Consumer-grade 1080p HD action cam showdown!
Recently, I set out to do a review of consumer-grade ($300 or less) action cams. Local storm chaser Ron and I pooled our resources and I ran a direct comparison with six cameras. Two of the largest camera companies, iON and Contour, who joined forces last year and both had several models, so I reviewed two cameras from each company.
- iON Air Pro 3 - iON Air Pro 2 - Contour +2 - Contour Roam 3 - Foscam Action AC1080 - Polaroid Cube
All cameras had a maximum resolution of "true" HD (1080p, or 1080 pixels high) quality video. Here's what I found during the comparison. Every camera won at least one column, no camera won more than one-third of the comparison metrics.
The matrix above was created based on published specifications, except for the Amazon Sale Price, Rating, Clarity, and Color. The latter two were completely subjective as judged by me, based primarily on the screenshots below. You can watch the test videos on YouTube below, or download the raw videos here.
To me, clarity is one of the most important measures of a video camera, especially in the distance, because I'm a storm chaser. Almost any video camera can have clear video a foot away; here the clarity I was looking for was beyond 50 feet. The following (lossless) comparison graphic shows a crop of the full-res image, at 100% zoom. This is what really allows me to determine the clarity that I talked above. Notice (look at the trees in the background) that most cameras show distant trees that look more like a painting than the reality.
By my judgement, the Contour Roam 3 had the most clarity. It's also the second-least-expensive, and second-highest-rated camera I reviewed. If I had to go out and buy one of these cameras today, the Roam 3 would be it..
Below are full resolution screen captures of the still video, resized to where you can see them all on my computer screen. Here you can get a better idea for color. The most realistic color (compared to what I was actually looking at that day) came from the iON Air Pro 3, with the Polaroid Cube coming in #2.
There are a lot of other things to consider when buying an action camera, of course, but hopefully this takes some of the guesswork out of the equation for you.
DISCLAIMER: This is not an official endorsement from AccuWeather, Inc. Product was supplied for this review from each vendor except Panasonic. The GoPro Hero3 I had was not included in this review because it was not a consumer entry HD camera (I do not have access to a Hero Pro Session, their new lower-resolution, cheaper camera at this time).
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