Yi 4K Action Cam Review - The GoPro Killer!?
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2017-05-06
·
1,558 words · ~7 min read
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I'm not going to sugarcoat this every Chinese GoPro wannabe makes these
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unbelievable claims about great full HD or even 4K video recording for 60 bucks
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or whatever but every single one of them that I have ever touched has been
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obviously converting the data from some horrendous
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640x480 sensor if you're lucky not to
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mention that many of them have a completely unusable UI
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so to call my expectations going into
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this review of the ye action camera 2
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low would be very generous so then to
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say that I was blown away would be an
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understatement cooler Masters masterc case maker 5 features their free form
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modular system allowing you to customize adjust and upgrade make it yours through
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the link in the video description let's start with the basics I've got the
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selfie stick kit which includes the E2 camera as I'll be referring to it for
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the rest of the video a battery a kind of cheap feeling clip-on plastic shutter
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button and a surprisingly robust selfie
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stick with a locking telescopic well I
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guess it's a stick terminated with a quarin threaded post and a Smartphone
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holder bracket that screws onto the one side down here at the bottom it's not
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perfect by reversing the gender of the threading or including an adapter it
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could have been used to put a phone at the end of the stick when you are not
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using the E2 and the top swivel could be
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a bit more flexible which would both be welcome improvements to its General
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usefulness but I can't fault the selfie sticks build quality overall which
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brings us to the camera itself it's pretty plasticky feeling another or two
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would Inspire more confidence in this product but hey as long as she's got it
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where it counts right at the bottom is the battery and Micro SDXC compartment
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along with the female quarin Mount at the front is the f2.8 7 element 155°
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wide-angle lens covering a Sony IMX 377
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12.35 megapixel effective seos image sensor capable of 4K video or 12 megapix
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Stills along with a status indicator light on on the side is a micro USB
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charging port on the top are the Dual
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microphone ports and a speaker Grill
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wait a minute why would it need a speaker ah yes because on the back the
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entire back of the unit is taken up by a
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640x 360 pixel wide format
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touchscreen and if you've ever had a major video project riding on correctly
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framing a shot with a GoPro Hero 4 black
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you will surely appreciate apprciate this inclusion and the implementation
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isn't halfast either the viewfinder is
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butter smooth and so is the menu navigation so whether you're changing
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settings or reviewing a clip you just shot all of which is doable over Wi-Fi
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with the GoPro app by the way eliminating this step especially with a
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multicam setup where things can get jostled mid shoot like we frequently
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find ourselves in a lot of time and
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guesswork can be saved and the E2
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actually supports changing all those settings and previewing your shot live
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through their mostly stable app on your phone if you prefer that approach as
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well though none of that would be valuable if the shots from your
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perfectly positioned camera looked like trash would it so let's have a look at
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some 4K 30fps footage first compared to
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the only camera from GoPros lineup that also shoots at that resolution the Hero
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4 black so overall whether we're talking
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about low light Performance Auto whitee balance scene brightness change response
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or really anything else I was really
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impressed by this little camera and that's without having access to some of
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the modes that only work at lower resolutions the Sixaxis electronic image
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stabilization that only works if you're shooting at resolutions below 4K and no
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higher than 60 frames per second is freaking cool and probably worth it for
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some people to drop all the way down to 1080p in order to take advantage of it
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though on that subject I really wish that 2560 by 1440 was a shooting option
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since it would be a balance between having some sensor left to enable
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anti-shake and also having the ability to crop and punch in your footage though
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I'm not going to deduct too many marks for this given how impressive this
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camera is at half of what we paid for the action cams that we use for most of
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our projects with the biggest shocker yet to come the battery life we are used
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to taking a case load of replacement batteries on any GoPro shoot and
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switching over to a fleet of e2s would cut in half the frequency with which we
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need to replace them with sound quality being yet another strong point I mean
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sure it's not perfect it's not as good as a lav mic or a boom mic but when
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you're speaking directly into the camera from selfie distance even with a fair
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amount of background noise it's a fast and easy way to get surprisingly usable
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audio so I'm in China courtesy of ZTE
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ZTE can never keep track of what the Canadian way is check out this hotel
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room all right press conference is over
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so it's time to uh join back up with Brandon and see where he's at on b-roll
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for the C camera with the camera as long
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as you're not using the waterproof case though I've yet to find any action cam
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that has really solved that problem on
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that note their 40m polycarbonate and glass waterproof housing is not included
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with the kit we got but while I don't have pricing for it yet based on the
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last generation ye camera it should land in the $10 to $30 range it doesn't allow
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the use of the touchcreen obviously but the top button lets you do all of the
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essentials power start stop record and
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power off and this is great it uses a
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GoPro compatible mounting system which I
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guess leads us right into the usual issue with any action cam that isn't a
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GoPro the relatively immature accessory
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ecosystem now some stuff that's not
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available for the E2 can be ignored the waterproof case accessory makes it
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compatible with many GoPro mounts including head chest and even scuba suit
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Etc but the first- party one anyway
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lacks a more acoustically friendly backing for audio recording while using
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those GoPro accessories and I also don't see an obvious solution for non-
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mounting related accessories like external battery chargers nothing seems
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to be available at this time meaning that you will need to charge your
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batteries in your camera which is fine for casual users but Pros are going to
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want something a little bit beefier so they can charge more of them at a time
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however if that drawback in your mind is easily overcome by the price the screen
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the footage quality and that quarter inch Mount I won't entirely disagree
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with you of course it remains to be seen if GoPro will come storming back with
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the Hero 5 lineup later this year in the meantime though I'll be watching the E2
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very very closely tunnel bear is the
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you will appear to the websites and web services that you use as though you are
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browsing from that other country so you
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could be from the UK or America or
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whatever the case may be now if you try
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out time Tel bear we've got a link in the video description that's tunnel bear.com LT and you go wow gee this is
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the video description now that you're done doing all that stuff you're probably wondering H gee
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what should I watch next oops everything's fine so click that little
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