People who know about sports cameras may have hesitated: Do you need a sports camera in your life?
In foreign countries, GoPro has long been synonymous with sports cameras; In China, small ant sports cameras are also making efforts in this emerging market segment. Last month, the little ant 4K sports camera, the second generation of the little ant sports camera, officially landed in JD.COM for crowdfunding. The standard version was 1199 yuan, and the set version was 1299 yuan. Compared with the price of a generation of 399 yuan, you may have doubts: is it worthwhile to raise the price so sharply? Below, the author will take you to find out.
exterior
The camera I got is a black version, and there are also white and pink versions to choose from.
Compared with the first generation, the face value of the second generation of the small ant sports camera is much higher, and too many lines and textures are removed from the front, so the whole body looks more exquisite. Although the shell is still made of plastic, the improvement in vision and feel is very obvious. Different from GoPro’s quaint style, the second generation of small ant sports camera is more fashionista.
There are three buttons in the fuselage of the first generation: the power button, the camera button and the WiFi connection button. Now, in the second generation, the designer of Little Ant has drastically cut off two-thirds of the buttons, leaving only one power button to double as the shutter button, and all other operations are transferred to the touch screen.
The second generation of ant sports camera is equipped with a 2.19-inch large touch screen-yes, compared with the fuselage, it is really a big screen, and it may be the camera with the highest screen ratio. The PPI of this screen is as high as 330, with a viewing angle of 160, and the operation experience is very smooth. If you must say something insufficient, you probably don’t support multi-touch and can’t zoom the picture.
As the saying goes, you can’t have your cake and eat it. For a sports camera, the biggest disadvantage brought by the simple appearance is the inconvenience of operation. Considering that every minute counts in the motion scene, it seems that even the best touch screen is not as convenient as adding a shortcut button directly on the shell.
performance parameter
In addition to the improvement of appearance, higher prices naturally bring higher configuration, and the parameters are simply listed as follows:
Photo function
For most people who are used to taking photos with mobile phones, it may be difficult to adapt to the curved picture taken by the ant wide-angle lens for a while, but the wide field of vision brought by bending far exceeds that of almost all mobile phones on the market, making selfies no longer like selfies. Although you can also buy a wide-angle lens connected to a mobile phone online, the photos you take often have a weak edge, which is still far from the wide angle of a sports camera.
For photographers who like to capture characters but don’t want to disturb each other, wide angle can just play a "slanting shot" effect. Even if you shoot the sky at a 45-degree angle, the horizon can still be included in the picture.
Compared with Samsung S6 edge+, the color saturation of the small ant motion camera is lower, but it is also closer to the color of the real scene.
Thanks to the large aperture of F2.8, the small ant motion camera can also get a visual effect close to the human eye at night, and the color reproduction and noise control of the sky, leaves and road lights have reached a satisfactory level.
Video recording function
Wide-angle photography is just a side dish before meals, and video is the real feast that sports cameras bring to people.
Today, the screen of mobile phone is getting bigger and bigger, and the disadvantages of mobile phone video recording are becoming more and more obvious: it is inconvenient to hold it with one hand and carry it with you, not to mention the sour taste if it is hung around your neck. Therefore, for people who love sports and take selfies, a compact sports camera is just needed.
In addition to 4K/30fps video recording, the second generation of Little Ant Motion Camera also supports video recording in 1080P/120fps, 720P/240fps and other formats, which can capture motion moments that are invisible to the naked eye. When playing back in slow motion, you may really feel the power released by body movements at every millisecond node.
Of course, the sports camera is by no means alone. It also has many teammates like gods, such as waterproof case, Bluetooth remote control, and various expansion brackets … From this, your vision can reach many places that mobile phones and SLR can’t reach.
For young artists, sports cameras can help you see the world from a different angle, such as putting the camera on your shoulder and recording while walking, for example, putting it on your pet at home and making a micro-movie from a pet’s perspective.
continue a journey without refuelling
After the author’s two-hour shooting experience in the park, 100 photos were taken, 400 seconds were recorded in 4K and 100 seconds were recorded in slow motion. During the use, the screen was basically on, and finally the remaining power was about 2/3. In view of the huge volume of 4K video files, a large-capacity MicroSD card is essential, and it is recommended to buy more than 64G.
tail
People may not think it is too expensive to buy a mobile phone with more than 1,000 yuan, but if you switch to a sports camera, it is estimated that most people will still retreat. Even the people-friendly price of 399 yuan for the first generation of small ants is enough to keep many people away.
Perhaps the sports camera will never become a popular product, but it is still a unique product. As a point in the demand of modern long tail, sports camera is like a ripple in smart home life, which shows us that life is not just about mobile phones and computers, but also about sports and distance …