This is the Eken H9r
An ultra HD 4k action camera
As a budget GoPro alternative is It any good?
Stick around to find out, it's TechWizTime
Hey guys, Johnathan here with TechWizTime, where I create technology tutorials and review videos
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I've owned a Gopro for a While now
Even using it in some of my earlier unboxing videos on this channel
Being an expensive little action camera I'm always on the lookout for a budget option
And that's where I think that The Eken H9r comes in
Full disclosure. This 4k action camera was sent out by BangGood for me to review without any influence from them at all
No money has exchanged hands either
I've never personally heard of Ekan as a brand, and Like most chinese brands I'm guessing a lot of you haven't either
But this little 4k camera sure boots some impressive specs
Firstly it comes with a huge amount of accessories sprawled out here on the table now
Something that I've found lacking with the original GoPros
Especially when some of the official accessories for GoPro can set you back a pretty penny
One of the interesting additions here is the wireless remote
This comes with an arm strap that lets you take it out into the water and start recording straight from your wrist
The waterproof cases, where you can use the action camera mount
So you can mount it to a multitude of surfaces or even a tripod if you want
That's enough about the accessories. What about The specs?
Well this is a 4K ultra HD action camera and it can shoot video At 25 frames per second at the 4k resolution
Not bad for a small little package
Aside from the 4k though, you can also shoot, at 2.7 K, video at 30 frames per second and
1080P footage at either 30 or 60 frames per second
Perfect for when you want to slow things down a little
And If you want to bust out some super slow-mo then you can shoot at 120 frames per second At 720p
Our video is shot using the H.264 codec, so most editing software will have no problems with any of the video
The lens is a Wide-Angle lens with a viewing angle of around 170 Degrees, so, wide enough to get in all your surroundings whilst out on the bike or on the board
The inbuilt 1050 milliamp battery gives you about 50 minutes shooting time at 4k resolutions
Obviously you get more shooting time at the lower resolutions here
You can also grab extra batteries and a charger for those longer days where you want as much footage as possible
The battery does take up to five hours to charge fully at 1amp, so extra batteries isn't such a bad idea
Audio isn't the greatest but no one bought audio ease with most cameras
Aside from the video though you can also take photos at 4 5 8 or 12 Megapixels
The option of taking burst photos though Is limited to around 3 photos at a time
Which is fine for most people wanting to get that perfect shot
Time lapse options range from about 2 seconds per photo to 60 seconds so enough time to get some nice long shots out on the day
Better Quality is what you would expect from an action camera
nothing like a Digital SLR with Manual control over every aspect of the shot
Ports on the side are pretty standard with a MicroSD Card slot
A micro USB slot for charging and a Micro HDMI D port for external monitors
Unfortunately the HDMI output isn't a clean output, meaning On-screen text does appear
So you won't be recording footage from the camera this way
The MicroSD Card Appears to support at least 128 gigabyte cards, but Be aware
You will need a MicroSD Card fast enough for 4k footage which
Is a minimum of about 30 megabytes per second write speeds
So to be sure go with a U3 speed card
I recently did a video on crazy cheap storage where I showed off a 128 meg U3 MicroSD Card from Samsung
And It only cost around $40
The Screen on the rear Is a 2 inch color LCD that is great for framing of shops and going through the settings menus
And there are plenty of settings there too
Changing video resolutions, adding Time Stamps, manual exposure settings, photo resolution, burst photo, Time-Lapse, power frequency depending on what part of the world you live in
Language, date and time, sound indicator
Setting the camera Orientation if you're shooting upside down for example and a few more features you might find handy
Alright let's get onto the buttons
So the front button is used to turn on the Eken H9r by holding it in for about 3 To 5 seconds
Same goes for turning it off
You can also cycle through the different modes available as well as get access to the settings menu
The top button is used for starting video recorder or taking a photo or choosing a menu option in the settings area
The two side buttons is for navigating up and down the menus primarily
Outside of the settings menu pressing the up button will bring up the menu to access photos and videos stored on the MicroSD Card
Pressing the down button will start up the wi-fi access point which is another feature of the Eken H9r
Live-streaming to Facebook or YouTube
Now in order to access this feature you will need the EzCam App for iPhone 6 and above on IOs 10 and above
Sorry Android users
Now through my testing this only shoots live footage of 360P and requires the use of mobile data as the phone connects directly to the Eken H9r by the wi-fi settings
Even if you are on your home Wi-Fi
Unless you can have a solution to allow for high bit rates and the ability to use a favorable band connection
I only see this being of use to a few people and not a feature I would be personally using
If you want to check the test footage out from the live broadcast on YouTube you can see that above on my personal channel or below in the description
So, after all that is the Eken H9r a good budget action camera for around $50?
yeah
Especially when you don't want to spend hundreds on a GoPro
If you're interested in purchasing one for yourself then check out the link below
And if you're going to click them, there might be a coupon code for you to use as well
For more sample footage don't forget to check out my personal YouTube channel as well
Is just for all that extra stuff that I don't want to put on the TechWizTime channel
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