Wearable Headcam- Ordro EP7, Unboxing and Review

Hey everyone! As you can see I’m still in Bangkok waiting for things in Shenzhen to get back to normal, but fortunately, I brought a few items with me to review. Today I am looking at a wearable camera. While first-person video is very popular on YouTube, good wearable cameras are still fairly bulky. GoPro style cameras have great quality video, but are large and require a helmet or a head-strap. For DIY videos something small, that can be angled downward at the hands and easy to slip on and off is ideal. But so far all the eyeglass and earpiece style cameras have been very cheap and poor quality.

00:53 - I’ve tried a few and been disappointed, but I’m hoping the latest wearable camera I’ve picked up will be better. It’s called the Ordro EP7. It claims to have a gimbal for mechanical stabilization, and 4k video but as we all know specs don’t always translate into results, so the only way to see is to unbox it, try it out, and see if this is going to be a good addition to the DIY vlogger’s toolbox. This should be straight-forward. This is the camera. This is the camera frame and I am going to mount the camera onto the frame. And wear it to test it out. It should be like this. Where’s the screw? There are more components. The USB charging cable and a bag for you to put it in, obviously. Okay, let’s give it a shot. Testing, testing. Testing, testing. She got a lot of ice and stuff, alright. I need to comb my hair. Okay, let’s go.

03:31 - So right now we are at this beach called Chonburi. Chon Buri, Bangsaen. Bangsaen. Yeah, some beach. So this beach is in Bangkok, I see they have some jet ski, I want to try that. Because I have the waterproof case for my 360 camera. I am a little bit conservative today, I have my bikini underneath. Because a lot of people here don’t wear swimsuits, so I don’t want it to be too weird.

04:08 - I just kept talking and talking and she was like what? Yeah, I don’t have the stamina for walking or running, I have the stamina for talking. So crowded, let’s go back. Very crowded and narrow. We are too big to walk side by side. This is a long long way. If we go back, it would take another 25 minutes. There is no motorbike we can take back, so it is a really long walk. So right now we are going to the electronic mall to get some soldering iron, solder because you know back in Shenzhen I have my workshop and stuff but in here if I want to work I need to have some basic tools, basic equipment like multimeter and stuff but I don’t think multimeter is important for now because I am not doing like a big DIY project here. If you’re curious, that was NPE in Ban Mo Bangkok. I’ve got a 360 tour of the whole neighborhood I’ll be posting soon also.

06:24 - It’s all electronics, like a Thai Akihabara. I bought this little PCB radio kit to build, and a really neat cordless soldering iron I want to try out. I also have my Ordro EP7 wearable camera, I want to see how it does for a first-person view of DIY projects. But first- you got it, a word about my sponsor JLCPCB. This is a PCB, and it’s the basis of almost all electronics made today.

06:55 - Just like people have ideas for apps for their phone, you can have ideas for PCBs if you want to get something specific done in hardware, instead of software. And like phone apps, this is a thousand times easier than it was just a few years ago. The gig economy means you can go online, get a prototype engineered for a reasonable price and make well pretty much anything you like just like you’ve seen me do on this channel countless times. Right now, as I’m shooting this video, the Coronavirus is almost under control in Shenzhen, there have been no new cases diagnosed in quite some time. But the preventative measures are quite strict.

07:40 - Fortunately, the PCB manufacturing process is mostly automated and already required protective gear, clean rooms and a lot of separation between workers it’s pretty much the best place to work during an epidemic. So everyone is safe, and working hard- I’m told there will be no delays if you choose to place an order. Thanks, and remember one of the best ways to support me, is to support my sponsors. They take good care of me. Okay, here’s my feelings on this. The quality is just not quite there- at least not for it to compete with GoPro style action cameras. The thing is, while I love my Hawkeye Firefly cameras and use them constantly, the hats, helmets, clips and elastic head straps they attach to just aren’t practical or comfortable for me while soldering.

09:38 - I’d wear the Ordro in situations where I wouldn’t wear any other camera. It is very comfortable to wear, although seems better suited for short hair. I don’t really like to talk about these things but it is relevant in this case. If you are looking for a wearable camera for…uhm bedroom stuff? Just for fun? It’s great for that provided you have fairly bright, diffuse lighting.

10:08 - Now it’s absolutely critical that you change the wifi password so there is no possibility of someone accessing your video feed, and never leave cameras with compromising footage out in the open when you’re not using them the card or the camera needs to go in a lock box until the footage can be downloaded to encrypted storage. All this is not everyone’s cup of tea of course, but if you and your partner are looking for a comfortable, easy to wear couples camera, to spice things up in the bedroom, aren’t looking for professional quality video, and you absolutely respect each other’s privacy and local laws, it’s a really fun bit of kit. So I’ve heard. I wouldn’t know. I’m pure and innocent. Awkward… Anyway moving on. The Ordro claims to have a gimbal but it’s not an active moving gimbal-like my Fimi Pocket, more a sort of shock mount. This really doesn’t do a whole lot. And unlike the Hawkeye or the GoPro, it doesn’t have any digital stabilization either. It does shoot in 4K though with a reasonable field of view so you can do a bit in post-production to smooth things out.

11:33 - Battery life seems to be a bit over an hour but I didn’t push it. It also has a mini HDMI port for video out which I could see being useful for various projects. Final word- this is a fantastic form factor for tutorials and DIY, far better than blocky action cameras. If you have bright lighting it’s adequate for that. The camera is solid and well made. The app is well designed and easy to use, the controls on the camera are reasonable.

12:06 - Unfortunately, this can’t overcome the problem of relatively low- quality video with limited stabilization. Anything shot in sports or outdoor environment is likely to be a hopeless jumble. Even for tutorials, it’s not something that you could use as a primary camera for a whole YouTube video. Camera B or C at best, maybe picture in a picture. Its big selling point is that it’s really comfortable to wear so you can get video in situations where normally it’s a hassle to rig something up. Ok, that’s it for today.

12:44 - Big thanks to my sponsors JLCPCB and Creality3D for letting me work remotely from Bangkok this month without all my equipment so I can stay safe. I’ll be back in Shenzhen soon with more DIY videos for you. Until then, remember if I can do it, anyone can do it. .