Wimius L1 - Review 2022 - Coleman Forut1980

The Wimius L1 ($72.99) is one of the to the lowest degree expensive 4K activity cameras you can buy. It doesn't have a ton of bells and whistles—in that location'southward no bear on screen and its digital epitome stabilization isn't worth using—just video quality is solid, and information technology ships with a ton of accessories, including a waterproof example. The L1 is a practiced action cam for shoppers on a tight budget, but if you tin can spend more, you'll bask a better experience with our Editors' Choice, the $160 Sjcam SJ6 Legend.

Design

The L1 is a fleck squarer than most activeness cams. It measures two.1 past 2.0 by 1.1 inches (HWD) and weighs just 2.9 ounces. The lens protrudes from its slim, plastic body. The camera isn't waterproof on its own, but it includes a protective case that's rated to 100 feet, with a standard GoPro foot permanently fastened. Wimius sells the L1 in black or silverish.

The camera has three control buttons. Power and Record are on top, and Wi-Fi is on the front end. As with well-nigh activity cams that omit a touch interface, the buttons are too used to navigate through the menu organization and change shooting modes.

Pressing Power cycles through the shooting modes, with Record acting equally an OK button and the front Wi-Fi button used to scroll through the various settings bachelor in the extensive camera carte. It's a clumsy mode of adjusting settings, and so you lot'll want to make certain to take the time to configure the camera to your liking in 1 session, as it can be distracting to exercise so in the field.

The rear display itself is two inches in size. Wimius doesn't publish its resolution, but I plant information technology to be adequate for previewing a scene thank you to solid viewing angles and a bright output. That'south nearly as much equally you lot can ask from a photographic camera at this price betoken.

There are a agglomeration of accessories included with the L1, including two batteries. Charging is in-photographic camera only, simply the L1 netted 100 minutes of 4K recording on a full charge—one of the best results we've seen in this toll range. You too get the aforementioned waterproof case, a mounting muzzle with tripod mounts on the top and bottom, and a number of mounting arms and feet, including a tripod mount accessory for the waterproof instance.

Connectivity

Wimius L1 : App In that location's a standard micro USB port for charging and data transfer, as well equally a mini HDMI output port and a microSD retention card slot. The L1 supports SD and SDHC formats up to 32GB in size.

You lot also get built-in Wi-Fi. The L1 broadcasts its own password-protected network—the credentials for connecting are shown on the brandish—which works with the Wimius Cam Pro app for Android and iOS. Be careful choosing the app, as there's an older version, just called Wimius Cam, that doesn't piece of work with the L1.

The carte is extensive, with loads of options. Thankfully you can change those settings via the app, which is much more pleasant an feel than using the physical camera buttons to kludge through the menu system. The app likewise lets you start and stop recording, and transfer video and images from the retentiveness card to your phone.

Video Quality and Features

The L1 records 4K footage at 24fps and a 25Mbps chip charge per unit. Shooting at 24fps gives video a cinematic expect, simply fans of extreme sports tend to prefer the deadening-motion versatility and smoothed motion captured at faster frame rates. You can up the capture rate to 30fps past dropping quality to 2K. At 1080p the L1 supports 60 and 30fps, and you can crank the photographic camera at 120, lx, or 30fps at 720p. Video is captured with an ultra-wide field of view, just you can set the camera to capture at a narrower bending if desired.

Audio quality is an issue. In our tests voices had a slightly garbled sound, as if the microphone isn't picking up a wide range of frequencies. At that place'due south no external mic input, and so there'south no way effectually this.

There is congenital-in digital stabilization, but I don't recommend using it. Handheld footage notwithstanding shows jitters with it turned on, as y'all can run into in the offset segment of our exam video, and it actually detracts from the quality of motorcar-mounted exam video. In add-on to our two standard test scenes, our test video has some sunrise footage; information technology was shot at 24p, only sped up to compress 30 minutes into about a minute and a one-half.

Dynamic range is quite skilful. Our driving exam scene moves from shadows to bright sunlight, and the L1 does a good job of not blowing out highlights. You lot still run across the bluish sky and detail in the white clouds. It does accident out the sunday itself in our sunrise video, but yous'd likely become the same result from a much more than expensive activity cam.

In addition to video recording, the L1 can capture time-lapse footage at 4K quality, and tin be set to looping. When you enable looping the photographic camera records clips of a set length and continues to do so until the retentivity carte du jour is total, overwriting the oldest videos when the card fills up.

Still capture is besides an option. The L1 shoots JPG images at 20MP resolution. Photograph quality is on par with a skilful smartphone. Particular at close range is stiff, but gets fuzzy in the distance. That'southward typical of an ultra-broad lens.

Conclusions

It'due south tough to beat the Wimius L1 when information technology comes to price and features—it and the Aukey Air conditioning-LC2 are the only action cameras in the $70 price nosotros've tested that are worth buying. The L1 offers better battery life and still prototype quality, and video with a bit more dynamic range, but its microphone has some issues and its menu system is a pain to navigate. Information technology'due south a solid selection if you lot're on a strict budget and value notwithstanding capture equally well as video, simply has too many drawbacks to exist an Editors' Choice. Our favorite depression-cost activity cam, the $160 Sjcam SJ6 Legend, doesn't shatter the $100 bulwark like the L1, but its affect interface and effective digital stabilization system are worth the actress money.