Olfi one.five review

You may remember that Olfi caused quite a storm in action cam world last year when it unveiled a £149.99 / $179.99 product that undercut its rivals by a hefty margin, yet managed to compete, and even impress, in terms of picture quality.

Well, that model has been given a thorough refresh by its designer and manufacturer Hedcamz, a drone and action cam specialist based in Wales, and it now boasts enhanced styling, improved picture quality and a glut of additional user-friendly features.

Features

• 4K video at 24p
• 16MP still images
• Gyro stabilisation

Like its predecessor, the one.five comes in a well-conceived carry case (itself wrapped in a thin and eco-friendly cardboard sheath), which doubles as the POS packaging and a handy storage solution for the camera and its accessories.

Inside, there's the diminutive Olfi one.five camera itself – which sits somewhere between a GoPro Hero5 Session and the larger GoPro Hero5 Black camera in terms of size, measuring 54 x 40 x 24mm and weighing just 55g – plus a rugged waterproof housing, a thinner cage that includes a shirt pocket clip, a micro USB lead and a selection of flat and curved 3M adhesive mounts.

It's more than enough kit for any budding filmmaker to get started, but Olfi cleverly piggybacks on the GoPro mounting system, which is great news, because the provided base mount just didn't seem to fit securely enough (more on that later).

The one.five comes with two choices of casing: a tough, 30m-waterproof plastic housing that looks and feels extremely robust, and a much slimmer cage. The latter boasts a lapel clip on the rear and also comes with a screw-in connector for mounting onto accessories, which gives you the option of keeping the rig relatively stealthy and lightweight.

Olfi has completely overhauled the way its camera looks; it's not just smaller than before, it's also neater, with a far more intuitive button layout. There are two small buttons at the top of the unit, which control power and shutter release, while two additional arrow buttons at the side navigate the extremely simple menu screens.

That's it. There's no clunky touchscreen or irritating one-button operation. In fact, it's as simple as scrolling through the menus via the arrows on the side, and confirming with the shutter button or cancelling with the power switch.

Admittedly, it does take two presses of the power button to access the main menu screen (one press flicks it from shooting video to stills, the second brings up the menu), but it's not a big price to pay for simplicity.

The LCD screen at the rear is bright and easy to see, even in direct sunlight, while the spongy rubber casing gives it a neat, carbon fiber-style finish. It looks ace.

A microSD card slot, microUSB input and HDMI output are located on the right-hand flank as you look at the front of camera, while a 900mAh battery pack lurks safely behind a door on the underside of the unit.

This new battery pack is down on power compared to its predecessor, but Olfi claims the one.five can still deliver a good hour and a half of recording time.

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