F60B vs H9 comparison.

[nutsey]

I decided to compare very popular cheap action cams (US$35-45) side-by-side with same lenses and memory cards to reveal differences in hardware capabilities and firmware features. I swapped default lenses with inexpensive 4.35mm low-distorion ones. Memory cards I used are also identical (low-end 16Gb U1 Toshiba).

F60B camera is based on Allwinner V3 chip and uses Sony IMX179 8Mp sensor. H9 action cam (Eken H9 LY version) is based on Sunplus SPCA6350 SoC + Omnivision OV4679 4Mp sensor. Both of them claimed to record videos with similar resolutions and provide mostly similar basic features, so let's find out which one is better for the money.

[nutsey]

SoCs (F60B - Allwinner V3, H9 - Sunplus SPCA6350) compared:


Sensors (F60B - IMX179, H9 - OV4689) compared:

[nutsey]

Default bitrate values for all video modes (Mbit per second):

* - MJPEG encoder

Note: H9 records H264 vids using VBR algorithm, F60B uses CBR (ABR for some modes).

[nutsey]

Stills grabbed form 2K (2.7K30) video footages.

F60B fullsize

H9 fullsize

Here we can clearly notice the difference in FOV according to sensor size. Moreover, if you compare fullsize pics at 100% zoom level you will probably see tremendous contrast between outdated Motion JPEG and H264 video codecs. Larger sensor cell size for H9 is also can be seen in better shadow details. F60B looks better here due to the detail level it provides - you can easily read a license plate in a distance of ~30 meters .

[nutsey]

What is the best action to check if an action cam is good for an action? It's a real basketball game shot in 1080p60.

F60B fullsize

H9 fullsize

Fullsize snapshots speak for themselves. H9 wins here without any doubt. F60B's 1080p60 is nothing more than upscaled 720p60.

[jim]

Dear Nutsey,
Please share with us OV4689 and IMX179 comparison snapshots from [email protected] videos.
8MP vs. 4MP taken photos in same circumstances would be great also!

[thegamut]

So one comes with 256MB and the other with 512MB. I think they are giving us the gigabits again. Allwinner V3 will support as much memory as allwinner H3 off which it appears based.

1080p60 is nothing more than upscaled 720p60

The real resolution is: 1776x1008. The 720P downscales and the 1080P upscales. The real detail loss comes from the pixel binning and line skipping. Modes >30fps are all skipped from full size and not scaled. OV4689 is only skipping down from 2k with bigger pixels. With its smaller total area the sensor can capture a lot faster when you look at the specs.

What would be really interesting is finding an allwinner cam with the OV sensor and putting it head to head with the H9.

[nutsey]

The real resolution is: 1776x1008.

The real resolution must be nearly twice as little according to aliasing level and loss of details observed.

[thegamut]

Divide 2448 by 1008. It is almost literally twice as little. It looks slightly better when you record it without scaling another 10% up to make 1920x1080. But to say its 720P upscaled is wrong, it would imply 720p looks better, it doesn't.

native 60P with no in-cam processing: http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php...93384763017321

[nutsey]

Rather interesting and useless fact: AIT 8428 chipset also works only with OV4689 or IMX179 (never saw cams with others).

[nutsey]

By the way, Gearbest sells Excelvan Pro4 action camera based on AIT8428 + IMX179: http://www.gearbest.com/action-cameras/pp_595236.html

[thegamut]

The specs aren't bad: http://www.a-i-t.com.tw/english/Appl...hp?id=30&tid=2

[jim]

Dear Nutsey,
I can see the F60B (upscaled) vs. H9 (native) [email protected] huge differences.
Please share with us OV4689 and IMX179 comparison snapshots from [email protected] videos.
8MP vs. 4MP taken photos in same circumstances would be great also!
This question is important to me, because I would like to decide asap about the buying... I don't want to pay more than the price of these units, but I need the better one.
Thanks in advance!

[nutsey]

This comparison will not be 100% fair. Going to compare these sensors after getting V3 + OV solution.

[jim]

Please report, if You will know any firmware for AllWinner V3 + OV4689 or IMX179 with a support of real/native [email protected]
Thanks in advance!