The VIO POV 1.5 is the upgrade from the original POV 1.  POV stands for ‘point of view’, which sums it up very well.  A point of view camera gives you the ability to film your adventures first hand, so that the action can be replayed as if you’re still doing it.

The POV 1.5 is a strong set up, which is dust proof, water proof and even shock resistant.  This means you should be able to take it on even the most rugged terrain without any problems.  The set up comes with a camera head which can be mounted using some of the really practical, included mounts, a built in video recorder, a handy wireless remote, a 4GB SDHC Card (though the unit does support cards up to 8GB in size) and some useful computer software for editing you action movies.

As I’ve said, the VIO POV 1.5 is the improved version from the POV 1 model.  The main upgrades are that the 1.5 can support SD cards which are up to 8GB in size.  To put that in understandable terms, it means you can record 5 and a half hours of footage!  You may be thinking that’s on a low quality setting, but that’s on the top settings, which are very close to DVD quality.  When filming at a resolution of 720 x 480 you will fill 1GB of space, up every 42 minutes.  Unlike the POV 1, the POV 1.5 has a fixed cable to the camera head.  The advantage of this is that it stops the cable working loose and ending up without any footage.  The POV 1.5 has a new mounting kit, which should mean you can attach the camera anywhere!

The POV 1.5 can record at 4 different frame rates which are, 30fps, 25fps, 24fps and 15fps.  It can also record at 4 different resolutions 720×480, 720×400, 640×480 and 360×240.  This should give you a good mix of length of video and quality of video.  It records in  MPEG4 AVI (DivX Codec) digital and NTSC or PAL analog.

The POV 1.5 doesn’t provide as high quality footage as the HQR-2 with a Sony HQ1 or HQ2 camera, but uses AA batteries rather than an expensive (about £50-70) battery unit that other models use.  The advantage of this is that bringing spare batteries with you can be easier than the battery unit.  I’d recommend getting some decent rechargeable batteries, as ‘one use’ batteries will cost a fortune in the long run.  Jonredhornet uses Duracell 2650mAh batteries, which last long enough to record two weeks of cycle commuting!

The POV 1.5 has a CMOS sensor which stops the image appearing warped due to movement.  Without this you might find footage to ‘stretch’ as you turn your head and move about.  The CMOS sensor therefore helps retain accurate picture quality.  Compared to some set ups, the POV 1.5 can have problems with bright light sources in the video, such as when there is a flash of the sun on the footage.  When this happens it can take around 5 to 10 seconds to return back to normal.

To make filming easy, and so you don’t end up with a lot of rubbish footage, the POV 1.5 comes with a wireless remote.  This allows you to stop and start your camera from up to 3 meters away, even if your camera is not directly in front of you.  Once you’ve stopped filming for a day and want to look at your footage, you just need to either, plug the camera into your computer with the supplied cable, or if you have an SD card slot you can take the SD card out and put it into your computer.

Unlike with some action cameras which can be better suited for certain sports or events, the POV 1.5 really can be used for near enough anything!  These cameras are really popular for mountain biking and motorcycling, but I know some people have even used them for hiking!  If you want to use it underwater, you’ll be pleased to hear that you can take the recorder a meter under water and the camera head can go down to a whopping 10 meters!  If you need to take the video recorder further down, you can buy an accessory which will allow it go a furter 2 meters deeper.

Hopefully the depths you can take this camera down will be good enough for most people, though I do find it a little bit disappointing that when you can take the camera head down to 10 meters, you struggle to be able to take the recorder anywhere near.  If you’re not planning on using it scuba diving, then you will be able to get some comfort in the fact that it’ll be able to survive even the wettest of weather!

The POV 1.5 may well be out of some people’s budgets, but it is well worth saving up for.  It is one of the few action cameras that is ready to go, straight from opening the box.  You get everything you need to use and abuse your camera, as well as making some exciting movies after.  You can buy the VIO POV 1.5 here.

I’d like to thank Jonredhornet for his help with this article.  He gave me some really good pointers and feedback on the product.  He has also supplied me with some video footage so I can see what the POV 1.5 is really like.  He has a lot of good videos on his YouTube channel which should also give you an idea of what can be done with the VIO POV 1.5 action camera.