Coolife Hapimp PH770-8D Trail Camera Review
My friends at Coolife recently got in touch to ask if I'd like to review another of their trail cameras and of course I said yes!
Hapimp is one of thier brands and the PH770-8D camera is in their portfolio and is one of the more expensive cameras currently reduced from 146.88 euro's to 99.99 euros.
Like all their cameras its quite a funky looking unit with lots of lens and LED panels on the front. Its camoflaged in a woodland pattern so fits in to the Yorkshire countryside quite nicely.
The camera comes with everything you need except batteries so you will need 8 rechargeable 1.5V AA batteries before you can deploy it in the field.
The box contains
1 x Coolife PH770-8D camera.
1 x AV cable.
1 x USB cable.
1 x mounting strap.
1 x 32Gb SD card (does support cards up to 512Gb)
1 x user manual.
1 x sturdy metal stand for fixing to a wall.
Fixtures and fittings to enable the camera to be used as a fixed security camera.
The first issue I had after installing the batteries was actually getting them back out to recharge. The section which houses the batteries is very tight and there is no ribbon under the batteries to help pull them out. It was a real challenge to extract them!
I did however appreciate that this camera uses a standard size SD card rather than the fiddly micro SD which makes changing cards out in the field a much more straight forward option.
The user manual is in English and 4 European languages and is well written. Unlike some manuals prepared in China the English is excellent and clear and concise. You will be able to get the camera up and running very quickly indeed. Working out the best settings for your particular location may take a little longer.
This camera has a dual lens dual sensor system with seperate cameras for day and night time use. The dual sensor will apparently give the best results depending on the available light. It also has 42 LED's in its panel to further enhance the lighting available. However I do think that the target animals did seem to notice the camera more suggesting the LED's are noticable to them.
As with the H953 I recently reviewed, it is a little tricky checking that the camera is pointing where you want it too as you can’t check on the screen. . With a little bit of practice it gets easier to set up and the larger 2.5" screen helps with this.
The menu is clear and simple to follow and can quickly be scrolled through to get the camera ready. There are though lots and lots of settings, when sometimes less can be the better option.
The camera claims to be able to record up to 4K video which does seem a bit over the top for most wildlife requirements. .
The camera has a 0.1 second detection trigger which can sometimes be too quick and can start filming or taking photographs before the animal has arrived in shot. This is excellent as the camera is fully up and running when the target is fully in shot rather than with some cameras getting the animal as it leaves!
The PH770-8D has a wide angle lens which does give a bigger picture although at night time this means the lighting doesn't always cover right up to the edges of the shot.
There are a variety of different options as to how you can deploy this camera, video, photo or a mix of both. The one thing I liked with the previous camera was the quality of the pictures it took and so I wanted to test this with this camera too. I wasn't disappointed as you'll see from the images here. The only issue I did have was that it didn't have a 10 shot burst just a 3 shot one which meant it tended to miss the action. Just on photo mode though it was great.
I was able to set this camera up at a friends hide @Capturing Wild Yorkshire and got mixed results.
When the badgers and foxes were close to the camera then the videos were really good but if they were at a distance then the film was quite grainy with a lot of noise. I think the high end settings are probably too high and I would probably need to re-deploy at lower quality settings to see what results were achieved. The lack of sound again is an issue for me and I really think this is something that Coolife should look to address. Listening to foxes argue, badges snuffle and birds calling all adds to the experience of filming wild animals on your doorstep.
The PH770-8D is a solid well built camera with a whole host of settings and options to explore but I don't think its quite as good as the H953.
Its currently reduced on the Coolife website and I believe the discount code wildlifepirate will work at checkout to get you a further $15 discount. Here's a link to the camera on the Coolife site if you want to purchase one
Thanks again to Coolife for allowing me to play with their kit and put the camera through its paces.
Hopefully they'll send me something else to checkout very soon!
Comments