Page 4 - Sample Videos and Analysis
The Camorama mounted on the tripod grip with the metal shell attached.
In order to test the Camorama, I filmed three video segments to obtain comprehensive performance results. The first video is a video podcast segment featuring me, Gina, and Alex made to evaluate the Camorama's video performance in indoor lighting conditions, distortion at close range, and voice recording quality. The second video features the Camorama mounted to the roof of my car using the Delkin Fat Gecko to evaluate the Camorama's video performance in outdoor daylight conditions, distortion at medium to long range, and susceptibility to wind noise. The third video is similar to the second video, except shot at night.
In the first video of the video podcast featuring me, Gina, and Alex, the Camorama delivered very reasonable video recording performance. It was mounted with the lens pointing up using the metal shell and the tripod grip. Even though it had only regular indoor home lighting in our filming location, image noise was controlled in an acceptable manner. It was not spectacular by any means, but it was not poor either given the conditions. There was some distortion at close range, but since this is a 360 degree camera, I think the video output was also very reasonable being a product of this nature. My only complaint is the microphone. It was poor at picking up our voices; in quite a few parts, I have had a hard time hearing the dialog between the three of us. An improvement in the stereo microphone will make the Camorama a great 360 degree camera for recording people's voices.
In the second video where the Camorama was mounted on my car's roof, I was quite impressed with the camera's performance. Even with the sun shining directly on the lens at certain angles, the Camorama managed a great dynamic range to keep everything visible all around. Distortion for a 360 degree camera was very well controlled at medium to long distances. With its 360°x230° field of view, it is incredible the camera can see a bit below its plane as well. Unfortunately, there was not enough detail to pick up license plates of the cars around me, which is slightly disappointing for a 4K camera. For this video, I did not use the metal frame, which means I attached the tripod thread socket on the side of the Camorama directly to the Delkin Fat Gecko and rotated the ball mount for the correct orientation. If you rotate the view of the video around, you can actually see the attachment of the Fat Gecko. This would not have been a problem if the thread was at the bottom rather than the side of the Camorama. Lastly, the microphone proved once again to be the weak point of the Camorama; it was completely hopeless in filtering out any wind noise. For something marketed as an action camera, I definitely expected better.
In the third video where the Camorama was mounted on my car's roof at night, the camera's performance left a lot to be desired. Not only was there considerable image noise; there were also very visible artifacts. Images were blurry as well. I simply would not use the Camorama at night, as you will be disappointed in the videos you make. In this video, I used the metal frame, so the Delkin Fat Gecko was attached to the bottom of the Camorama. This allowed the mount to be placed out of view, which should have been like this by design without an optional accessory.
In common to all the videos, the software has done a reasonably good at merging the two minute video segments, but you still can see a bit of stutter if you look carefully. I would appreciate it if they can eliminate the stutter altogether. Secondly, you can hear the recording chime and vibration motor in the beginning of all the videos if it was not covered by wind noise. This occurs even when I start recording remotely on my phone over Wi-Fi. Unless you disable the chime and vibrate functions, this will always be an issue.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Hardware
3. Mobile Application and PC Software
4. Sample Videos and Analysis
5. Conclusion
