Aldi Action Camera – Review

Bargain. £29.99 for a wearable action camera?! Can it be too good to be true? Only one way to find out…

If Aldi made wearable action camera’s, they’d be bloody cheap and make no bones about it, this one is bloody cheap at a shade under 30 quid. Is it any good though? On paper it has some pretty decent features including –

– HD Resolution (720/30fps)
– 135˚ Wide Angle Lens
– 2″ LCD Panel
– 4X Digital Zoom
– Li-ion Cell (440mAh)
– 90 Mins Video Recording Time
– Available in Black or Silver
– Comes with 4GB Micro Memory Card and SD Card Adaptor. Helmet Mount. USB Cable. 3m Adhesive stickers.
– Special Current Price of £29.99 (usually £49.99)

On first look at the camera, quality wise it’s not actually that bad. The housing is not dissimilar to what you get on a GoPro. Hinging at the side, the waterproof seal looks pretty good and after a quick water dunk test in the bathtub it did indeed keep the camera inside bone dry. At a passing glance it doesn’t look unlike a GoPro and visually, when it’s in its housing, it looks like a pretty high quality camera.

The side clip to seal the housing is pretty strong and takes some finger strength to prise it open so no fear of it bouncing itself open when the going gets rough. Again the clip is very similar to that of a GoPro. Once you take the camera out of its housing, it’s here that you see the difference in build quality. Whilst lightweight is a good thing when it comes to wearable technology, this Maginon camera feels flimsy and very plastic – akin to the sort of disposable camera’s you could buy for a few quid from coastal town Chemists many years ago. Without the protective housing it wouldn’t last beyond dropping it on the floor so it’s a good thing the camera has no mounting ability without its housing.

On the top it has power on and off and its record stop/start buttons. On the side it has a slider to select between video, photo and play and on the bottom it has its mini USB and Micro Memory Card ports. Impressively it also has a 2″ LCD monitor with Up, Down and Select menu buttons. Though the quality of the LCD image isn’t amazing, it’s useful for positioning the camera and for having a quick ‘on the go’ footage review. There are menu options for white balance and video effects, the option to select recording quality as well as a range of playback and photo options.

The mount options in the box are minimal – a plastic flexible plate that you can fix two 3M adhesive pads to mount onto your helmet. If you are using this on a typical trail or XC lid with vents it almost certainly won’t be mountable as it needs a solid surface to stick the 3M pads on. Unlike the GoPro it doesn’t come equipped with a mounting strap although it does appear to have brackets for a strap so this may be something available to buy from Maginon or Aldi direct?

The 3M pads aren’t really sufficient however, they are much thinner than the vibration soaking 3M pads included with GoPro’s and after being mounted on a full face lid for a couple of days they have already started to lift from the mounting bracket. But as the pads are cut the same size as the GoPro versions, you could easily buy a pack of GoPro 3M pads and use those instead.

Video Quality

It’s here that the little Aldi Cam falls down. The video play back quality is pretty poor. Grainy, dull and pixelated it’s pretty horrendous to view back. The sound recording capabilities are poor and wind distorts both the sound and the image.  Although it is only £30.00 you would expect something much better than this. It really is not footage you would want to share with your mates.

We figured just a few seconds of recording is all you could take, so here it is. Enjoy!

For £30 it’s not absolutely terrible but it’s not far off either. Obviously it’s not a GoPro but nor would you expect it to be but it does record video, take photos, is fairly robust and it is wearable. It has a fairly lengthy list of features and the LCD monitor is a surprising addition. The casing is pretty good quality that will take the hits and protect the seemingly fragile camera inside. The mounting option isn’t brilliant but it will do the job and can easily be improved with a bit of modification. Of course, given the ongoing battle to offer perfect recording quality and viewer perspective to capture the essence of action sports, it is here that the Maginon camera falls woefully short. Whilst the quality of recorded footage would have been respectable for a camera of this size in 2001, it is barely passable given its competition and for most of the self obsessed narcissists who want to endlessly pour over footage of themselves doing stuff and then bore everyone else with it as well, it’s not going to be anywhere near good enough.  It is cheap though. Did we mention that?