Test Diving the AKASO Brave 4 Action Camera

I just bought a budget action camera to take paddle boarding and snorkeling with the kids and am really enjoying testing it to it’s limits…

Check out my first swim with it on YouTube here:

Diving with AKASO Brave 4 and a Barracuda

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The AKASO Brave 4 comes complete with a large range of accessories to go underwater up to 30m, and to attach it to full face snorkels, handle bars, helmets and car dashboards. My gorilla tripod snuck into this pic but it’s not included with the camera kit, but the kit does include an attachment that fits a standard tripod fitting when both in and out of the waterproof housing. Good to know! One thing it DOESN’T come with is a harness or strap to wear it whilst swimming and a float which are useful, although after constructing our own body harness to swim with using paracord and a large fishing float we discovered the the camera in it’s waterproof case actually floats on it’s own. One final thing you’ll need to buy separately is a memory card. I put a 64GB card in and tend to reformat every time I’ve backed it up so no problems there.

 

REVIEW:

The Brave 4 is recommended by many tech review sites as one of the best value Go Pro alternatives and I have to agree.

Currently retailing for £70-80 on Amazon, compared to a Go Pro Hero 7, a really popular action camera, retailing at £260-360, but does not include accessories.

It really depends what you’re looking for. I hear the handlebar accessory for the AKASO which is included free in the kit breaks easily with hard mountain biking use, but you can always buy a Go Pro one which should fit the AKASO and take a few more knocks. I haven’t tried it myself so check before you buy…

Check AKASO Brave 4 prices – Amazon UK

Check Go Pro Hero 7 prices – Amazon UK

It is not the cheapest of the cheap cameras, but likewise does not shoot using fish-eye (though some above water photos and videos look a tiny bit curved, this doesnt’ seem to be a problem shooting underwater), I did not have to adjust or enhance any photo or video I’ve take so far.

You can get the next AKASO up in price-range (EK7000 Pro) which has touch screen but as I’m mainly using it for underwater in it’s housing for me there was really no point. And it’s still shoots at 60fps in 4k, with built in stabilisation and a choice of lens width including wide angle (170). I shot my first movie above in 110. It also comes with a wrist band remote control, but this is not suitable for underwater. You can however connect to your phone with WiFi and have someone controlling the camera from somewhere dry.

The only downside for me is the sound quality is not very good, and there is no way of adding an external mic… However, if you are into your video editing you can always record audio separately and add it in afterwards, or simply add some rad tunes over your footage instead, as let’s face it, who wants to hear someone talking whilst they’re doing extreme sports? Unless they’re screaming, which is always entertaining (as long as they’re not badly injured), and the AKASO will pick up a good scream no problem.

Using the 5x zoom for photos…
Best in clear waters.
Good in strong lighting.
Captures colour underwater quite well.