hpr-knowledge-base/hpr_transcripts/hpr3105.txt

Episode: 3105
Title: HPR3105: Akaso EK7000 Pro
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr3105/hpr3105.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-24 16:50:16

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This is Hacker Public Radio Episode 3105 for Friday, 26 June 2020.
Today's show is entitled, Akato EK7000 Pro. It is hosted by Ahuka
and is about 17 minutes long, and carries a clean flag. The summer is
my experience with an inexpensive waterproof action camera called the Akato EK7000 Pro.
This episode of HPR is brought to you by AnanasThost.com.
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Hello, this is Ahuka. Welcome to Hacker Public Radio Episode 3105.
Welcome to Hacker Public Radio Episode 3105.
Welcome to Hacker Public Radio Episode 3105.
Welcome to Hacker Public Radio Episode 3105.
Welcome to Hacker Public Radio Episode 3105.
Welcome to Hacker Public Radio Episode 3105.
Welcome to Hacker Public Radio Episode 3105.
Welcome to Hacker Public Radio Episode 3105.
Hello, this is Ahuka. Welcome to Hacker Public Radio and another
exciting episode. And in this case what I want to do is I want to talk about
a camera that I bought. So basically my wife and I had decided that
getting away from cold winters was a good thing and the long range our idea was
to get an RV and become what we call snowbirds that get away, go south for the winter.
But we haven't actually done that and I saw a really good deal on a cruise.
Now in hindsight and I'm recording this at the height of the coronavirus
raging through the United States, we were very lucky.
I think we had the cruise and while we were on the cruise we were starting to hear
about the coronavirus. The cruise in February.
You know we started that I think we left like the eighth or something like that.
And so there was some notion of it going around but it was at the time mostly
what concerned us was that every time we did anything on the ship they were spraying our
hands with hand sanitizer which in hindsight was a really smart thing.
So we did have a great time, we got home just fine, no particular issues.
But as we were looking at going on this cruise it was pretty obvious that
we were going to be in the water at least part of the time.
I was really looking forward to trying out some snorkeling and various other
water activities because you know heck if you go to the Caribbean in the winter
wouldn't you want to get outside and get in the water and things like that.
And I thought well I like to take pictures while I'm on a trip like this.
You know just something to remember it by.
Well you know most of the time I rely on my phone for all of the pictures I'm
going to take and I thought that's not a good place to be.
If you're going to be around a lot of water and I've seen people take a smart
phone and put it inside a plastic bag and seal it up and yeah I just wasn't sure
I wanted to take that kind of a risk. So as it happens I was watching a video
on YouTube and in this video the person was talking about evaluating
different underwater cameras and it turns out I thought I could get a camera
to do this that would cost significantly less than replacing my phone.
So he did a review of all of these cameras and there will be a link in the
show notes that's on YouTube so you can watch that video.
And one seemed to be pretty good and fairly inexpensive.
Now the one he was reviewing with something called an SJ cam and I went looking
for it but somehow ended up with what looks like the same camera under a different
name which I suspect happens a lot with electronics products from China.
The one I got is the Akaso EK7000 Pro which cost me the grand total of $84.79
US with a 64 gigabyte microSD card included and that's where you store all
of your photos and movies. So was it a good buy? Read on.
I'm going to give you my evaluation but first of all you know what are the
features of this thing? Is it a good thing on paper at least?
It's a competitor to the GoPro and so most of the things that you would do
the connections, the hardware, what have you. It's all GoPro compatible.
But you know GoPro is a lot more expensive and probably has a lot more features.
Now one feature this camera does have is it's an app that lets you control the camera
from your smartphone and it has Wi-Fi connectivity for that purpose.
Now the fact that Wi-Fi is what it uses means you're not going to control this camera
if you're not on a network and that turned out to bite me in the butt a little bit.
So I have written up on my website with some photos and one of the things
that I discovered is that there was virtually no documentation in the box when it arrived.
So I'm going to give it a down grade for that. There was a website where you can
get a PDF of the user manual even that was very skimpy. Fortunately there are
videos on YouTube that come to the rescue and I've got links in the show notes
for a number of these that you know people unboxing, reviewing, what have you.
And some of them even comparing it with the GoPro.
So there are resources available but you have to look.
Now the camera is very lightweight even when in the waterproof case and it's pretty small.
All right, again a lot like the GoPro in that respect.
It has a screen in the back and that screen does have touch features but only when not in the waterproof case.
Now the waterproof case does have the ability to press buttons at various points.
The camera comes attached to a plastic base that is glued onto the box and my first puzzle was how to remove it.
And I eventually figured it out but with no help from the user manual.
There are two arms under the camera with a rubber piece in between that is also attached to the case.
You pull out the rubber piece from between the two arms, pinch them together and you can pull it out.
And I put an annotated photo on my website again link in the show notes so you can see how that works.
Now in addition to the camera and the case there is quite a selection of plastic parts in the box, most of which are for mounting.
But again the user manual is not quite clear on how any of this works.
There's also a pair of batteries, a battery charger, a remote control.
And as I said I bought one with an included 64GB micro SD card.
Now since the camera only uses one battery at a time you can have a charged spare ready to go but be careful that you don't actually short out the contacts and start a fire.
So I find leaving the extra battery in the charging module is just a good way to keep it secure.
I also bought a few more of the micro SD cards since we'll be on a two week holiday with limited internet access.
In fact the only internet access we had was LTE when we were in port.
So I thought what I would do is I'd fill a card and just swap in a fresh one as needed.
As it turns out I never get anywhere near 64GB of total usage.
I would have been fine with just one. So I could have saved a few bucks there.
On the other hand having a couple more 64GB SD cards around is kind of a first world problem.
I'll find a use for them eventually.
Now as I mentioned it's a competitor to the GoPro only much less expensive.
Well how much less expensive?
You know I just did a quick thing on Amazon and it was about $300 for a GoPro Hero 5.
My Acasso was 85 with the SD card included.
So it basically GoPro is about four times more.
The hardware follows the same standard.
So if you had some mounting hardware or gadgets and gadgets that would work with the GoPro they'll work with this.
The box comes with a wrist mounted remote with a strap and there are several straps and Velcro ties.
However the remote appears to be splash proof but not waterproof so I won't be wearing it on any dives.
As an action camera though it can be used on a cycle.
It comes with a mounting bracket for that purpose and other miscellaneous mounting hardware straps and ties.
Now in addition to the camera and the micro SD cards I also purchased a head strap so I could wear the camera while diving and a small Gorillapod tripod.
Adding it all up I spent about $128.
I don't think that's too bad, 128 US.
Now the other thing I want to mention is that the Smart's phone software that is available.
It's called iSmartDB.
It is available for both Android and iOS and it lets you connect the camera to the phone via Wi-Fi.
The camera itself becomes the network access point and you connect your phone to the Wi-Fi first just as with any other Wi-Fi network.
There is a password in the downloaded documentation which you will need and again it is a hard coded password.
Not the best way of doing things but again it's just a camera.
Once you have the Wi-Fi connection open the Smart, the iSmart DV app, add a camera and you can now control your camera from the phone.
This can be useful for viewing or deleting pictures and videos.
There is also a Bluetooth capability but that is only for the remote control that connects to the camera.
So how did it work after I had a chance to use it on this trip?
Because I have now returned and as I'm recording this it is early April.
So I've been back a little over a month.
I've had a chance to look at the photos and movies I took.
I can give you a pretty reasonable idea of the pluses and minuses and how the overall thing worked.
Now I would say bottom line good value for money.
I think it is but whether it's the one you want may depend on a few factors.
First of all it does what it claims to do.
I took it snorkeling when we were in the Virgin Islands and took it along while climbing a waterfall in Jamaica and camera worked fine.
The waterproof case kept it waterproof.
I was able to work the controls and do whatever I needed to do.
I did have some trouble while snorkeling in part because I'd never done snorkeling before.
I'm trying to operate a camera and snorkel and occasionally my brain just locked up and decided that not drowning was the only thing that mattered.
In hindsight is a priority I can endorse.
On my website and there will be links in the show notes.
I put a short movie.
It's an MOV format.
You can see this is one that I took while snorkeling.
You can just see what that does.
Bear in mind it's not crystal clear but that's a combination of the quality of the camera and the clarity of the water.
But it's not bad.
I also did a few videos when I was not in the water.
One thing I did not realize right away in hindsight I should have is that you get no sound while the camera is in the waterproof case.
Good to know.
Next thing I'd point out.
I did take videos and photos with my camera when it was safe to do so and with the phone when it was safe to do so.
I can compare them side by side and clearly the quality for the camera is not as good as the quality with the phone.
Now I spent a lot more on the phone than I did on the camera but you know there is a bit of a trade off.
I was not going to take my phone along while we were climbing a waterfall for instance.
There's so many ways that can go wrong.
I had trouble just staying on my feet a lot of the time.
So there's a trade off.
Would a GoPro at about four times the cost to a better job.
Quite possibly that I really don't want to spend that kind of money just to find out.
I thought the photos were acceptable so I've uploaded one again link in the show notes taken while we were climbing the falls.
And it's looking up in the canopy and you can see some people on a raised I think they're zip lining actually.
So you take a look at it and see what the quality is I would say it's acceptable under the circumstances.
So another thing if you take a look at that photo as little gotcha that it's a minor annoyance but the camera was designed to put the date the photo was taken on the shot.
Okay that's not necessarily a bad thing but in this case the photo I put up says June 1st 2019.
And actually the photo was taken in February of 2020.
I think I figured out what that was.
What I think happened is that when I was on the ship I would take out the battery to recharge it every night.
And when I did so it would lose all of the date settings and refer revert to a default date.
Now I did not notice it in the test photos I did at home before we left because we were always on the home network and the Wi-Fi connection to my phone would give it the correct date.
But when we went on the cruise we decided not to spend the money for a Wi-Fi connection so there was nothing to be done.
This is again first world problems. I'm not going to worry about it. I know what the date is and I have it sorted appropriately.
I could try and edit the photo to take that out but I haven't bothered to do that.
So passing this along this may be something that's attractive to someone if you've been thinking about some day having an inexpensive competitor to a GoPro that's waterproof.
Now you know one possibility. So this is a hookah for hacker public radio and again reminding everyone stay indoors and wash your hands. Bye bye.
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