Page 2 - A Closer Look - Hardware and Software
Unlike its classy packaging, the Camorama itself is much more down to earth when it comes to physical appearance. The textured black hard plastic exterior with a repeating array of parallel grooves is easy to grip while retaining a very reasonable weight of 120g. The enclosure construction quality is decent. At 48mm by 48mm by 51mm, depending on the size of your computer monitor, chances are the photo above is bigger than the size of the actual camera -- also a very reasonable size in my opinion. When filming, the principle view of the 360 degree video is located where you are facing the buttons, which is a good, logical design. A speaker is located on the left side of the Camorama's body.
There are only three buttons on the Camorama, as shown in our photo above. All of them are aptly labeled for power, record, and Wi-Fi from the top to bottom, respectively. To start the camera, simply hold down the power button until it turns on. A status LED and startup chime will indicate the camera is starting, and three short vibrations will indicate the camera is ready. The startup process takes about 20 seconds, which is long by 2017 standards -- my MacBook Pro boots faster. To power off, hold the power button down in the same way, and the LEDs, shutdown chime, and a single vibration will indicate the Camorama is off. This process takes about 3 seconds. Hitting the record button will start capturing -- either single shot, continuous shooting, video, time-lapse video, or slow motion -- depending on the mode the Camorama is in last as set by the smartphone app. The Wi-Fi button will turn Wi-Fi on or off.
All three buttons come with an LED-lit circumference to visually indicate the status of the Camorama. The power LED will glow blue in normal operation and glow red when the battery is low. The recording LED is blue during normal operation, flashing blue during recording, and red when storage is low. The Wi-Fi LED glows blue when Wi-Fi is on and off when Wi-Fi is off. In general, I found the physical interface of the Camorama very straightforward and intuitive to use. A small OLED for autonomous configuration would be nice, but for the price and size of the Camorama, I am not complaining.
Behind the plastic shell, the Camorama houses a 1300mAh battery that promises 1.5 hours of 4K video recording time. According to my battery drain test, I managed 1 hour 18 minutes at room temperature with Wi-Fi enabled, which is very close to the manufacturer claim. This is in line with other 360 degree cameras in the same performance class in the market today. I assume you can probably squeeze out a few more minutes with Wi-Fi disabled. However, when I mounted the Camorama on top of my car and drove around with the outside temperature hovering around 0 degrees Celsius, I noticed the battery life dropped dramatically to around 20 minutes. At first, I was surprised to see such a huge difference the temperature made, but I repeated the test twice with the same results. For an action VR camera, I expect much better resilience to changes in the operating environment. If you are from Canada, 0 degrees Celsius -- especially in December -- is what we consider warm.
According to the company's Kickstarter page, the Camorama is supposed to be dust resistant and splash proof with an IP54 certification. I am kind of curious why there is no reference to any IP54 certifications on the Camorama from the company's official website, since this is an important detail. If IP54 is not enough, an IP68 certified OEM waterproof shell can be purchased separately for only $20, which allows submerged operation of up to 15m.
A cap that protects the lens is held on magnetically, which is very convenient and well-designed. Taking off the magnetically attached cap reveals an ultra-wide-angle f/2.4 lens with a 360°x230° field of view. This is pretty impressive, considering the 230 degree field of view will actually allow the camera to see a bit below its plane. In other words, the Camorama can record pretty much everything other than things located directly behind it with a single lens. This is quite novel and requires no software stitching during export for improved ease-of-use. If you need full 360 degree view in all directions, the company promises software will be available in the future to stitch footage from two Camorama cameras. Adjacent to the lens are two condensed microphones for stereo audio recording.
As you can see in our photo above, the tripod thread socket is located on the opposite side of the buttons. In other words, it is on the opposite side of the principle view in a 360 degree video. This does not make sense to me, since the standard orientation of the Camorama either has its lens pointed up or down. Scenarios where the lens is pointed directly forward is almost non-existent. If you want to mount the camera correctly on a tripod, the thread socket should be located on the bottom of the camera. Because of this, even Camorama's own tripod grip is incompatible unless you have the metal shell, which is a separate accessory purchased separately for a non-exactly-cheap price tag of $70.
Images and videos on the Camorama are captured using Sony's IMX377 image sensor. The IMX377CQT is a 7.81mm, 12.35 megapixel 12-bit CMOS sensor. Combined with the Ambarella S2E88 system-on-a-chip, the Camorama can shoot up to 30fps at 2880x2880 (4K), 1920x1920, or 1440x1440. If you are willing to drop the resolution to 960x960, you can shoot some cool slow motion 240fps videos. Interestingly, I went on Ambarella's website, and the S2E88 SoC is designed for IP cameras, haha. The S2E88 SoC has a powerful dual core ARM Cortex A9 1GHz CPU with a built-in Ultra HD H.264 video encoder.
Videos are stored on the camera's internal eMMC drive with no expandable storage. Our particular model is the 64GB variant, which retails for around $350 at press time. For an extra $20, you can get the 128GB model. 4K videos are broken down into 2 minute video segments about 688MB each, which you must merge to create a continuous video using a video merging software found on Camorama's website. When connected to my computer over USB 3.0, the transfer rate is about 15MB/s. It is not horribly slow, but using some faster eMMC memory will improve the user experience when downloading videos to the user's PC, considering the Camorama is shooting 4K videos at almost 50Mbps.
The Micro USB port is located behind a rubber cover on the Camorama, which doubles as a 5V/2A charging port. Personally, I prefer a USB Type-C connector instead, considering it is 2017 and Camorama has no legacy requirements in being a new company.
One separate accessory you can buy with the Camorama is the metal shell. The metal shell, as its name suggest, is a 1.3 ounce lightweight aluminum alloy shell designed to wrap around your Camorama for protection and style. As an OEM accessory, it fits perfectly around the camera with precisely cut openings. A separate piece that includes a tripod thread socket fits into a built-in track at the bottom of the metal shell to allow the Camorama to be correctly mounted on a tripod. I have no doubt this is a quality accessory, but it comes at a whopping price of $70 at press time. It probably would have been better if they built the Camorama out of metal and implemented the tripod thread socket in the correct location from the beginning. In my opinion, it would not have been so bad if the metal shell was $15, but they want $70 for it. There is quite a bit of stuff I can buy for $70. For example, I can get a SteelSeries Rival 310 or Sensei 310... with money left to spare.
Another accessory Camorama included for our review today is the tripod grip. It comes in at 6.9"x2.9" and weighs 6.3 ounces. The tripod grip comes with a screw-on plastic cap and loop string, as shown in our photo above. Again, as its name suggest, is a mini aluminum alloy tripod that serves two purposes. When collapsed, you can hold it to walk around and film like a YouTuber -- the rubber legs are comfortable to hold in your hand. When expanded, it allows you to place it on your desk. A built-in bubble leveler is present to help you level your Camorama. The camera can be tilted and rotated thanks to a ball joint at the top, which is locked in place by a latch. Please do keep in mind you will need the metal shell accessory, because otherwise you cannot mount the Camorama with the lens facing in the correct direction. The tripod grip is available for $20 at press time, which is reasonably priced.
Other accessories available include a camera bag, selfie stick, and car mount, which can all be found on the company's website.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Hardware
3. Mobile Application and PC Software
4. Sample Videos and Analysis
5. Conclusion
