The Go Pro camera range have really taken off, small cameras available of great video quality while doing sports have proven so good they’re gone from niche market to use in TV production. Hoping to capture the interest in this market DB Power have produced a really low cost 720p sports camera. At a little over £30 at the time of writing this could well be of interest to those wanting to dabble in sports videoing without wanting to spend a fortune.
The DB Power Mini camera is a nice looking little unit with controls kept to a minimum to ensure it’s easy to operate, and it comes with a mounting system and waterproof case. Note there is no memory card included so you’ll need to have a spare one/purchase one before you can get started.
It only took a couple of minutes to setup with a bike. The helmet mount was rather baffling and was set aside to use the handlebar mount instead as this was easy enough to use and feels fairly robust. You’ll see on the video below it’s just a matter of unscrewing the two mount sections, popping them around your handlbar, then reconnecting them so they’re secure. The mount allows for adjustments to be made to the camera position to try and find the best possible view.
There is a little screen on the side of the unit that tells you when you’re recording, once mounted you can’t easily see this while on the bike so you have to stop to check if it’s recording and how long you’ve got left.
Video quality is fairly good for the most part, however there isn’t any image stabilisation, unlike more expensive cameras, which means you get a lot of image distortion and means this isn’t really a great sports camera, the best video comes from commuting/low level road use. The mounting case also prevents clear sound recording, it would’ve been good if you could save space by selecting not to record sound at all, just video.
Although this might sound all rather negative let’s put this in context, it costs less than £40! It has a great look to it, it’s easy to use, it’s really low cost and video quality (when on stable ground) is actually really good. Yes there are better cameras available, but they cost a lot more, so for a low cost option it’s well worth considering. Check out the video below for an example of video over bumpy ground to see if you’d be OK with it. Available now on Amazon: https://amzn.to/1uc8Vjl
