Revl Arc - Review 2022

The Revl Arc ($499) is an upstart competitor to industry-leading GoPro, congenital on the promise of steadier video, thank you to an integrated mechanical gimbal. But we found it to be less than effective in testing, to the betoken where it's more of a hindrance than a feature. The waterproof activity cam tin shoot smooth 4K, 1080p, and even 720p video, also as JPG still images, just the additional frame rates and photo features promised in Revl's advertisement are not yet available, even with the latest firmware. Skip this one and go the GoPro Hero6 Black instead—it'southward a ameliorate photographic camera, $100 less expensive, and our Editors' Choice.

Pattern

The Arc is a modest, cylindrical camera with a rubberized exterior, two control buttons, and a small information LCD. It measures three by 1.8 by 1.8 inches (HWD) and weighs half-dozen.6 ounces. The photographic camera itself is black, with silverish accents, and includes a condom beauty ring around the lens. The band is removable and Revl includes a agglomeration with the camera. It ships with a bue ring, only you can modify it to blackness, green, regal, or yellowish.

The gimbal sits at the rear and detaches. You lot can use the camera on its own without information technology, although you won't enjoy protection from water with it detached, nor will you have admission to whatever sort of mount. When the gimbal is installed the Arc is rated for underwater utilise as deep as 33 anxiety.

The gimbal doubles equally the attachment for mounts at its rear. Three are included. One is a GoPro-style foot mountain that slides right into the included sticky mounts. The 2nd is as well styled after GoPro, the type of mount that slides into compatible accessories and secures with a locking screw. Finally there's a standard tripod mount.

Y'all'll need to remove the gimbal to charge the camera, change the battery, and access the retentiveness carte du jour. In that location's a micro USB port for charging, a removable battery slot (2 are included), and a microSD retentivity card slot that supports cards up to 128GB. Because of the design, y'all tin't run the Revl off of ability and while it's mounted or stabilized. That's in stark contrast to the GoPro Hero6, which can be powered from an external USB source and remain fully functional, albeit non waterproof with its battery door open.

That is a concern, equally battery life isn't peachy. Yous can expect to get a picayune less than 45 minutes of recording time on a fully charged battery at 4K resolution. I got close to double that with the Hero6 Black. To get more life out of the Arc you need to drib the resolution—expect virtually 80 minutes at 1080p, and close to 2 hours at 720p.

Y'all're limited to two command buttons on the camera itself. The elevation, marked with an oval icon, controls power, confirms menu input, starts and stops video, and snaps photos. The bottom, marked with three parallel lines, scrolls through the card, displayed on the small monochrome LCD.

Yous can likewise connect the Arc to an Android or iOS device and command information technology with your telephone. You become access to a few more settings, like video frame rate, which are not accessible from the camera itself. Yous tin can also run across through the photographic camera'southward lens with the app, and stream video directly to Facebook. Because the connection with the camera is Wi-Fi, you'll need to use your LTE data for streaming.

Video Quality

Revl attempts to solve a real problem with action cams, stabilization and leveling. Most cameras of this blazon use ultra-broad lenses that innovate a bit of fish-eye distortion to video, an effect that is exacerbated at the edges of the frame and more noticeable when a camera isn't level. The Arc incorporates a single-axis gimbal into its design. The gimbal is designed to go along information technology level at all times.

Information technology doesn't work that well. I tested information technology in a few extreme mounting situations—first using a dog mount to put it on the chest of a very immature and active pup, then on the shakiest platform I had access to, the hood of a John Deere tractor. The domestic dog footage is extremely shaky and the camera struggles to stay level every bit the gimbal makes some admittedly terrifying noises that are highly audible on the soundtrack.

A more minor stress test, walking with the photographic camera in paw, also netted less than elegant results. The gimbal tends to overcompensate for movement, and while it promises to keep the horizon level, it doesn't. I didn't hear whatsoever loud gimbal noise here, merely there is an underlying, constant static created by its movements.

The camera does include electronic image stabilization, but non when shooting in 4K. This is in contrast to the GoPro Hero6, which applies a very slight crop to its 4K footage to keep it digitally stable. GoPro's stabilization tech is very good, and you lot don't need to worry about noise from a gimbal to take reward of information technology.

As for video quality itself, the 4K 30fps footage is saved at 60Mbps in H.264 format and is definitely precipitous. White balance is a serious concern—the camera is all over the place, adjusting the color temperature of footage as it records. While you desire a video camera to arrange to changing lite, our test footage was outdoors nether consequent sunlight and the changes were unnecessarily desperate.

And there are a lot of things that you wait the Arc to practice—based on the advertising in the visitor'due south marketing material—that don't work however. It's supposed to support 24fps capture at 4K, also as various frame rates at 2.7K and 1440p. Fifty-fifty with the latest firmware installed, it doesn't. Information technology's besides supposed to shoot time-lapse video and offer a burst epitome capture mode; those are as well missing. It can snap 12MP JPG stills, merely that'south it for however imaging. Revl expects the firmware which unlocks these features to be available in July.

Conclusions

I'll give credit to the engineers at Revl for trying something new. I haven't seen another action camera with an integrated gimbal design. The trouble is, the Arc's gimbal seems to do more damage than good, and while its digital paradigm stabilization works at lower resolutions, it's not available at 4K. Add in a cost that's college than meliorate cameras, and a slew of promised features that have not yet been delivered, and you accept a product that just isn't worth your money. Our Editors' Pick, the $400 GoPro Hero6 Black, is a better performer all around, and $100 cheaper. If you're on a stricter budget you lot tin can still get the GoPro Hero5 Black for $300, or the YI 4K+ for around $340.

Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/video-cameras/20232/revl-arc

Posted by: starkficiones99.blogspot.com

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