Ourlife Kids Waterproof Camera Review: Starter Kit

2023-01-10 | Yvonne

Tip: The Ourlife Kids Waterproof Camera provides a great platform for kids to familiarize themselves with photography at a price point that is hard to argue with.

Ourlife Kids Waterproof Camera Review: Starting KitThe Ourlife Kids Waterproof Camera is a fantastic way for children to learn about photography, at an affordable price.

Ourlife Kids Waterproof Camera

We like this

Amazingly affordable
A large selection of accessories is available
Rated IP68 water resistance
Included memory

The Things We Hate

Poor video quality
Poor photo quality
A less than beautiful menu system
Images and videos with green cast

Ourlife Kids Waterproof Camera makes a good starter kit for children interested in videography and photography. Although the quality of video and photos isn't great, it offers a lot to explore and learn for an affordable price.

Ourlife Kids Waterproof Camera was purchased to allow our reviewer to thoroughly evaluate and test it. Continue reading to see our complete product review.

Design: Sturdy, light weight design

Ourlife Kids Waterproof Camera is already protected in its waterproof case. The waterproof housing protects the 6 buttons and allows you to access the USB ports for file transfer or charging. You'll find the photo and video buttons on the top. Below the LCD screen, the buttons for power and OK are located at the back of the device.

Although the camera is tiny and lightweight, it's very bulletproof when it is in its waterproof housing. This is what the company envisioned buyers using the camera for most of their time. For younger children, the buttons are difficult to push when they're behind the casing.

Accessories are the best thing about the Ourlife Kid Waterproof Camera. The accessories are small enough to fit the entire camera onto a helmet or handlebars for a bike, as well as any tripod mount.

Step by step setup

Ourlife Kids Waterproof Camera was designed to give buyers everything that they need right out of the box. There's no need to go to the store to purchase batteries or mount hardware.

When you receive your camera, you will need to take it out of the waterproof housing so that you can recharge the battery immediately. That's it for setup. You can mount your camera directly to the handlebars of a bicycle helmet, or to the bike's handlebars. However, this will take you only a few minutes.

The user manual is also an area where we have to give praise to Ourlife — although some of the instructions are perhaps not the greatest English translation, they kept the manual itself to an extremely concise 15 pages in a tiny booklet, as opposed to the usual car-manual-sized information packets that come with most cameras. The user manual is very simple and easy to understand with lots of visual support.

It is important to take the time to get familiar with all the functions and menus. This device has a few flaws. If you're already in the video or photo mode, press and hold on the button to take a picture or record a video. If you are just shooting a video but want to capture a still image, tap the photo button twice. Once to toggle modes, and once to snap a picture.

It is often very difficult to capture photos.

Similar confusion can be experienced when trying to find playback mode for reviewing your content. Tap the power button while in photo/video mode to open a menu that contains four icons. These are a camera, play icon (which brings up playback), video camera (which opens this menu back to camera mode), play icon (which opens playback), and gear icon (which opens the options menu). The fact that the play icon appears like a large right arrow is not helpful.

Image Quality: Fall short

Here is the final word on the Ourlife Kids Waterproof Camera. Although there are many positive things about the camera, when it comes to taking photos it falls short. This camera is comparable to a GoPro circa 2006. It has a maximum resolution of 5 megapixels. The photos are very blurry and lack detail. The camera also had trouble finding the correct white balance in half the scene we tried it, giving the images an often very noticeable green cast.

Avoid using your camera indoors and at night. You won't be able to get the best results from it in low-light conditions. The camera performs significantly better outdoors in daylight, but still not great. You might want to continue looking if sharing photos on social media is something you are looking for in a camera.

Predictably, the biggest shortcomings of this camera are the image sensor quality (which caps out at 5 megapixels) and the 1.77-inch rear LCD screen — two of the most expensive elements in any camera body and impossible to completely skirt around. The image quality will not live up to the performance of budget smartphones, while your videos and photos will be rendered even worse by the rear LCD screen until they can be transferred to another device. This should not be surprising considering the cost, but it is important to be aware.

This is not surprising, although it's unfortunate. A cheap camera with a complete set of accessories, and even a memory card can provide so many features. Although Ourlife offers a comprehensive solution out of the box, there are some compromises.

Video quality: Not stellar

Ourlife Kids Waterproof Camera can also be used to take videos. The best outdoor results can still be achieved in good lighting. If possible, avoid shooting indoors and in low-light situations. We found that video quality was slightly better than still images in similar settings, although it could just be our imagination. It is worth noting that action cameras like these are geared towards video.

However, there was one strange thing about the video. The maximum resolution was advertised at 1280x720 pixels (HD), but there is an option to record at 1920x1080 (FHD). For a camera of this type, it is quite unusual. You wouldn't want to be a shaming victim of one of the most important features on your camera. To check if this was a mistake, we imported a number of sample clips onto a laptop. The camera can actually record video at 1920x1080. We discovered that the camera can record video at only 15 frames per second. This is well below what an acceptable frame rate for most video applications of 24fps. Our excitement was short-lived as the video's baseline quality does not allow for additional pixels.

Software: Easy with a few extras

The camera does not require any additional software to operate. Simply connect the USB cable provided to charge your camera, or to transfer your images and videos to it.

Ourlife offers six frames that you can use to frame your photos. These are decorative and static borders. There are six frames that can be used to frame photos, including alphabet and Christmas-themed ones. You also have a couple of less specific options, such as stars and gold borders with winged hearts, I LOVE YOU! hearts, or rainbows. You can also apply six filters to videos: blue, green and red as well as inverted and sepia.

This is a great way to introduce your children to videography and photography at a very affordable price.

Pricing: It's easy to justify

Ourlife Kids Waterproof Camera is available at a retail price of around $40. This makes it an affordable option to get kids started in photography and videography. We found few similar products that offer as many accessories. This makes it a great choice for anyone looking to have everything in one place. Nobody likes receiving a gift with extras.

Ourlife Kids Waterproof Camera Vs. VTech Kidizoom Dual Selfie Camera

The VTech Kidizoom Duo Selfie Camera was another camera that made it into our list of top kid-friendly cameras. The Ourlife Kids Waterproof Camera offers better video and photo quality, and comes with more accessories for a much lower price. VTech is a more children-friendly camera, with an attractive design. The VTech is easier to use for children under 5 years old, as the buttons are designed and laid out more easily. The Ourlife is likely to be more useful in the long-term, since children will outgrow VTech Kidizooms much faster.

You can also check out other reviews on the top kid-friendly video cameras, and our best under $100 video cameras.

Final Verdict

This is a good place to start for children with photographic ambitions.

Ourlife Kids Waterproof Cameras are neither fragile nor expensive, making them a great choice for anyone looking to get kids into photography. Although the quality of video and photos is not great, we felt it was still worth considering at $39.99.

Specifications

Product Name: Kids Waterproof Camera
Ourlife Product Brand
Prices starting at $38.99
Dec 2017 Release Date
Weight 12 oz.
Dimensions of the product: 2.3x2.3x1 in.
Optional Connectivty Features
Rated Waterproof IP68
Compatibility: Windows and MacOS
Maximum Photo Resolution: 5MP
Max Video Resolution: 1280x720 (30fps) 1920x1080 (15fps)

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