So after a week of using the G1, I have a few things to say about the unit that I got which (most of them) were because the unit was buggy.
Some issues with the G1 I noticed:
1.) I cant seem to delete some messages (received recently, sent and located in the phone - not in the sim), even resetting the phone did not help and I would get "Failed" whenever I was deleting the persistent message. They were not locked, locking/unlocking the message did not help, moving them only created a duplicate.
2.) The the radio is not working since it's asking me to insert a headset (but there isnt a headset plug on the unit) - there is no helping this unless Cherry Mobile issues an update (one that the software would bypass the plug requirement as I've seen other phones work their radio without a headset)
3.) When I change the wallpaper, the image reverts to the original wallpaper after awhile, it happens also when I shut down the unit and turn it on again and when I connect it to the pc.
4.) The supplied bluetooth headset disconnects at random when used, like for one call, it lets me finish the then disconnects after the call ends. Also the unit does not always automatically pair when turned on (always happened), I'll have to pair the bluetooth device again to connect. Just selecting "Activate" does not connect the phone and headset (happens most times).
Please note: 1, 3 and 4 were fixed when I got a replacement unit (I took the 1 week replacement option) and if you are experiencing 3 (an easy to test feature, just bring an sd card with a small picture and place it as your wallpaper. shut down the device and turn it on) number 1 and 4 might be present and your unit could be a candidate for replacement. You can't always test the deleting of text messages not the bluetooth feature for calls.
Pros:
1.) It's small and lightweight, the material is comfortable to wear (soft rubber)
2.) For calls it's reliable (specially when using the bluetooth headset) signals were strong even inside the house and can of course handle two sims.
3.) It's cheap for the package it brings to the table!
4.) Screen is legible, usable even in light sunlight (and easily shaded due to it's size), touch screen is accurate even for a resistive screen.
5.) Battery life is surprisingly usable (for a 400mah battery), it can last you a day with some calls, text, bluetooth open all the time andsome music (please note that even if there are no bars, the phone will still function for around half a bar's worth of time.)
Cons:
1.) Using the watch without the bluetooth headset for calls can be hard as the volume even at max (15/15) is not that loud and placing it to your ear can be a lesson in flexibility.
2.) The camera is more of a gimmick as the resolution is not good, it would have been better if it was omitted to maybe make the phone smaller and cheaper.
3.) Maximum micro SD size is 8gb. If Cherry Mobile had packaged the unit with a micro USB cable and bigger micro SD capacities, it might make for a really good portable flashdisk drive for most people. As it is, it's just an OK thing with me, some may not see this as a con, aside from trying to find an appropriate micro USB cable to use with the unit.
4.) The phone keyboard is pretty small, large fingers will have issues typing, not so big ones will have a challenge, small ones will find it a bit slow. This might have been helped if the keys were not flat and instead had rounded tops.
5.) The battery cover will not protect the insides from sweaty arms as it has no sealing whatsoever. Granted it's not water proof even by a bit, basic watch protection should take into account sweat from the wearers arms. This can be solved by using some cling wrap (doubled over), put it on the back of the phone, and just use a scalpel or a small thin scissor to cut away at the excess plastic, this should at least prevent some of the sweat from entering the device.
Overall, I'd say that the G1 is very usable (as a backup and in a pinch as your main) as long as you're not a heavy texter as the calling function works very well and lasts long enough. You can definitely have your kids use this for their school phone as it's cheap enough to let them have one, you wont have to worry about them wasting too much times on games (it only has sokoban and tetris) or other inappropriate content and their little hands can easily handle texting. For adults, I'd say its still good, I plan on keeping mine for my backup number which I use mainly for calls.
I hope you enjoyed this review, if you want to read the whole review, just click Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.
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Monday, January 13, 2014
Sunday, January 5, 2014
Cherry Mobile G1 Review (Part 3)
Hi, 2nd to the last installment here. The last should contain real world use of the watchphone and conclusions.Now aside from being a watch and phone, you can use your watch phone as an impromptu flashdisk IF you have a long terminal micro usb cable. The charging port is recessed so normal length plugs will not work. Luckily I have one that fits just right.
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| Just below is my long micro usb cable plug |
Connecting to a pc will show 3 options. Charging (only), mass storage (charging and flash disk mode) and com port (for using the phone as a modem (gprs? Can you say the equivalent of dial up?)
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| At least it gives us options |
Charging by pc is faster as the supplied adaptor is rated at 400 mA. So it'll be pretty quick using a power bank for those low to dead batt moments.
Music on the phone is alright. Good enough to put you to sleep in a quiet room.
Some cons and annoyances: it has a radio app and its displayed on the box but you wont be able to use it since it will ask for a headset (as an antenna I suppose) so its pretty useless. Another is that when the screen times out to the standby (time, date and sim info) there is no way to get back to the phone menu until you close the phone and slide it open again. Considering the pad is small. You may need time to enter info. In connection to this. There is a display option for what happens when you close the phone. The default is it closes the current activity (bye bye whatever you were doing) and another is to contine. One more thing, if you turn off the phone and take out the battery, time and date resets. So there is no battery back up in there and if your phone dies from low power and isnt connected to a power source it will likely reset ss well. As I earlier mentioned, the manual is useless, so you're stuck guessing what each button does.
On the right side from top to bottom is the camera, the volume rocker and the start switch. This wakes the watch when the display is off (to conserve power.) On the right is the micro usb port covered by a rubber cap and the microphone hole.
The bluetooth headset turns on with a long press. When on and with another long press, you'll activate its pairing mode to pair it with your phone (also works with other phones.) Pressing the button on the headset when on and idle will call the last number. Pressing it while someone is calling will answer the call.
For now. I'd rate the phone as usable with its semi rugged non water resistant build (beware sweat as the rear cover is NOT sealed with any proofing), mostly for calls and not so much for text or music. Even less for imaging as I think it was mostly placed there as a gimmick. It will suffice as a flash disk but is limited to only 8 gig. (I may try a larger capacity if I can get my hands on one.) I'll update the review with part 4 after a few days of testing as I'll be using it everyday.
In case you missed it, part 1 is HERE and part is is over HERE.
In case you missed it, part 1 is HERE and part is is over HERE.
Thank you for reading :)
Cherry Mobile G1 Review (Part 2)
From the internal shot of the watch phone, you should be able to see it does have 2 sim slots and the micro SD expansion slot. Its ntc registered and shows the imei in the back. The battery is a solid 400mh one. So tiny it hurts :D so far playing music for around 10 minutes and using the bluetooth for file transfers and headset calls around 10 minutes and tinkering with the settings all the while yeilded a loss for around 25% (The phone has 4 bars, it lost 1) its not very encouraging but the phone IS small and the battery smaller still. I can guage it should last a day of moderate phone use. Power bank umbilical cord may be necessary.
The wallpaper is user changable and brightness looks good. It sounds alright but take note at max volume, the alert tones are not loud. Using a sound meter, it only registers 55 to 60 decibels. Around the same loudness of talking in a low tone in a quiet room. Better set it to vibrate and ring.
Texting with fat stubby fingers will be a problem with the tiny keyboard. Its usable though and accurate. The touch screen is resistive. Its probably why its cheap. Its ok enough but I find myself touching a selection twice or more at the times before it registers.
Contacts are a bit easy to deal with by exporting you current contacts and sending via bluetooth. You can only make use of yhis if you have a memory card installed as the phone does not have extra memory.
Speaking of memory cards. You're gonna need it if you want to use the camera (or custom tones) as the phone watch will complain if you try to shoot without a card. Also though the box specs say vga camera. The max resolution of the camera is 960x1280 (might be interpolated) 480x640, 240x320 and 128x160 are also available. There are also some effects and 3 levels of quality. Sample Images below.
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| Up close it's almost passable |
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| Not so close... ugh... |
One undocumented feature is that it can capture video. But to reach it requires a bit of pressing and max resolution is 240x320 only. 144x176, 128x160 and 96x128 are also available. File format is 3gp and its pretty decent overall for whats offered.
Cherry Mobile G1 Review
Hi and welcome back. It's been awhile but today I'm going to review and hopefully answer questions about this product that haunted me till I decided to buy this Cherry Mobile G1.
Originally slated for release around December, the limited availability made it tough to get my hands on one though I've been lusting over this device since I got wind of this watch phone that was mistakenly thought of as a smart watch.
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| Not bad looking |
First off I would like to mention this is something I bought and not some review unit CM lent/gave me. Secondly, The manual in the box is NOT helpful at all! It doesn't show any images of what button does what, no instructions on how to pair or use the devices inside or what to expect. Thirdly the box does not give a lot of info as well, like how much is the capacity of the phone or battery or how long the battery will last in either headset or phone.
On the box, you can read the ff:
Dial sim/dual standby
Dual band (900/1800)
1.44" TFT LCD (128x128 pixels)
VGA camera
FM radio
Music player (MP3, AMR, WAV)
Video player (3GP, MP4, AVI)
BT V2.1 +EDR
GPRS Class 12/WAP 2.0
Micro USB/Mass storage function
MMS supported
Micro SD up to 8GB
Dial sim/dual standby
Dual band (900/1800)
1.44" TFT LCD (128x128 pixels)
VGA camera
FM radio
Music player (MP3, AMR, WAV)
Video player (3GP, MP4, AVI)
BT V2.1 +EDR
GPRS Class 12/WAP 2.0
Micro USB/Mass storage function
MMS supported
Micro SD up to 8GB
The unit I got was red but would really have preferred yellow (or green). No matter, from the box they come in red, yellow, light blue, purple and dark blue.
What's in the box? It should contain the watch phone, battery, bluetooth headset, headset clip, headset charging cable (usb powered but no charger unit), phone charging adaptor (micro usb so people can use their android power bank cables and data cables for transferring to the watch phone), warranty card, instructions manual (extremely useless) and lots of plastic packaging.
More images and the continuation of the review in part 2 HERE or if you wish to skip to part 3 and my summary, click HERE.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Dis-assembly of a Minolta MD 50mm [new] f/1.4
Since I live in a rather far off place from the metro (urban traffic makes a 1 hour travel go up to 3 times as long) I'm usually saddled with issues of things I can (usually) only get in Manila or its neighboring cities. From my e-cigarette mods to my photographic stuff, most of them can be easily accessed in the greater Manila area.
Given that situation, my lens has developed a severe case of dust incursion, and possibly some mold/fungus, and Hidalgo is traditionally the best place to have them cleaned. Unfortunately, it's relatively far and my trips there are pretty infrequent. But on the other hand, it's just a manual lens and a prime at that, making cleaning it a lot easier than the modern autofocus lenses normally used in digital camera's. At least to my mind it was.
Here's a short guide on how I disassembled my lens.
For now, this is as far as I go, since my purpose here is cleaning the glass, this should be enough. If you find fungus or dirt inside those sealed elements, then I'd have to say either tough luck, or better start finding that retaining ring wrench/pliers for unscrewing the rear element tube. the front is a lost cause unless you want to force it but you'd probably have a hard time putting it back together.
I'll try to add more guides on how I cleaned it and what I used tomorrow. for now it's zzzzz time.
Given that situation, my lens has developed a severe case of dust incursion, and possibly some mold/fungus, and Hidalgo is traditionally the best place to have them cleaned. Unfortunately, it's relatively far and my trips there are pretty infrequent. But on the other hand, it's just a manual lens and a prime at that, making cleaning it a lot easier than the modern autofocus lenses normally used in digital camera's. At least to my mind it was.
Here's a short guide on how I disassembled my lens.
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| Minolta MD ring (with the brand name, lens name etc) unscrews counter-clockwise, normally you'd need some kind of circular rubber to grip and rotate the ring, I did it with my fingers. It wasn't too hard. |
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| There are two [filter assembly locking] screws (opposite each other) for the filter ring barrel. I used a 1.2 m/m flat head screw driver to unscrew them (counter-clockwise) the screws are pretty tiny, do not lose them! |
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| Once the two locking screws are removed, rotate the focus ring to the nearest focus (or basically make the focusing barrel extend) to make it easier for you to grip the filter ring assembly and unscrew it from the lens barrel in a counter-clockwise motion, if it feels a bit stuck, try to rotate it clockwise and counter clockwise to loosen it. |
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| Removing the filter ring assembly will reveal the 1st element assembly and it's secured into place with 3 screws. I used a 2.0 m/m screwdriver (+) and its loosed counter-clockwise. Though not as small as the filter ring assembly screw, they are still easy to lose so be careful. |
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| Make sure you have a soft and clean area for when removing the 1st element (am using a microfiber cloth) so you can place it on it with ease and confidence. You can lift the 1st element assembly by hand easily, its not stuck by glue or any screws. However it is of a sealed element type, you can't really separate the bottom lens and the front element. |
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| The mount block is secured by 4 screws in a butterfly position so you wont be able to misalign it when you screw it on. I used the same 2.0 m/m screwdriver for the filter screw assembly, the screws look the same but I'd keep them separate from the others as a precaution. |
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| The mount block has an aperture lever (A) and the body/iris assembly lever (B), take note of this when re-assembling the rear mount block as they have to be in the correct position to work properly. The rear element is removable by hand, just unscrew in a counter-clockwise manner. |
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| If you look hard enough you'll see a retaining ring over and around the rear element glass. There is a way to separate the rear element glass from each other, unfortunately I do not have that tool at the moment to unscrew it. |
For now, this is as far as I go, since my purpose here is cleaning the glass, this should be enough. If you find fungus or dirt inside those sealed elements, then I'd have to say either tough luck, or better start finding that retaining ring wrench/pliers for unscrewing the rear element tube. the front is a lost cause unless you want to force it but you'd probably have a hard time putting it back together.
I'll try to add more guides on how I cleaned it and what I used tomorrow. for now it's zzzzz time.
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Upgrading Your Xperia (GO, U, P, Sola) to ICS, Read First Before Continuing
So finally Sony is releasing ICS to the Xperia Go, U, P and Sola. About time! But before that, please take the time to read this before jumping in, my blooper may save you a lot of back tracking.
With the changes and improvements to ICS one of the biggest underneath the code is the messaging. Backing it up using Sony's PC Companion will NOT restore them once you update to ICS. I know, it's happened to me. I'm not sure if backing it up using the built in app will help but I didn't stay long to find out.
Safest bet is to use the free android app SMS Backup & Restore to back up your SMS/Text messages and then restore it after the update. Which in my case worked like a charm.
Now granted that you want to update to ICS NOW! You can download the firmware here and use the Flashtool program to turn your Gingerbread phone to ICS. Instructions are simple:
Now in case you need to go back to Gingerbread (like what happened to me) so you can retrieve your other stuff, you can downgrade your phone back to gingerbread using this firmware. Restore your data and then back it up in a different way. Update your phone back to ICS, restore and you're golden!
With the changes and improvements to ICS one of the biggest underneath the code is the messaging. Backing it up using Sony's PC Companion will NOT restore them once you update to ICS. I know, it's happened to me. I'm not sure if backing it up using the built in app will help but I didn't stay long to find out.
Safest bet is to use the free android app SMS Backup & Restore to back up your SMS/Text messages and then restore it after the update. Which in my case worked like a charm.
Now granted that you want to update to ICS NOW! You can download the firmware here and use the Flashtool program to turn your Gingerbread phone to ICS. Instructions are simple:
- Download and Install Flashtool 0.9.8 (latest to this date)
- Open install directory (usually C:\Flashtool) and run “flashtooldrivers.exe” inside the "Drivers" folder. choosing “Xperia P, Xperia U and Xperia Sola“, “Fastboot drivers” & “Flashmode“ - take note it doesnt really say Xperia Go but I got mine to run that way.
- Download the given FTF file link and place file under ”/firmwares” subfolder (of Flashtool install directory).
- Open Flashtool version for your OS
- Turn off Phone, connect data cable
- Hold Volume Up key till Blue (or Violet) LED notification is on (Fastboot mode)
- Click on the “lightning symbol” on Flashtool. This chooses Flashmode.
- Select the Firmware (check for ICS 4.0.4/ST27i_6.1.1.B.1.1.0_CE confirmation)
- After clicking OK, you will be asked to connect the device to PC
- Remove USB, then connect it again and this time hold Volume Down key till Green LED notification is on.
Now in case you need to go back to Gingerbread (like what happened to me) so you can retrieve your other stuff, you can downgrade your phone back to gingerbread using this firmware. Restore your data and then back it up in a different way. Update your phone back to ICS, restore and you're golden!
Monday, July 2, 2012
CDRKING "Action Cam" or Bicycle DVR (Digital Video Recorder) [Model AT18]
I haven't been blogging reviews in awhile since I got busy with other things but since this is the rainy season and I still ride my motorcycle in the rain, I took it upon myself to do a review of the "Action Camera" by CDRKing which I use to record some of my road escapades in the sun and in the rain.
Now this products is the first of it's kind I ever had, owing to the fact that it's the cheapest in the market now of it's type [like GoPro and the like] and readily available. But I am familiar with video cameras and still camera's so I can at least gauge the quality of the output well enough [beside like who HASN'T seen a video they made through a camera phone nowadays].
When I bought the camera, I had already set my expectations VERY low (as it IS only 1,880 Pesos or roughly $42). The box was rather bulky but it housed something I really didn't expect.
It housed a multitude of stuff that didn't truly fit the camera and place I had at the time (I was too excited getting it set up on my motorcycle)
Just look around the image for the captions on the parts. The mini USB cable is used for when you don't want to remove the memory card from the camera [or don't have a card reader], you won't normally need a driver on vista and onwards but for those using Windows XP, the mini installer CD has the drivers you need. As for the A/V cable, this allows you to showcase your video on any TV with an RCA plug. Just below is the image of some of the more pertinent parts you'll probably use more often as well as the "Action Camera" strap for the helmet.
The hand strap is pretty straight forward, you loop it through the helmet mount and strap it on your wrist, it's made of velcro backed by a bit of cloth so it wont chafe your wrist. The rubber helmet strap on the other hand was a bit of mystery since it doesn't look like it could cover the circumference of a helmet and it doesn't have a way to lock. Then I realized you don't really need to wrap around the whole helmet but instead, you loop one end on your helmet's chin strap and then loop the helmet mount in and then the other end goes through the other end of the helmet chin strap. The most versatile here is the suction cup mount, as it has the suction element that allows you to mount the camera even on your shiny smooth helmet, to your motorcycle gas tank or even the speedometer [but I wouldn't suggest that if you want to see your display or if on a car, you could stick it on your dash or windshield. The arm can flex forward and left to right so cover many mounting angles. There are a few not pictured elements like double sided tape and rubber inserts so you could mount the camera reliably.
Below is a picture of the camera mounted on the bike/motorcycle mount/clip. It needed a bit of padding so that it's more stable and would be less affected by vibration.
As for the meat of the product, here are pictures of the camera.
Above is the camera back with battery compartment closed, opened and the front of the camera where you can see the lens inside a glass window embeded in a rubber depression. A labeled picture of the camera parts is below.
Now the camera itself has both rubber and plastic parts, the 'nozzle' that holds the lens is made of rubber as well as the buttons for controlling the camera. The body of the camera feels solid, as if it would survive mild drops. It also looks aerodynamic so that it would be less affected by wind (to avoid having your video view changing in mid shoot). The buttons on top are made of soft rubber that have audible and crisp clicks when used. The power button (most likely by design) does not respond to short singular pushes to activate, you'd need at least press and hold for at least 1 second to turn it on. The Start/Stop button on the other hand only requires one quick push to start or stop recording. The end of the camera is protected and sealed by a simple screwon/off plastic endcap which fits snuggly around a double o-ring seal.
Around the camera is the camera holder, it has no adjustments to it for tightness but it holds the camera firmly in place but if you need to adjust the rotation of the camera on your mount, you need to apply a bit of pressure and force rotate it. It seems removable from the body and it feels like there are rubber coverings underneath it to hold the whole thing tightly in place. So far it doesn't need readjusting on my motorcycle. The clip underneath is screwed on the holder so you can also adjust the way it faces or just to remove the whole thing entirely. It also has the tripod screw hole underneath it so that you can mount it on the suction mount. The other parts are pretty much self explanatory.
One thing you need to take note of, is that the battery compartment cover is made of relatively thin plastic. It doesn't seem brittle, but its best to be careful opening and closing the thing as its a slide to lock/unlock type of cover (you slide the cover down and pull towards you to open and reversed when closing. Another thing is that you would have to make sure the cover is flat when locked in place, sometimes the locks on the sides near the 'arms' near the body of the camera can be left a bit open (basically not locked in the right place).
Above is a video of me going home through stormy weather with a thumper of an engine. Everything was wet, except the camera, it happily shot the video without getting water in it.
Now spec wise, the camera isn't much. A small 1.3MP sensor is inside and I have no idea who made these sensors but there are two quality modes that affect video size and of course file space usage. At 720p (1280x720) like the video above, its pretty wide and also consumes a LOT of space. An 8 Gig card will be around the neighborhood of 1 hour. (you can see the available TIME on the LCD when you power it on, its a bit off and basically you can fit a bit more than what it shows) The other mode is VGA, which is squarish and uses less space, it will hold around 50-75% more in terms of time but you wont get as much detail when you blow it up through a large tv.
Image wise, its pretty ok. It doesn't have that HD crispness of the more expensive models from GoPro nor the amount of detail available but it will perform well enough at 30 frames per second (the YouTube video has some compression and results in less detail as it was turned into an FLV(the original file without music was like 130mb after re-compression using a separate program which I'll mention in detail later and the YouTube video is like 35mb.) Color can be off a bit as the camera has a tendency to cool the image more, basically make it more blue (it you just need to change the hue 1 or two degrees towards warmth), color accuracy and saturation is generally spot on.
The camera suffers from ghosting as you can see from the above video (near middle to end) which can get worse depending on the angle where the light is coming from and the brightness. Ghosting btw is the effect where an image gets recorded as an upside down copy of the source of light that looks like a transparent ghost. This basically means the glass covering the lens isn't very transparent and tends to 'hold' the light on the glass instead of passing completely through, so it gets recorded on video, this is normally avoided with having good/expensive quality glass in between the subject and the sensor (and is enhanced by lens coatings, which is why good camera lenses are more expensive). This normally happens only in dim to dark lighting as its not seen in morning videos. So just set your expectations with regards to this effect. Also the microphone on the camera is where the warranty sticker was placed, its pretty much ok, joint stereo quality, definitely nothing to write home about but something you need to take note of when placing/mounting the camera.
On a side note, though it wasn't mentioned, it seems the glass cover is water phobic to a degree as water is less likely to cling on the glass and totally ruin your video.
Now as for something I discovered, since (most likely) the camera isn't all that high tech or high end, it writes the video not as it goes (till the end) but in max 5 minute intervals. This means that when you shoot a video, it will record up to 5 minutes, write the data then capture again. So its possible (but I haven't really noticed it) to see a tiny bit of a skip on videos once it reaches 5 minutes while it goes on to the next. It is also possible that this is a safety measure so that it can record the video successfully in increments instead of one large file where something may happen that may junk the whole shoot, like battery failure.
Given that it saves it in multiple files of 5 minutes, you may wonder how you are going to put them all together since there isnt any software included for editing or even splicing videos on the disk. Enter Freemake Video Converter. It allows you to convert almost any video type to another video type (for almost any platform from ipads to nokia phones) and edit the results a bit, from the size of the video, to buffers, stereo, mono and even cut scenes out. But the most important feature you would need for the CDRKing video camera is the join option, which allows you to join almost any number of video's together, output it in a certain format into just one file. This allows you to upload your video as one file to any video hosting site you choose. There is also another bonus to this, the compression on the AVI file recorded by the camera is a bit raw, by joining and converting it to AVI with the same parameters as the original for image size, buffer, frame rate etc, you get a smaller video file with the same quality as the original. Best of all, this handy thing is FREEWARE!
In conclusion, I believe this is the best bang for buck ride/action camera in the market right now. It's performance is acceptable to good and its weather sealed very well so you don't have to panic and hide when the rain comes suddenly down and it doesn't need any fancy enclosures before use. Lastly, build wise, you wont mind it falling as it will most likely survive the fall. The rubber hood in front of the camera also helps protect the camera from frontal falls.
Till next time, thanks for reading!
Now this products is the first of it's kind I ever had, owing to the fact that it's the cheapest in the market now of it's type [like GoPro and the like] and readily available. But I am familiar with video cameras and still camera's so I can at least gauge the quality of the output well enough [beside like who HASN'T seen a video they made through a camera phone nowadays].
When I bought the camera, I had already set my expectations VERY low (as it IS only 1,880 Pesos or roughly $42). The box was rather bulky but it housed something I really didn't expect.
 | |
| Yes, the 20 pesos was my change :D |
It housed a multitude of stuff that didn't truly fit the camera and place I had at the time (I was too excited getting it set up on my motorcycle)
 |
| Yes its my dining table, sorry |
Just look around the image for the captions on the parts. The mini USB cable is used for when you don't want to remove the memory card from the camera [or don't have a card reader], you won't normally need a driver on vista and onwards but for those using Windows XP, the mini installer CD has the drivers you need. As for the A/V cable, this allows you to showcase your video on any TV with an RCA plug. Just below is the image of some of the more pertinent parts you'll probably use more often as well as the "Action Camera" strap for the helmet.
The hand strap is pretty straight forward, you loop it through the helmet mount and strap it on your wrist, it's made of velcro backed by a bit of cloth so it wont chafe your wrist. The rubber helmet strap on the other hand was a bit of mystery since it doesn't look like it could cover the circumference of a helmet and it doesn't have a way to lock. Then I realized you don't really need to wrap around the whole helmet but instead, you loop one end on your helmet's chin strap and then loop the helmet mount in and then the other end goes through the other end of the helmet chin strap. The most versatile here is the suction cup mount, as it has the suction element that allows you to mount the camera even on your shiny smooth helmet, to your motorcycle gas tank or even the speedometer [but I wouldn't suggest that if you want to see your display or if on a car, you could stick it on your dash or windshield. The arm can flex forward and left to right so cover many mounting angles. There are a few not pictured elements like double sided tape and rubber inserts so you could mount the camera reliably.
Below is a picture of the camera mounted on the bike/motorcycle mount/clip. It needed a bit of padding so that it's more stable and would be less affected by vibration.
 |
| It's my motorcycle, Enya with the camera |
As for the meat of the product, here are pictures of the camera.
Above is the camera back with battery compartment closed, opened and the front of the camera where you can see the lens inside a glass window embeded in a rubber depression. A labeled picture of the camera parts is below.
Now the camera itself has both rubber and plastic parts, the 'nozzle' that holds the lens is made of rubber as well as the buttons for controlling the camera. The body of the camera feels solid, as if it would survive mild drops. It also looks aerodynamic so that it would be less affected by wind (to avoid having your video view changing in mid shoot). The buttons on top are made of soft rubber that have audible and crisp clicks when used. The power button (most likely by design) does not respond to short singular pushes to activate, you'd need at least press and hold for at least 1 second to turn it on. The Start/Stop button on the other hand only requires one quick push to start or stop recording. The end of the camera is protected and sealed by a simple screwon/off plastic endcap which fits snuggly around a double o-ring seal.
Around the camera is the camera holder, it has no adjustments to it for tightness but it holds the camera firmly in place but if you need to adjust the rotation of the camera on your mount, you need to apply a bit of pressure and force rotate it. It seems removable from the body and it feels like there are rubber coverings underneath it to hold the whole thing tightly in place. So far it doesn't need readjusting on my motorcycle. The clip underneath is screwed on the holder so you can also adjust the way it faces or just to remove the whole thing entirely. It also has the tripod screw hole underneath it so that you can mount it on the suction mount. The other parts are pretty much self explanatory.
One thing you need to take note of, is that the battery compartment cover is made of relatively thin plastic. It doesn't seem brittle, but its best to be careful opening and closing the thing as its a slide to lock/unlock type of cover (you slide the cover down and pull towards you to open and reversed when closing. Another thing is that you would have to make sure the cover is flat when locked in place, sometimes the locks on the sides near the 'arms' near the body of the camera can be left a bit open (basically not locked in the right place).
Now spec wise, the camera isn't much. A small 1.3MP sensor is inside and I have no idea who made these sensors but there are two quality modes that affect video size and of course file space usage. At 720p (1280x720) like the video above, its pretty wide and also consumes a LOT of space. An 8 Gig card will be around the neighborhood of 1 hour. (you can see the available TIME on the LCD when you power it on, its a bit off and basically you can fit a bit more than what it shows) The other mode is VGA, which is squarish and uses less space, it will hold around 50-75% more in terms of time but you wont get as much detail when you blow it up through a large tv.
Image wise, its pretty ok. It doesn't have that HD crispness of the more expensive models from GoPro nor the amount of detail available but it will perform well enough at 30 frames per second (the YouTube video has some compression and results in less detail as it was turned into an FLV(the original file without music was like 130mb after re-compression using a separate program which I'll mention in detail later and the YouTube video is like 35mb.) Color can be off a bit as the camera has a tendency to cool the image more, basically make it more blue (it you just need to change the hue 1 or two degrees towards warmth), color accuracy and saturation is generally spot on.
The camera suffers from ghosting as you can see from the above video (near middle to end) which can get worse depending on the angle where the light is coming from and the brightness. Ghosting btw is the effect where an image gets recorded as an upside down copy of the source of light that looks like a transparent ghost. This basically means the glass covering the lens isn't very transparent and tends to 'hold' the light on the glass instead of passing completely through, so it gets recorded on video, this is normally avoided with having good/expensive quality glass in between the subject and the sensor (and is enhanced by lens coatings, which is why good camera lenses are more expensive). This normally happens only in dim to dark lighting as its not seen in morning videos. So just set your expectations with regards to this effect. Also the microphone on the camera is where the warranty sticker was placed, its pretty much ok, joint stereo quality, definitely nothing to write home about but something you need to take note of when placing/mounting the camera.
On a side note, though it wasn't mentioned, it seems the glass cover is water phobic to a degree as water is less likely to cling on the glass and totally ruin your video.
Now as for something I discovered, since (most likely) the camera isn't all that high tech or high end, it writes the video not as it goes (till the end) but in max 5 minute intervals. This means that when you shoot a video, it will record up to 5 minutes, write the data then capture again. So its possible (but I haven't really noticed it) to see a tiny bit of a skip on videos once it reaches 5 minutes while it goes on to the next. It is also possible that this is a safety measure so that it can record the video successfully in increments instead of one large file where something may happen that may junk the whole shoot, like battery failure.
Given that it saves it in multiple files of 5 minutes, you may wonder how you are going to put them all together since there isnt any software included for editing or even splicing videos on the disk. Enter Freemake Video Converter. It allows you to convert almost any video type to another video type (for almost any platform from ipads to nokia phones) and edit the results a bit, from the size of the video, to buffers, stereo, mono and even cut scenes out. But the most important feature you would need for the CDRKing video camera is the join option, which allows you to join almost any number of video's together, output it in a certain format into just one file. This allows you to upload your video as one file to any video hosting site you choose. There is also another bonus to this, the compression on the AVI file recorded by the camera is a bit raw, by joining and converting it to AVI with the same parameters as the original for image size, buffer, frame rate etc, you get a smaller video file with the same quality as the original. Best of all, this handy thing is FREEWARE!
In conclusion, I believe this is the best bang for buck ride/action camera in the market right now. It's performance is acceptable to good and its weather sealed very well so you don't have to panic and hide when the rain comes suddenly down and it doesn't need any fancy enclosures before use. Lastly, build wise, you wont mind it falling as it will most likely survive the fall. The rubber hood in front of the camera also helps protect the camera from frontal falls.
Till next time, thanks for reading!
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