Lead Edge 4K Action Camera Review

Lead Edge 4K Action Camera Review

Buy it at Amazon: Lead Edge 4K Action Camera [Affiliate Link]

Takeaway: High resolution images and video, average clarity, sharpness of details, audio isn't great.

You'll receive the action camera in a waterproof housing, an extra battery, a spare waterproof housing door, microUSB charging cable, a selfie stick monopod, a variety of clamps, mounts, sticky pads, straps, and accessories camera mounting, and an instruction manual. The camera and all its accessories fit into the semi-rigid hard clam shell case it comes in.

On the front of the camera is a 170 degree wide-angle lens and power/mode button. On the left-hand-side you've got the microUSB charging port, microHDMI output port, and microSD card slot which accepts up to 64GB cards, however, one is not included. On the opposite side are the menu ‘up' and ‘down' keys and external speaker. The ‘up' button doubles as the WiFi key for connecting to the NTK smartphone app. On the back is a 2 inch diagonal LCD screen, and on the bottom is the battery bay. On a full charge, the camera runs with the LCD on for about an hour of recording time.

The quality of the video is decent. It got HD resolution, though fast motion tends to be blurry and somewhat choppy. The white balance and color control isn't always perfect it very bright or very dark conditions, and it takes a second or two for the auto white balance (AWB) to kick in. The anti-shake feature removes some of the shakiness caused by handheld filmed, but not all of it. Using the monopod helps, but a gimbal or steadycam would really be your best options short of a stationary tripod. The audio when inside the waterproof housing is pretty much entirely muted. Outside of the case the mic seems to work fine but I had to bump up the gain for the audio to be heard clearly even from only a few feet away from the camera. I liked the slow motion mode for this camera, as it makes your video much smoother and adds a dramatic effect. However, the setting claims 120 frames per second which would be 1/4 speed, but in video editing it turned out to be 90 fps so only 1/3 speed.

If you download the NTK Cam app, you can use your smartphone as a remote screen for the camera over WiFi. This app is very similar to the XDV app I've used with other action cameras, although this camera isn't compatible with both apps. This action cam is a budget conscious entry-level camera so it doesn't really compete in the same class as the GoPro in terms of video quality and video processing. I gather the video compression codec has a lot to do with that which tends to degrade the sharpness of the images. Although the resolution of the video is 4K, the footage isn't always super smooth or crisp but at least you get a nice, wide field of view and serviceable clarity and color reproduction.

Buy it at Amazon: Lead Edge 4K Action Camera [Affiliate Link]