Today I received my EKEN H8R camera and quickly put it to test. I had no empty class 10 micro SD card, so I used my smartphone's class 10 card which was probably too fragmented. I made some initial tests taking a few videos and upgraded the firmware to "allow" 4K@30fps (yes it came with no true 30fps as advertised). But let's start at the beginning, shall we?
First of all let me start by saying that if you need to watch an extensive review and a comparison against GoPro HERO 4, you can do so at this youtube video below not created by me.
Now, on with my experience: I bought my camera from GEARBEST from this promo link and it arrived after just 20 days. I got the camera out of the parcel and laid it down with every additional "extra" I found inside the box. Everything seemed well packed and I was happy to see some "extras" on top of the extras! I found out 2 hand straps for the wrist remote, an additional back plate for the waterproof case of the camera and a second helmet base. See below what was in the box:
After careful inspection of the waterproof housing I found that there was a spot in the front side of the lens case (well actually inside the case) that would not go off however hard I tried to get rid of it. I stopped trying in fear of scratching the rest of the housing, but the spot does not seem to affect the quality of the video, so I think I am going to leave it as it is.
At first I had some troubles getting the wrist remote to work, but when I put on a micro sd card and formatted it from the camera menu, the remote started working as expected. Note that the camera formats the cards as FAT32, but it can use exFat just the same (no you cannot use NTFS).
The second thing I did, was to look for a firmware upgrade as I knew that 1080p@60fps, 2,7K@30fps and 4K@30fps could not be used as advertised. People complained that the 2,7K@30fps and 4K@30fps resolutions were duplicated 15fps clips, so I thought I'd saved myself from disappointment and went on with the upgrade, especially when I read this post and compared the firmware file with the file from this facebook file archive. If you had to guess, the right file would be the firmware version H8R.160511LY4K30 normal.rar for the camera with the wrist remote and H8.160511LY4K30 normal.rar for the camera without the wrist remote. The firmware my camera came with was 160311LY and the update process is very simple. You need to put the firmware file in the root directory/folder of the micro sd card and turn on the camera. There is going to be a notification and after the firmware is updated the camera will turn off. Remove the micro sd card and erase the file from root folder or else the camera will keep updating in a loop.
Update: Go here for the official latest firmware upgrades: https://www.facebook.com/notes/eken/h8-and-h8r-firmware-update-160524/865383693573610?__mref=message_bubble
Update: Go here for the official latest firmware upgrades: https://www.facebook.com/notes/eken/h8-and-h8r-firmware-update-160524/865383693573610?__mref=message_bubble
I popped an old 16 GB, class 4 micro sd card and found out only 1080p@30fps was enabled. I then put my smartphone's 32GB class 10 micro sd card which was formatted as exFat and was more than 1/4 full of files (although I guess it was fragmented). All resolution options were enabled.
update: 4K@30fps test was performed with no problems. The thing is I cannot playback the video on my pc as it seems slow for 4K playback. Nevertheless, here is the video:
Next try was with 2.7K@30 fps. The camera started recording but after 2 seconds the screen stopped updating and the camera seemed stuck, but it produced a readable choppy file (tests will be done again and I will post the video and characteristics below):
update: 2.7K@30fps video recorded without an issue. I have not uploaded any video.
Next try was with 1080p@60 fps. The camera started recording but after 2
seconds it started showing a choppy video and it
produced a readable choppy file (tests will be done again and I will post the video and characteristics below):
update: New video was taken and here it is:
update: New video was taken and here it is:
1080p@30fps tests were fine and after I did a couple of tests here is the footage and its characteristics below, no lower resolution exist at the moment.
(Update 17 May, 2016: EKEN is planning on releasing soon their next firmware for H8R with 720p@120fps!)
(Update 17 May, 2016: EKEN is planning on releasing soon their next firmware for H8R with 720p@120fps!)
General Video 1
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : QuickTime
Codec ID : qt 0000.00 (qt )
File size : 96.7 MiB
Duration : 59s 500ms
Overall bit rate : 13.6 Mbps
Encoded date : UTC 2016-05-18 18:09:13
Tagged date : UTC 2016-05-18 18:09:13
Writing library : icat
Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4
Format settings, CABAC : No
Format settings, ReFrames : 2 frames
Format settings, GOP : M=3, N=15
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 59s 500ms
Bit rate : 12.2 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 30.000 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.196
Stream size : 86.7 MiB (90%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2016-05-18 18:09:13
Tagged date : UTC 2016-05-18 18:09:13
Audio
ID : 2
Format : PCM
Format settings, Endianness : Little
Format settings, Sign : Signed
Codec ID : sowt
Duration : 59s 400ms
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 1 411.2 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 44.1 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Stream size : 9.99 MiB (10%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2016-05-18 18:09:13
Tagged date : UTC 2016-05-18 18:09:13
General Video 2
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : QuickTime
Codec ID : qt 0000.00 (qt )
File size : 60.3 MiB
Duration : 37s 0ms
Overall bit rate : 13.7 Mbps
Encoded date : UTC 2016-05-18 18:17:02
Tagged date : UTC 2016-05-18 18:17:02
Writing library : icat
Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4
Format settings, CABAC : No
Format settings, ReFrames : 2 frames
Format settings, GOP : M=3, N=15
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 37s 0ms
Bit rate : 12.3 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 30.000 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.197
Stream size : 54.1 MiB (90%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2016-05-18 18:17:02
Tagged date : UTC 2016-05-18 18:17:02
Audio
ID : 2
Format : PCM
Format settings, Endianness : Little
Format settings, Sign : Signed
Codec ID : sowt
Duration : 36s 900ms
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 1 411.2 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 44.1 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Stream size : 6.21 MiB (10%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2016-05-18 18:17:02
Tagged date : UTC 2016-05-18 18:17:02
Update 18 May, 2016: Since I was luck enough to get my hands on Xiaomi Yi Ambarella for a day, I grabbed the opportunity and made a comparison test between EKEN H8R, Xiaomi Yi Ambarella and Canon 6D with Canon 17-40 f4L USM at full automatic settings for reference and here is the video below.
Short Comparisson between EKEN H8R, Xiaomi Yi and Canon 6D in 1080p@30fps
If you are confused or want the full resolution footage (well Youtube also compresses the videos and this cannot be overridden!), here are the links from my tests below:
EKEN H8R 1080p@30fps Unedited Video (Flower Pot)
Canon 6D+Canon 17-40L USM 1080p@30fps Unedited (Flower Pot)
XiaoMi Yi 1080P Ambarella A7LS 1080p@30fps Unedited (Flower Pot)
EKEN H8R 1080p@30fps Unedited Video (Backlight Test)
Canon 6D+Canon 17-40L USM 1080p@30fps Unedited (Backlight Test)
XiaoMi Yi 1080P Ambarella A7LS 1080p@30fps Unedited (Backlight Test)
Photograph samples will be posted below. I had troubles with focusing (if any) because I can't figure out the minimum focusing distance yet, so I need some experimentation on this. You can shoot at 3 resolutions 5,8 and 12 MPixels. The distortion is big, so you need to compensate, crop and decide why you need to shoot on this little thing your important photographs, but anyway... Color rendition is good, the Sony sensor does well and image quality is good. I might try some time-lapse and check out image quality. There are a lot of things to try with this little toy like underwater video and photography, time lapse, surveillance with a power bank or directly through usb or power mains and so many other that I haven't think of (yet).
Conclusions:
I found the camera to adapt quickly to every light change, but the video is extremely sharp and there are visible small compression blocks on the edges when viewed in full screen. The 170 degree lenses are very distorting, which is normal for an action camera. Back light compensation works well and color saturation is a bit much, but I like it. White balance is a "classic sony sensor white balance", which sometimes goes to blue when the camera is used in the shadows.
Warnings/Rumors/Things to watch out:
I have to warn you than I found out some disturbing news about EKEN H8R. Starting from what I found out later the day I updated the firmware, here's the list:
1. The camera ships without 4K@30 fps capability. It only records 15+15 fps (double frames).
EKEN admits there's an issue at this post. They claim that their latest firmware update fixes the issue.
update: Yes it does record 4K@30fps!
update: Yes it does record 4K@30fps!
2. I could not get the camera to record 4K@ anything! I got jerky 2,7K@30fps and 1080p@60fps and I am currently waiting for this 64GB micro SDXC card to try the problematic resolutions once more. It seems, fast and if it is really reading at 80 MB/sec, writing at 30MB/sec and is water-proof, anti-magnetism, anti-x-ray and extreme temperature resistant, priced at 12,5 euro makes it seem like a bargain. However it is recommended to install MPC-HC to playback 2K and 4K videos if they seem jerky. In any case you need a fast class 10 micro sd card to record 4K videos.
update: The 64 GB sd card arrived and it seems capable of recording 4K@30fps.
update: The 64 GB sd card arrived and it seems capable of recording 4K@30fps.
3. Someone claimed that the wrist remote he had, took water inside. Here's the video from my collection. Sorry, I cannot verify this and I won't be putting my own wrist remote to test just yet...
4. It gets hot, quickly. I don't know if this becomes a problem later and could stop operation, but I mention it anyway.
update: I recorded a timelapse about 5 hours in the sun. No problems here. I have to check out lengthy video recordings
update: I recorded a timelapse about 5 hours in the sun. No problems here. I have to check out lengthy video recordings
5. File limits: According to EKEN there are fat32 file limits for the recorded videos. They were not specific about this except stating the following: "For 4K video the time limit is 5 minutes. For the SDXC card formatted as exFat, we haven't tested it, so can't 100% guarantee it will work". Well, I have tested exFat SDXC recording and the thing is THERE ARE time limits! 1080p@30fps is 10 minutes clips. The good thing is that you don't lose any audio or video information when the writer jumps to the next clip making a seamless transition.
6. Anything else I find out along the way, I will post it here.
6. Anything else I find out along the way, I will post it here.
