Xiaomi’s YiCamera Is Twice As Good And Half The Price Of A GoPro

March 3, 2015 by Liron Samuels 39 Comments

Xiaomi, a rising star in the world of mobile phones and consumer electronics, has just announced the YiCamera action cam.

Judging by the specs of this camera GoPro is in trouble, as the company that has been changing people’s perception of Chinese products seems to have not only outdone the Hero action cam, but it did so at half the price.

The 16 megapixel camera will cost $64, but will initially be available only in China.

The potential GoPro killer features a 16 megapixel Sony Exmor R CMOS sensor, compared to the Hero’s 5MP sensor, and an HD optical glass lens with an f/2.8 aperture.

The larger megapixel count, however, is not the YiCamera’s only advantage over the Hero.

According to the released specs the Chinese action cam will be just as good or better than the GoPro Hero in several key features:

$64 vs $130
1080p/60fps vs 1080p/30fps
7fps continous vs 5fps
72 grams vs 111 grams (2.5oz/3.9oz)
Max storage: 64GB MicroSD vs 32GB MicroSD
H.264 encoding (same)
155 degree wide angle lens (the GoPro wins this one with 170 degrees)
Waterproof up to 40 meters with underwater housing (not included)

Additional features:

Built-in WiFi (100 meter range) and Bluetooth 4.0
Optional Bluetooth remote control
Remote control handset app – allowing you to shoot, edit and share you photos and video
Travel edition comes with a selfie stick
BSI (back-illuminated sensor)
Ambarella A7LS processor
Panasonic high density lithium-ion battery
Battery indicator
3D noise reduction

The basic accessories such as helmet and bike mounts are available with more accessories, including pet harnesses, on the way.

The camera will be available in white or green and will be sold only in China at first.

According to iGyaan.in the YiCamera will be available in India and other regions later this year, but it is unknown to which countries this refers and if the US is one of them.

[via Xiaomi via iGyaan.in]

About Liron Samuels

Liron Samuels is a wildlife and commercial photographer based in Israel.

When he isn't waking up at 4am to take photos of nature, he stays awake until 4am taking photos of the night skies or time lapses.

You can see more of his work on his website or follow him on Facebook.

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Toast

Let me know when people can buy these in the UK and I’ll buy three :3
- Azety
  
  Same for me in France !
  - Marcus Wolschon
    
    You two realize that you’ll get flickering lights?
    50Hz mains power but only able to choose 30 and 24fps. Not 25. This also means you can’t intercut it with footage of other PAL cameras
    - Kaouthia
      
      You realise most “action” that these cameras record is outdoors? :)
      
      And sure you can intercut it. It’s not really all that difficult to interpolate footage to different framerates, especially with the pixel motion frame blending available today.
      - Marcus Wolschon
        
        You realize it does get dark outside and you do enter and exit tunnels and similar out there? You also realize that proper, smooth motion is important for fast action? You can add the missing motion blur corresponding to a 180° shutter in post but interpolated images to get from 24 to 25 you can’t fix. It’s either jerky or blurry.
        My GoPro is terrible for things like entering and exiting tunnels in an adventure, water ride. Takes ages to adapt and suddenly gets noisy as hell when it gets darker for a few seconds during the ride.
        I don’t get the feeling this one will be better.
      - Kaouthia
        
        Go find me any camera out there that works for every possible conceivable shooting situation.
        
        I dare ya. :)
        
        A given camera doesn’t have to work in every possible situation for every person out there. Such a camera will never exist. Not everybody has the same needs in a camera, and no camera can specialise in everything.
        
        You don’t know what the needs are of the two folks you responded to, or how they would plan to use such a camera.
        
        This one doesn’t work for you, great, don’t buy it. That doesn’t mean it sucks for everybody, and for those where this can replace a GoPro in the situations they need it for, if it’ll give them footage that’s just as good, paying half the price for it is a definite advantage.
        
        Re: 180 degree shutter. Well, in digital, that only works if your shutter speed is 1/(fps * 2) anyways – which it’s never going to be with an automatic exposure camera like a GoPro (or pretty much any other “action camera” out there).
        
        As for turning 24fps to 25fps… Most movies are shot at 24fps. You know how they convert them for 25fps for UK release? They increase the speed of the footage by about 4% to make it play back at 25fps. No interpolation, no jerkiness, no blurring, simply sped up a slight amount to fit in that extra frame per second.
        
        That’s why movies released in the UK are often a minute or so shorter than their US counterpart, despite both containing the exact same scenes & footage.
    - Toast
      
      Hey Marcus, if this is problem for you in the future you can export at a set frame rate so you can change them to match
  - Philipp Klemm
    
    You can buy it everywhere from online retailers like Banggood or AliExpress:
    http://www.banggood.com/Original-XiaoYi-Ambarella-A7LS-BSI-CMOS-WIFI-Sports-Action-Camera-p-969228.html?p=VE13131346819201503H
    Although the price is higher than the mentioned 64$, it’s 85$ currently
Mike Carson

looks nice. Always wanted an action cam but my life is tragically dull.
Hello

I bet the low light video will be worse
Azety

ill take 2 white and 1 green please.
Federico Ciapi

wrong: gopro can make 4k 30 fps video, depending on model
- Philipp Klemm
  
  just the GoPro Hero 4 black edition
Ian McArthur

That’s the point, they’re talking about the entry level, the basic GoPro is half as good and twice the price. Try reading the article.
Rick

Ooh, another “GoPro killer”. If I had a nickle for every time I’ve heard that…

It’s not about specs. It’s not about price. It’s about image quality and nobody has yet beat GoPro on image quality at a better price. When it happens, they’ll bring down their grossly overpriced cameras but until then don’t bet on it.
Lizzie Lm

Awesome! now all i need is for my life to not be boring so i can justify buying this!! (-_-)
Sadi Santos

Sam
- Sam Wu
  
  Looks good on paper. Hope it’s not made OF paper.
- Jay Leung
  
  If it’s at least made of heavy cardstock, I might consider it
godling

welp, even Chinese cannot buy it for now. Because it is Xiaomi — always SOLD OUT
Mohamed Essam

Abdelazim Torky شفلي الحوار ده ف الصين يا زيما
- Abdelazim Torky
  
  Sure I will ISA.
  However, I tried my best to get xiaomi mobile phone while I was there last time but always sold out.
  
  They have very limited stores and not selling their products everywhere
- Mohamed Essam
  
  If you could bought me one of these with the selfie stick
gopro

GoPro can go 1080P@80FPS
- AMidd
  
  It will actually do 1080@120fps, but that model is 500USD. The Xiaomi is a lot less. :)
Frans Fourie

This camera may be better than the Gopro 1 from back in the day – Gopro’s new specs outshines this by far! Check your sources.
- Kaouthia
  
  So does their price. ;)
- Philipp Klemm
  
  When it comes to 1080p and 60fps the GoPro Hero 4 black edition is the only which can record at a higher framerate. (and it costs 6 times more)
todanews

Can it do some video? Have you link to any video example?
Marcus Wolschon

No 25fps and without 4K video and a noise free low-light performance the GoPro is not in trouble at all.
- AMidd
  
  I think the point here is that to get a GoPro that can actually do 1080P 60fps you need to step up to the Hero 3+ – which is many times more expensive than this Xiaomi device.
- Philipp Klemm
  
  You can set the camera to PAL and you’ll have 50/25 fps.
  The GoPro Hero 4 black Edition is the only model which shoots in 4K at an expectable framerate (also the price is way higher)
Amir Yusoff

Riquan Azri
norint

why in Xiaomi shop it shows 84,99$ ???
fookoffdisqus

Sure GoPro’s are possibly better (will wait to see the image quality before passing judgement) But I won’t cry so much is this camera get’s wiped out. If it was the $300 GoPro it’d like losing an only child.
SmokingStrobes

This is so cute! Lemme share this!
Peterssss

Well, I think the pure facts don’t tell that much. The picture quality is most important, and there are no test-shots, so lets wait before digging a grave for the gopro :-D
Besides, the gopro 4 got MUCH higher specs….
Leo Maduro

Kevin Luidens
Philipp Klemm

The iOS App is not released yet, but I found another one which is working. I did a short video, because it is tricky as not all info is shown in the app:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4zDUVjFj7I