After watching my Christmas-in-Manila footages last year, one thing I was very unhappy about was how much the video kept shaking (while in car, or biking or even walking). No matter how steady my hands were, the videos still turned out shaky. I did some research and learnt that the problem was my phone - doesn't have a stabilizer setting. My DSLR does, but as I've mentioned before, carrying a big camera around attracts "Bawal po ma'am!" non-sense from security guards. After going through reviews and suggestions, I decided to invest in a new gadget. Since I'm not a professional videographer/vlogger, I decided not to go for anything expensive...just something simple, easy to use and well, basically cheaper than a Go Pro. I am not very tech savvy so I'm not going to mention names and details (and pretend like I know what I'm talking about).
In the process I discovered Lazada (I've never shopped online in the Philippines before - only a few times back when I was living in Sheffield, so I was a bit skeptical at first, trying to make sure most people had good experiences ordering from this website. I went through the Sports & Action Cameras section and came across the W8 Ultra HD 12MP Sports Action Camera. I looked up videos on youtube to see sample videos and I was happy with what I saw and the customers/vloggers looked like they were also just starting out (they weren't professional), so it was very relatable.
It was late Friday night when I clicked purchase, with the pay-upon-delivery option, expecting the order to arrive the following week but my door bell rang the very next morning and it was my order! Having the item delivered instantly was a pleasant experience. By the way, I noticed the price kept changing on a daily basis. By the time I bought it, it cost Php 1,300.
This was my instagram post when I opened the package:
The first video I made with my action camera was the Chinese New Year vlog in Divisoria/Binondo. I always go to that part of town without a bag and with as little as possible, so I just had my phone and wallet in each pocket and the monopod in my hand. I loved how tiny it is! At one point I also put the camera in my pocket. When I watched my footages, I liked how you could see more, because the camera has a 140 degree wide-angle lens (unlike my phone which zooms in on my face). The videos were really stable as I walked around BUT the little bit I didn't like was the quality of sound. So I think I'll stick to my phone when I want to talk in my future vlogs, then use the action camera for action!
And that's exactly what I did over this Easter Break. I made three videos, less than a minute each. Lately I haven't had time to make full vlogs, so I decided to put my footages together to make under a minute videos for instagram/facebook. Yes, I can't believe I haven't been able to sustain my youtube account...but I'm not giving up on it!
On Thursday I tested the action camera under water! My brother and I had so much fun taking turns swimming with it. I was extremely pleased with the quality:
*by the way, please don't expand the video or else it will appear pixelated.
In another less than a minute video edit I captured our fun day at Ayala Greenfields, Calamba:
I'm uploading these videos directly on blogger, rather than linking it through youtube...so I'm not sure if the quality on this site will be the same as the original. But one thing I noticed from my footages is the color! The trees and grasses are verdant, the poor and skies are deep blue - exactly how everything was in reality. I didn't need to use a filter when I posted this on instagram because I was very happy with how natural the colors looked!
Today, being the last day of the Easter holiday, I decided to take advantage of the traffic-less, pollution-less, human-less streets and bike to the Bahá'i Center for our usual weekly devotional gatherings. I used a different monopod for this, and it was defective (it didn't hold the camera still; it kept getting lose) which meant I couldn't control the camera very well. Nevertheless, I like how smooth the movements were:
SO! How did I do for my first gadget review?! Out of the ten mounts, I've only used two, so little by little I'll try and be a bit more adventurous and use the other ones.