CAMERA SPECIAL .....ACTION, CAMERA!

ACTION, CAMERA!





There are cameras that you take on holidays and then, there's the GoPro Hero5 Black and the Garmin Virb Ultra 30 that you should carry on adventures. Savio D'Souza reviews action shooters that you can attach to your bike when you are off-roading; fix on your helmet when you are skydiving, strap to your chest or arm when you are trekking, and even take them for a scuba dive...

BUILD AND IN-BOX ACCESSORIES

The GoPro Hero5 Black comes with a `frame' casing that allows you to attach the camera to myriad accessories. You get a non-adhesive baseplate that can be used as a simple mount for your desk, two sticky mounts ­ one flat and one curved ­ and a thumb screw that fixes the camera's frame to its attachments.

The flat mount can be used to attach the Hero5 Black to, say ,a car dashboard, while you could use the curved mount on a helmet.The camera itself comes with a removable toughened glass cover over its lens, which can be replaced in case of scratches.

The Hero5 Black is waterproof up to a depth of 10m33feet, so you don't need any casing for protection. The box also includes a rechargeable battery, and a USB Type-C cable to charge the device and to transfer files to your computer.

The Garmin Virb Ultra 30 is similar in size to the Hero5 Black, but relies on a water-tight plastic casing for protection. Here also, you get a flat and curved sticky mount. You even get two thumb screws and a couple of extenders that allow you to orient the cam in different ways when it is attached to its mount.

A rechargeable battery , an Allen key , and a mini USB cable for charging and data transfer complete the package.

We took the Hero5 Black when we went sailing, as well as on our attempts at wakeboarding and surfboarding. Similarly , the Virb Ultra 30 was used underwater. Both devices came out unscathed, and with clear recordings of our mini adventures.

Our Take:

The Hero5 Black has an edge over the Virb Ultra 30 with its waterproof build. The latter just feels like an older GoPro model in comparison.

USER INTERFACE

The Hero5 Black has a 2-inch touchscreen and its menu system is intuitive to use, whether it is to change shooting modes, or fine-tune settings. Sadly , this touchscreen does not work as desired with wet fingers, so users will have to rely on a rubberised physical button that's placed on its side to power it on and switch between modes and settings. Another button at the top of the camera can then be used to start and stop shooting pictures and videos. For hands-free use, the Hero5 Black supports 12 voice commands, including `GoPro start recording', `...stop recording', `...take a photo', and `...turn off'.

Additionally , it sports a small front-facing LCD that displays the shooting mode, available memory and battery status.

And this brings us to the Virb Ultra 30. Here, you get a smaller 1.75-inch touchscreen, and four physical buttons, all of which can be operated through the camera's casing.

There's a power button that doubles up to scroll left or go to the previous menu option; a Wi-Fi button that can also be used to navigate right or to the next menu option; a photo `shutter-release' button that even lets you select menu options, and finally a recording lever to start and stop videos.

Now despite the smaller screen, the menu options are displayed in a tile-based UI thus making it easy to select what you want. The Ultra's display recognises touches even under its plastic casing; it detected at least 70% touch gestures even when wet.

When it comes to voice recognition, you get fewer options on the Ultra 30 with basic commands such as `OK Garmin take a photo', `...start recording', `...stop recording' and `...remember that' to highlight a part in your recording. While both cameras struggled, the Garmin camera recognised voice commands when they were spoken into its front mic with greater accuracy in moving vehicles and against the wind when compared to the GoPro.

Our Take:

Both devices are equally stacked here. The Hero5 Black has an LCD up front and its UI looks wonderful, though folk with large fingers might find it tough to select options. The Virb Ultra 30's menu (even with its smaller screen) seems simpler to use. Also, it scores slightly higher with voice commands in noisy environs.

PHOTO AND VIDEO MODES

The Hero5 Black is capable of videos ranging from 480p to 4K resolutions.You can expect slow-motion clips of up to 240 frames per second (fps) in 720p HD videos, and up to 120fps in 4K making it a capable camera for all your video needs.

For audio capture, it uses three mics with a windnoise reduction system. During our review, we found that the camera picked up our voice even on a windy beach, and in an open moving vehicle. In photo mode, you get 12MP snapshots, and you can also choose between night and burst mode. In the latter, speeds go up to 30fps to ensure that you capture every instance of an action sequence like an acrobatic somersault. Also, this camera can shoot in the RAW format for advanced image editing.

GoPro even lets you manipulate the field of view (FOV), ranging from Narrow for tight shots to Superview for extremely wideangled video captures. In photos, the upper range is limited to Wide Angle only .

Of course, as you extend the FOV , you will see fish-eye distortion in the footage. This brings us to the Linear mode where the Hero5 Black cuts out some part of the wide-angle FOV to give you parallel video frames without any lens distortion.

The Virb Ultra 30 camera has a similar feature called Lens Correction. Here, 4K videos can be shot at 60fps, and the camera also has a Slow-Mo mode that captures 1080p Full HD videos at 120fps and 720p HD videos at 240fps.

On the audio front, the Ultra 30 is equipped with a front-facing high-sensitivity mic. And the quality of its sound capture is just as good as the GoPro5 Hero Black, so no complaints here either.

In photos, the Virb Ultra 30 gives you 12MP snapshots, a Night mode, as well as a Burst mode that allows for up to 60fps. Here, we don't see most users opting for 60fps, especially since 30fps is good enough to cover fast action sequences.

Both cameras come with a Time Lapse mode, and you also get vibration-reduction (VR) to lessen the shake in your action videos. The Hero5 Black and the Virb Ultra 30 shoot VR-enabled clips in up to 2.7K (aka QHD) resolutions, and then cut the edges of the frame to focus on the central portion to output a stabilised Full HD video. This mode definitely reduces jumps and vibrations, especially when you're capturing action clips on bikes and treks.

Our Take:

Both cameras are evenly matched, and you would have a hard time picking one over the other based on video, audio and photo output, as well as fine-tuning settings.

APPS AND SOFTWARE

Hero5 Black's Capture app ­ for Android and iOS ­ connects to the cam via Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. You can use it to change the camera's settings from your phone; download the photos and videos you have recorded to your handset, and even share them on Instagram, Facebook, and more. This app behaved erratically at times; it refused to connect to the handset, and even dropped the connection. Hopefully , future firmware and app updates will make this process more user friendly and seamless.

Once your footage is downloaded, you can use Quik ­ on Android and iOS ­ to edit it, add music, transitions, filters and text overlays. This app makes it easy to create professional-looking productions. Splice is similar to Quik but is only available for iOS devices. It lets you choose from a library of free music and sound effects. You can use it to adjust the volume and add narration to fine-tune your audio. Both Quik and Splice will also allow you to work with images and videos that were not shot with the GoPro.

And finally , there's Quik for your PC and Mac that lets you create video edits ­ synced to music ­ with just a few clicks. This soft ware comes bundled with GoPro Studio for more advanced editing.

For the Virb Ultra 30, you get the Virb Edit app for Android and iOS. The app turns your smartphone into a remote: you can pre view live shots from the connected camera, start and stop shooting from the app, snap a photo, and even configure settings such as fps and resolution. The app also lets you trim your video clips, add slow motion, mix in some music, and share to Facebook and YouTube. With the iOS version of the app, you can stream your footage in real-time ­ right from your phone ­ directly to your YouTube account. Once installed, the app worked flawlessly and connected every time to the camera via Wi-Fi.

Moving onto the desktop, Garmin's Virb Edit software for the PC and Mac lets you add text and titles to your videos, trim and stitch clips together, adjust their volume, speed, and even add music. It lets you combine your videos with GPS and other data speed, elevation, heart rate, etc ­ from the camera or a compatible Garmin device to create a complete adventure production.

Our Take

This round goes to the Virb Ultra 30 simply because its app works seamlessly when pairing with the device. GoPro's Capture app looks like it needs some work.Besides, both computer editing suites work well enough for beginners who have no prior movie-editing experience.

GoPro Hero5 Black or Garmin Virb Ultra 30?

The GoPro Hero5 Black and the Garmin Virb Ultra 30 are cameras that are at the top of their game. The latter has a very miniscule lead when it comes to battery life when you shoot at 1080p: you can expect about 90 minutes with the GoPro and you get about a little bit over 100 minutes on the Garmin. But shoot 4K videos, and the GoPro gives you more minutes than the Garmin.

GoPro has a lot of accessories and mounts for its camera, but these can also be used with the Garmin shooter. Besides, you can expect to pick up a whole bunch of thirdparty accessories that work with both.

So, if you want built-in waterproofing for underwater shots, go for the GoPro Hero5, and if you see yourself using voice commands when cycling and trekking ­ and want to overlay your videos with GPS and other travel metrics, the Virb Ultra 30 is the one for you.Regardless of what you choose, you're not really losing out on the other. GoPro vs Garmin in action cams is the new `Nikon vs Canon' debate in DSLRs.

TNN