Xdreme Camera Review
Sunday, July 15, 2012 at 9:42PM 
Does the Xdreme (Blue) improve upon the Crocolis (Red)?I'm trying to catch up on my reviews at the moment, so if in my rush I've forgotten to include something in this video, let me know and I'll try and cover it up in a future mop-up video when I've got sufficient time.
One thing that I did intend to mention was the size of video files created by this camera. People with good math skills can probably work it out from the video bitrates, but for the rest of us I can confirm that in my tests 15min at 1920x1080 30fps took up 970MB of space.
One thing I know that I didn't test is motion activation. I know that some people are interested in this feature, but I really can't figure out how to demonstrate it in a meaningful way. Clearly, when the camera in this mode if I wave my hand in front of the lens it starts recording...but is that all people really want to know, because it all seems rather rudimentary to me. Let me know.
If you want to download a few short samples of clips from the camera Here is a folder on dumptruck
I am trying out affiliated links, so here is my link to the Xdreme camera on Chinavasion. Remember though that in the UK, you will likely get stung with customs and 'handling' fees when you import from China, so factor that into your budget.
Reader Comments (84)
Thanks for that. I was hoping you would get round to this one. After breaking my jumbo 808 I was in desperate need of a new one and ordered the xdreme camera.
Luckily your review shows I won't have wasted my money. Just waiting for its arrival. :-)
Thank you! Excellent review - not often is a single review enough to purchase an item, but this covered all my questions! I will be going with this one.
Excellent review as allways! Do you have a cat? Maybe that's a nice subject for the motion detection functionality. You could point the camera at a place the cat frequently visits for a day, see what he's up to while you're at work. :-)
I've got a question about the automatic image orientation: does it level the video like a leveler (ie is it level to the horizon), or does it just turn the image at 90 degrees steps?
Owh, and another question: Could you use it as a we.... ;-) just kidding...
@Gerrelt I don't have a cat, but it was a sound idea. The orientation sensor just flips the video the other way up (180°).
Thanks for the review! Ordered the Xdreme HD two weeks ago. Looks like a good purchase to me now!
SOLD...! :)
Thanks for the review...
Splendid review, as usual.
I managed to wreck my Crocolis by somersaulting a motorbike on top of it.
It still records but is cosmetically challenged and structurally compromised.
This looks like an excellent replacement for when I'm suitably recovered.
Thanks
I could not find any specifications as to how deep you can take this camera into the water. I asked Chinavasion, too, and they said they don't know. Have you any idea how waterproof this camera is?
Thanks for the review!
Techmoan, thank you very much, great review as usual. I was expecting a higher bitrate on this one. The footage looks really good, I want to buy it but there is one thing. For the color correction work we need like 2 or 3 times as much bitrate than it gives now, or the footage breaks apart at color correction. Can you talk the guys at Crocolis into releasing a firmware that gives an "extreme" quality setting, which gives higher bitrate? Manually adjusting shutter speed and/or an exposure lock would be nice too:) Gopro claims to release a firmware update called "protune", which adds a new recording bitrate of 35Mbps. The guys at Crocolis need to catch up :)
As i sad on YouTube its an excelent review of a camera that solves a lot of issues and is the video that got me most excited i was in year,i was like a kid in a candy shop.Anywayu :) ... As another fellow blog viewer said,you could use a cat or any kind of big animal for motion detection so we can also HOW FAR or better said CLOSE action has to be to trigger it.Another thing is that you could get the camera facing forward clamping using the handlebar mount either on handlebar by holding in place that rubber or foam piece with zip ties either on bikes forks.Beside that i can't point another lack in the video.Again thanks for this and the rest great review.I'm pretty sure im not mistakeing when i say you had found the second call.If you ask me,you're one of the best reviewers if not video uploaders on youtube.
mic solution?:
http://www.openobject.org/objectsinflux/images/bat%20detector/modded%20plug.jpg
And using ultrasmall wires like these:
https://www.flyandspin.nl/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/u/w/uwx.jpg
Probably no problem with closing the display. Other end fitted with a contraplug. Just some tape around the new connection, and i think it will be watertight enough for rain. And still have good sound quality!
Pity the camera is so expencive... Otherwise i would have tried it myself.
Great review Techmoan.
You did rather complain that the camera was making the shot too dark, but in reality he had lots of sky in the shot and the camera was simply adjusting the overall exposure to give the best result. No clever spot metering or centre weighting here.
You also said the camera took a long time to adjust its iris to the changing lighting conditions, but I'd be very surprised to learn it had something as expensive as an iris on board. I'm betting its the same as the Extreme cam in that exposure is controlled by adjusting the ISO value and the shutter speed per frame.
You're right to say the front element is a piece of flat plastic (so that the cam shoots sharp footage under water) but the new design stops you using the top off a WD40 can as a push-on lens cap. About the only thing missing from that box of bits 'n' pieces.
tom.
Another cracking review - how did you manage to find enough dry days to get the footage ;-)
Grahamk998 Are you for real? I heared something to the effect that UK only got 1 Sunday a year but is this for real? Its such a struggle to find at least no rainy days?
How's the sound quality? is it so much better? And the mountings did it jump off?
Pinoy,off course it didn't jump off :| And yeah,sound its not so much better,its perfect.Check out the video and you'll find out.Its an awsome video and a briliant review.
I've got one of these, here is a video I took from my bicycle.
http://youtu.be/YZfYE-diHfg
and a comparison video taken with another (1080p) camera, on the same circuit, same time of day just another day.
http://youtu.be/4Vg0FEZz59Q
I didn't use the included bicycle mount because it was kinda heavy and made the camera stick out too far for my liking, I used a custom modified mount I made myself.
I'm thinking about buying one, but I'm not sure. How deep can it be under the water (recording, of course)? Can you hide all the info ( date, hour, ...)?
I hope someone help me.
Jose SJD
Jose SJD Its in IP 68, about what can find more about here " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_Code " .For what 6 and 8 from IP 68 mean check the table.You'll find 8 mean its waterproof over 1 m however it can meen something else too.At other producs i saw IP 68 up to 3 m though it depands on the materials used,what water preasure they can stand at but i think 3 m its preety safe,though it wont be suiteable for open water sea or ocean diving cuz you usually dive more than that.Limit its probably the coral reaf is at few meters.If you dare you can go up to 5m and after like 30 m if nothing happens let us know :P Or wich the limit is ,more or less then like 3 m :P
I wanna mean 30 minutes not meters :)
Tom, About the iris thing - I'm no expert in cameras - I'm just an end user, so I'm probably using the wrong phrase, by using human words to describe electronics. I thought there was such a thing as an electronic iris that controlled the light, if not then I'll have to adjust the way I describe how rapidly cameras can react to light in future videos.
The reason I thought the footage was dark, was because when I put the Crocolis camera in the same mount the footage wasn't as dark - so something is amiss. If I hadn't mentioned it then some clown would then accuse me of being too uncritical and being in Chinavasion's pocket- it's impossible to win, or even lose gracefully in these situations. Maybe I should avoid cameras for a bit.
Hi. Back again.
As a further comment from my top one, I have received the camera now and used it a bit and can only say that I'm pleased with the video results. But, as far as sound goes its rubbish.
I am now going to get another 808 camera and modify it to accept an external microphone as I did with the last one I had (which I accidently buggered up by trying to fix the car charger and subsequently fried the battery somehow).
I tried different decent microphones but they all were too distorted. I also taped over the hole for the internal microphone but it was not good either. I usually use an external mic situated under the seat towards the rear of my bike and it worked fine on my modified (external mic jack socket & fish-eye lens) 808 keyfob cam.
The exdreme cam seems to be set far too sensitive for sound.
Dear TECHMOAN, if you're in touch with the manufacturers can you see if its possible to flash the sytem so as to make it less sensitive to sound.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2FfazZBm1s
Link above is an old vid from the 808 keyfob cam. I'll post one below somewhere for the exdreme cam when I've uploaded it.
Cheers.
Hi Techmoan, I know what you mean when you say you can't win or even lose gracefully; I write the technical articles for Film and Video Maker mag and I'm very aware that there's far more tekky people out there than I will ever be and I'm picked up on the tiniest things. But don't stop reviewing cameras the way you do - I find them excellent.
No, no such thing as an electronic iris or electronic ND filters. The exposure is controlled in the simplest possible way, by having an ISO and shutter speed combination that lets in the 'right' amount of light. Easily checked by using the cam for taking stills in all sorts of lighting conditions and viewing the meta-data on each frame.
All cameras are set up slightly differently as regards exposure, so I didn't see that underexposed road shot as anything you'd done wrong or differently.
tom.
Re: my previous comment.
Vid for xdreme cam:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTaSemqmIpM
I didn't plan to buy such thing until I find your excellent review. I watched every pieces about cams at one (long) night, so now I've got my own Xdreme camera, and I'm very happy with it.
I'm actually testing all of the functions, using like car cam, and I will use it on my RC glider. Also have a plan to make video with auto capture feature.
I will check your site time to time for new reviews.
Modified sound exdreme camera
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlcUjNUS4fI
Thanks for a brilliant review. Your videos are very informative and funny.
Keep up the good job. I really appreciate your videos.
I bought the Exdreme camera from Chinavasion and I'm positive so far...
BUT there is one thing the guys forgot in the menus:
The DELETE option. One cannot delete a movie or photo. It gas to be done from a PC/Mac.
I give the camera a very high rating and recommend buying it :-)
I have been deleting videos from this camera. Press the menu button to get to the video file context, here you should see thumbnails of your videos, hit the record button to bring up the delete option. Same goes for the photos.
Hi
Thanks for the review.
I purchased this camera after seeing the review on the Crocilis camera, and going to Chinavasion's website, I noticed that this was the successor to that camera. I have to say I'm quite pleased with the camera so far, and I've shot a ton of footage on it. As an experiment, I shot footage in every different resolution, and dropped them into a Final Cut X editor, which handled all of it with no problems.
As far as the waterproofness of the camera, I used mine in a rather large aquarium at a local museum, and it is waterproof at 2 meters. One note though, it is positively buoyant, so unless you attach some type of weight to it, the camera will float. I ended up using a piece of PVC pipe attached to the right angle mount which came with the camera so I could steer it to where the fish were. It does well underwater, and the audio is actually quite acceptable, you can hear all kinds of fishy noises.
Due to the fixed lens, the camera does not focus really closely, but that's to be expected, the only time we noticed was when a fish got right up into the lens. Other than that, it's quite amazing video, especially for an inexpensive camera.
I've tried out the motion detection, and in full HD, it can detect a cat switching it's tail at 4 meters. I've not gone much further than that with it, but it does seem to work well. It also detected a piece of paper waving when the air conditioning came on.
Overall, I'm quite impressed with the camera, and despite the complaints about the audio with the back closed, I've been able to use the audio that I did get for synch audio for editing purposes, we almost always record audio on another dedicated audio machine, or another camera which is set up for external audio.
Oz:
You're right. It is possible to delete files.
Thanks for correcting me :)
Could someone please tell me how to order one of these cameras and where?
John. Click the link in the review to order one from Chinavasion. There are other sellers on eBay too.
let me know who makes something that has all the features of the GC100 Inou but is why cheaper ^_^
ie: GPS
GC100 Inou http://www.shopcateye.com/products.php?product=GC100-Inou
Thenk You TechNo
Wesley
Reply to me at my youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/wetwetweze
1) how much customs and 'handling' fees ?
2) can timestamp be removed?
1) I didn't pay any because it was a free review sample. I'd budget approx £30.
2) The timestamp can be turned on or off.
1) Here in greece also pay import tax? I have received many ebay items from china and havent paid any taxes. Is this any different and why?
2) which option disables timestamp?
I don't know about the rules for Greece.
The option is just like any of the other menu options...nothing special.
I saw the menu in your video but didnt quite get how to remove the timestamp
ok now i saw it :)
how do you compare this cam to the Liquid Image EGO in terms of quality of video?
I've just got the Xdreme out to check. The menu is called "Time Stamp" and the options available are Off, Date, Time, Date/Time. This selects what is displayed on screen.
I haven't really compared the Ego and Xdreme side by side. I may try to do that tomorrow. I already suspect that the Ego is better. The footage that I've taken so far looks more vibrant.
yes the sample video of the ego is very nice with a bit over the top saturated colors
as i saw the xdreme also has a saturation option which can be boosted
the xdreme seems to be wider both at 1080 and of course at 720
has nice fps options (60,30,25)
has built in monitor and waterproof as you buy it
has plenty of mounting options
I believe its best at 1440x1080 (from your samples)
the ego has NICE fov option (as gopro) just missing the 170 angle
has built in wifi
has default vibrant colors
if we ignore the default saturation i would love to see a comparison of the codecs - compression and how they handle
sadly no raw files from bike from xdreme, only youtube
the raw file on bike from ego is quite good
if you do a comparison please use the 1440 resolution in xdreme if it indeed is better as i saw on your RAW samples
and of course remove the timestamp
please offer the raw samples as youtube at 720 is trash
the biggest complaint for xdreme is having it ugly open to record good sound and only with the external mic
it should at least offer a waterproof mic OR a waterproof socket outside of the door
and the software of the xdreme is hugely missing a fov option as the gopro and the ego
there are times where 140 and 170 degrees is tooooooooooo wide. a central crop of the 5mp sensor is essensial to offer a narrower angle of view
Hi Tachmoan,
Based on your review, I bought 4 of these Xdreme Cams. Video recording (1920 x 1080 @ 30fps) is great with good colour representation. Sound is not important and thus I cannot comment on the quality.
One question that I have is related to playback from the camera through to a HD TV. If I record a clip in 1440 x 1080 @ 30 fps (1080p mode) and then play back the clip on a full HD TV using the HDMI cable, then the TV reports that the clip is received by the TV in 1080i mode as opposed to 1080p mode - is this perhaps a limitation of the camera in that the signal from the calera to the TV is not the same as the mode in which the clip was recorded. I have found that when I export the files to my MAC, then the file properties are corectly reported.
Thanks again for a great review.
So,
I´ve been testing the camera for a while now.
After using it for a few times, the locking mechanism broke.
It took a very long time to get some help from Chinavasion. At the beginning, they didn´t seem to understand the issue.
Of course they got a lot of images, so finaly when getting connected to the right person, the agreed to send me new spare parts.
I had to pay for the freight. When receiving the spare parts, i found out, that the new locking mechanism was even tighter than "the old one". Therefore I modified it slightly - not pressing the door so much.
Allthouh, I don´t think, it will last very long - unfortunately.
You can see an imageof the broken part here:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-6ouSR19oUwo/UFBXKTL1MoI/AAAAAAAAAW8/d2-tTbF2tjs/s800/IMG_3909_1024x768.JPG
After using the camera in Noway for some days on slightli bumpy roads, I experienced, that the camera constantly turned off.
I switched the SD-Card and even the battery but still the same problem.
Considering the price and eventually tax, I think that the camera i a complete waste.
The next camera is definately not going to be from Chinavasion.
I hope, you understand my odd English :)
BTW: You can buy NP-120 2200mAh batteries for the Xdreme from suntekstore.com at a very low price
Hi jenshenrik
I've had exactly the same problems as you, but I couldn't even get them to send me a spare locking clip. I've just sent the camera back today. I believe the problem with switching off is dues to a faulty battery. If you have more than one, experiment to see if you can isolate a single battery. I tried different memory cards and factory resetting, but it seemed to be only a problem with a specific battery. I could be wrong but that's my guesstimate. I hope hope everything works out for the both of us.
Oz
Hi Oz and thank's for confirming the issue.
I really look forward to read, what Chinavasion will do for you.
My problem might be, that the Danish custom will claim another 40 £ import tax, when sending the camera to Chinavasion...
As I see, the distance from the back of the clip to the pin is 0,5 -1mm too short.
You can hear the "S*M*A*C*K in Techmoans brilliant review. It should rather be the sound of a nice "click"...
Threfore it would be great, if they manufacture and sell som improved spare clips.
I'm sure, they'll get a lot complains/warranty issues.
Dear Techmoan: Perhaps you could consider durability in your future tests?
Unfortunately the process of testing something and then moving on to the next means that I never get the opportunity to test anything over an extended period of time. I only get to hear about problems like these from the comments. A similar thing happened with the V1000gs. It has put me off recommending anything....so for a while now whenever people have asked me to suggest a camera (I get about 20 emails a week like this) I'm now replying by saying that I do the reviews, but ultimately the choice of what to buy is down to the individual. There is a very good chance that everything I review will break with a few days of real world use.
Does the lens only have that fisheye effect, and does anyone know if one could replace the lens with another brand?
It's a VERY nice looking camera, filming-wise, and the added bonus of it looking like a toy is all the better; to deter common thieves, possibly. :p
And for the price too! At the moment, it's about 130 USD, not including the shipping costs which would be more. But still, a better deal than the gopro.
The lens is not removable. The wide angle is a feature that's pretty much standard on action cameras. You'll have to look at non-action cameras for a standard lens.