For those who are interested in action cameras, there are plenty of choices for you out there. The market is filled with action cameras from a lot of brands, including both from reputed brands such as Gopro and newly emerging brands such as SJCAM.
Gopro is the market leader in this segment and thus their action cameras come at a premium price. At $500, their newest and to of the line offering, the Gopro Hero 4 Black is one of the best action cameras in terms of features and performance.
But The Gopro Hero 4 is not meant for budget conscious videographers. This is where the Chinese Company called SJcam has made its mark in the budget action camera market. SJCAM’s newest offering, the SJ5000X Elite edition action camera is actually pitted against the Gopro Hero 4. Both the cameras are capable of 4K video recording, where the Hero 4 can record true 4K video at 30FPS and the SJ5000X elite edition just upscales the 2k video to 4k video at a slight lower 24FPS. But, $150, the SJ5000X is a bang for the buck.
Thanks to our friends at Gearbest, we have been able to get our hands on the SJcam SJ5000X Elite Edition action camera and here’s our review of the best Action camera for budget conscious buyers. We will also be giving away a SJCAM SJ5000X elite edition action camera to one our of our lucky readers. So make sure to enter the Giveaway at the end of this review.
Visit the following link if you are interested to purchase the SJ5000X elite edition action camera from gearbest : http://goo.gl/aeE9zZ . Also don’t forget to check out the other action cameras at : http://goo.gl/gfPkTc
Packaging:
The SJCAM SJ5000X Elite comes neatly packed in look through cardboard box. Inside the packaging there’s the camera that comes housed in a waterproof housing, which is actually waterproof upto 30 meters underwater. Apart from the black colour camera that we received, the SJ5000X elite edition is also available in other colour variants of White, Silver, Yellow, Blue, Gold and Red.
Here’s a list of all the other accessories that come bundled with the SJ5000X Elite edition action camera.
- Quick Release Buckle
- Housing Backdoor with Holes
- Handlebar Seatpost Pole Mount
- Curved Adhesive Mount
- Flat Adhesive Mount;
- 3-Way Pivot Arm Mount
- 2 x 3M Adhesive Tape
- Frame Mount
- Quick Release Clip for The Frame
- Vertical Quick Release J-Hook Buckle
- Universal 1/4″ Camera Tripod Mount
- Tripod Mount Adapter
- Bandage Set
- Cleaning Cloth
- USB Cable
- 900mAh Li-ion Battery
- Multi-language Manual
- SJCAM Stickers
Hardware
The hardware specs of the SJ5000X are pretty good in comparison to other low budget action cameras available right now. The Sony IMX078 sensor used in this camera has a sensitivity of 1437 digits and could shoot 4000 x 3000 pixels 4K video at 42fps, but the NTK96660 Novatek chipset used in it is not capable of handling that.
The SJ5000x Elite edition has an adjustable wide angle lens and the lens angle can be adjusted from 70, 110, 140, 170 degrees. Note that as the lens angle increases, the videos also become distorted at the ends.
The camera has a 2’’ LCD live screen. The picture quality is not anything to boast about, but we are glad that it’s there. This is something that the Gopro Hero 4 does not have. While it’s a good thing, it can also decrease the video recording duration.
There are also three led notification on the camera at the top, front and back respectively. Both the notification led’s and display can be turned off for increasing the battery life.
The camera has a total of five buttons on it. The one on the top is the record / stop or select button. On the right side of the camera there are three buttons, the top one is the dedicated button for turning on WiFi on the camera and the two buttons below them are for navigation through the camera’s menu.
As for other important specs, the camera has got a built-in Gyro Anti-shake Stabilization Sensor, which makes sure that the videos have minimum shake in them. Last but not the least the camera supports MicroSD cards above class 6 of upto 32GB in size. Also Selected 64gb & 128gb Memory cards supported, but SJCAM has not mentioned which brands are they from. Here’s list of all the features available on the SJCAM SJ5000X Elite Edition Action Camera.
- 12mp Sony IMX078 sensor
- 4K @ 24fps (2880*2160), 2K(2560 x 1440)30fps / 1080P(1920 x 1080) 60fps / 720P(1280 x 720)120fps, WVGA@240fps (Slow Mo)
- Built-in Gyro Anti-shake Stabilization Sensor (Hardware)
- Slow Motion: -2X, -4X, -8X
- Adjustable Wide-Angle View Lens – Adjust between 170° 140° 110° and 70°
- 2.0 inch LCD Screen
- Video Lapse / Camera Lapse
- Burst Mode – Take 3-10 shots in seconds (for rapid shutter action)
- New NTK96660 Novatek CPU
- AV-Out
- HDMI-out – Real-Time Video Record
- 18 supported languages: SJ5000x Elite adds OSD support for: Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Danish, Dutch, Turkish
- Android & iOS Wireless mobile connection via Wi-Fi – preview / shoot videos & pictures remotely – Easy-to-Share
- Real-time AV-out – connect your AV OUT cable to Monitor and watch real-time.
Camera and audio Quality
Like every other action cameras out there. The quality of videos captured on the SJ5000X is good in daylight conditions. Overall the video looks sharp and clear when the gyro stabilization is turned on. At 60fps, videos come out butter smooth, however it is only during sudden movements, you can see the videos lag for a while. The video quality at night is also good, but some post processing will make it look much better.
Overall you actually get what you pay for and at the price at which it sells for, the SJ5000x delivers good video quality. Adding to that it also provides you control over ISO, Color balance and Exposure.
4K video recording on this camera is not true 4K. The camera just up scales 2K video to 4K resolution. But again at this price range, there are very few action cameras that can manage to record 4K video at 24 Fps.
As for photos, they SJ5000X elite edition can capture still photos at 12MP. But the quality of the photos are not something to brag about.
The quality of the microphone used in the SJ5000X is really bad. This is something where SJCAM needs to work on immediately. The microphone records muffled sound as if there’s an invisible cloth over the mic. I hope this is just a firmware issue and expect it to fixed as soon as possible via the next update.
Battery performance
The battery performance is not something to boast about. As stated by SJcam the SJ5000x elite edition can record 1080p videos for a duration of 80 minutes at max. The Gopro Hero 4 black also manages to last around the same duration.
Features
Feature wise the SJ5000X can shoot both videos and photos. Videos on the camera can be recorded in the following resolutions.
- 4K @ 24FPS (2880*2160)
- 2K (2560 x 1440) @ 30FPS
- 1080P (1920 x 1080) @ 60FPS
- 1080P (1920 x 1080) @ 30FPS
- 720P (1280 x 720) @ 120FPS, WVGA @ 240fps (Slo-Mo)
The camera also feature a time lapse mode along with slow motion, burst mode and motion detection. It has support for 18 different languages including Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Danish, Dutch, Turkish.
The slow motion mode allows you to record videos in slow motion at a speed of 12x, -4x or -8x.
The burst mode allows you to take 3 to 10 photos per second.
The Motion detection mode is an interesting addition to the camera’s feature. This mode allows the camera to record videos when it senses motion.
Last but not the least. the SJ5000X elite edition comes with built in WiFi and has a dedicated button to turn it on. The WiFi feature can be used to connect the camera with a android phone and control the the camera to your phone. Using it is quite simple. All you need to do is, turn on the wifi on the camera and then download the SJcam Zone app from the Google play store. Next you need to connect your phone to the camera’s wifi ( the default password is “12345678” ) and your phone is all set to control the camera. However there is a slight lag in the video stream from the camera to the phone.
Conclusion
After using the SJCAM SJ5000X for a week, I am pretty much impressed with it’s performance. For around $130 it can’t compete with the Gopro Hero 4, but you get what you pay for and even a lot more. While it cannot be compared with the GOpro Hero 4, which retails for around $500, it’s actually the best in it’s class. I have compared the video quality of the SJ5000X elite edition with the online video footages available from other budget action cameras and every time, it’s the SJCAM SJ5000x that delivers the best. So if you don’t want to spend a premium on an action camera. The SJ5000X is definitely the best action camera on a budget. So finally I am going to end this review with the pros and cons of this camera.
Pros
- Cheap
- Feature loaded
- Video quality
- User interface
- Lots of bundled accessories
Cons
- Low battery life
- 2K video upscaled to 4K
- Bad audio quality
Here are two video clips showing the video quality of the SJCAM SJ5000X elite action camera during day and night conditions.
SJCAM SJ5000X elite edition video quality at day
SJCAM SJ5000X elite edition video quality at night
SJCAM SJ5000X Elite edition Action camera Giveaway
Now it’s your turn to enter our giveaway for the SJCAm SJ5000X elite action camera. Here’s what you need to do in order to enter our giveaway.
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Make sure to do everything that’s mentioned above and you will gain an entry into this Giveaway. The giveaway will start from today and end on march 5, 2016. Hurry up everyone, we wish you all the best.
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SJCAM SJ5000X Elite Edition product page: http://goo.gl/aeE9zZ . Check out other action cameras at : http://goo.gl/gfPkTc
