YI 4K+ - Review 2022 - Gardner Coccove

YI made waves with its depression-cost 4K Action Camera, a $250 model that's right up at that place with pricier GoPros in terms of features and video quality. Its follow-up, the $339.98 4K+, is almost as pricey as the GoPro Hero5 Black, but does something the Black can't do—record 4K video at 60fps. It doesn't support 24fps recording, a must-accept for capturing video with a cinematic wait, and it isn't waterproof without a instance, two qualities you get with the Hero5 Black. If 60fps capture at the highest possible resolution is what y'all're later, the 4K+ is a solid purchase, merely it's non quite plenty to oust the Hero5 from its spot every bit our Editors' Choice for activity cameras.

Design

The YI 4K+ is pocket-sized, at just one.2 by two.6 past 1.seven inches (HWD), and light at 3.iv ounces. It has an ultra-wide fixed focus lens, a USB-C port for charging and accessories, and a standard tripod socket on the lesser. It works with microSD memory cards and is available in black but.

The camera itself isn't water resistant, but YI includes a plastic example that'due south rated for apply at depths of 132 feet. I wasn't able to take it down that far, simply I did submerge the encased camera in some water and it was perfectly dry out when I later removed it. Like the camera, the example has a standard tripod socket in its foot.

Folks with a lot of GoPro accessories may exist turned off past the tripod socket pattern, but if you lot don't have a heavy investment in mounts and accessories, it'due south a big plus to be able to but mountain the camera to a traditional tripod. And it'southward also pretty easy to get an adapter to fit in the tripod socket to use existing GoPro mounts—so you become the best of both worlds.

At that place's merely one button, an oval on the top that can be used to control power, snap a photo, or start and stop a video recording. Everything else is washed via the rear touch on screen, a ii.ii-inch LCD that dominates the back. It packs in 691k dots for a crisp 330ppi resolution, is quite bright, fifty-fifty in the sun, and can exist viewed from an askew bending with ease.

I ran our standard action camera bombardment test on the YI. Recording at meridian quality, 4K 60fps, the photographic camera ran for 55 minutes, only then stopped recording—non considering it ran out of bombardment (it had about 25 percent power left), simply because of overheating. Extended recording similar this isn't the typical use case for an action cam, only if yous practise programme on using huge memory cards to roll footage, be aware that you'll need to keep the camera absurd, or requite it a remainder every hr or then.

You can expect near 73 minutes of video on a single bombardment charge when rolling at 4K 60fps. That's right in line wth YI's published judge of 71 minutes. If you need to go longer, you'll need a big memory card, and yous'll need to power the 4K+ via USB-C. Information technology can draw power from an outlet or external battery pack when recording. Lower resolutions aren't as demanding on the battery or processor, then you tin look longer runtimes—YI states you tin can scroll 4K footage for 109 minutes at 30fps, while opting for 2.7K or 1080p capture extends that to about 2 hours.

Companion App

YI 4K+ : App The 4K+ sports congenital-in Wi-Fi, and works with gratis YI Action app (for Android and iOS) for wireless file transfer and remote command. Information technology'southward relatively easy to connect—the camera broadcasts an SSID indicate and you lot just demand to connect to it with your smartphone; the default password is 1234567890. Once the connection is established, you lot can jump into the app to have control of the 4K+. Bluetooth is available, so you lot can control the camera with a selfie stick, a $46 accessory.

Y'all don't have to use the app—the YI isn't like an old action cam without a big screen. If you want to just conform settings yous can easily practice then from the bear on LCD. Just the app makes the options bigger and easier to encounter. All of the video resolution and frame rate options are on ane page, for example, where yous need to change the resolution on one screen and ready the frame rate on another when using the camera'south interface. If you frequently tweak settings, the app is worth your time to install. And, of course, information technology'southward a solid choice for travelers to use to transfer images or video to a phone or tablet for social sharing on the become.

The app likewise includes bones image editing tools, including typical Instagram-fashion filters and a more flashy AI Art filter gallery. It can give your images the look of dissimilar painting and art styles, like to the Prisma app that was all the rage last year.

Video and Image Quality

YI 4K+ : Chart The 4K+ records in 4K, but also a lot of other resolutions. You can check out the full latitude of options in the nautical chart to the right. Basically, you've got lx or 30fps when the photographic camera is set to NTSC mode, or fifty or 25fps when set to PAL. There'south no option for cinema-style 24fps—shooting at 25fps gets you close to that expect, only won't lucifer up with footage shot with other cameras that scroll at 24fps.

In that location are faster frame rates, up to 120fps, and narrower fields of view at 1080p. And if yous drop down to 720p HD or 480p standard definition, you can creepo the frame charge per unit to 240fps. For whatever of these options you lot'll demand to slow down video yourself using editing software. In-photographic camera slow motion is bachelor, but merely at 720p.

Video quality is very potent, especially at 4K, but footage isn't stabilized. If y'all're mounting the camera to a surfboard or car that'due south not a big deal, but it makes handheld footage look a chip jittery. There's a two.7K option, ameliorate than Hard disk, merely not every bit crisp equally 4K, which includes a digital stabilization option. It does a adept job steadying video, but also adds an unnatural shimmering effect. Most editing software has some sort of stabilization tool, and YouTube will stabilize shaky video if you want it to. I recommend skipping the in-camera option due to the shimmery look.

Video quality can exist tweaked in photographic camera—you tin set up the quality level, choose between YI Color or a apartment color contour that'south more easily gradable, and set the corporeality of sharpening. If you only want crisp video out of the box, YI Color and medium sharpness is the mode to go, simply pros volition want to plow downwards the sharpening and use the flat contour.

Audio performance is solid for a photographic camera of this type. It picks up my voice loud and articulate on the soundtrack, and also does a practiced job gathering the ambient sounds of the forest and other environments. If yous're looking to cut out background noise or shooting in an environs where you need a acme-quality mic, you can connect an external one via a USB-C adapter.

YI promises to add live streaming support with a time to come firmware update. As of at present, it's not available. That's as well truthful of Raw epitome capture. YI'due south information page touts the feature, only it'south not yet implemented.

Instead you tin shoot in JPG format. Stills are captured at 12MP resolution, with your choice of the full wide-bending field of view or a corrected version that removes the fish-middle butt distortion. You tin can encounter the difference higher up.

Image quality is what you'd look from a point-and-shoot camera. The 4K+ uses a 1/2.three-inch sensor, the aforementioned size used in well-nigh pocket superzooms. Paradigm quality is a little bit improve than a smartphone. This is a video camera first, and while I'm happy to meet information technology capture stills, at that place are better tools bachelor for photography.

Still capabilities are leveraged in time-lapse capture. The 4K+ shoots images at a set interval and automatically puts them together in a 4K video file, or saves individual images for yous to put together yourself. It'southward a fun way to show progression of time, or to compress a long event into a very brusque duration. There'south likewise a combination way that records video and too creates a time-lapse simultaneously.

Other recording options include burst still mode and looping, which records a video with a capped elapsing—fix information technology to five minutes and record for 10 and you'll only salvage the last v minutes.

Conclusions

The farthermost sports crowd loves 60fps, and anybody loves 4K video—it packs 8MP of resolution into every frame, so video is a lot crisper than 1080p footage. That makes the YI 4K+ a compelling camera for anyone looking to capture action footage. But information technology falls curt in some other areas—it'due south not waterproof outside of its case like the GoPro Hero5 Black, nor is it every bit rugged. It's also missing 24fps video capture and Raw prototype support, although the latter is promised in a firmware update. Overall, the Hero5 Blackness is a slightly stronger performer, and remains our Editors' Choice.