In this post, we will be going over our Apeman A80 review and sharing our opinion on this effective cheap GoPro alternative that is quickly gaining in popularity amongst adventure seekers due to its low price tag, reliability, ease of use, and decent quality.
All of this has helped the Apeman A80 to quickly earn itself an excellent reputation within both the adventure sports community as well as the photography community. If the last twelve months are anything to go by then we can only see the A80 increasing in popularity and becoming more and more popular as time goes on.
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Table of Contents
What’s In The Box
As with most new toys, people always want to know what’s actually in the box. We were actually surprised by what is included with the Apeman A80 as standard considering how cheap the camera is.
This is the full contents of the box as shipped to you:-
- Apeman A80 action camera
- A storage bag for your A80 and all of its accessories
- A waterproof storage case
- A bike handlebar attachment
- A helmet attachment
- 2 x batteries
- 3 x plastic base plates
- A USB cable
- User manual
- Various ribbons, adhesives, supports and ropes
Our Apeman A80 Camera Review
Getting on with our Apeman A80 4k camera review, we would initially like to start by how impressed we are with all of the features contained within this small action cam for its small price. At the time of writing the Apeman A80 (Click here to check for product prices and availability) is around one-fifth of the price of the latest GoPro Hero (Click here to check for product prices and availability). That said, we will be doing a more in-depth comparison of these two action cameras later in the article.
The Basics
The case of the Apeman A80 is made out of a high-quality robust plastic to prevent it from breaking easily while you are recording your extreme sport of choice. The orange button on the front of the camera by the lens is both the power button to turn the camera on and off as well as the mode button to switch the camera between its built-in modes.
On the top of the camera, you have the “ok button” to allow you to select options that also serves as the recording button when wanting to take a photograph or begin recording a video with the A80. On the back of the camera you have the two inch LCD screen and on the left-hand side of the camera, you have the charging port, its HDMI port, the microphone, and its SD memory card slot.
As there is no SD memory card included we would recommend that you order a high-quality class 10 SD card (Click here to check for product prices and availability) to use with the camera. If you are planning to just take photographs with your action camera then you can get away with an SD card of any size but if you are wanting to record in 4K or 1080p we would recommend that you get a card that is at least 64GB.
On the right-hand side of the camera, you have two buttons, an up button and a down button for navigation the various options of the camera as well as its zoom in and out functionality. Finally, on the bottom of the camera, you have its battery housing that secures the battery in place to power the full unit.
Excellent Photo And Video Recording Options
The Apeman A80 boasts an incredibly wide range of photo capture options with 20MP, 16MP, 12MP, and 10MP being its best-suited options with 8MP, 5MP, and 3MP also being fully supported. When it comes to video it is able to record 4k footage at 24 frames per second for up to ninety minutes with a fully charged battery as well as 1080p for up to one hundred and twenty minutes.
A Professional Wide Angle Lens Backed Up By A High-Quality Sony Sensor
The A80 comes with a wide-angle lens as standard to make it easier to capture photographs of the breathtaking landscapes you can see while out on your adventures. It supports visual angles of 170°, 140°, 110°, and 70°.
Although we were unable to find the specifics of the sensor in the A80, it has been confirmed that it is manufactured by Sony. As you can see from the reviews of the Apeman A80 left by third-party, independent users of the product, it does capture some breathtaking photographs.
High-Quality Bright 2 Inch Full Colour LCD Display Screen
Although some of the higher price point action cameras from various competitors still don’t offer a built-in LCD screen, the Apeman A80 has jumped the curve and included a basic yet effective screen. Its display screen is clear, sharp and easy to see in low-light but can flare up in direct bright light making it a little harder to see. It offers you a quick and easy way to check what you are actually recording while doing your sport of choice without needing to worry you are missing a moment.
Whats The Audio Like
The audio recording via the build in microphone really is hit and miss, unfortunately. In wide open spaces, even with background noise, it tends to be better sounding bright while in confined spaces the audio can sound dull and boring even if it is totally free from background noise.
If you are outdoors and there is any wind, the microphone on the A80 will pick it up and let it dominate the audio of your recording. This can be either a good or a bad thing. For example, if you are racing down the side on a mountain on a snowboard you may want it to record the wind to give a feeling of how fast you are going. On the flip side, if you are recording you rock climbing with friends and you want to record the conversation it can be a problem.
If you are wanting to reduce the amount of wind noise the mic on the A80 picks up then you are able to pick up a mic muffler (Click here to check for product prices and availability) relatively cheap and attaching it over your microphone. This will reduce the sound of the wind while also allowing you to record conversations. Alternatively, if you are doing an activity like snowboarding, you can just apply a music track during post production and remove the recorded track full of wind noise.
Take Advantage Of Time-Lapse And Selfie Modes
The built-in time-lapse option also allows you to capture some unique time-lapses of your locations when out exploring. You are able to set the A80’s time-lapse feature to take a snap every 100ms, 200ms, 500ms, 1 Second or 5 Seconds. There is also a built-in burst photo option as well as a selfie timer option that you can set to snap a photograph after either two seconds, five seconds or ten seconds. This gives you plenty of time to set the A80 up on the selfie setting then run around to easily get in the photograph you are wanting to take.
If you are planning on taking a whole bunch of selfies with the Apeman A80 then it may be worth looking into getting the official Apeman Selfie Stick (Click here to check for product prices and availability) as it is cheap and allows for quick and easy selfies.
Perfect For Water Sports
If water sports are your thing then the Apeman A80 offers a fully waterproof capability down to forty meters with the waterproof case that comes as standard with your A80. The first few rounds of the A80’s boxes had a typo that stated the camera was only waterproof down to thirty meters but this has since been corrected. We just wanted to make you aware of this in case your box says the camera is only waterproof down to thirty meters.
Additionally, the Apeman Floating Hand (Click here to check for product prices and availability) is much cheaper than those of competing brands. Not only does using the floating hand make your Apeman A80 float if you drop it in water so it is easy to find, it also allows you a firm grip to get a more stable photo or video while doing your sport of choice. If diving is your sport then you are able to use a lanyard or wrist strap with the floating hand to keep your A80 near you if it comes out of your hand while under water too.
Image And Video Stabilization Technology
The Apeman A80 includes what they are calling “smart gyroscope technology”. This is their version image stabilization that is surprisingly effective for the price of the camera. It helps to improve the sharpness of your photographs taken with the A80 while also helping to smooth our your video footage removing the need to touch it up in post-production.
If you do choose to pick up an A80 then we would recommend you mess around with some test videos both with and without the built-in image stabilization so you are able to see the difference. You will be shocked at its performance.
Battery Life
The A80 comes with two 3.7V Li-ion Battery 1050 mAh included as standard. If you are only using your A80 for photographs then a fully charged battery will last you around eight hours. If you are recording in 4k then a fully charged battery will last around ninety minutes and if you are recording in 1080p for around one hundred and twenty minutes.
You are able to use the charging port on the side of the camera to charge the battery currently inside of it via a micro USB cable. If you are able to charge the camera in this way while out and about then you are able to continuously record in both 4K and 1080p without running the battery down at all.
There is no battery charger included with the A80 but you are able to pick the official apeman battery charger up for cheap (Click here to check for product prices and availability). This official apeman battery charger is able to charge both batteries at the same time and it will take them from empty to fully charged in around three hours.
Apeman A80 Action Cam 4k Test Footage
We wanted to show some test footage in with our Apeman A80 Review. The video below shows some test footage while biking with the Apeman A80. Keep in mind that these are overcast conditions with relatively low light but it still does a good job of showing the capability of the camera.
Apeman A80 vs GoPro
In our opinion, the Apeman A80 is currently the best cheap GoPro alternative action camera on the market right now. Our comparison table above shows the differences between both the Apeman A80 and the GoPro Hero 6 Black, their current flagship model at the time of writing.
Although they may look close on paper, in reality, the GoPros higher-quality build and performance beat the Apeman A80 at almost everything. The question is, does it beat the Apeman A80 by at least five times to justify it being five times more expensive? In our opinion, this depends on you and your requirements.
If you are on a budget or an entry-level extreme sports enthusiast then the Apeman A80 offers you plenty of functionality while not breaking the bank. If you are an advanced extreme sports enthusiast or you are vlogging your extreme sports experiences to an establish YouTube following and you can afford it then the GoPro Hero 6 Black (Click here to check for product prices and availability) should be your action camera of choice.
It’s photographs, video, and audio all beat that of the Apeman A80 while also being a more robust camera but in our honest opinion, we do not think that the GoPro Hero 6 Black is worth five times the cost of the Apeman A80.
The Apeman A80 App
Finally, on our Apeman A80 action camera review, we just wanted to mention the smartphone app you are able to use. The Apeman app allows you to take control of your A80 in real time via wi-fi to see what it is capturing. That said, we saw little to no reason to use the app for this as most people will be focusing on enjoying their extreme sport rather than watching their camera footage on their phone.
There are also various computer programs available that you can connect to your camera via HDMI or Micro USB to tweak settings and do various other tasks with it.
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