Action cameras: everyone is doing them these days. HTC’s latest device is a small point-and-shoot camera that is designed to get you out of the habit of viewing life through your smartphone and actually live it instead.
The Re offers you a way to shoot video and take still images without having to whip out your phone. Compatible with both iOS and Android, it's faster and less obtrusive than your camera phone, booting up in a couple of seconds. With a 16 megapixel sensor and the ability shoot high-definition video, the Re will do anything your smartphone camera can do, including time lapse videos. It shoots in both HD and full HD, and offers three photo resolutions: 16MP, 12MP and 8.3MP. The sensor is a Sony CMOS, and the lens offers an aperture of f2.8 for lower light shooting.
Looking at it, the Re doesn’t seem like much. The periscope shaped camera fits almost in the palm of your hand and has a wide angle lens that fits more in the frame than you’d think. It’s waterproof and a bit more sturdy than the average smartphone too.
But could it persuade you to leave the smartphone in your pocket?
The good
Setting up the Re is easy. You can start to shoot almost straight away once it has enough charge, but connecting it to your smartphone now saves a bit of hassle later.
Download the Re app from the Play or iOS App Store and follow the prompts. You’ll need bluetooth to make the initial connection, but the main connection to the camera comes through wifi, as the Re has its own wifi signal. That means you have a better range than bluetooth, but it also means you are dependent on a mobile data signal if you need to pick up email while you’re hooked up to the camera.
Once you have the camera connected to the app, you can use it as a live viewer to shoot footage, or simply to see what you’ve already captured. Clips and images can be transferred to your phone for sharing or editing. It’s a simple process.
There’s no power button, with HTC opting for a grip sensor instead, so picking it up turns it on. Until we realised that, there were a few accidental videos of trying to figure out how to power it on. Still images are captured by tapping the silver button on the back on the camera, with audible prompts to let you know that you have taken a photo; videos are captured by pressing the same button. It’s positioned where your finger falls naturally when gripping the camera, so using it feels natural. The time lapse mode is activated with a button on the front of the camera and signalled by a blue LED light that flashes when the camera is recording.
All this footage is saved to a micro SD card in the base of the camera,so that’s your only limitation on space; when it’s full, simply replace it with another one.
The not so good
Shooting blind won’t suit everyone. It takes a few tries to understand what the Re’s lens will and won’t capture, so you’re still dependent on your smartphone until you get the measure of the camera’s abilities. That said, it’s hard to miss your subject with that lens – it takes in a lot.
The Re may come with its own wifi connection but it’s not always the most reliable. In our tests, the connection dropped a couple of times, which was frustrating, and left us unable to see what we were shooting. Sometimes that was due to a previously saved wifi network muscling in but in one instance, the iPhone we were using couldn’t see the Re’s wifi network at all. But the majority of the time, the Re worked as expected.
The Re’s battery is built in and can’t be replaced easily, which means if you plan on doing any serious shooting with this, you should probably bring along a USB power supply just in case.
The rest
Don’t expect too much from the Re. Videos look nice and the images are what you’d expect from a camera phone, but it’s not going to replace your high-end camera on a permanent basis. It’s designed for on the go shooting, so it’s light and compact. Images we shot were similar to what we would have expected from a camera phone, so poor lighting had an impact on image quality, looking a bit soft around the edges.
The Re app is useful. Not only does it function as the viewfinder for the camera, but it also allows you to access the slow motion mode, activate the ultra wide lens mode, and gives you useful information on the camera such as its battery level and how many photographs you have space for.
Updates to firmware are delivered through the app, which means you can keep your camera up to date on the go.
The verdict
HHH
A useful little device, but may be on the pricey side for the average smartphone user.
