Can anyone recommend a cheapo action camera?

Bought one from Amazon on the strength of the reviews – big mistake, it was utterly crap, picture quality was worse than a 10 year old VGA webcam – properly grainy and low res. Looks like that particular model has been pulled from sale.

The Campark X25 gets decent reviews on and off Amazon, but has anyone used one? Only intending to use for messing around in the water, possibly on the bike and maybe as a static camera for the band for demo videos (with separate audio).

I bought this one last year. Video quality wasn’t great at all – *much* better vid quality on my phone. Not sure if that’s representative of action cameras in general.

For me, best bang for buck is Olfi. Not super budget but good balance of cost and quality.

I’ve got an Eken H9R as it was what was selling the most on Aliexpress.

Can’t fault it! HD video and photos and has been reliable with lots of use.

I basically wanted it to the cheapest that would still be very good quality rather than bargain basement.

I’ve got an Akaso V50 X . It cost £79.99 but has really good image stabilisation and takes good video . I don’t use 4K as the files become too big for my laptop , usually I shoot in 1080 . The sound is utterly rubbish when it’s in its waterproof housing although it also has a case with cut outs in the back which improves sound but makes it not waterproof . I have also got a DJI Osmo action which cost 3 times the price but video quality is not massively better although sound is . It’s also a little bit easier to use . Don’t always believe reviews from Amazon as many companies give ” incentives ” to give good reviews .

Got given an Aldi special. After a couple of uses upgraded to the recommended cheapy at the time (SJ2000?). After a couple of uses upgraded to whatever was the cheapest GoPro. Miles better.

So on my experience I’d look at a used GoPro over a china special.

I spent quite a while looking at this and in particular the Akaso range on the assumption that the GoPros couldn’t possibly be worth the premium. They seem great value, particularly with things like the bundled remote, but all the reviews are consistent that the image stabilisation on the GoPros is miles ahead, and after watching some reviews with side-by-side comparison I was convinced to spend the extra on a Hero 7.

Jakester, I have a TomTom bandit you can have. I have not used it enough really to warrant keeping it. Ping me a message if you want it. A few accessories with it too.

So on my experience I’d look at a used GoPro over a china special.

A cheap “china special” isn’t the same as a quality one.

For example, Go Pros are made in China….

Plenty of quality bargains out there. Plenty of total cheapo rubbish as well.

My 4 year old Go Pro is marginally better than the £40 Apeman I bought off eBay about a year later (the GoPro was for personal use, the second was a company purchase as a back up camera when using mine for recording training sessions)

Just sharing experiences of the two cameras I’ve used.
General – The mount also matters, a flimsy mount will result in crappy shaky footage.

1) Garmin Virb Elite. Cost £140 from amazon in 2014 as a kit including bike mount, surely will cost peanuts now being 6 years later.
Low light performance isn’t great but other than that provides a very sharp 1080p image.
Battery life about 2hrs is OK.
Is waterproof enough to deal with thunderstorms.
The overall package is a bit large by todays standards but fits well on handebars or helmet – is an inconvient shape for other types of mounting like chest.
Inbuilt GPS and accelerometers are handy – can act as a cycle computer of sorts too – displaying power data or whatever but the screen has no backlight so useless in the dark.

2 Shimano CM-1000, cost me £60 second hand about 2 years ago, think it was about £100 new back then – surely will be even cheaper now.
Image is not as sharp as the garmin the outer weatherproofing lens is plastic.
Waterproof enough for a bit of rain but does have problems with thunderstorms.
Super small and lightweight package.
Batterylife about 2.5hrs is ok.

TBH with image stabilisation and with dark/light response and low light filming, you have to bear in mind that our sport is very challenging for all 3. So you will see perfectly reasoned, fair reviews that just didn’t discover that a particular camera sucks when you ride from the open into the trees, or can’t deal at all with chattery roots. (similarly, winter sports put a lot of demand on the camera’s ability to deal with brightness and low contrast)

but all the reviews are consistent that the image stabilisation on the GoPros is miles ahead, and after watching some reviews with side-by-side comparison I was convinced to spend the extra on a Hero 7.

The Akaso V50X has really good image stabilisation , it’s not quite as good as my Osmo Action which is at least the equal of the Hero 7 but for cycling it’s really very good .

Jakester, I have a TomTom bandit you can have. I have not used it enough really to warrant keeping it. Ping me a message if you want it. A few accessories with it too.

Just wanted to say a big thank you to mrwhyte who has kindly sent over the TomTom in return for a donation to charity. I’ve also bought something from the STW shop too (as the funding pool appears to have closed). Thanks everyone for their suggestions but particularly again to mrwhyte!