The Muvi Micro Camcorder is the world’s smallest camera but don’t let that trick you into thinking it is substandard. In my mind this camera is a world better than the much bulkier ATC 2000 action camera which is a similar price. I bought a Muvi Micro over a month ago now and I really do love it! I have been using it as my main action camera and on this page I will tell you why I like this action camera so much as well as a few of the camera’s limitations.

The Muvi Micro is itsy-bitsy at just 55mm high so you wouldn’t have any problem with size. You may be thinking that it will have to be really low quality to fit everything in, but it really isn’t! Let’s start of with the most important part…the lens!

Buy At Best Price

The Muvi Micro is only £48.26 with free postage and packaging from Amazon.

You can upgrade and buy a Muvi Micro with the sports pack and a high quality 8GB memory card for just £68.40

The Lens

The Muvi Micro Camcorder has a fantastic 72 degree lens (wide angle field of view). This is better than all of the ATC range of cameras. The camera records at VGA 640×480 pixels at 25 fps which does give a nice picture quality. The resolution and frame rates are similar to an ATC range action camera too!

The advantage of the wider field of view lens is that you can capture more surroundings in your films. For instance, if you had it on your helmet and looked left down a road, you would see further down the road. With my ATC 2000, when I look either way at road junctions it won’t be able to ‘see’ down the road. Below is a video filmed by the Muvi Micro. You can see that you get a really realistic idea of what is going on around the motorcyclist.

I have found that action cameras with a smaller field of view are harder to mount so that you get the best video position. With the Muvi Micro’s large field of view you will need to spend less time getting the camera positioned ‘just right’. I use the helmet mount available with the Extreme Sports Pack and find it very easy to put the camera in and position it in such a way that I get the right angle. No one likes videos which only show sky, or show too much of the ground.

Here is a video filmed by a YouTube user while on a motorbike.

Depending on the speeds you are using you camera at and where the camera is positioned you may get some distortion. I haven’t suffered from this, other than when I was filming side ways, where fences would appear to be ‘bent’. When facing forward I haven’t really suffered from this.

Low light

Being able to film in low light, may, or may not be important. Low light includes, at dawn and dusk, night time or through the shadows, such as in a forest. When I went out at 1 oclock, in the morning, I wasn’t expecting much from camera other than maybe a few dots of light where there were street lights. However, when I plugged the camera into my computer I was amazed to see just how clear the footage was. Below is a screenshot from my video to give you an idea of the quality…however, if you carry on down the page I have some night time video clips.

I have had it pointed out that the night time video is not as smooth as the video offered by the POV VIO 1.5. However the quality difference is small, especially when you consider the Muvi Micro is about £500 cheaper!

Here is a fantastic video clip which compares the night-time ability of the Muvi Micro at night, compared to a ATC2000.

I knew before I bought the camera that the Muvi Micro would work well at dusk and dawn, thanks to this video clip. In this clip the camera is attached to a car.

Sound – The Microphone

As with a lot of small, self-contained action cameras, the microphone isn’t fantastic. You may have already noticed this from the video clips on this page, but the Muvi Micro does pick up quite a lot of wind noise when you are moving along quickly. I find anything over about 10-15mph and you will get quite a lot of wind noise. You may be able to reduce this by putting a bit of tape over where the microphone is, or an elastic band around. I have not tried this method though.

The Muvi Micro’s microphone does work well when stopped, so if you wanted to use it as a small digital video camera or wanted to record a conversation when stationary, it does work well enough to pick up what people are saying.

Overall, the sound quality is not amazing but definitely does the trick. Ultimately, if you are using this sort of camcorder as an action camera then perfect sound is not generally a main priority. The microphone works reasonably well, but you may want to add your own soundtrack to any videos.

Storage – How much film can it store?

This is where I have my first complaint. Though the Muvi Micro comes supplied with a 2 GB SD card, the card that they supply is very cheap and nasty! This is not an issue with every supplied micro SD card, but certainly it does effect a lot (including my one!). In short, the supplied card is not of high enough quality to have the video stored on it. As the card cannot write the data fast enough you will find that your video ‘stalls’ in places and you loose a couple seconds of video.

This is easily fixed by buying a better micro SD card. I chose a class 6 4 GB micro SD card, as these are able to write data really quickly. It only cost another £6 and it fixed the problem completely! I have uploaded the following video which shows what the footage will be like if you receive a faulty SD card.

Battery Life – How long until it runs out of juice?

My second complain comes to the battery. The camera has a high quality, built in, lithium ion battery which Veho claim will last for 3 hours per charge. This is not correct – mine and a few people I have spoken to, recieve nearer 1 hour and a half to 2 hours of video recording time.

Personally, an hour and a half is enough video recording time for me. With the Muvi Micro you don’t need batteries or to carry a large plug/recharging unit around with you, as the Muvi Micro camcorder is charged up via your computer’s USB slot. The disadvantage of this is if you are away for a long time, without computer access then you may not be able to charge the camera up! However, if you do a search on eBay for a ‘USB UK power plug’ then you should be able to buy (for only a few quid) a plug which has a USB slot in it. This will allow you to recharge the battery without a computer!

I quite like that it charges directly from your computer as carrying a USB cable around doesn’t take up any space or weigh much, so it is easy to carry around. Along with this, you will need to plug it into your computer to download your videos anyway so it kills two birds with one stone.

How tough is the Muvi Micro?

The Muvi Micro is made out of tough aluminium so it should stand up well to any small drops or falls. Unfortunately the camera is not waterproof. This will be a big problem for any water sports fans, and also…most of us in England! the good news is that with the extreme sports pack, you get a waterproof skin which will help protect the unit from rain and the weather. The bad news is that the supplied waterproof skin can only be placed on the camera when you are using it as a hand held camera. With the skin on, the Muvi Micro will not fit into the attachments, such as for your helmet.

I believe that Veho will be launching a proper waterproof case, which should give a few meters of waterproofing, which will also allow you to attach it to helmet mounts (etc). From what I am aware this should be launched in October (09) and cost around £40.

Any special features?

The Muvi Micro’s party piece is it’s VOX mode. This allows you to use your voice to get it to start recording! Voice activation mode works by starting to record when it hears over 65 decibels and will keep recording until it hasn’t heard 65 decibels for 2 minutes. Controlling the camera manually is pretty simple too, as it comes with a one button recording control!

VOX mode comes in handy if you want to leave the camera running. With the standard record mode, the Muvi Micro stops after 30 minutes and saves the video file. Unfortunately it does not start recording again. If you use the VOX mode, after 30 minutes it will save the video file, and then assuming your outside using it, the camera will pick up some noise (the wind, you, etc) and start recording again. At most the camera will stop recording for a few seconds, so you won’t loose much.

Attachments

The camera on its own doesn’t come with many attachments so you will need to get the extreme sports pack. This costs about £20 which is possibly a little expensive for what it is, but you should still get it!

The extreme sports pack includes a weatherproof skin to help protect it against the elements, as the camera isn’t waterproof. You get a collection of mounts, including an arm band strap, headband strap, clip, Velcro straps, a mount for handlebars and a lanyard (a string attachment). The pack also comes with a handy carry pouch, and if you’re going to be filming extreme sports, a less handy wall mount. The wall mount would allow you to use this camera as a mini CCTV style set up or possibly another web cam attachment.

Still not sure?

If I haven’t convinced you that the Muvi Micro is a fantastic piece of kit then here are some other useful reviews of the camera.

Action-Cameras.co.uk Video Demo

In this video demo I have supplied some general demo clips, some demo clips which compare the camera against the ATC2000 and some video clips at night time.

Other Video Reviews

The first video compares the Muvi Micro to other similar action cameras and has some good demo footage.

The Muvi Micro has been positively reviewed on the Gadget Show’s web TV programme. Skip to 6:56 for the actual review.

Got any questions? Feel free to email me with your questions or post a comment. If you have any demo footage or comments I’d love to see and hear them so please do get in touch!