Photo comparison: Sony RX0 II, DJI Osmo Action, GoPro Hero 7 or Google Pixel 3?
18.9.2019
Translation: machine translated
Instead of taking photos with your mobile while biking, it would be much more practical to take photos with your helmet camera using voice commands. To find out whether this is really true, I packed the Sony RX0 II, the DJI Osmo Action and the GoPro Hero 7 and travelled to the mountains.
When my mates and I want to take photos of ourselves or the landscape while out on the bike, someone either has to have their mobile in their trouser pocket all the time or have to dig it out of their rucksack first every time. Both are tedious. In your pocket, your expensive mobile is unprotected and could break if you drop it. If it's in the rucksack, on the other hand, we're usually too lazy to take it out, which is why we hardly ever take photos. That's why we came up with the idea of testing voice-controlled action cams. We would no longer be reliant on our smartphone. We could take pictures flexibly and without having to take our hands off the handlebars. That's the theory. Unfortunately, it doesn't look so elegant in practice.
The test candidates
Because there are usually three of us travelling and three is a nice number, I chose three cameras to test. However, I quickly realised that there aren't many decent action cams that support voice commands. To be more precise, there are only two: the DJI Osmo Action and the GoPro Hero 7. Editorial colleague and ambitious amateur photographer David Lee recommended the Sony RX0 II. He said it was guaranteed to take better pictures. But because it doesn't have voice control, I make do with a wired remote control. Although it's not intended for biking, it should still be enough for my test.
The DJI and the GoPro are the most popular action cams. They both have a 1/2.3 image sensor with 12 megapixels and the lens is a 17mm wide-angle with an f/2.8 aperture. The RX0 II, on the other hand, is equipped with a much larger 1-inch sensor. It also has a Zeiss lens with an f/4 aperture at 24 mm. So on paper, the Sony makes the best trap. However, it also costs more than the other models combined. Added to this is the 150-franc remote control.
The Sony is also more awkward to use as a helmet camera. Presumably because it is not designed for this. It has a thread on the underside, as is the case with most photo cameras. This means that I need an additional adapter to make it compatible with standard helmet mounts.
Test method
Each of us mounts a camera on our helmet. With the GoPro, I set the image mode from "wide" to "linear" so that the image doesn't have any fisheye distortion. I can't find a corresponding option on the Osmo Action. I leave the Sony in the default settings. On our tour through the Glarus region, we take photos of the same subjects again and again, in addition to personal snapshots, in order to make a direct comparison. I also take photos with my Pixel 3 as a reference.
Comprehension problems
Show images in high resolution:
GoPro,
Sony,
Pixel
"GoPro take a picture, GoPro take a picture, Gopro take a picture, OK GoPro", "Take Picture, Taaaake picture, photo, take Photo". The tour starts exactly as I had imagined. Of course, the first thing my two mates have to do is spam their cameras with commands. I set the GoPro to German. The DJI is only available in English or Chinese. So there's no danger of both cameras taking pictures with one command. The commands are called "Take GoPro photo" or "Take photo" on the DJI. However, the voice control is anything but reliable, which is why it rarely works straight away. It almost always takes several attempts before the cameras respond, which the senior citizens riding past on their e-bikes acknowledge with a shake of the head. With the GoPro, it works in two out of three cases. The DJI needs around four attempts on average.
I'm not much better off with my remote control. I clipped it to a strap on my rucksack. I've looped the cable through a shoulder ring because otherwise it's constantly dangling in front of my face. But now, every time I put the rucksack on or take it off, I have to unthread the cable first, otherwise I'll rip the camera off my head.
The RX0 II operates like a photo camera. This means I have to press the shutter button a little longer to allow the camera to focus before the picture is taken. At least I can hear the shutter sound and know whether it has worked or not. But all it takes is the sound of a small stream or a passing car and the audio signal is no longer audible. Nevertheless, it is better than with the DJI Osmo Action, where the shutter sound cannot be heard at all when the camera is upside down. Only with the GoPro is the beeping clearly audible when a photo is taken and then saved.
Display images in high resolution:
DJI,
GoPro,
Sony,
Pixel
The unreliable voice control is the least of the problems. The bigger one is the standby mode. The cameras are clearly not intended as helmet cameras if you want to take them on a bike tour. They switch to standby mode far too quickly for that. Of course, you could deactivate it, but then the battery will definitely run out faster than we do - and that's relatively quickly. Especially as the DJI can't take photos without the display switched on. Unlike the GoPro, where only the small monochrome secondary display needs to be on. The Osmo Action also has an absolutely annoying ringing sound - every time it switches on or off. Exactly what you like to hear on a rigorous climb.
Display high-resolution images:
DJI,
GoPro,
Sony,
Pixel
However, this loses all the flexibility that I had hoped for from such helmet cameras. If I want to stop briefly on a trail to take a photo of my mates, they've long since ridden past me by the time I'm ready with the camera. And they really aren't the fastest.
Another problem concerns the angle of view. If you're travelling with friends, you can at least look at each other's displays and reposition the camera if necessary. Otherwise, sometimes you only take pictures of the sky, sometimes just your feet and sometimes half of your helmet is on it. In addition, all three models have excessive response times, making it difficult to take snapshots even when the camera is not in standby mode.
Another negative point that I and my two friends noticed as soon as we set off is the weight. Although the cameras only weigh between 110 and 125 grams, this is still a negative aspect of the otherwise ultra-light helmets. The helmet also wobbles a lot more. With a full-face helmet, this probably doesn't matter.
Little surprise with the image quality
Both the DJI and the Sony have a slight tendency to overexpose. This can be seen, for example, in the photo of the cow. One friend's T-shirt is slightly overexposed. The GoPro takes the most consistent shots. Overall, however, I like the Sony's pictures a little better. They are a tad sharper and have more contrast. Even better, however, are the pictures taken with the Pixel 3, which, together with Google's automatic image processing, produce the best snapshots.
As expected, photos taken with the DJI are slightly curved due to the fisheye wide-angle lens. I partially avoided this problem with the GoPro because I initially set the image mode to linear. However, some close-up shots are slightly distorted in height, which is typical for wide-angle lenses, as you can see in the picture above.
We had no problems with blurred images with any camera.
Conclusion: Buy a mobile phone case
Somehow the result doesn't surprise me. Voice commands aren't even really reliable on our smartphones, so why should action camera manufacturers do any better? The GoPro Hero 7 worked reasonably reliably, but even there the frustration increases every time it doesn't work. But the DJI is much worse, where you feel like the biggest fool after just a few minutes when you have to shout "Take Photo" over and over again. The problem seems to be partly due to the poor microphone, but also to the unreliable voice recognition. The remote control on the Sony, on the other hand, offers too few advantages. You can just as easily press the shutter button directly on the camera.
The main problem with all cameras is the lack of spontaneity. On the one hand, the time from the command to the shutter release is too long. Or the command is not even registered. Or the camera is already in standby mode again. Or the camera is once again not correctly aligned. It's like milking mice.
My verdict is therefore clear. The cameras are useless for taking snapshots on bike tours. I'd rather buy a sturdy mobile phone case. They also cost significantly less. <p
Philipp Rüegg
Senior Editor
Philipp.Rueegg@digitecgalaxus.chBeing the game and gadget geek that I am, working at digitec and Galaxus makes me feel like a kid in a candy shop – but it does take its toll on my wallet. I enjoy tinkering with my PC in Tim Taylor fashion and talking about games on my podcast http://www.onemorelevel.ch. To satisfy my need for speed, I get on my full suspension mountain bike and set out to find some nice trails. My thirst for culture is quenched by deep conversations over a couple of cold ones at the mostly frustrating games of FC Winterthur.