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There are essentially three types of action camera: boxy, miniaturised cameras like the GoPro Hero3; long, tubular-bodied cameras like the Ion Air Pro 3 Wi-Fi and flat, squat-bodied cams such as the Drift Innovation Ghost-S. HTCs Re, however, is a complete change from the norm. We imagine HTC drew inspiration from periscopes when coming up with the unique design, but the people we asked said it resembled a smokers pipe or an asthma inhaler depending on the colour. The Re is available in white, blue, orange and pink, although some colours will be exclusive to certain retailers.
The tall, elongated design has both advantages and disadvantages. The Re is incredibly comfortable to grip, feeling intuitive to hold and direct the lens, capturing every moment as still images or 1080p video. Its waterproof but isnt ruggedized so isnt designed to be thrown around. Youre safe down depths of 1m for up to 30 minutes, which doesnt come close to matching many of its rivals. You can buy an optional cap for greater depths, but HTC has yet to confirm how much this will cost.
A grip sensor automatically turns the camera when you pick it up on so theres less chance of missing a moment. The large shutter button rests comfortably under your thumb and another button on the front toggles slow-motion video. There are no other controls on the camera itself, keeping operation simple.
The small speaker emits a shutter sound when you take photos or start capturing video and you can adjust the volume from the Res companion app on iOS or Android. Your fingers naturally obstruct the speaker when gripping the camera, however, so unless you increase the volume the noise is muffled and you cant hear it. With the shutter sound turned off, its not obvious if the Re is recording unless youre looking directly at the shutter buttons blinking LED, which glows blue when in slow-motion mode and blinks red when recording video.
This isnt practical if youre shooting with an outstretched arm, or if the camera is mounted out of sight. We would have preferred haptic feedback, at least to indicate when video is being captured. Action cameras like the Ion Air Pro 3 will vibrate when it begins recording, which is perfect if the camera is mounted to a helmet or youre in a loud environment.
Capturing selfies and fleeting moments is certainly one of the Res strong points. Theres something incredibly convenient about being able to just grab the Re from a pocket to capture a moment with its wide-angle lens. Its fast operation is a real positive compared to grabbing your smartphone, after which time the moment might be gone. The inconspicuous design is a bonus too.
A Micro USB charging port and microSD card slot are hidden behind a plastic flap on the bottom of the Re. An 8GB microSD card is included in the box but up to 128GB cards are supported. Theres also a standard tripod thread on the bottom, meaning you can use the HTC Re with a whole host of mounts. The placement of the charging port means you cant charge the Re while its mounted or even just stood up on its base, which immediately rules out long videos or time lapses. It would have made more sense for the charging jack to be on the side of the tubular body.
As theres obviously no LCD screen to compose your shots or view your images, youll need to use the Re app for iOS or Android. We were impressed with how intuitive the app was; after initially pairing your smartphone via Bluetooth, a Wi-Fi direct connection is created automatically to view files or transfer them across to your smartphone. It remotely controls the camera, providing a live view from the sensor and a virtual shutter snap photos or shoot video. This goes some way to getting around the uncertainty of whether the camera is recording or not. Theres about a half second delay, which is what were used to see on other connected cameras. Transfer speeds were sometimes a little inconsistent, however.
You can adjust the cameras settings, changing video resolution and toggling the 146 degree ultra-wide angle mode. You can also have the Re automatically back up its contents to your connected smartphone, which is useful.
The Re app is also the only way to create a time lapse video, although the app makes this easy by letting you decide how often photos should be taken and for how long. You can then set the playback speed of 1, 10 or 30fps, which will result in either rough or smooth playback. The app will even tell you how long the resulting video will be based on your settings, then share the resulting video to services such as Instagram.
Disappointingly, you cant go back and change the playback speed if you decide its too choppy or too smooth. The Re does at least save all of the images to the microSD card, so you could feasibly transfer those images into a separate app to create another time lapse, but this isnt the most elegant solution.
HTC has also announced that the Re app will soon support live-streaming to YouTube. Android users can download a free update to the Re app from the 9th January 2015 to start taking advantage of this new feature, but iOS users will have to wait a little longer, as the free update is currently dated for sometime during Q1 of 2015. We’ll be testing out this feature shortly and will update this review once we’ve put it through its paces.
The Re doesnt come with any mounts as standard. We shot mainly with the camera handheld where the image stabilisation did a good job of reducing camera shake. We did attempt to mount it to our test remote control car using an adhesive mount from another action camera but the Re wasnt able to stay attached for more than a few short seconds. It would be unfair for us to judge the Re too harshly without its own official mount but its tall design and small mounted surface area didnt do it any favours. The Re will have a handlebar mount, head mount, a suction cup mount and a simple clip mount available.
You can shoot in ultra-wide angle mode but this introduces a lot of barrel distortion – best viewed full screen, 1080p
The Re is able to shoot 1080p and 720p video at 30fps as well as slow-motion in 720p. Thats not a lot of options compared to other action cameras at a similar price, such as the Toshiba Camileo X-Sports that can shoot at 60fps at 1080p or even 120fps at 720p resolution.
Image quality in our outdoor video test shooting at 1080p was average. In grey, overcast conditions the resulting footage was a little soft and there was a lot of detail missing from elements such as brickwork in buildings. The scene was well exposed, however, and the microphone was surprisingly sensitive, picking up all of the ambient noise of our rooftop.
The HTC Re did well in the static camera test
Footage from our short-lived remote control car test was also what we would expect of a camera at this price. It didnt rival more expensive action cameras such as the Drift Innovation Ghost-S for sharpness but colours were good. Slow-motion footage at 720p was underwhelming with a lot of noise and compression artefacts. It did respectably with the static image test with detail in the foliage and leaves and video was nice and smooth at 30fps.
The Re captures 16-megapixels stills and in good lighting it performs respectably, provided youre not expecting to make massive prints. For sharing the images on social media its perfectly fine but doesnt live up to any scrutiny when blown up. Shots were well exposed and colours were well saturated. If the camera is set to ultra-wide angle the Re app can correct the barrel distortion, which is handy and makes for more flattering photos of people.
Where the HTC Re falls short is in its low-light performance. Both stills and video were very noisy and soft. The Res F/2.8 lens is unable to capture enough light for faster shutter speeds, making it difficult to capture sharp images.
The HTC Re is an interesting action camera. It has its shortcomings, including limited video shooting options and average image quality. A battery life of 1hr 12 minutes of continuous 1080p video is also rather poor, and the placement of the charging jack makes poor battery life even more of an issue as its difficult to use the Re while charging. However, its shortcomings are partially negated at just how delightfully fun it is to carry the HTC Re around with you, capturing fleeting moments. Its the perfect size and shape to make it there ready as a life-logging device, more so than your traditional action camera.
The Re is HTCs first attempt at an action camera and it has many of the hallmarks of one. Should HTC decide to make a follow up, well certainly be interested as the HTC Re has lots of potential. If youre after a ruggedised, more traditional action camera, however, you wont go far wrong with the Toshiba Camileo X-Sports, which offers great value and performance for the money.
