Supremo 4K Action Camera Review: 4K Video for Under 4K!

While there are plenty of affordable action cameras out there, I didn’t think budget models would actually be capable of capturing 4K video at such a low price point this soon. Yet here we are with the Supremo 4K, one of the most affordable 4K-capable action cameras in the market coming in at just below — wait for it — Php4k over at Kimstore!

It’s hard to expect too much from action cameras at this price point, but the Supremo 4K certainly seems promising enough. Thankfully, I managed to snag a review unit from one of our local gadget stores. So is it worth hyping? Feel free to check out my video review here:

Or just keep on reading for the full written review.

What’s in the Box?

The Supremo 4K comes in a similar box design as GoPro’s own lineup of action cameras. The camera itself is displayed already in its waterproof casing along with the wrist remote while the rest of the accessories are hidden in a compartment below. And boy, are there accessories. Save for a selfie stick and car mount, these are pretty much everything you need for your Supremo 4K. Heck, except for the casings, they’re even compatible with other action cameras and their accessories too! Here’s exactly what you get:

• Supremo 4K action camera
• Supremo wrist remote
• Waterproof case
• Replacement lid for waterproof case
• Frame
• Quick release buckle
• 3-hook buckle
• 360-degree rotating swivel arm
• 3-way pivot arm with thumb screws
• Lock bolt
• Flat mount
• Curved mount
• Clip mount
• Handle bar mount
• Safety tether
• Straps
• 3M adhesives
• 2x rechargeable batteries
• Wall charger
• Micro USB to USB cable

Build Quality and Design

Unlike most generic action cameras that have adopted the blockish rectangular design that GoPro popularized when they first came out, the Supremo 4K has a squarish design with rounded edges. It’s also not completely plasticky. It actually has a matte finish with rubberized flaps that cover the battery compartment, ports and micro SD card slot.

You would think it was waterproof because of these flaps, and while it isn’t, at least there’s some extra protection to keep the dust from messing with the internals. They can be tough to pry open though, even with unclipped fingernails.

There are 3 hardware buttons and a small screen that offer basic controls. On the front, there’s a WiFi button. On top, there’s the shutter button as well as the power on/off button. The buttons are easy to press despite the Supremo 4K’s relatively small size and line up with the buttons on the waterproof casing.

Features

For an action camera that retails under Php4k, I wouldn’t have thought that the Supremo 4K would come with as many features as it does, let alone be able to shoot in 4K resolution. You’d probably need a full day just to explore all 7 pages of menu options.

For one thing, the Supremo 4K lets you shoot anywhere from dinky QVGA (320 x 240) all the way up to 4K resolution (3840 x 2160). If you want to go for super smooth frame rates, there’s an option to set it to 240fps at VGA quality while you can get 120fps at HD and 60 fps at Full HD quality. As for stills, its advertised to shoot up 20mp quality images, although the sensor is only capable of 16mp effective resolution. This means it only interpolates 16mp images and upscales them to 20mp.

You can also enable loop recording and set it to capture 3 minute, 5 minute, or 10 minute clips. This lets you chop your footage into shorter clips and is particularly handy when you have Car DVR Mode enabled, which is when you have it set up as your car’s dashboard camera and it’s plugged into your car’s cigarette lighter socket.

There are a number of ways to trigger the shutter too. You can simply press the shutter button on top of the Supremo 4K to shoot an image or start recording video. You can also use the accompanying wrist remote instead or even pair it with your smartphone via WiFi and use the Supremo World app. Another cool way is to enable motion detection, which would automatically trigger the shutter as well, although you’ll want to lengthen it’s Auto Power Off setting all the way up to 10 minutes so it doesn’t automatically turn itself off after being idle for too long.

Of course, you can capture regular video at different resolutions and frame rates, but you can also capture time-lapse and slow motion videos as well. The Supremo 4K lets you capture time-lapse videos in 1 second all the way up to 1 minute intervals while you can shoot 120fps slow-mo videos in HD or 240fps videos in VGA.

Software and UI

The Supremo 4K’s software and UI is about as simple as you can get. It’s chock-full of features and as such, it’s also chock-full of menus. The disadvantage of this though is that due to the limited input you can make via the 3 different hardware buttons, navigating the menus can be a hassle. And you can only scroll through the menu one way. Meaning if you overshoot the option you were looking for, you need to go through the entire 7 pages of menus to get back to it. This makes it difficult to change the settings on the fly. Yes, there’s a wireless shutter remote, but it doesn’t do much more than simply trigger the shutter.

Thankfully, there’s the Supremo World app for that. It allows you to access the most commonly tinkered with options such as changing the resolution and shooting modes.

Imaging

The Supremo 4K makes use of a Sony IMX sensor with an effective resolution of 16mp for stills. The specific model of the sensor hasn’t been disclosed, although all of Sony’s Exmor sensors for smartphones capable of 16mp capture have found themselves on flagship phones.

Picture Quality

One of the first things I did with the Supremo 4K was take it out on a casual trip to Greenbelt to meet up with a friend for lunch. Here are some samples I took.

Note: Images here are down-scaled. Please click here for high resolution gallery on my Facebook page.

This was taken around lunch time pretty close to summer so lighting would have been adequate for most shots. There’s a lot of detail although the colors are a bit muted. Nothing a bit of Photoshop can’t handle.

Met up with fellow blogger Reg Ramos of DR on the Go, which would explain the abundance of phones in one of the shots. Being a fixed focus wide angle lens designed mostly for landscape and action shots, the Supremo 4K has trouble focusing on close-up subjects. It does fine with top-down shots though. You can also adjust the wide angle setting depending on how wide you want your field of view to be.

I also tried out the Supremo 4K on one of my monthly trips to Bicol. Naturally, I started things off with a selfie before taking a mini-trek in the in-laws’ backyard. This was taken a little after lunch so there was enough lighting for most shots.

Here’s a shot of a young coconut tree with the fruit low enough to pick.

One of my favorite things about these visits is that Mayon is right in their backyard! Even from this down-scaled sample (check out the high resolution version here), you’ll see that there’s a lot of detail that’s been captured, particularly from the grass in the foreground.

Video Quality

Of course, I took videos at Bicol as well. This first one is a 4K sample at 24fps, which is the Supremo 4K’s max frame rate setting at this resolution. I didn’t turn on its built-in gyro stabilization, nor did I use a selfie stick or stabilizer. Basically, this was just me holding it while shooting video.

There’s a lot of detail in the video although it seems short of what 4K resolution is capable of. It was also really shaky, although to be fair I didn’t use any sort of stabilization. Here’s another video, this time set to Full HD at 60fps, which essentially means a smoother looking video. Also, this time I’ve got the Supremo 4K’s gyroscope stabilization turned on.

This time instead of just walking, I was running around the front yard and this time the shot is a lot jumpier. Thanks to the stabilization, it’s shaky, but not unwatchable. The overall brightness, contrast, and vibrant did leave a lot to be desired. Nothing that can’t be bumped up with video editing software like Adobe Premiere or Sony Vegas Pro. Of course, editing video isn’t nearly as easy editing still images.

See entire video sample library by clicking here

So Should You Buy the Supremo 4K?

Given that it can sell for less than Php4k over at Kimstore while retailing for much less than its 4K-capable counterparts, the Supremo 4K should already be a game-changer. You’re still getting what you’re paying for of course, so the images and videos are far from perfect. More often than not, I found the colors and brightness to be a bit muted and dull. Still, that’s what editing software like Photoshop and Premiere are for. Heck, even if you’re just uploading to YouTube, there are some quick enhancements it allows you to do.

As feature-packed as it is, I’d get the Supremo 4K in a heartbeat if my budget was a constraint. It’s a great action camera for starters not just because of its price, but because nearly all of its accessories are compatible with GoPro’s. Should you ever feel the need to upgrade, you can do without much thought.