For a while I’ve lusted after a GoPro – tiny little self-contained wide-angle HD video cameras which can be strapped to cars, bikes, helmets, all sorts of things. They’re the cameras used for programmes like Top Gear, or where they’re strapped to some bloke skydiving out of a plane to get a point-of-view film; fun stuff and with my impending projects involving music videos I could sort-of justify it.
The GoPro Hero 3HD though has got horrendous reviews: from heat issues to random reboots or even just resembling a very expensive brick (you just need to look at Amazon for a litany of woe), so I wasn’t going to fork out the thick end of £400 for the setup I’d like (including the waterproof case et al).
Anyway, a week ago I went to Focus On Imaging, the big pro-sumer photography show at Birmingham NEC. Among the stands exhibiting was a dealer who were selling the Jobo JIB4 action camera – essentially a GoPro clone – which piqued my curiosity. I spent a while discussing with the dealer and came away with one including waterproof case, a pile of mounts, extra battery booster, a remote control and a lens cloth for a penny shy of £200. Winner.
So what’s it like? Tiny and fun! It’ll do 50fps at 1080p PAL (and a higher framerate of 120fps at WXGA), 170-degree wide-angle, and on exploring the menu system I discovered it had a time-lapse feature which automatically welds sequential JPEGs together to output an MP4 movie: I can squish about an hour’s capture into just under two and a half minutes.
Experiment time! I’ve spent a couple of commutes from home to work (and back) tweaking but this morning I had the first day of decent weather across the M62. So then, here you go – Wrenthorpe to Salford in 4 minutes:
(Just in case you can’t see that, there’s a link to the YouTube video here)
I think I probably need to clamp it to the roof-rack in its waterproof case – that way I’m not having to wash the windscreen all the time; I don’t feel quite brave enough for that yet! More experiments to follow, no doubt…
March 11, 2013 at 5:05 pm
That was quite impressive. I’ve been meaning to get some sort of dash cam for some time – I’ve tried my little cannon camera on a stand but it’s not really a wide enough angle.
Anyway… you ended up only just over a mile from me; you should have called round for a cuppa!
April 23, 2013 at 2:32 pm
Jess
On the strength of your review of this JOBO camera I thought I’d buy one myself. Sadly I have failed miserably to make any headway at all with finding a UK supplier. In addition I’ve written directly to JOBO in Germany with no response.
I contacted Rodney Bates, Sales Director, Firstcall Photographic Limited who are listed as UK distributor who told me that they do not handle DIGITAL JOBO equipment. He then put me in touch with Matthias Garthe, Technical Product Manager at Jobo in Germany and as I said – no response. YET.
Can you tell me the details of the company that you purchased yours from at the NEC exhibition please?
Many thanks
Clive
http://evergreen.zenfolio.com/p873194147#h5a2e1c84
April 23, 2013 at 3:53 pm
Certainly feller, it was Minox – http://www.minox.co.uk 🙂