Unlike a lot of low cost Go Pro style cameras the CAMPARK ACT30 takes a different approach, rather than the rectangular style so often seen these days this goes for a bullet design, with the lens at the front, controls on top, and memory card/USB port on the back.
It’s a compact little camera that feels lightweight but able to take a few knocks thanks to the aluminum body.
There is no screen on this and controls are kept to a minimum, there is a single push button on top and a mode switch on the back. This means that if you want to change some of the settings you’ll need to create a text file and place it on the memory card.
The CAMPARK ACT30 takes a micro SD card and this is protected by the end cap. Feedback is provided via vibrations
Two mounting options are included, a handlebar mount and a velcro mount. The handlebar mount proved to be too small for use on a standard bike frame, it just wouldn’t fit in the central position and only just fet at the thinner handlebar end, but this meant it could potentially get in the way of controls. In fact in the video review it’s actually the camera holding side we’re trying to attach because the handle bar side didn’t open up enough, it wasn’t hinged like camera side it was sprung plastic that didn’t open far enough and felt like it might snap.
The velcro strap worked much better, with the CAMPARK ACT30 camera feeling very secure when mounted.
Video quality was good, although make sure the camera is correctly orientated! It’s capable of both sound and video, on a windy day this means you’ll mainly get wind noise, but without this background noise it clearly picks up the riders voice.
There were a couple of other issues encountered, to get the video files the camera was plugged into a PC but the camera wasn’t recognised as a USB drive. The PC made the usual USB connection noise…then nothing. The microSD card had to be removed in order to get the video files.
The second issue was the camera occasionally became unresponsive, locking up and not turning off. In that situation the camera was left on until it ran out of power, when it was charged up again it was fine. This didn’t happen often, but it did happen on two separate occasions suggesting it would happen again.
An interesting take on the humble action camera, but one that has some rather annoying issues.
