Google Clips, $249, is not an action camera. The Google Clips is not a camera for life recording. This is a display for Google's AI technology. It acts as an assistant with artificial intelligence that can decide when to capture interesting photos. This little camera allows you to relax and enjoy family events while the computer decides what photos you should take. Although it sounds like a great idea in theory, Clips ends up taking unflattering videos that are poorly-framed and creeping out all of the people in the room.
Google products are very important to me. Two G Suite accounts are my current investments. I also have an Android phone and a Google Home. A Google Play Music subscription is available. There are hundreds of gigs worth of photos stored in Google Photos. Clips was used for one week by me when I took my daughter to coffee and visited my baby niece. All these are moments that I would like to remember, but it is also more enjoyable to live in the moment than be confined by a camera. Google Clips is a concept that's completely separate from the product. Execution is the problem.
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It's cute, but creepy
Google Clips is adorable. The camera is a square 2-inch by 0.8-inch in depth and weighs 2.1 ounces. It fits into a small rubbery case with a clip, hence the name. On the front, there's a protruding fixed-focus lens that also functions as the on/off switch—you turn the lens—and a shutter button if you want to force it to take a clip rather than waiting for the AI.
The camera's status is indicated by three LEDs. They indicate whether the storage capacity has been exhausted, it is working properly, and when it's on. You can remove the Clips from its protective case to access the USB-C connector at the bottom. Although the device isn't waterproof or robust, it feels a bit bouncy thanks to its case.
Attach Clips can be attached to items or put it in its small case. Its shooting angle was wrong because the camera must be positioned on a table. The Clips video taken at a coffee or dinner table is too low to flatter faces. I also took the clip on the ground while playing with my baby.
Although I attempted to place it on furniture other than the one you have, I found that it was too tall with many heads and high ceilings. The camera can not be controlled at what angle it is placed using the case. The case's base doesn't seem to be very sturdy or wide, so the camera fell several times during my tests. A case with tilting or stick-to sides is needed for the camera.
Clips scared out nearly everyone who tried it. My daughter didn't like it. It wasn't liked by my sister-in law. After some time, it became clear that what's creepy isn't the fact that it watches you all day. It's just that you never know when it will be watching.
Uncertainty is what causes problems. With a camera on in your room all the time—say, a home security camera—you either perform to it, or ignore it. You only make one decision about it psychologically. However, there is something troubling about Clips' uncertainty: Does it record? It is not. This keeps everybody on the edge.
Clips does not invade people's privacy the same way that you Google do. It doesn't post images to the internet automatically—you have to affirmatively select and transfer each clip to put it online. Camera still retains the AI facial recognition algorithms. Google doesn't add clips data to your Google profile unless you upload them to Google Photos. The omnipresence of uncertainty and the presence of it made our group feel uneasy.
Google claims that Clips can download data from your Google Photos library in order to identify the people most important to them. It didn't seem to have any effect on clips that the camera was recording.
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Performance
Clips features a 12-megapixel sensor as well as a fish-eye 130 degree lens. The Clips captures silent videos of 7 seconds at 15 frames per second. Although the videos look identical when they are viewed on Google Photos, when I downloaded them to my computer, it was quite different: 1,520-by-1.218, 1,920 -by-1.250, 1,920 -by-1.218, 1,920 -by-1.218, 1,920 -by-1.218, 1,920 -by-1.218, 1,920 by-1.218, 1,920 -by-1.218, 1,920 -by-1.218, 1,920 -by-1.210, 1,472-by-962 and 1,472-by-962 These videos have slightly different aspect ratios.
The camera can toggle between low and high quality and snap video at different levels of frequency. The highest-quality clips usually take up to three megabytes, while low-quality clips can be as small as one to two megabytes. The frames rate of low-quality clips is the same, although they look less sharp. The camera can store approximately 5,000 clips, with a 16GB storage capacity. However, it only has 2.5 to 3 hours battery life, which is less than an afternoon spent playing with your baby.
Clips can be accessed on the Clips app for Android. You will need the app to access clips from the camera. The app supports Pixel family devices, Galaxy S7 and later or iPhone 6 and later. It is not possible to connect or set up Clips on a tablet or PC. My Galaxy S8 battery was fried to a halt at about one per minute by the app. I decided to not use it much. Each clip can be saved once as either a "motion picture", a large (12-15MB) GIF or video. You also have the option to throw it away. Individual frames can be saved as stills.
These clips aren't very appealing. These clips are jerky at 15 frames per seconds (you should have at least 24fps to make video look smoother to modern eyes), and there is little detail in the shadows. However, clips videos can be very unflattering. This is due to the fish-eye, which makes people at the edges appear larger and more distorted. Since you don't have to frame your photos yourself, it's likely that you end up with clips in areas where you would like to see things.
Camera's AI can focus on faces of humans and create clips when it detects one. This works most of the time. For example, I noticed that most clips I made at comics convention were taken while I was seated at tables talking with people. Clips does a good job of separating the binary choices between one and zero frames.
A party had many people who were always in the frame. However, the camera made some poor choices. One clip shows my sister-in law carrying the baby through frame, so that the baby's head can be cut; another where I adjust the camera with one hand; one in which my mom is blocking most of the frame; many others where beloved relatives are horribly distorted due to the fisheye view around the corners. These clips have people, but the composition is poor beyond that. This is the biggest issue with the camera.
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Conclusions
You can take your photos. While I can see the appeal of having an AI photographer free you from choosing and framing shots while you are opening presents for friends or playing with your baby, Google Clips does not have that ability. Google Clips creates fisheye, bizarrely-shaped videos with fish-eye angles on an unpredictable schedule.
It can also take jerky and oddly-shaped videos that are hard to watch. This is a clear example of a wealthy company creating an experimental product it knows it doesn't like. Google is using Clips' experience to improve its AI in recognizing people and scenes. You can use your smartphone, digital camera or tablet to take a picture, then share and enjoy the result.
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