Nowadays, I’m realizing that having an action camera is a must for a lot of the activities I like to do. For the past years, I’ve been hauling a heavy-ass SLR during mountain biking, motorcycling and island-hopping trips. Ninety percent of the time, I end up just using my Smartphone, because it’s just such a hassle to take out the big camera from a bag when both your hands are occupied driving or if you’re in a water-based environment. I was really hoping to experiment more with video features for the blog this year. As luck would have it, Supremo Philippines sent me their latest action camera to test out.
The Supremo 4K is a budget-friendly action camera that can take 4K videos and quality photos up to 16MP. When put inside its waterproof casing, you can bring it underwater up to 30 meters (or around 98 feet). I’ve been bringing it on my trips for about two months but I still have to fully get the hang of it and utilize it more often. Old habits die hard and I still find myself taking more still photos than video.
Table of Contents
DESIGN:
The Supremo 4K camera unit is matte black with a full LCD screen at the back and just a few buttons. The ports and battery are hidden behind a rubberized cover and sliding plastic panel respectively. The camera just has a few buttons including a Power and Record Button at the Top and a WiFi button in front. Aesthetically, it looks good. The waterproof casing looks very similar to other higher priced action cameras in the market right now. One good thing is that the camera is compatible with accessories of other similar action cameras.
PRODUCT FEATURES:
Here are the technical specs of the Supremo 4K:
- Lens angle – 170 degrees, 7G A+ Fisheye Super Wide Angle Lends
- Screen – 2.0″ LCD screen (960*240)
- Video – 4K at 24fps, 2.7K at 30fps, 1080p at 60fps video quality
- Photo – 16MP (20MPx interpolated/14MP/12MP/10MP/8MP/5MP JPEG
- Battery – 1000mAh, 3.7V lithium battery
- Waterproof – maximum at 30 meters
- Ports – HDMI Mini (Type D) and USB 2.0 ports
- Memory Card – 4GB to 32GB Micro SD Card (sold separately)
- Diving Mode – Red light compensation function in diving mode
Aside from the action camera unit itself, it also comes packed with a LOT of accessories, including:
- Supremo Wrist Remote
- Waterproof Case
- Replacement Backdoor
- Frame
- Quick Release Buckle
- J-hook Buckle
- 360 Degrees Rotating Swivel Arm
- 3-Way Pivot Arm + Thumb Screws
- Lock Bold
- Flat Mount
- Curved Mount
- Clip Mount
- Hand Bar Mount
- Safety Tether
- Straps
- 3M Adhesives
- 2 Rechargeable Batteries
- Wall Charger
- USB Cable
What it doesn’t come with is a memory card. I guess that would be too much to ask, right? You’ll need a Micro SD card to be able to use the cam. Supremo recommends using a Class 10 MicrosSD card with at least 48mb/s writing speed to enjoy seamless HD and 4K video recording. The memory card can be expanded up to 32GB. I just cannibalized an old phone to use the internal memory so I could immediately test it out.
FIELD TEST NOTES:
- I’ve brought this on several trips including weekend mountain biking, motorcycle rides to Tanay, island-hopping to Palaui in Cagayan, to Laiya in Batangas and La Union.
- Since it’s waterproof, it’s very handy for water-based adventures. I felt secure taking it out during a very rough boat ride to Palaui when I wouldn’t risk my SLR. I also tried cliff-jumping in Tangadan Falls in La Union with it and it fared ok.
- I haven’t tinkered much with the settings (but will do that in future trips).
- Initially, I have to say that the photo and video quality in the auto setting comes out very bluish. Anything orange also comes out more greatly saturated than other colors. In general, people’s skin tone looks a little orange as well. I only found this out when I transferred photos and videos from trips to the computer.
- You can probably adjust the colors of photos in post processing, but it might be a lot of trouble if you have to do that for video.
- If you’re the type who is very particular about color quality, you might want to sit down with the manual for a while and study the settings to get your desired colors before you actually use it.
- I thought I would have to press the Record button first, but apparently the camera starts recording as soon as you turn it on. This kind of gets frustrating whenever you want to review previously taken footage because you end up with lots of short, useless clips.
- The screen also automatically goes off after a while, so you’re not sure if you’re recording or not. You have to check the light in front to make sure if it’s on or not.
- In photo mode, the default setting is pretty wide. This is good for landscape shots where you want to get a lot of the background. The distortion is very evident for close-up and product shots though.
- When mounted on the handlebar of a mountain bike, the video comes out very shaky. I shot with anti-shake on, but it seemed to have a more blurry effect like Jello-vision because it was trying to stabilize the rough terrain. I’ll try it again with the anti-shake off or on a chest mount. Still experimenting with this.
- Transferring photos and videos to a Desktop is pretty easy via a micro-USB cable. It automatically sorts videos and photos into two different folders.
SAMPLE PHOTOS:
These are some photos using the Auto mode on 8M (3264 x 2448). You can change the default photo setting from VGA (640 x 480) to 20M (5120 x 3840). The default setting has sort of this fisheye distortion effect when in photo mode. Colors aren’t that sharp and vivid as smartphone photos, unless you edit them.
The next photos are screengrabs from video clips. Since the camera shoots wide in video, you have the option to crop the photos more to your liking. These are unedited photos straight from the camera. You can see just how blue everything comes out.
SAMPLE VIDEO:
I was trying to save space on my memory card, so this collection of random footage from various trips was not shot in the highest quality. I think I was shooting at just 720p (60fps). I also blame myself for not keeping the selfie stick stable in a lot of the shots, which explains the general shakiness of the video. You can adjust the video resolution in the settings menu. The highest 4K quality shoots at 24fps. Here’s how footage looks for general travel, beach & water adventures.
Here’s some biking footage using the handlebar mount shot in 720p (120fps) with anti-shake on. I think I should turn the anti-shake off next time.
[MOTORCYCLING VIDEO COMING SOON]
PRICE:
The Supremo 4K Action Camera costs between P3,680-P6500 depending on where you buy it. It currently costs P3,680 at Kimstore as of March 2017.
VERDICT:
For its price, the Supremo 4K is an affordable gadget for weekend warriors who want souvenir photos and videos of their travels. It’s generally ok if you’re after selfie shots. With the number of accessories along with the camera, it’s very budget-friendly. You can get it for little over P3,500 pesos, which is just a fraction of the cost of the latest top of the line action camera (which currently costs up to P22,000.) It’s useful to have if you like doing adventure activities like mountain biking, motorcycling, air adventures and water activities where using bigger cameras is difficult.
However, if you are a professional athlete or really want to get serious on videography, you might want to invest more on an action camera capable of top photo and video quality for main footage. The Supremo 4K is still not bad to have as a back-up or extra camera to have around so that you can experiment with multiple angles for more dynamic editing options. I’ll try experimenting with this soon on a motorcycling trip, with a combination of other cameras.
WHERE TO BUY IT:
You can buy the Supremo 4K at any of the following: Abenson, Ambassador, Automatic, AV Surfer, D’24K, Electroworld, F8 Photo, Globe Telecom Stores, IGIG, J&R Appliances, Kimstore.com, Lazada.com, M20 Enterprise, Macys Camera Shop, Photoline, PRG Photo Shop, The Landmark Corp and SupremoWorld.com.