It’s pretty rare that we see anything truly new in the action camera arena, a tweak here and there or a little refinement, but rarely anything wholly new and worthwhile.
The last significant addition was GPS and motion sensors, both of which few action camera manufacturers have made the most of, except TomTom and their excellent Bandit camera, but now SJCAM has brought something new to the table.
Firstly the SJ9 looks fantastic and from what I can see of the images so far the cameras are already ticking off a few items from my GoPro Hero 8 Black wants list. But SJCAM has added something new, something I just hadn’t thought about and it makes perfect sense.
Wireless charging, well why not, after all these cameras, or at least mine, spend their relatively short lives being run over, doused in water and caked in mud, soon to be dust.
To charge I need to pop the battery out and have on more than one occasion killed an action camera through water ingress. Wireless charging would get around my carelessness in one fell swoop.
There are two new models in the range the SJ9 Strike and SJ9 Max.
Both cameras will feature a 2.33-inch touch screen and 1300mAH battery. Each will be waterproof to 5m and feature Supersmooth three-axis Gyro Stabilisation.
Another of today’s essentials is live stream which will be built in and usable through the SJCAM App to either FaceBook or YouTube.
The big feature here for me is that there is no cage!
SJCAM SJ9 Strike
Powering the camera is the latest Ambarella H22S85 chipset which is coupled with the Sony IMX377 image sensor. This means the Strike will record 4K at 60fps and even 240fps at 1080p.
Other features include Timelapse with intervals up to 30 minutes, slow-motion footage of up 8x, digital zoom and we’re told much more.
These specifications pit the SJ9 against the DJI Osmo Action and GoPro Hero 7 Black, which when you look at the price is very exciting.
Pricing and Availability
SJ9 Strike – RRP £209
SJ9 Max – RRP £159
For more information, please visit sjcam.com/product/sj9/