iSAW EXtreme Action Camera Review

1. Introduction2. Packaging3. iSAW EXtreme Action Camera (1)4. iSAW EXtreme Action Camera (2)5. Testing the iSAW EXtreme Action Camera (1)6. Testing the iSAW EXtreme Action Camera (2)7. Battery Life and Closing Thoughts8. View All Pages

Audio quality is generally quite reasonable however it is the weakest part of the EXtreme's performance. When you're moving outside the microphone picks up a load of wind noise.

These clips of piano show that audio quality indoors is borderline acceptable at 60 percent and horribly distorted at 100 percent.

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDZCPLWFiWw'] [yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHmgE3Sy0Xc']

As you will hear in the biking video when you are outdoors the microphone picks up a good deal of wind noise.

My instinct was to disable the buzzer setting as the beep that you get with every button press is bloody annoying. I quickly discovered that you need the buzzer to keep tabs on where you are in the settings so here's hoping that iSAW adds a volume option so you can reduce the level.

The Wi-Fi settings in the revised firmware are Off, APP for the iSAW Viewer app and RC to connect to a dedicated iSAW Remote Control accessory (price unknown) but you don't need this extra piece of hardware.

Instead you install the free iSAW Viewer app on your Android phone or iPhone. The next step is to enable Wi-Fi in both your phone and camera, then connect your phone to the iSAW in the phone's Wi-Fi settings using the default WPA2 security code of 12345678.

When you click the ‘connect' button in the iSAW Viewer the camera button controls are locked and control is passed to your phone. Your phone or tablet acts as a remote screen so you can see what the camera sees and can you choose to start and stop recording whenever you like, provided the camera is in range.

If you want to make any changes, such as the shooting mode, you need to make them in the camera before you pass control to the remote screen. At any rate that is the case for Android users who get the remote screen and Record/Stop buttons. The Apple iOS app appears to allow you to change settings from your phone.

Using the iSAW Viewer app can be very good indeed. Let's say you are the co-driver in a car with the EXtreme mounted on the dashboard, in which case you are able to start and stop the camera from your phone without any trouble as you will always be within Wi-Fi range. But what if you are a mechanic in the pit lane for a bike or car, or your mate is about to go up in a helicopter or plane?

You can check the camera is on and pointing in the correct direction and then start recording but as soon as the distance between Extreme cam and phone hits about 100 metres (I got 120 metres with direct line of sight) the Wi-Fi link will break.

The camera will continue recording but the app will do the spinning hourglass thing and when the camera returns within range the link will remain broken so you'll need to stop the camera manually.

The remaining settings cover mundane stuff such as NTSC/PAL and auto power off.

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-moR38ADShQ'] The two buttons on the front of the camera adjust digital zoom. Click the bottom button to open zoom mode then use the two buttons to step between x1, x2, x3 and maximum x4.

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwEBnPbqIiA'] To test the EXtreme in action I sent the lad out on his bike and the results were better than I expected. The quality of the video doesn't match a dedicated camcorder such as my Sony HDR-TG3E but that would be a ridiculous expectation for a device the size of an over-grown sugar cube.

The picture is sharp and clear and there was no visible motion blur. Colours look accurate and the wide angle lens does a decent job although there is a certain amount of fish eye distortion.

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