. I haven't tried it yet, but I expect much better performance with WDR on. The more I mess with the RunCam, the more I think I'm after getting a bargain on it for $25.