The full title of this tiny 4K camera is and despite having 4K capability on my mobile phone, decided I just had to take a look at this model. Of course the gold standard for these sports movie cameras is usually thought of as the GoPro – but then similar GoPros are not a mere 85 Euros (95 dollars etc).
The camera comes in a nice, simple box complete with microUSB lead and and a pair of bright orange straps – no manual – as that is downloadable online as is the firmware and Android/IOS App. The very first thing I did was to charge the internal battery as I was downloading the manual etc. I charged the camera on my PC with the microUSB lead and with a handy 16GB SD which I had sitting on my desk.
My windows PC saw an SD which needed formatting as usual – I simply formatted in the usual way which took seconds.
And here’s the manual. Despite some indications to the contrary, the tiny Runcam 5 Orange camera does not have WiFi capability – settings can be adjusted on the APP and by pointing the camera at a bar-code in the APP, that’s how you update some of the settings. That took a little figuring out as I was expecting the camera to have it’s own access point.
Transferring video to the PC is done over USB. I won’t go through the various oft-repeated drone fly-overs here, that’s not why I wanted the Runcam anyway – I thought it might be handy for doing video demos.
What I don’t understand is why people continue to make 4:3 sensors when mosat of us have been at least 16:9 format for the last several years. See also the specs just after the video in the Banggood link at the top of this article which has a video and all sorts of information for those interested in using this camera with a drone. In the circumstances I see myself using this camera (on my desk), the distortion correction will be mandatory and it does work. Nothing you won’t find on a GoPro but then the latter costs twice as much money.
It is worth noting that there are lots of 3D-printed case/holder designs for this camera – both available on Thingiverse and as finished products from various sources.
Lenses produce a circle of light on the sensor, to make the most of it a sensor close to 1:1 makes the most sense.
Good and no doubt totally accurate – but the human eye prefers wide images with not a lot of vertical info – no doubt that’s why almost all modern phones are 16:9 or wider screens and why cinema is much wider…. I have not had an Apple phone for a long time but am I right in saying even they have dropped the old 4:3 format? Time to apply a little science to the lenses?