Is the SMO 4K the end of the Naked GoPro?

[@justfpv1432]

This is perfect for those not willing to take apart a gopro for a reasonable price this is really good!

[@divingfalconfpv4602]

Well considering hero 7 cost more than this a Then u have to buy case and bec. Hero 7 doesnt work with reelsteady. And u lose the warranty if it breaks. So this is a pretty great deal.

[@rubenvaneupen7327]

Best review of this cam I have seen so far!

[@sharkbytefpv4326]

Thanks Scott, was looking forward to your video. See you an FPVC

[@techknowbabble]

Thanks for tearing down the unit and showing the boards!

[@MixedRealitySimRacing]

Looks like I could stack the camera part and main thing on top of each other to create a very dense version. Thinking about putting the lense part separate on the front of a helmet and the rest somewhere else.

[@whiffles]

I'd love to see somebody design a 3D printed case to make it into a cube shape.

[@MagicFPV]

Love the succinct style. Subbed ✅

[@princesfpvdrones]

Well, thank you! A few months ago I was all ready to tear into a hero 6 GoPro I had but suddenly stopped short when I realized that there would be no sound in my Video as a result. In my line of work, on my long range Cinematic rigs, I must have sound, so I never did the whole Naked GoPro thing. Glad I didn't! Thank you for your review. What a relief this one includes a mike and thus very interested in getting this set up for sure!

[@cmacclel]

Why do you need a mic on an FPV quad?

[@princesfpvdrones]

@@cmacclel Because for 5" and up I need to hear how the motors are doing, they speak to me..

[@TheDroneNerd]

@@princesfpvdrones I didn’t know naked go pros couldn’t record the audio. Thanks !

[@armani007E55]

@@TheDroneNerd same ! Interesting fun fact. I'm currently getting parts to build this. I'm excited with weight as the future will be sub 250 drones. 😎🤙

[@TheDroneNerd]

@@armani007E55 Another upside is this smo4K doesn’t only capture great stabilized footage but it also records the audio, something the GoPro is missing so win win for smo4k

[@Matan_Mizrahi]

Great review, the SMO is exactly what the FPV community needs

[@geehe]

Could you share an original smo 4k raw file fron an fpv footage ? It’ll be great to see what can be done with the studio app. I also want to have a look at what matadata in there.

[@mmMartinluu]

Looking at the internal components, I feel like they could have designed the main camera board to be a stack component. Thats if this is truly built for fpv drones.

[@whiffles]

You might just be on to something there.. I'm not sure I'd want this to be a permanent fixture on my quad though.

[@skyrotfpv]

Great review. Thanks for sharing! 🔥

[@emmaoliver2024]

Thank you I've been ringing all the fpv shops in Australia and no one could tell me if it supported barrel roll editing and other features witch made the insta 360 go cool and worth buying. Footage is nice though

[@MattsPaddock]

What about the ISO and white balance settings, were they on auto or? The change in exposure is really noticeable, it's working a lot

[@whiffles]

These are the auto settings but you can fix the iso and shutter down to 1/60

[@razvannicola5197]

Sorry for asking, but, could this stuff be used solely for aerial photography or mapping, mounted on a fixed wing RC aircraft, I mean the E-flite Beechcraft d18, right in the position that the real model camera was placed in the camera bay. Thank you in advance.

[@jisohn]

Thanks. I am still thinking go pro8 naked or smo4k.

[@whiffles]

Personally I prefer the Hero8, but it's more troublesome to prepare.

[@pixeiproduxions2426]

Can you manual set your shutter speed? Some say you can, some say you can't. This way you can get more motion blur in your footage. Upper and lower ISO limit would be nice to see, but I read you cant do that. Imo flowstate doesnt come near Reelsteady, but this is more a software problem then hardware, hope they can solve this

[@whiffles]

Yes, you can lock the shutter speed, ISO and white balance.

[@Time2FLYAlDiaz]

Good to know I can use that DIY balance lead to power it up. What size was the mounting bolt/screw you used? Thanks for sharing!

[@whiffles]

I believe it's an m2 screw, but I'm not sure of the length. It comes with the camera.

[@archer4922]

Great detailed quick review 👍. Definitely a good competitor to gopro. Still rocking my session 5’s but this one is looking better and better every video I watch.

[@fpvfritz]

Good job, I'm glad you did a bit of a tear down, i was curious what was inside! The gopro audio processing is hard to beat!

[@aviarro4988]

Good comparison, thank you!

[@skyhackerfpv7104]

It looks nice but can you lock ISO and shutter speed? I like the smooth motion blur you can get with a gopro by locking shutter speed. Is that an option with this camera?

[@whiffles]

Yes you can lock the ISO, shutter speed and white balance.

[@skyhackerfpv7104]

@@whiffles oh great! That's a real game changer for me. Thanks for the info and review!

[@DrFrantic77]

Nice review dude, where i can get the adapter

[@whiffles]

The plug adapter? I believe BETAFPV is selling it separately.

[@AfafPrinceOSH]

@@whiffles bro what's the dimension of the board?

[@divingfalconfpv4602]

If a lot of people buy this and they see a market. It will get better as they put more research and design into it. Like flywoo tanked their naked gopro. Was poor design with power plug location and mount hitting it. Then my USB btb connector broke on main board

[@outboxfpv4360]

Nice one sir. Can we mount old naked gopro mount on this 95x V3?

[@whiffles]

I believe BETAFPV will release the .stl to mount a naked GoPro.

[@alexanderklose6942]

meeeehhh just ripped out a heart of a hero8. Works ok naked but not super flawless. but the results of the gopro look much better to me. That sharpening is nasty. But not bad at all for the price if you dont have the skills to build a naked gopro. thanks for that test man!! Really appreciate it!

[@whiffles]

I agree, the Hero8 looks much better. I really hope Insta360 does something about the sharpness. I'd love a setting to reduce it to medium or even soft.

[@alexanderklose6942]

@@whiffles yeah that would be so great because technically its much better than my naked gopro which takes hours to get it record the right things. at least thats how it feels ;)

[@TheDroneNerd]

Can you share the link to the tool You used to remove the camera screws?

[@whiffles]

That's the Wowstick 1F+

[@SirCrashaLot]

Cheers for your work, nice vid,no BS, only usefull info.

[@TERBANGFPV]

My smo 4k flowstate fails with c85 hd quad... the vibration kills the flowstate. The raw and Unstabilized footage is smooth, buth the flowstate became jittery and wobbly

[@whiffles]

It doesn't like a lot of fast motion and quick movements. I did some motocross chasing and flowstate failed quite a bit.

[@TERBANGFPV]

@@whiffles but it works with my rekon5 quad with long range and freestyle. Also works with my tbs sourceone freestyle quad

[@TERBANGFPV]

@@whiffles i think it wants to use springy mount for high vibe quad like on whoops etc

[@no-trick-pony]

Thanks for the review! I am confused - doesn't the Hero 6 also support 4k 60 - is there a reason you went with 30fps instead? Also, does this have a flat color profile (or LOG/SLOG)? Because the highlights are blown out pretty badly and I would MUCH rather apply a color grade to flat footage in post than have blown out footage. Edit: Isn't it also roughly 4 or 5 grams heavier than a gopro conversion?

[@whiffles]

You need to record in 4:3 for ReelSteady Go and it only does 60fps on 16:9. This does have a flat color profile, but I didn't show it here. And yes, it's a few grams heavier depending on the case you use on the GoPro.

[@no-trick-pony]

@@whiffles Thanks a lot.. didn't know the 4:3 thing, makes a lot of sense now.

[@tma645]

that's a nice clean video! thanks!

[@WIL_FPV]

Thanks 🙏 for your job, informative

[@DronoTron]

nice video, dont forget you can make full edits with multiple clips using your phone

[@kintaxfuera92]

I Man, where can I find STL to mount the cam on the beta95xv2?

[@whiffles]

Sorry, I don't have the link handy, but it's on BetaFPV's helpdesk site.

[@strikerFPV]

Why is the camera so shaky without stabilization? Is the sensor loose or something?

[@whiffles]

It was on a little Beta95X. They can get bumped around with the smallest amount of wind.

[@strikerFPV]

@@whiffles Thanks for the answer. 0 experience with cameras on light quads.

[@whiffles]

@@strikerFPV Stabilization is a must for these little rigs, but it works remarkably well.

[@LifeExotics]

Loved your video and subbed!

[@michalfurberger511]

which googles are you using ?

[@andyk939]

So, without reelsteady is this worthwhile to shoot on?

[@whiffles]

It's a viable alternative. You be the judge whether or not the video quality is on par with GoPro though.

[@BagrijRoman]

Great review. Thanks

[@rubenvaneupen7327]

Can you fix the shutter speed to a certain value?

[@whiffles]

You can fix the ISO, shutter speed and white balance.

[@rubenvaneupen7327]

@@whiffles shutter speed only to 1/60 it seems?

[@whiffles]

@@rubenvaneupen7327 1/60 is the min setting. It goes up from there, 1/80, 1/100, 1/120 etc.

[@whiffles]

Probably need something lower than that to get motion blur on 30fps though. I wonder how 1/60 would do on 60fps.

[@rubenvaneupen7327]

@@whiffles och ok, great, thx!

[@ailedrone56telepilotedrone48]

hi or can we find the file to print the part to install the camera thank you

[@whiffles]

Here, betafpv.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/27000065063-stl-file-of-the-camera-mount-for-smo-4k

[@ailedrone56telepilotedrone48]

@@whiffles Thank you

[@MindRiderFPV]

Costs as much as an H8?? I was expecting under $150.

[@SeeFPv-qm6ie]

what app do i use

[@whiffles]

Use the Insta360 One R app

[@mariojetsfan4426]

I can color and desharpen my footage to get it to look like gopro! I'm pumped i just bought mine!!

[@pixeiproduxions2426]

Can you desharpen in the software?

[@YorkyPoo_UAV]

Every time you said "At least you have a choice" I thought... "But it helps"

[@daich]

I can’t believe they kept the form factor. It is only that way because of the Gopro components. They could have made it soooooo much more usable for FPV 🤦🏻‍♂️ I mean I guess it’s a start. If only they just mounted the PCB behind the lens.....

[@whiffles]

That'd be interesting especially since the boards are square. Maybe somebody will design a different enclosure.

[@Stubedesign]

Same opinion. I also had this same thought and idea of placing the PCB behind the lens to be in a more compact format (close to the shape of session 5 for example), BUT it's a great solution to all that want a 30g camera that can take "decent" footage... ok it's not that TOP quality but it's a start! Oh and don't forget that insta360 are incredible fast regarding updates and new software tweaks to get the most out of the SMO 4K... for example the "FPV mode" as created by the developers because people started using the insta360 go on FPV quads but the camera only took 1m footage... then they release the "FPV mode" and bumped to 5m recordings, ideal to most flights. So I do expect a bunch of firmware updates to this one ;)

[@HayTex]

i want to like the SMO soooo bad but it just looks like reelsteady and gopro are still better

[@NerdyFpv]

Great review! It really helped with my decicion :) But kind of "unfair" to take a full size gopro to compare audio, since none of the "naked" gopro´s (commercially available at least) comes with a microphone.. The Smo is a direct competitor to the naked gopro, and actually wins the audio contest for that simple reason imo.! ;) I also think it beats the naked gopro 6 in terms of image quality in this test(on my 4k monitor). So at least for me, the Smo will be my choise. Since I don't want to make a naked gopro 8 myself, I would have to buy it decased, whitch would set me back 600$ from Cinestar for example.. I also like to have audio on my clips, so for me after a lot of research, the Smo 4k wins for now. Btw. was the color plus option enabled in the footage when you compared it to the hero 8? Cheers!

[@whiffles]

I believe I had color plus off except when explicitly noted.

[@pasky7777]

Best review of this cam I have seen. It like that you show cased the GoPro connector. I want to use this on several quads. Where can we get that?

[@pasky7777]

I can answer my question. Found it on the betafpv.com/collections/others/products/smo-4k-camera-adapter-cable page.

[@jensonphil7350]

Good review, I have wonder My phone don't support 5g wifi, could I connect by bluetooth? and do you know about ipex connector? (right below of board)

[@whiffles]

I believe you need wifi to make changes to the settings. I'm not sure if it's exclusively 5g wifi though.

[@BmoreVisuals]

Great review as always! These may be more reliable than the go pro since they are assembled by professionals, less room for error. However image on the go pro still looks better in my opinion decisions decisions..

[@whiffles]

Yep, I agree. The GoPro does look better but it's just less reliable. I'm going to try that new iFlight Hero8 BEC and case. Hopefully that's reliable.

[@BmoreVisuals]

@@whiffles I personally haven’t had any issues with my naked go pro yet but I’m honestly surprised. My only complaint is that it doesn’t always connect to the app correctly, and takes a few mins which causes my vtx to get hot. I guess i could avoid that by powering it directly from the lipo, but my point being the user experience on this looks better!

[@whiffles]

@@BmoreVisuals I still think you get a better result with GoPro, so you're golden.

[@AfafPrinceOSH]

@@whiffles hey bro would u mind telling me the overall height of the mother boards, needed the info for fpv. TIA

[@whiffles]

@@AfafPrinceOSH Every stack usually indicates the height in the specs.

[@KenjiFPV]

nice video!

[@DennisRiessbeck]

Why doesn't it have horizon lock, such a huge loss.... Depending on the scene and flight having the option is great with the insta360 go, shame. big deal breaker for me.

[@whiffles]

I hope they can add it at some point. It does seem like a bit of an oversight.

[@DennisRiessbeck]

@@whiffles it depends if the camera can take 1 to 1 ratio video like the go does, if not then it was never considered to have horizon lock, and was more designed as a regular action cam.

[@thirdpartycookie]

I wish there was a world without KZbin compression

[@whiffles]

Yeah, I even exported this at more than 100mbps. It's the best I could do!

[@FPFPV]

If only GoPro sold their own naked cam based on the Hero 9, that would be the dream! But considering they discontinued the Session, that's kinda unlikely.

[@whiffles]

I doubt they'll ever release something just for us.

[@yannickg6904]

@@whiffles Lol, they learned their lesson with the Session 5.

[@mategolarits7053]

Great camera, but a naked gopro is still better. Atleast we have competition which is good for the hobby

[@divingfalconfpv4602]

Suck is hero 6 isn't sold anymore. And kind find used. Hero7 sucks at reelsteady. And hero 8 is $300 plus case and bec. Nice getting camera new for $240 with a warranty

[@mategolarits7053]

@@divingfalconfpv4602 I just got a brand new hero 6 this month for 120 bucks

[@divingfalconfpv4602]

@@mategolarits7053 where????

[@mategolarits7053]

@@divingfalconfpv4602 Facebook marketplace, I was searching for a cheap hero 6 for months and got lucky

[@divingfalconfpv4602]

@@mategolarits7053 oh don't have Facebook. Online its renewed and not in stock but u can pay now.. I've been burned so don't trust people lol

[@lcprod]

Great!

[@salvor1]

I have had such horrible dealings with betafpv after buying one of their products that I would not have anything to do with them. At least do buy from a dealer you trust. I bought from beta's store website and I'm just being ignored -never again.

[@MaxRovensky]

Nope The Reelsteady effect is a large part of "FPV magic", it just looks better 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@whiffles]

I like it as well, but I know a lot of folks who don't.

[@MaxRovensky]

@@whiffles that's a good point I do see how this camera can get traction with beginners cause you don't need to spend extra on reelsteady and you don't risk destroying your gopro when taking it apart

[@ToneVisionTonstudio]

Very good comparison Video! I think i would prefer the RSGo for it´s smoothness .

[@whiffles]

Same, RSGo is hard to top.

[@divingfalconfpv4602]

Was so mad it doesn't work with my naked hero 7

[@whiffles]

@@divingfalconfpv4602 RSGo does work with the Hero7 but you just need to make sure the vibrations are dampened really well.

[@divingfalconfpv4602]

@@whiffles yea.. just didn't want to try a million mounts.. I don't have a 3d printer. I use a full size hero6 no battery for reelsteady. Don't want to make it naked and break it haha. Near impossible getting hero6 now. My naked 7 broke without even a real crash. My Hero 9 is so heavy. And after posing $300 for the 9 don't want to make it a naked and lose warranty

[@whiffles]

@@divingfalconfpv4602 I picked up a broken Hero8. It just has a shattered back display. I'm going to use the new iFlight BEC and case with the QR code settings app.

[@vladimircerovic]

It is not end of anything. Both cams are good. This is the beginning of the ultralight high res cams.

[@whiffles]

I agree. I still prefer GoPro. My ideal cam is a naked Hero8. I've got that new iFlight BEC and case coming. That should be a nice solution.

[@AfafPrinceOSH]

@@whiffles can u kindly let mw know the dimension of the board pls?

[@j.c.m5168]

I'm gonna have to say gopro for sure.

[@whiffles]

Yes, it's hard to compete with GoPro. I hope Insta360 does something to improve their image quality through firmware updates, but I'm not counting on it.

[@AsgardStudios]

Nope. The GoPro + Reelsteady yields a much smoother image.

[@Haverr1]

There are manual settings boi , just click the little icon next to the record button. great video btw! Also if anyone is interested in these naked builds, join our original community: facebook.com/groups/nakedcinewhoop

[@omidmohajerani]

nice review. thanks. Great job