What is the BEST budget action camera for FPV?
If you also had the same question, read the review to find what works best for you!
Contestants:
-GoPro Hero 7 Black
-GoPro Hero 8 Black
-GoPro Hero 9 Black
-Dji Action 1
-Dji Action 2
-Dji Action 3
-Inta360 GO2
All these cameras are solid budget options, costing less than 200$ each, and even cheaper!
Specs will only be weight, price and max recording quality, and if more info is needed, please google it.
GoPro Hero 7 Black
So let's start from the beginning, and one of the best action cameras of all time - GoPro Hero 7 Black. It's just an amazing camera, with a decent stabilization (which is better added in post), very good video quality and almost all features newer cameras offer - but for way cheaper. The quality is almost the same as newer Hero 8, and better than Session, which is still used in freestyle a lot, but it also has some cons, in which I have to add too sensitive gyro which makes image stabilization harder and sometimes non-usable, and pretty poor low-light quality (just as all other cameras too). If you need image stabilization you should consider Hero 6 Black.
Specs
Max video quality: 4K/60
Weight: 116g
Price: usually between 80-150$
GoPro Hero 8 Black
It's pretty much all as with Hero 7, but heavier (126 grams) and costs more. Also I heard about reliability issues, but never had any, so we'll just leave it just as is, for additional consideration. It is more suitable for 4K and has a bit better stabilization (but once again, Gyroflow in post is better), and they fixed gyro, so now it's just better suited for FPV drones and stabilization. It should be better than Hero 7 all-around because it's newer, but they're not sufficient at least for me. Video is mine, unfortunately I don't have one from an FPV drone, but it should show overall quality, as GoPro 7 and 8 have pretty similar image quality, so you can watch it as reference to both.
Specs
Max video quality: 4K/60
Weight: 126g
Price: usually between 100-160$
GoPro Hero 9 Black
Now we're coming to more "premium" cameras, and that's where things get more interesting, because we all know 20/80 rule, so while these older and cheaper GoPro's are good, these newer and more expensive are better, are they? While Hero 9 has better image quality, it also has some cons, but more about them later. This is definitely a great camera, with amazing quality, better dynamic range and stabilization than older ones, but is it worth it? It is way heavier than all other contestants (158g!), more bulky, and has additional front display which will break on first crashes without an even bigger, heavier and bulkier TPU mount. Anyways, it's a great camera, and if you get a good deal on it it's definitely worth it.
Specs
Max video quality: 5K/30
Weight: 158g
Price: usually between 140-200$
Dji Action 1
And here come the Dji cameras, which are my personal favorites, because they're more reliable, have close or even better video quality than GoPro's, and better prices. This is first gen, which is comparable to Hero 8, and has very similar video quality and specs.
Specs
Max video quality: 4K/60
Weight: 124g
Price: usually between 100-150$
Dji Action 2
And here comes the best action camera for FPV(in my opinion). It has an amazing video quality comparable to Hero 9, wider FOV, modular design which is perfect for using it on drones, really small and lightweight. It has cons, obviously, it can record only around 30 minutes of 4K without battery module, and has only 32GB of internal memory, but it's almost the only camera that gives you this opportunity, so no hate here. It's perfect for lighter builds and long-range. It's the camera I mainly use (and which you can see installed on my drone) to record my flights, and I just love it!
Specs
Max video quality: 4K/120
Weight: 56g
Price: 80-150$
The jello on the footage isn't the camera's fault!
Dji Action 3
It's basically the same as Action 2, but in more usual format - it has interchangeable batteries, SD card slot, two displays. It's for those who don't need lightweight, but want more "traditional" camera.
Specs
Max video quality: 4K/120
Weight: 145g
Price: 80-150$
Insta360 Go2
It's an amazing super-lightweight camera, perfect for micros, but if you fly Dji o3 or even newer Walksnail systems you shouldn't be considering it. If you're still flying old trusty analog, it's a great lightweight camera, with decent image quality which is more than enough for social media, but definitely not for something more serious. Also internal memory and battery is enough for around 30 minutes of recording 2.7K. It has no display or anything, so it's pretty durable, comes with dock station and connects to mobile app. It's a perfect camera for the drone that can't handle Dji Action 2.
Specs
Max video quality: 2.7K/50
Weight: 26g
Price: 80-150$
Conclusion
While all these cameras are solid options, there are some I like the most, and the camera I use on my 5" drone is Dji action 2 - it has absolutely great recording quality, very lightweight, small and it's just what works best for me! A lot of professional pilots also use it, so you can't go wrong purchasing it. Also I would like to note an Insta360 GO2, which is perfect for smaller drones and still has usable video quality. Hope you this helped you with camera selection and you found what works best for you! Happy flying!
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