Action cameras are a hot topic this holiday season. Ever since GoPro launched a model with killer stabilization, it didn’t take long for the competition to catch up with a trick of their own. Now, there are multiple models to choose from, all delivering an excellent image and a long list of features.
One of these is VanTop’s new Moment 6S Action Cam, which literally just came into the world, just in time for Black Friday and the holidays to come. The new action camera packs a list of features, including slow motion (up to 8x), time-lapse, photo burst, and of course, smooth stabilization (“SmoothFlow”).
The new camera is small in size, at just 1.5″ x 2.5″ and less than 1″ thick from front to back. It really is quite tiny for what it can accomplish. It features a rubberized texture that fully surrounds it, helping you to keep your grip as you are running around with it in your hands. The theme is all-black, which is quite common for these cams, and the overall feel of it gives you the impression of “premium quality”.
The operation of the camera is simple, and most of your options are available within the 2.33″ touchscreen on the back. This touchscreen is quite responsive to the touch and these menus are easy to move around in. In fact, if you have used similar action cameras in the past, you might find the menu system to be extremely familiar (it’s the same menu system used by SJCAM).
From the touchscreen, you can switch between the various modes of the camera, and access the individual settings of each mode. You can choose your resolution, as well as enable things like stabilization, audio settings, etc.
As for the physical controls, they kept things quite simple. The side of the camera features a power button that is used to turn the camera on and off by holding it down. The top of the camera features your trigger button that takes images or starts/stops video recording (depending on the mode you are in). That’s it.
The side opposite of the power button features a small flap that pops out to reveal a USB-C connection. This is used for charging the camera with, as well as connecting an external microphone (the microphone, of course, has to support USB-C). This is a wonderful feature since it opens the camera up to so many more uses than just action sports. Vloggers can run around with this camera with a microphone attached and use it as their rig for capturing rich content. You can even enable the feature that reduces image distortion caused by the fish-eye lens, allowing the video to look more like a natural camera. Even better, Vantop provides you with a USB-C wired lavalier microphone in the box (winning).
Flipping the camera over to the bottom reveals a door that slides open, gaining you access to the battery compartment, as well as a MicroSD slot, and to the left of the compartment is a threaded input so that you can install a mount or small tripod directly to the camera without the need of the waterproof case.
Clearly, the camera needs SD memory in order to actually record anything, so this is where that card will go. You will absolutely want to make sure you get your hands on one that is at least 90MB/s in order to capture 4K. If not, you will find the video timing out in error after so many seconds due to write speed issues. It’s easy to find a card though since any of today’s modern models will support this kind of speed (they will mention the speed right on the box). Costco has a killer deal right now with 2x 128GB SanDisk MicroSD cards that support 170MB/s for just $45. Amazon also has 2x 32GB cards of the same series for $22.
It does not come with a MicroSD card, so you are on your own there. However, it does come with the battery. In fact, it comes with two batteries! So you have double to shoot time right from the start. You can, of course, buy into additional batteries to extend yourself even more, but this already places you in a wonderful spot. They claim you can record up to 90 minutes of video on a single battery. So that is up to 180 minutes now between the two.
Unlike the latest GoPro, the camera body by itself is not waterproof. It does, however, come with the waterproof case (as you’d expect) in the box, giving you up to 30m of underwater diving ability with the camera. Of course, you won’t be looking to record any audio while it is in the case since it will mostly be muffled–there is nothing new there though as this has always been the case with these underwater cases on any camera.
It actually comes with nearly everything you’d ever need, all magically packed away in its retail shell. So many different adapters and mounts for various situations. From riding bikes, snowboarding, skateboarding, driving, running, skydiving and more. The only thing it doesn’t come with is a chest mount or a selfie stick–both of which you can buy affordably from places like Amazon.
It comes with adapters, mounts, extra pads, waterproof case, an extra lid for the case so that you can access the touchscreen, straps, batteries, and the wired lav mic. It is like buying an accessory kit alongside of the camera.
This leads us to one more accessory it comes with…
They give you a wireless remote that you can wear around your wrist and control the camera with. You can snap pictures, start/stop video recording, take an image burst, control Wi-Fi on/off, and power down the camera. All of this from your wrist.
So, you are being spoiled with this kit for sure. So build quality is nice, what you get with the camera is nice. How about the quality of the camera?
The image quality is really good for this price range. You get up to 4K at 60 frames per second. You can also take images up to 12MP at 4:3 or up to 8MP at 16:9. As mentioned, it supports timelapse, image stabilization, digital zoom, and slow-motion (up to 8x). It offers the ability to send images and videos to your smartphone via Wi-Fi, where you can use their app to edit and share content to one of your favorite social networks. The app is available for both iOS and Android devices.
Of course, you do lose certain abilities within certain modes. For example, image stabilization is pretty good. Not as good as the GoPro 8 Black, but quite good for the price range of this model. Especially if you include the usage of a handheld gimbal for added support. The catch though is that you lose full 4K at 60p when you enable the stabilization. It forces you down to 4K@30p. It still looks fantastic, but it would have been nice to get stabilization and 4K@60p.
You also lose resolution if you switch to slow motion. It automatically drops to 1080@30p. Again, the video still looks amazing, but it would have been nice to get slow motion at 4K (even 30p would have been nice).
As mentioned though, the stabilization is pretty good and highly worth enabling, despite losing the ability to shoot at 60 frames per second. Helmet or selfie-stick approaches or using a handheld gimbal work the best for stabilization, and even more so if you are moving in a rolling vehicle like a car to help reduce up and down motion (like you’d get from walking). You can see all of this in the video above.
Our Conclusion
In the end, we found this to be a wonderful action camera. Full of features, extremely user-friendly and wonderful image quality. It’s 4K at 60p is really sharp and enjoyable, and its image stabilization is pretty good for what it is, despite being forced to drop down to 4K@30p to use it. Slow-motion looks great, although once again, it would have been nice to not lose resolution in order to use it. It fires back though with its waterproof body and a huge list of accessories. It works well underwater, and water acts as a natural stabilizer of sorts, so you can sometimes turn off stabilization so that you can make use of the 4K@60p. For what it is, and how much it costs, this is a very formidable option that really knows how to stick it to GoPro.
| Buy from Walmart | |
Our Rating | Average Price* $179 – $199 |
*Average price is based on the time this article was published
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