Technology X Tomorrow's Technology Today!
With life’s fast pace and active lifestyle, more people strive to capture that “live action” that we yern to remember so. With the invent of the small action cameras such as ‘Go Pro”, we also have SOCAM Ultimate Full HD Action Camera, by Conrad Electronics, hitting the market, as welll as our test bench today!
EXTERIOR PACKAGING AND COMPONENTS
The SOCAM Ultimate comes packed in one box, listing all the technical specs. Once opened you are presented with 3 smaller boxes stacked inside. Using the attached tabs you can pull each box from the main unit, the first containing the SOCAM Ultimate camera itself, second containing a battery, microUSB cable, earphone and 3 mounts(1x flat/1x curved/ 1x universal), and the third containing splash proof case and operating instructions.
SPECIFICATIONS
The SOCAM comes with a lense capable of rotating 330 degrees and shooting at an aperture of f-2.4. You can adjust the camera’ setting using it’s downloadable app. Photos can be taken individually or set to burst at 10fps. You can set up the TIME LAPSE option to shoot photos at intervals of 1, 2, 5, 10, 30, or 60 seconds. The camera has a Internal Image Stabilization System. You can record Video at Resolutions of 1920×1080 (30p, 60i), 1280×720 (60p), WVGA 848×480 (120p) and there is 2 formats, you can choose MOV, MP4. All can be saved to MicroSD or MicroSDHC. The camera comes with built-in Wi-Fi which allows you to connect your smart phone and gives you the ability to use “live view” and instantly view your pictures and videos.
DOWNLOADABLE SOFTWARE
SOCAM provides a “Companion APP” Available for Android and Apple devices. This app was easily downloaded from the Google Play store for our S4. The app allows you to connect to the camera via Wi-Fi and gives you full control of camera operations. You can also configure the camera settings.
The apps “Live Preview ” capability comes in handy especially when you are trying to figure out what position the 360 lens has been oriented to. In live view you are able to see your battery life and space available on your storage card.
PRODUCT BUILD AND OPERATION
The SOCAM Ultimate camera is light and stream line with a flat profile weighing in at 110g and has a look of a small camcorder. Setting up the camera for first use with the installation of the battery was a little tedious. Trying to attach the cable that connects the removable rechargeable battery to the camera, which has a very small end was not easy to plug in, making me reach for my glasses. On the back of the camera you will find 1 Microphone input port and 1 Micro USB port. There are also 3 control Buttons, that will light up with color-changing LED’s depending on what you are doing; like shooting video; connection to WiFi or charging. The rotating lens is a great feature and allows you to change the shooting perspective, (landscape or portrait) with out having to physically move the camera. One thing we found confusing was the lens itself. It has two arrows printed on the front pointed in different directions. Not setting this correctly caused us to shoot some bizarre video while the lens was upside down.
