YI 4K+ Action Camera – 4K 60fps camera – Review

YI 4K+ Action Camera

At CES 2017 in Las Vegas YI Technologies revealed their latest action camera: YI 4K+ Action Camera. YI 4K holds the latest Ambarella H2 SoC processor which allows 60fps at 4K Resolution! It is the first camera to use this new processor, which is capable of a maximum bitrate of 120 Mbps. YI also said that audio was improved with the new camera. It shares the same body size, so all YI 4K Accessories will be compatible with YI 4K+. Here’s a comparison with YI 4K Action Camera & GoPro Hero5 to give you an overview of the newly introduced features.

YI 4K+ Action Camera vs GoPro Hero6 black &
YI 4K Action Camera vs GoPro Hero5 black

Let’s start with a comparison of YI 4K+ with GoPro Hero6 black as well as YI 4K and Hero5 black, to get the specs in perspective:

* I’m not sure which sensor is used in GoPro HERO5 black, I assumed it is the same as in YI 4K – Sony IMX377. This teardown from hypoxic states it is the same IMX117 used in Hero4 black. I also heard that different sensors being used.

Retailer / Price Comparison:

(Banggood & Gearbest stopped selling YI products)

• Geekbuying: 203.99 USD (EU Stock available)
• Aliexpress: 219.99 USD (official YI store)
• Amazon:
  Check price on Amazon – there are frequently coupons to activate for lower prices!

YI 4K+ Action Camera Specs

Let’s continue with the actual review of YI 4K+ Action Camera including a detailed overview of features and settings:

YI 4K+ Action Camera – Waterproof Case Set

Sensor:
The camera features a 12,35 MP Sony IMX377 sensor. That’s a 1/2.3″ CMOS image sensor with Exmor R ability, the same one used in YI 4K Action Camera as well as in GoPro Hero5 black.

Chip:
That’s the major change! The new Ambarella Ambarella H2 chipset with Quad-core ARM®Cortex®-A53 64-bit CPU debuts in YI 4K+ Action Camera. H2 includes 10-bit High Dynamic Range (HDR) video and offers “3D electronic image stabilization”, a better electronic image stabilization now available in 4K with 30fps. YI 4K Action Camera and GoPro Hero5 black hold the older Ambarella A9 processor that limited the frame rate to 30fps  in 4K resolution.

Video Resolution & Frame Rate:
4K – (3840 x 2160) – max. 6fps
2.7K – (2704 x 1520) – max. 60 fps
1080p – (1920 x 1080) – 120 / 100 / 60 / 50 / 30 / 25 fps
720p – (1280 x 720) – 240 /200 fps

Although the new chipset offers 4K in 60fps, it can’t do higher frame rates in lower resolutions compared to YI 4K.
24fps and 25 fps options are available as well. All available selections in the description below

Video Format:
.mp4 format, .h264 codec.

Photo:
12 MP resolution, so that’s a bit smaller compared to the 16MP photos of YI 1, due to the smaller sensor.
YI 4K+ is also capable of taking raw photos, same as YI 4K.

Lens:
7 layer optical glass lens with f2.8 aperture; 155° FOV
Focal length: 2.68mm

Display:
Same as YI 4K Action Camera, YI 4K+ also features a display: 2,19″ diameter, 640 x 360 pixel with 330PPI resolution. Yi Lite and Yi Discovery feature a smaller 2″ 4:3 touchscreen. GoPro Hero5 touch display is a little smaller (2″) and I think the response of the YI display is way better. Hence GoPro’s display is waterproof.

Display comparison of all Yi Action Cameras

Battery:
Same battery is used as in YI 4K Action Camera which is a 1400 mAh Li-Ion battery. Battery life is a huge plus for YI! GoPro Hero5 black always ran out first when comparing them. I tested YI 4K vs Hero5 during a 3 weeks trip to Iceland. You can read about my experience in this article.

YI 4K+ vs YI 4K Action Camera – Battery

Storage:
microSD card support for cards up to 128GB; Class 10 recommended. (U3 recommended for 4K video!)

Connectivity & Ports:
Wifi
YI 4K+ Action Camera uses a dual band wifi network (2.4 & 5 GHz) to ensure faster download speeds up to 30Mbps download speed.
Bluetooth
The camera features Bluetooth 4.0 for the remote control.
Ports
Compared to YI 4K which offers microUSB, YI 4K+ comes with a USB 3.0 Type C port, which is also used in GoPro Hero5 black.
That allows the use of an external microphone, which was not possible with micro USB.
On the bottom of the camera there’s a door for the battery & microSD card, as well as
a 1/4″ standard photo tripod thread for mounting.

Image Stabilization:
Of course YI 4K+ Action Camera comes with image stabilization but compared to YI 4K and GoPro Hero5 it is available up to 4K resolution and 30fps!

Voice Control:
It’s a great feature especially for selfies. No need to connect to a remote or smartphone, just shout take a photo and you are good. Very convenient!

Dimensions & Weight:
Weight: 96g camera + battery
Dimensions: 65 x 42 x 30/21mm, same as YI 4K Action Camera.

YI 4K+ Action Camera – Dimensions

Accessories:
In standard packaging only USB-C cable and battery are included. A set is available (as shown above) where YI 4K+ comes with underwater case. All YI 4K Accessories are compatible with YI 4K+!

YI 4K+ – Mic-in

To use YI 4K+ with an external microphone you need the USB-C to 3,5mm adapter from YI. Currently the adapter is only available on amazon US for .

YI 4K+ Microphone Adapter (USB-C to 3.5mm)

Functions and Settings

Operating Modes:

YI 4K+ has the same 10 operating modes as YI 4K.

• Photo – to take pictures.
• Timer, where you can set a countdown before a photo is taken.
• Burst, where you can set a a number of photos taken within a timeframe. Max. is 30 pictures within a minute.
• Video – for video recording.
• Time-Lapse Video, where a time-lapse is combined into a video file.
• Slow Motion, where you can do slow motion recording without editing the footage afterwards.
• Time-Lapse Photo, where individual photos are taken, which you can combine to a time-lapse afterwards.
• Loop Recording, where short video sequences are recorded and overwritten once the microSD card is full. e.g. to use the camera as dashboard camera.
• Video + Photo, where there are photos taken in a set interval while a video is recorded. Note: video resolution and frame rate are limited to 1080p 60fps max.
• Live video for streaming was introduced with firmware 1.1.26.

Settings

In general there are 2 settings menus: The specific one for the mode you are in (e.g. video or photo – first icon on the left) and a device settings menu (second icon on the left). These menus match the new app where you first see the mode settings and then the option to proceed to the device settings.

Settings in Video Mode

Resolution
30fps vs 25fps (and a multiple of that) is depending if you set the cam to NTCS or PAL (device settings). 24 fps option was added with a later firmware update and is available when PAL or NTCS selected.

• 4K HD – (4000×3008) – 30 fps (= full sensor readout)
• 4K – (3840 x 2160) – 60 / 50 / 48 / 30 / 25 / 24 fps
• 4K Ultra – (3840 x 2160) – 30 / 25 fps
• 2.7K – (2704 x 1520) – 60 / 50 / 48 / 30 / 25  / 24 fps
• 2.7 K Ultra – (2704 x 2032) – 30 / 25 fps
• 2.7K 4:3 – (2704 x 2032) – 30 / 25 fps
• 1440p 4:3 – (1920 x 1440) – 60 / 50 / 48 / 30 / 25  / 24 fps
• 1080p – (1920 x 1080) – 120 / 100 / 60 / 50 / 48 / 30 / 25 / 24 fps
• 1080p Ultra – (1920 x 1080) – 90 / 60 / 50 / 30 / 25 fps
• 960p 4:3 – (1280 x 960) – 120 / 100 / 60 / 50 fps
• 720p – (1280 x 720) – 240 / 200 fps
• 720p Ultra – (1280 x 720) – 120 / 100 / 60 / 50 fps
• 480p – (848 x 480) – 240 / 200 fps

In the menu you will first see the resolution to select. After making a selection the available frame rates are shown.
“Ultra” options are similar to GoPro’s superview where the full sensor (4:3) is used and stretched to 16:9.

Field of View
You can narrow the field of view of the camera and select from: Wide, Medium or Narrow. This option is not available in 4K.

Metering Mode
To define the area where the camera is measuring exposure: Center, Spot or Average (since FW 1.0.12)

Auto Low Light
If you switch on the camera will improve low light performance and might increase shutter to get you better recordings at night. This may result in blurry videos.
Auto Low light is not available in 4K & 2.5K; but is available in 1080p 120fps.

Video Quality
Standard setting with the latest firmware is Medium. When selecting High it enables the highest available bitrate.

WB
You can select predefined settings for color correction based on the given light situation: Auto / Native / Tungsten / Daylight / Cloudy.

Color
You can choose YI Color or Flat. Flat color mode will give you a video with lower saturation for color correction in post production, similar to GoPro’s ProTune setting.

Shutter
Great to see that you can max. the shutter to 1/30s, 1/60s, 1/120s, 1/240s or auto – not many action cams offer manual shutter settings.

ISO Max
ISO is the sensitivity of the sensor and you can set the max. signal gain. The higher the ISO, the brighter but noisier your image will get. You can set a max. value which the camera won’t exceed while recording. Available settings are Auto / 400 / 1600 / 3200 / 6400.

ISO Lock
You also got the option to lock your ISO value which won’t change while recording

Sharpness
You can select High, Medium or Low sharpness. If you want to do color grading in post production, you should set it to low.

EV
is the exposure compensation. You can adjust exposure by setting up / down EV in these steps: +- 0.5 / +- 1 / +- 1.5 / +- 2.

Electronic Image Stabilization
Switched on the camera will correct shaky images to give you a smooth video. Be aware this works electronically and the image is a little zoomed in. With YI 4K+ you have the option to select EIS even in 4K with 30fps compared to max. 2.7K with YI 4K.

Time Stamp
To Display date and/or time in your video.

File Size
You can either set 4GB (the old limit according to FAT32 format) or max. We aware that if the cam stops recording (getting hit, out of battery,..) larger files might not be saved!

Settings in Photo Mode

Resolution

• 12 MP (4000 x 3000)
• 8 MP (3840 x 2160)
• 7 MP W (3008 x 2256)
• 7 MP M (3008 x 2256)
• 5 MP (2560 x 1920)

Shutter
to manually control shutter, which is a great new option especially for foots at night: 2s / 5s / 10s / 20s / 30s.

Metering Mode
To define the area where the camera is measuring exposure: Center, Spot or Average (since FW 1.0.12)

WB
Same as in video mode: Auto / Native / Tungsten / Daylight / Cloudy.

Color
You can choose a flat color option, when you plan to edit the photos afterwards.

ISO min / ISO max
This item was also change with a later firmware version. You can now set the min. and max. ISO the camera should use.

Sharpness
Here you can choose High, Medium or Low Sharpness.

EV
Same as in video mode: +- 0.5 / +- 1 / +- 1.5 / +- 2.

Time Stamp
To Display date and/or time in your video.

Quickview
When switched on you can define a time you captured photo will be shown on the display after you took it.

File Format
Here’s the RAW photo selection: You can choose JPG or RAW + JPG. Be aware your phone can’t display RAW photos.

Settings in other Modes:

Basically they are the same as mentioned above, matching either video or photo mode, depending on the mode. For each one there is a specific line added:

Timer
Countdown: 3s / 5s / 10s / 15s

Burst
Frequency: 3p/s – 5p/s – 10p/s – 10p/2s – 10p/3s – 30p/s – 30p/2s – 30p/3s – 30p/6s.

Time Lapse Video
Interval: 0.5s / 1s / 2s / 5s / 10s / 30 / 60s.
Video Length: Off / 6s / 8s / 10s / 20s / 30s / 60s / 120s.
Video time-lapse is currently only available in 2.5K & 4K.

Slow Motion
Slow Rate: 8 / 4 / 2

Time Lapse Photo
Interval: 0.5s / 1s / 2s / 5s / 10s / 30 / 60s.

Loop
Video Length: 5min / 20min / 60min / 120min / max

Photo+Video
Interval: 5s / 10s / 30s / 60s

Device Settings

Adjust Lens distortion
If you don’t like the fish eye effect you can electronically correct it. Previously it was labelled Lens aberration correction or lens rectification. Lens distortion adjustment does not work in 4K video mode.

WiFi
Where you can set switch wifi on and off, display the settings and switch between 2.4G and 5G. Standard password is 1234567890.

SD Card
To see info how much space is used/free and to format your microSD Card.

Camera Default Mode
You can set one of the 11 modes in which the camera powers up and additionally set it to “last mode used”.

Brightness
Which is related to the brightness of the LCD screen: Hight / Middle / Low. Higher brightness requires more energy which will result in shorter battery life.

Beeps (earlier called Volume)
Which is the volume for the buzzer sound when hitting the button: High / Low / Mute.

Mic
You can set the mic of your cam to high or low. Choose low in loud surroundings or when there is a lot of wind noise when not in case. You can also mute audio recording.

Sound Effect
You can choose between Stereo and Wind. So another option to get better audio if there is a lot of wind.

LEDs
You can choose all on, only status – front LED is turned off, record LED on top will light up during recording – and all off.

In Housing Mode
In House mode was adapted with the latest firmware version and changes the function of the shutter button when you long press it. If activated you now have a new menu where you can access all operation modes and turn off the camera. Of course when long pressing the button you can turn on the camera again.

External Microphone
You have to switch this item on if you are using an external microphone via the USB-C port.

Remote Control
Earlier called “Bluetooth pairing” there is now a sub menu where you can set the functions of the two buttons of the controller.

Voice
Here you can switch on Voice Control and record your voice commands. You need to record them first before you can use this feature.

Video Standard
You can switch between NTCS (= 30 fps and a multiple of that) or PAL (=25 fps and a multiple of that). As as side note: 24 fps and a multiple of that are not available which was offered on YI 1.

Advanced (with the sub menu items:)
Screen Auto Lock: when the screen turns off to save battery.
Auto Power Off: When the cam powers down when in standby.
Video Rotation: to flip the image.
A/V Out: for video output via USB.
Set Date & Time.
Display Battery Percentage.
Tutorial

Device Info
To display firmware version and serial number.

Camera reset
with 3 options: Reset Settings, Reset Wi-Fi and Reset Bluetooth.

Language 
Now multiple languages for the menu are supported including English, Russian, German, Italian, Spanish, French and Chinese.

About
Which will show you the internet domains of Yi Technology.

Demo Video

My first video with YI 4K+ recorded in 4K with 60fps:

Demo Photo

Here’s an unedited photo taken with YI 4K+. Click for full resolution. RAW photo was edited, I’ll add a comparison soon!

unedited photo taken with YI 4K+

Some more pic I took in RAW, edited in Lightroom:

YI 4K+ Firmware Updates

Here’s a list of Firmware updates of YI 4K. Main important updates were the addition of 24fps (48fps) option (1.0.18) and the introduction of voice control and RAW photos as well as ISO control (1.1.7). This version also saw an optimisation of the red tones. Later Live Streaming followed.

Latest Firmware Update

Firmware 1.4.12 Change Log:

• Optimized EIS, the view of picture is more wide and the footage is more stable.
• Optimized image effect, improved the saturation, the color in low-light is more rich, the image is no longer greenish in daylight and no longer yellowish in Tungsten.

Beta Version can be found here: YI Camera User Group (Facebook)
Firmware Versions are available on YI’s website

Conclusion

Yi 4K+ was the first action camera to offer 4K resolution at 60fps. YI Technology was trying to catch up with GoPro, now they set the new benchmark!

60fps in 4K resolution are great, but maybe not suitable for most users as you need a fast computer to process it. (Needless to say editing 4K 60fps on a smartphone will be an overkill). If you are already shooting in 4K the new camera will not only get you a slow motion option, but also image stabilization in 4K. And that EIS works very well! Check my comparison video with GoPro Hero5 black!

There are more features I’m also excited about – USB-C for example. Many users were asking for external microphone support, which was not possible with a microUSB port, but is with USB-C. At first I thought Voice Control is a nice gimmick when I got Hero5. But it turns out it is great for selfies: No more problems with a remote controller, setting to timer or connecting with your smartphone. Just shout “take a photo” and the camera does.

Why wasn’t 4K 60fps implemented in the new GoPro Hero5 black, which was released only 2 month ago? So many users were disappointed about the lack of “improved technology”. Maybe the H2 processor wasn’t available back then and GoPro wanted to launch a new camera before Christmas. That would be another setback for GoPro after they had to recall Karma drone. They can either upgrade GoPro Hero5, but then would disappoint all their users who recently upgraded or watch their competition to offer better specs. The current YI 4K and GoPro Hero5 black share the same Ambarella A9 chip.

Retailer / Price Comparison:

(Banggood & Gearbest stopped selling YI products)

• Geekbuying: 203.99 USD (EU Stock available)
• Aliexpress: 219.99 USD (official YI store)
• Amazon:
  Check price on Amazon – there are frequently coupons to activate for lower prices!

YI 4K Action Camera

• Geekbuying: 145.99 USD (EU Stock available)
• Aliexpress: 113.99 USD (official YI store)
• Amazon:
  Check price on Amazon – there are frequently coupons to activate for lower prices!