Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

In case you don't want to read my in depth review, the summary: in my opinion, the Re Camera is for those that want a cool toy camera or a simple wide angle pocket camera--one to take goofy underwater pool shots, one to take a time lapse of the snow building up in their yard, one to strap to your toddler and let them run around the park taking a video, one to take beautiful wide angle landscapes. I doubt it replaces anything you currently have, but in combination with your smartphone camera it is probably a great travel photo kit. With the Re Camera you won't be afraid to take it anywhere and can capture wide angle landscapes, selfies, time lapses, slow motion and action videos. WARNING! It is not for those that want to take selfies at a night time concert, or photos of their child blowing out birthday candles with the lights off. If you are concerned with image quality mentioned in other reviews, read below and check out my photo uploads comparing it to an iPhone 5s camera. In bright light the quality is good. In low light there is a lot of blur from motion in your hand or moving subjects. Now for the in-depth review. Let's start with the pros: 1) Wide-angle deliciousness! In the days of nearly every photo/video on Facebook or Instagram being flat and narrow field of view photos, the drama of a wide angle shot or video is very refreshing. The sensor/lens/processor of the camera are well harmonized to produce great photos in good light. The form factor helps do away with those vertical videos as well. This makes the camera a great pocket cam for traveling and days at the beach or an afternoon hike. 2) Ease of use. The camera is simple. One click of the button = photo. Hold down the button for a few seconds = video. 3) The form factor. While some scoff at the periscope/crack pipe/asthma inhaler aesthetics, I quite like it. The tube makes the lens stand up off whatever is holding it up. It also makes it easy to use a simple rubber band or Velcro strap to attach it fence posts, your jacket, tree branches, etc. this is especially handy for... 4) Time lapse videos. Because it's small and lightweight, has a wide angle lens, is relatively cheap, and weather proof, I don't feel bad leaving this outside to capture time lapses or long videos. This is probably my favorite aspect of the camera. While modern cell phones have this feature, who wants to leave their $600 phone out on a beach or city street for 2 hours. Smart phones also usually don't have wide angle lenses like the re cam either. It's so light, a little tape is all you need to mount this to nearly anything. 5) It takes a good selfie. With the distortion correction built in to the app, this camera takes a good selfie...better than any cell-phone I've tried. You get a lot of the background in, which is what you want to make your followers jealous, right! Of course, with the remote operation, you can set the camera on something and take a good selfie without your stretching your arm. Image quality. Those negative reviews that cite poor image quality are mistaken...to a degree. The quality of the images are good, but only in good lighting. Like any camera (even a $2000 DSLR), the right light is needed to get a good exposure for the lens/sensor/shutter settings. In order to make the camera have a large depth of field (nearly everything in focus), the aperture and sensor size are small. Coupled with the wide angle lens, this means that nearly everything is in focus all the time. This is good for video (no focus breathing) and action shots (the subject is always in focus) but only in good, bright light. I'm guessing those people complaining of blurry photos were using the camera in low light where the camera does not perform (see cons below). The cons: 1) Battery life leaves a little to be desired. While I deal with this by having a usb power pack handy, it seems doubling the capacity would have been better, especially since the time lapse is such a good feature of the camera. I get maybe an hour or so under heavy use? I haven't tested it much, but you will not be impressed by the battery. 2) The connectivity is not perfectly reliable. The trick I found is to make sure you start the app first. This tells the camera via Bluetooth to turn on the wifi. Then, you'll see the camera listed as wifi to which you can connect. This process takes 30-60 seconds which is a bit cumbersome to set up a time lapse or frame a selfie using the remote feature. It would have been nice if it was all through Bluetooth, but I guess the bandwidth of Bluetooth isn't good enough. But at least the remote shutter could have been a Bluetooth feature?! 3) The charging port is blocked by the tripod mount. If you want to take a long video or long time lapse, you'll need external power. Unfortunately, the charging port is blocked if you have a tripod attached. I get around this by strapping the camera to a tripod or any vertical pole so that the port at the bottom is exposed. Would be nice if the port was on the side or something though. 4) Low light performance. In photos, the low light performance is pretty bad. The camera seems to decrease the shutter speed a lot to deal with low light rather than upping the ISO and givin you grainy, but clear photos like an iphone. This means you need a really steady hand and a stationary subject to take usable low light photos. The form factor and companion app mean you can just set the camera down anywhere and snap a photo, but then why not just use your smartphone whichrobably has much better low light performance? Video is usable in lowish light, but this camera is best for outside and well lit interiors. 5) An advertised feature is that the camera (or app) automatically rotates images/video if you take them with the camera sideways. So far, this hasn't worked and I'm not sure if my camera is defective or what. I'm looking into it and will update accordingly. I've uploaded a few sample photos. I've compared the re cam to an iPhone 5s in direct sunlight. It's an good illustration of what most people are missing with their smartphone photos--wide angle. The crops are to compare image quality and in bright light you can see it's pretty good and on par with a good smart phone. In the interior photo (it's a Starbucks), you can see that the photos aren't nearly as sharp and clear. Whether it's from the motion of the subjects or a shaky hand, this camera is not ideal for interior (low light) photos. This is not a deal breaker for me, but can be for some I understand.