Important: this is not a sponsored post. We have bought the camera on May 6th, 2017, priced at 240 lei / USD 57.65.

We love to hike and explore cities on foot. And we also love to document what we do when we travel. The problem? I hate using my cell to film when I hike. Or carrying my heavy DSLR around. The solution? An action camera, of course! Only that we didn’t quite manage to have the budget for one (because my 1-year 1-month-old laptop died and I had to get a new one!). Anyway, we didn’t even think we’d have an action camera for our upcoming trip to Greece. That was until, by chance alone, Alex saw this tiny thing in the store: iSmart PRO HD Evolio.

New gadget: tiny and cheap action #camera. Hopefully it will do its job in #Greece 🙂 . . . . . #travel #photos #video #travelblogger #aroundtheworld

A post shared by Cris (Looknwalk) (@cricketro) on May 6, 2017 at 7:13am PDT

Let me elaborate cause I am sure you have no idea what I am talking about.

Evolio was a Romanian brand that made their stuff in China. Thus the dumping price. Yes, it looks as cheap as it is but I don’t care. What I care is that it does its job.

The specs for Action Camera iSmart PRO HD Evolio:

• 12 MP resolution
• 1.5 inch LCD
• films at 1080p / 30fps or 720p / 60 fps
• comes with wi-fi, mini-HDMI, micro-USB
• battery allows it to record 1.5 h continuously*
• water resistant case
• 155g / 5.46 oz
• iOs and Android app

It does NOT come with a card (microSD) so you need to account for buying that, as well (or maybe you have a spare one).

Our experience

It goes without saying that I expected poor performance for the money and, from the beginning, I figured if this would last us until we are back from Greece, we’d de delighted (we promise to keep you updated on this one).

First surprise: the accessories.

It has a bunch of straps and whatnot but NOTHING to actually allow me to carry it ON my backpack easily. The shots below were taken with it in my hand (as I was holding the tripod onto which I put it). I will have to duct tape it on the backpack when I travel (that should be a fun sight).

Second surprise: when we got back and Alex started to look at the file to put together the shots…it was hard to find the many files it created. You can only format the card as FAT and yes, this means it creates a bunch of smaller files. That’s on top of the horrible .mov format it films in (but we do have a free software which can work with it).

I strapped it on my backpack for the first part of the “movie” (coming down the stairs) but the angle is horrible for filming so I decided to just hold the tripod in my hand. The below shots are only edited for speed (it goes faster in some parts) and the fact that it has been cut (since we don’t want you to be that bored).

The smudge was due to the plastic casing. I had to clean it with alcohol but it still shows when I take photos / film with the case on when it’s not focusing close-range. The camera has fixed focused so that’s probably where the blur comes from. Close-range, it’s totally fine, with or without the case.

The action camera iSmart PRO Evolio can connect to your smartphone. There are apps for iOs and Android. And you can do som stuff from the app, such as turn it on, film, take photos, download the photos onto the device.

The action camera can also take “regular” photos.

Conclusion

While it definitly doesn’t even compare to my smartphone’s camera (and it’s a far cry from my DSLR’s), the fact that it’s cheap and can do reasonabily good for these money, makes it a good choice when you don’t want to worry about breaking something or getting it stolen. Let’s face it, I cannot care less what happens to it, as long as I can still recover the card with the footage!

Do I sound like a spoiled brat? Maybe! Do I want this thing to prove me wrong that it will last for more than a month or two? Definetely! I had fun playing with it on Sunday and cannot wait to test it in…wet conditions.

Note: *I recorded more than 1 hour but have yet to actually drain the battery as I record.