AKASOV50 X Action Camera, Native 4K Wifi Underwater 40M EIS Anti-Shake Cam with Touch Screen, Remote Control, Waterproof Case and Mounting Accessories Kit

I thought long and hard about getting a more up-to-date action camera. I started by looking at the current GoPro range but for the small amount of use it would get they are simply too expensive. I then scoured the internet for reviews of cameras and the Akaso V50X came out well from most of them. I am aware there are some criticisms of sound quality but I'm not seeing it with the one I have. The camera arrives with a large selection of accessories and usefully, two batteries. Simple to operate once you get the hang of the menus and it performs very well. I've got a much cheaper action camera and the underwater footage is awful but this was excellent. Nice and clear with good colours. It's early days but so far I would recommend it as a mid-range GoPro alternative.

I have been using an old G*Pr* (model 3) on my bike for ages and was about to upgrade to the recent model (£400-£500).One of the reasons I had hesitated is that the Gpr doesn’t date stamp recordings, or offer the kind of ‘loop recording’ where new recordings overwrite the oldest on the memory card once it fills up. More like a dashcam.The Akazo has these features & more. Image quality is great for me, stabilisation too.It ships with a charger and TWO batteries and more mounts, clamps and bits/bats than I would ever need.Once registered they send you a choice of freebie so I got a second case and now have a mount & case on the handlebars of each of my 2 bikes and just slot the camera in to the one I choose to ride.I have been really impressed with this camera, and saved £££’s.Cons?The only thing which I could mention is that copying movies off the camera to phone via the wifi takes a while - they are big files, but as an example a 3 min movie takes 3 min to copy.So I tend to take out the card & put into the card reader on my computer.

OK, so this is an updated review after the first v50x unit I was sent was clearly defective; image quality was just shocking. Hats off to Akaso though; after leaving a fairly negative review of it, I was contacted by a very polite customer service agent who offered to replace it with the brave 7 model. After confirming shipping details, a replacement unit arrived next day in the post. So Akaso get 5 stars for customer service.I can happily confirm that the Brave 7 produces footage of much higher quality and is pretty decent for the price point. It's still not perfect: the camera applies quite aggressive smoothing to the footage which can result in loss of detail when filming up close, but if you plan to use it as intended as an action cam then it's more than good enough. The contrast and exposure are good and the picture is fairly sharp, although it does lose a bit of sharpness towards the edges of the frame. The wireless remote works up to about 2m, so would perhaps be useful if you had the camera strapped to a helmet or similar. For longer range remote control, the WiFi worked for me up to about 5m. Build quality is good. The rubbery plastic casing looks like it'll take a few knocks and the ports and covers all have rubber gaskets. Buttons and touch screen are responsive and easy to use. Overall, it's a decent budget camera. If I were to compare it to a gopro (not really fair considering the price difference), I'd say if the gopro scored a 10 out of 10, this would be a 7.5.

I bought this action camera to replace a Sony action camera and the performance of this Akaso V50X exceeds it in every way. I have worked in the imaging sector for 35 years, so excellent image quality, effective image stabilisation and good low light performance are of paramount importance to me, especially when capturing video footage recorded at speed from a bicycle over rough road surfaces.I only use an action camera for recording my cycle journeys and I wanted to leave this review for other cycle enthusiasts out there who are thinking of purchasing the camera for the same purposes, whilst also providing some imaging experience based on the camera for other potential buyers. I have updated the firmware in the camera from a link kindly provided by Akaso who responded to my email immediately, so I now have both the ‘EIS and Giro’ modes available, in addition to the external microphone option.I recently did a 63 mile, 4 ½ hour bike ride with the camera and it performed flawlessly. I recorded my ride in 1080P 30 fps mode with Giro and EIS turned on and the resulting video footage was outstanding. This resolution and frame rate is perfect for the purposes I use it, and I was amazed to get 1 hour and 55 minutes recording time from each battery. The brightness, contrast, colour, hue and saturation were naturally true to the environment and the image stabilisation was unbelievable. I have the camera mounted to my bike handlebars, which is always a problematic area when trying to capture stable video. With this footage there was no ‘Jello’ effect whatsoever, irrespective of the terrain. I have attached a couple of images to show the mount I made for the camera from a couple of cheap handlebar brackets and a bit of aluminium sprayed up to match the bike, whilst using the tripod mount that came with the kit. I have not uploaded any sample footage as I cannot see the point as it will inevitably be compressed in some way. Furthermore, every viewing monitor is different.I am particularly delighted how the ISO (light sensitivity of the CCD) can be altered to suit my rides in low light conditions. Furthermore, the resolution of the CCD (12 Megapixels) is just right to support 4K video whilst retaining only the necessary required pixels to suit low light recording. Because these pixels are larger than the pixels on a camera with a higher resolution, they are naturally better at resolving light as the surface area is larger. All too often, manufacturers sell their products boasting a high ‘Megapixel’ resolution, which is great in ideal shooting conditions with an abundance of available light, but in low light conditions cannot be achieved without additional lighting. This camera maintains a perfect balance in providing only the necessary pixels required for 4K footage, whilst maintaining good low light performance. In testing, this theory worked well and the camera produced very acceptable results in these conditions with EIS and Giro turned off. It is also worth mentioning that I commute in total darkness on country roads with only two high powered bike lights for illumination.I have not tested footage recorded in every mode, but 4K footage is astonishing when played back on my Samsung 4K TV. I have also not tested the camera function, as I will use a camera if I need to take photographs.The case works really well with the camera and the footage suffered no lens flare when riding into the sun or any loss of image quality. I was also able to operate all functions from the external buttons. Although I recorded in the 170 degree angle option, the distortion was kept to a minimum, and certainly better than my previous Sony camera. In this mode, depth of field is fantastic with virtually no part of the image being out of focus.There is a massive array of photo and video recording options available on the camera and it comes supplied with loads of accessories and mounts. I also like how the shooting modes can be altered to suit the environment being recorded, in addition to the usual auto mode. The audio quality is perfectly acceptable when out of the case, but it suffers when inside it. This is common sense to me as the microphones are covered up when inside the case?I can highly recommend this camera for anyone who needs to capture video in sporting type environments as the image stabilisation has to be seen to be believed. Paired with fantastic image quality and good low light performance, I cannot see why anyone would need to pay any more. As an added bonus, I have also registered my product with Akaso online, who are currently offering an additional 1 year warranty!Well done Akaso.. what a brilliant little action camera this is!