Review: Playground's Cam200

Addendum to Playground Cam200 review: 

The extra battery I bought last 31 July 2015 is not working. I was not able to use it in my Thailand trip last August. It’s literally money down the drain. We returned it to Ambassador late August for replacement or service warranty, but Playground (according to Ambassador) refused to replace or even repair it. The reason that they gave us is that it is the battery that came with the camera and they don’t offer any service warranty for that. When we raised that the camera was only bought late March, less than six month old from date of purchase, they still refuse to repair it. We are really frustrated with the situation because, (1) it took them more than a month to inform us that they won't repair/replace the battery; (2) the batteries don’t have any serial number, thus we cannot determine if their representation is true; and (3) giving them the benefit of a doubt, provided that the battery is the one that came with the camera, I was able to use it for only one trip within four months. I’m a camera enthusiast and took care of Cam200 like I do with all the cameras I own. I even kept it in a dry box and remove the battery from the camera when I’m not using it. I will no longer buy any Playground products due to bad quality and poor service.

Original Review
Summer is coming and action cameras are becoming a necessity to capture those vacation moments (extreme or not). After scouring the net for the most affordable action/sports camera, I was torn between SJ4000 (around Php4,500) and GoPro Hero entry level (around Php8,000). Both have amazing reviews and output quality (as uploaded by reviewers). GoPro is still “GoPro” but the limitations of their entry level version will really be an issue for me operationally as it has no remote control capability, battery is attached to the camera body (no option of replacing the battery), no view pane and it is much more expensive than SJ4000. Since I’m neither an adrenaline junkie nor a professional traveler, I decided for the more affordable SJ4000. Unfortunately, after searching in Robinsons Place Ermita and Glorietta, there are no stores offering SJ4000 for sale. Ambassador Appliances in Glorietta offered Playground’s Cam200 in lieu SJ4000. I was hesitant to purchase at first because there are no review available in the internet on Playground’s Cam200. After realizing (around 30 minutes) that I badly want an action camera, I purchased Playground’s Cam200 for P4,990 (cash sale price). For credit card purchase, selling price is P5,250. (Caveat on price changes) Here are the details and pictures of Playground’s Cam200.

The box and feel of the packaging is similar to GoPro Hero4.

The unit itself looks like the SJ400 (based on pictures in the net).

The box includes hard casing, bike mount, remote control, charging cable, another mount with strings attached to it (not sure on how to use it. Probably it’s a helmet mount.), and another piece of casing (black color).The 32gb micro SD is sold separately forP1,990. I’m a bit disappointed that it doesn’t include a tripod mount which is already included in the SJ4000 package (again, based on reviews in the internet).

The camera has three shooting modes which are video, car and photo. Unlike the SJ400 which you could really change the settings, (based on this review à https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnHDu-oW7_Y) video and photo settings of Cam200 are limited. This is a minor issue for me as I think I can update the camera’s firmware to suit my “settings” needs. Another boohoo for me is the battery is not charging using the cable provided which needs to be connected in a computer’s USB port. I think the battery’s power requirement is much higher than what the USB port is providing. I used my cell phone’s (Samsung) charger to charge Cam200’s battery and it worked.

Cam200’s output is pretty cool (see below). Exposure and color saturation are better than my Agfa Full-HD Eclipse Explorer. It has 1080 video capture with field of view of 170° and frame rate of 60fps. Overall, I’m satisfied with my Cam200. For a 1080 ultra wide wifi enable camera, P4,990 is really cheap. Who am I to complain? Plus, it has a one-year manufacturer’s warranty. I’m excited to use it next week for our Binondo food trip adventure.

Photo taken by Cam200

Side by side video with  5-yr old Agfa Full-HD Eclipse Explorer
I apologize if the videos are not synchronized and are compressed by blogger. 

I noticed that the photo information mentioned that camera maker is sunplus. You may also want to check out reviews of sunplus camera  before buying.

Tags: affordable action camera, affordable sports camera, playground cam200, pinoy product