3SIXT 4K Ultra HD Sports Action Camera
THE BUDGET PERFORMER.
TAKE A LOOK at the price tags of these cameras and you’re right to wince, though the adage ‘you get what you pay for’ rings true. Then you get something like this little bundle from 3SIXT (pronounced ‘three sixty’). Boasting 4K footage at a cinematic 24fps, and an embarrassment of mounts to suit your car, pushbike, motorbike and helmets, it offers bang-for-buck performance at a third of the cost of the best camera here. Yes, there are sacrifices. The app is woeful and we struggled to get it to talk to our smartphone, so forget about using your phone as a remote. It also means you’re left to find your own video-editing software, and no in-house program exists on the 3SIXT website. You’re limited to a 32GB or smaller microSD card, nor is it particularly svelte or attractive since it always needs to be in the waterproof housing.
But what’s really important is that the footage is crisp, even if the image stabilisation needs a good tune-up (it’s acceptable but a touch wobbly, but joyfully free of distortion). In good lighting conditions, the Ultra HD will leave you smiling, with bright colours when you’re shooting indoors and out, and it’s happy to be treated mean inside the case. Despite the name, the 4K Ultra’s at its best when on 1080p/60, as 4K footage is a little blurry with some ghosting. A misnomer, perhaps, but for the price (astounding considering the equivalent amount of GoPro accessories comes close to the Ultra HD’s RRP), we have no hesitation in recommending this as a terrific first action cam.