Fujita Japan Xtreme Sports Camera HD-LITE

I purchased this camera because I am commuter cyclist and in case of an accident its very important to have a camera to back up your side of the story. I bought it and the card that came with the camera was only good for about 30 minutes of recording. That was an annoyance but that’s understandable so I bought a 32gb SD card. Now the camera will shut off spontaneously after 30 minutes and after that I would turn it back on and it would record for 5 minutes and then shut off again even though the card was not nearly full. This is very disconcerting because the main reason I bought the camera was so if something happens I’d have it recorded but not knowing whether the camera is actually doing its job is totally unacceptable. Also I found there were problems getting it to turn off and I’d have to unscrew the back and pop out the SD card in order for it to turn off. There was no way to change the date and time setting and the instructions said to download some software but the website made my virus protection software pop up and when I downloaded the file there was nothing but a document with weird symbols. I returned the camera and will buy a GoPro I think.

After only one use the thing won’t even turn on! I would avoid wasting money with this product. Very rarely, and only when extremely well deserved to I give a totally negative review. This was a waste of money for me.

The short story is that, unfortunately, the camera I purchased was defective and failed about one week after I purchased it; however, I don’t necessarily consider my experience bad.

PROS:
Good quality video
Sleek, low-profile design
Decent price
Pretty much every form of mount you might need for whatever fits your fancy
O-rings, grease, and special cap for waterproofing

CONS:
Muffled audio
Only about 2 hours recording time
Bare-bones build (e.g., camera doesn’t compensate for position, so if the button isn’t on top the video WILL be upside-down; programming the date/time is in no way intuitive or otherwise plug-n-play; apparently only charges when connected to a computer, if a special charger for the batteries isn’t available; no night-vision capability)

As for my personal experience, the camera worked fine for a week or so. Then I noticed that I wasn’t getting the two hours of recording time out of it. I studied it and saw that the light would blink normally, at first, then it would slow to roughly twenty-second intervals, then forty. Then the light would get stuck, and I couldn’t turn it off until the battery died or some internal failsafe was triggered or the like. When this happened, the files would end up corrupted. Very quickly, every time I attempted to record the files would be corrupted. I contacted the seller with details of the issue, it was determined that the camera was defective, and I received a refund. The details of my customer-service experience(s) are worth noting here, as it absolutely influences my view of my overall experience:

The camera is ready to record after the initial charge and a firmware update (no programming necessary), but I wanted a date/time stamp for my videos as well. This required going to the seller’s website and downloading a special .txt file, making manual changes to the time, and then manually adding the file to the camera’s SD card and taking a quick video to get the clock started. But none of this information was what I would call “easy to find,” because there was nothing whatsoever that indicated that what I had found would definitely work for my particular camera (knowing what I do now I assume so, but as a new consumer I couldn’t have). After a few hours of fruitless efforts reading, rereading, and watching videos, I contacted the seller and received a response within twenty-four hours. It wasn’t exactly step-by-step, but it did give me what I needed to solve the problem when combined with what I’d already found. When the camera failed, I contacted the seller again. The response was prompt and interested/concerned. I admit there were some communication problems, but given my personal circumstances I can’t say they weren’t my fault; I can definitely say that each time I followed up and reached out again to the seller, the response was virtually immediate (it’s usually late at night by the time I get around to my emails, so I did have to wait until business hours for a response) and always polite. So I’m satisfied with how the seller handled the situation.

Despite the camera I received being defective, my overall experience means that I wouldn’t actually be against purchasing another one. While I’ve determined that this camera doesn’t exactly fit my CURRENT needs, it wasn’t so problematic that I would have stopped using it had it continued to function properly (for the time it functioned it did precisely what I wanted, just not quite as conveniently as I’d imagined), and I can think of future situations where its simplicity, design, and features (e.g., water resistant or waterproof) would be perfectly suitable. This is a “primitive” camera–people expecting something like a video screen or instant playback or on-site programming need to look elsewhere–but I wouldn’t dismiss it entirely. Just have your exact needs, even the little things, clear and prioritized.

5 stars based on what you get for the price. It is sturdy, comes with a waterproof lid, and you can download vids to the computer with the included micro USB cord. I do wonder how long the battery will last, but for this price, you can always buy another. Picture quality is decent, you get around 90 min on a charge, and there is also the option of taking automatic still frames every 3 sec. Build quality seems pretty good- the outer body is metal, maybe aluminum.