AKASO V50 Elite 4K/60fps Touch Screen WiFi Action Camera
AKASO V50 Elite 4K/60fps Touch Screen WiFi Action Camera Voice Control EIS 40m Waterproof Camera Adjustable View Angle 8X Zoom Remote Control Camera with Accessories Kit + 64GB microSD Memory Card
40M Underwater Camera
After wearing the including waterproof case, you can dive up to 40m/131ft to discover the amazing underwater world. The waterproof case can provide perfect protection from rocks, dust and scratches.
Wireless Remote Control
Put the remote control on your wrist and acquire ultra-convenient control for hiking, biking, skiing, bungee and more. Remote is not waterproof.
Built-in Wi-Fi Connection
2.4GHz Wi-Fi provides a seamless connection to your smartphone via the App to let you control this action camera from a distance. Download, play, and share the videos. Your creative possibilities are endless with the App.
8x Slow Motion Video
With ultra high frame rate 720P 240FPS video, you can slow things down by up to 8x to relive funny, interesting or epic moments in all their glory.
| Dimensions: | 27.2 x 10.7 x 6.9 centimetres |
| Brand: | AKASO |
| Model: | AKASO |
| Part: | AKASO |
| Colour: | Grey |
| Batteries Included: | 2 Lithium Polymer batteries required. (included) |
| Dimensions: | 27.2 x 10.7 x 6.9 centimetres |
I bought this camera before I went skiing for a bit of fun. The more expensive alternatives were just not an option, but this particular set looked good with plenty of good reviews.
As it isn’t the most expensive action camera, I wasn’t expecting the results I got. They were amazing! The 4k footage looked great on my camera while I was away and even better when I got home and downloaded the files to my PC. The files were conveniently split into 6 minutes segments so that I didn’t have to scroll too far to find the clip where a mate went flying down the slopes.
What also surprised me with this purchase was the wide selection of accessories included. There appeared to be everything you could wish for including 2 batteries! There are attachments and straps for all possibilities except a harness for chest mounting but I managed to get a ski helmet with an appropriate mount so that was no big loss.
Overall, an excellent purchase that I am very happy to recommend. I will certainly be taking it with me on my future zip wire flight in North Wales and any future adventures.
Great little camera. Used it for first time at our CQB airsoft gameday. Once I figured out the remote functions via the included wrist remote it was quite simple to start and stop recording during gameplay. I have only used it on the 1080, 120fps with low light feature active and it produced some very nice footage. I was also able to review and delete the footage via my mobile phone which was great and allowed me to clear unwanted footage during the day to make space for better shots. I bought a 128gb high speed micro sd card which works well and allows for a lot more footage at the higher resolution settings. Great piece of kit.
-Getting started-
As this was my first action camera, I wasn’t 100% sure on what the best setup was. Luckily, the camera arrived with enough instructions to help me through the process. It is pretty much ready to go but I did have to turn on a few settings such as image stabilation and wind noise reduction. I also found that there were some things that weren’t explained very well such as how to remove the protective casing or what each mount was used for. Neverthless, a bit of googling and I was ready to go.
I struggled to find any advice on the best SD card to use. I did see someone mention a specific one on an Akaso forum but that was no longer available so again, a bit of googling, and I found the correct speed/size.
-Functionality-
Overall, the Akaso is clearly capable in lots of scenarios. There is a range of image resolutions to choose from (4K 60FPS to 720 60FPS) and it’s definitely worth experimenting with these. There are options for changing the video encoding, recording loops, fast motion settings, angles and more. Having so much control over the image (white balance, exposure, watermark date/time) was useful but I did find that the settings didn’t always hold e.g. I set the date and time to overlay the image but none of my videos had this.
One of the most useful settings is the WiFi. This allowed me to transfer videos over to my phone via the Akaso GO app and free up space on my SD card. The process was quite clunky (but I think this is down to the app) and it takes a long time but considering I only took one 64GB card with us, this helped a lot. To put some perspective on it, to transfer an 8-minute video took about 15 minutes. Not sure why!
It’s also worth noting that the battery life isn’t fantastic. A full day of recording (up to about an hour’s worth) seem to wipe out my battery life and thats with the auto power off setting turned on. Akaso do include a second battery though so it’s worth taking a second if you plan to do a long day.
-Image and sound quality-
The V50 Elite had fantastic quality. Initially, I was shooting in 4K 60FPS but I found that this just took up too much space on the SD card too quickly so I knocked it down to 2.7K 30FPS and on a 64GB card, I could get around 1hr45 of videos. In hindsight, I wish I had taken more SD cards as Akaso doesn’t recommend putting in anything above a 64GB card. The image was crisp and sharp, there was no pixelation and I couldn’t be happier with this. I would recommend playing with the different options. I regret not opting in for 60FPS as the skiing may have looked a little smoother.
Sound quality was a bit of a let down. It isn’t terrible (and from what I have read, is a massive improvement on previous models) but the camera struggles to pick up voices (I had it mounted on my chest) and it comes out very tinny. I have also read that there is an external mic available so if sound is something that is more important for you, maybe consider that also.
-Overall-
The V50 Elite was a great option for me as it was my first action camera. It was a quarter of the cost of the flagship cameras but you wouldn’t know that based on the premium image output. Sure, there are some things left to be desired in terms of file transfer, sound and battery life but these things still worked well enough and allowed us to capture some life memories.
FYI – I’ve attached a small clip of some footage. It’s worth noting that the editing software I used may have knocked the quality down to 1080p so keep in mind that the raw footage is actually a little sharper. Sound is the same though!
There was a problem with the waterproof housing supplied with my camera so I contacted Akaso who supplied a replacement very quickly with no quibbles, excellent customer service!
The camera is supplied with two batteries, which you’ll need if you intend recording in 4K mode. I found the camera got quite warm recording in 4K and the cells ran down fairly quickly; I got a little over an hour’s recording time from the two batteries. I saw a review somewhere that said you lose the camera’s date/time settings when you change the battery and I can conform this. If you have a fully charged cell ready to insert straight away everything is fine, but if not the settings will have reverted to default by the time you’ve recharged your batteries. This is a bit of a pain, but it’s liveable with considering the price of the camera.
The downloadable Akaso DV app gives a live view and control via a WiFi connection. I found this worked perfectly, but you have turn off your mobile data while using it. The remote control wrist strap operates via Bluetooth and works really well (limited range of course, I found it worked up to about 5 metres). However I found the claim the camera can be voice operated to be somewhat hit and miss. I got the camera to start recording video with a voice command, but couldn’t make it stop and when told to to take stills the camera simply refused to operate at all. This isn’t a major issue for me, but if voice control is important to you it might be worth looking elsewhere.
The camera itself is compact and operates in various video and still frame modes. Unfortunately you can’t change many of the settings when the camera is enclosed in the waterproof housing. That said I’m not sure how often you’d want to change the video or photo quality settings once you’d secured the camera in the housing, but you might want to adjust things like ISO or Scene settings. I like the fact you can change the camera’s viewing angle and zoom settings as this makes it quite versatile.
Some of the things I really like: a choice of two frame rates for 4k and 2.7k, up to 120fps in 1080p, and up to an amazing 240fps in 720p so a huge choice of video quality. Recording in 1080p and below increases the battery life considerably. I found recording in 1080p at 60fps and with stabilisation on generated excellent results. The built in distortion calibration, unfortunately you have to reset it every time you change video resolution. Bizarrely it stays on when switching between photo and video modes.
Still images can be shot at 20MP, 16MP, 12MP, 10MP, 8MP and 5MP and in RAW format, which is a big bonus for photographers. The time lapse function works really well, even in night mode although low light images tend to be a bit grainy. I like the Burst Photo mode and the Long Exposure setting.
You can connect the camera to a power-bank for prolonged recording, but only out of the waterproof housing.
Some things I’m not so keen on: exposure control could be better. Not being able to access various menu settings when using the waterproof housing. The touch screen, which I found to be less responsive than on the V50 X.
All in all there’s a lot to like about the Akaso V50 Elite: there’s a lot of technology in this little camera, especially given the budget price. Could it be better? Yes. Would I recommend it? Yes!
Having used a variety of older generation GoPros I could find no discernable difference in build quality in either the camera itself or in the many accessories provided out of the box. The firmware feels slightly less slick than the latest generation GoPros, but this is a very minor gripe. The camera itself is not waterproof, but a good quality waterproof case is provided and in practice you’ll probably want to use this case in an active environment.
The included accessories encompass two 1050mAh batteries, dual battery charger (but you’ll need to provide your own USB mains plug), adhesive-backed platform mounts, helment mounts, handlebar mounts, waterproof case and various velcro straps and tethers. What you don’t get out of the box are body or head harnesses, suction mounts or floats, but these are readily available.
The downloadable 13-page PDF instruction manual specifies “UHS-3 rated” micro SD cards, up to 128GB capacity. In practice I found ‘slower’ UHS-1 and UHS-2 SanDisk cards worked fine at lower resolutions and frame rates but struggled at 60fps and above, with frequent dropouts.
I found battery life on a fully charged battery at 4k 30fps is about 45 mins. Expect better life at lower resolutions and frame rates. I’d want to run a few charge cycles before judging long term battery life, but it’s certainly on a par with the competition.
The electronic image stabilisation works well but be aware that this is only available in certain configurations – you cannot for example use image stabilisation in medium or narrow angle modes, when zoomed, in time lapse or slow motion modes, or at high (120fps) video frame rates. But in wide angle mode at 4k 30fps or 1080 60fps it works fine.
The Remote Control, which syncs with the camera via Bluetooth, is a very useful accessory which works well at up to 10m range. There is a basic Alexa-style voice-control mode which I found worked reliably for starting and stopping video recording, but which failed to respond to my still photography commands.
The Akaso DV mobile app (available for Android and IOS), which connects to the camera via a direct WiFi connection, provides a live video feed, remote control of most of the main functions, and the ability to download recorded videos and photos to the phone (and from there to a storage location of your choice). There’s no internet connectivity while connected to the camera’s WiFi, so to upload recorded material to cloud storage like DropBox or iCloud, you’ll need to disconnect the app and reconnect to your main ISP’s WiFi. Sadly, there is no way to view a live WiFi video stream via a standard web browser – it would be nice if that feature could be supported in future firmwares.
In terms of online support, I submitted a query to Akaso’s technical support team and got a helpful reply within 24 hours, so no complaints there.
All in all an excellent package at roughly half the price of the equivalent GoPro HERO6 package.