The newest GoPro HERO6 Black is a critical funding, so the possibility to document video in 4K high quality for simply £100/$100 is tempting. Add water resistance to 10m and it is severely so. Can this low-budget water child compete within the massive leagues?

Options

• 4K video seize at 25fps
• Waterproof right down to 10m
• 16MP nonetheless photographs

No larger than a GoPro, the Barracuda from German model GoXtreme can be utilized as much as 10m underwater with none housing, has a 170º discipline of view, and has a 2-inch touchscreen. That is not all. In reality, the very first thing you suppose when unboxing the Barracuda is that it has no clue what it needs to be. There is a bike mount, a helmet mount, a tripod adaptor, varied mount buckles, a body mount, USB cables and a tough case amid an orgy of cheap-looking wrapped plastic objects which can be begging to get misplaced (or, extra possible, by no means used). Nevertheless baffling it might sound at first, full marks to GoXtreme for together with the whole lot any motion cam person may ever consider needing as an alternative of charging additional for the whole lot.

Measuring 65 x 46 x 28mm and weighing 97g by itself, the Barracuda’s headline act is that it will possibly movie video as .MOV recordsdata in 4K at 25 frames per second (fps). Nevertheless, it will possibly additionally seize in 2.7K (2704 x 1524 pixels) at 30fps, Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) at 60fps or 30fps, and HD (1280 x 720 pixels) at 30 fps, 60fps or 120fps. The default decision for nonetheless JPEG photographs is 16MP, although it is attainable to go proper down to 3 megapixels, or as much as 20MP. The latter is a resolution-boosting interpolation method that makes little distinction; in actuality, 16MP is the highest decision.

Though it is attainable to observe a dwell feed via the free iSmart DV app when the Barracuda is broadcasting its personal WiFi community, it does not work if the digital camera is in 4K mode. Nevertheless, the quick battery life is extra problematic; in our exams the Barracuda by no means bought past an hour.

Design

• Helpful customary tripod screw 
• micro USB slot for recharging
• Weighs 97g

In addition to being packed-up in robust clear plastic packaging, the Barracuda’s directions are riddled with spelling errors, which isn’t an excellent signal. Nevertheless, the product itself is properly designed, with a very helpful customary tripod screw on the undercarriage. A flap on the aspect hides a small 1,050 mAh lithium battery alongside a micro USB slot for recharging, a micro SD card slot, and a HDMI output for connecting it to a TV. That final inclusion is moderately sudden on such a finances motion digital camera.

Efficiency

• Fairly detailed, and clear JPEGs
• Poor high quality start-stop button
• 4K footage uneven and arduous to observe

Simply the spotlight of the Barracuda is its wide-angle 16MP nonetheless photographs. In the event you maintain the Barracuda nonetheless and take photographs outdoors in comparatively vibrant situations, the Barracuda produces some wonderful outcomes; vibrant, properly saturated, fairly detailed, and clear JPEGs. That is not the case indoors or in lower than vibrant situations, the place the Barracuda actually struggles to take photographs with any type of readability, or with out image noise.

As with most motion cameras, the one drawback with taking nonetheless pictures with the Barracuda is that its poor high quality start-stop button causes the whole unit to judder when it is pressed. Consequently, it is all too straightforward to take a really blurry . So it is at its greatest when it is on a tripod and managed through a smartphone, which is hardly supreme for impromptu pictures. Nevertheless, that’s precisely what you all the time must do to movie a time-lapse, after all, which the Barracuda produces successfully. Choices go from one picture each minute to 1 each zero.5 seconds over between 5 minutes and an hour. The outcomes are fairly spectacular.

Motion cameras must have a minimum of 60fps to offer clean, watchable outcomes, and for 4K, the Barracuda is severely underpowered. In the event you movie fast-moving motion or use panning, the 4K 25fps video it produces is uneven and arduous to observe. Its Full HD mode is smoother, although even the Full HD at 60fps is not as clean as predicted. At resolutions under lack of element turns into extra of a problem, although if the outcomes are going to be watched totally on small screens, the 720p HD at 120fps is by far probably the most watchable setting.

Transferring recordsdata between the Barracuda and a cellphone is a cinch. A protracted press of the shutter switches-on WiFi, and inside seconds the free iSmart DV app can be exhibiting a dwell view of what the Barracuda may see. Working it remotely is feasible, as is altering most settings, although the app does have a tendency to hold barely whereas saving new settings. It’s nonetheless, a moderately fundamental app, good for transferring recordsdata to a smartphone, however not good for a lot else in any respect (there isn’t any dwell streaming, filters, modifying or sharing).

Not serving to a lot with video high quality is the microphone, which throughout our take a look at didn’t pick-up a lot in any respect of a stupendous efficiency by a singer in an acoustical chamber (the identical recording on an iPhone was a lot clearer), whereas outdoor it primarily picked-up wind. In that regard it is nowhere close to nearly as good as a smartphone. In the meantime, the person interface in all fairness straightforward to navigate, although it does require fixed switching between picture and video modes, and much too many button presses to finish easy actions similar to altering the decision.

Verdict

For all its concentrate on 4K video, except you place the Barracuda on a tripod it produces by far its greatest leads to fundamental HD high quality, although its greatest characteristic is its vibrant, detailed and clear 16MP nonetheless photographs. Its fiddly person interface requires long-winded switching between picture and video modes, whereas the app is little greater than a conduit between the Barracuda and a cellphone’s personal digital camera roll. General the Barracuda comes throughout not as a cut price motion cam, however as a below-par effort that is priced about proper contemplating its shortcomings. Nevertheless, when you’re after an all-in-one possibility that ships with all of the equipment you are ever more likely to want – and also you’re proud of both HD for motion sequences and/or 4K shot solely from a tripod – the simple to make use of, and conveniently small-sized, Barracuda may nonetheless be an honest possibility.