FF3309 Wireless Underwater Camera

The usual ways of fishing have long gone beyond traditional boundaries. Today, this activity requires not only the presence of gear and equipment, but also all sorts of additions in the form of “smart” equipment that allows you to choose the most catchable places on reservoirs. A striking example of such devices are underwater video cameras designed to monitor the situation in the water column in real time. Over the past few years, there has been a significant leap in the level of their technical capabilities: the detection range has exceeded 30 meters, and viewing angles have reached a maximum of 360 degrees.

At this stage of market development, there is a tendency for general trust in goods purchased in online stores. One of the striking examples of web sales of goods is AliExpress, which is a serious competitor to domestic retail and the segment of European goods. Following the current trend, we have selected for you the best underwater video cameras presented on the famous Chinese marketplace. The following parameters were adopted as selection criteria:

• the number of positive reviews from users and the level of evaluation of the lots;
• general reliability of devices, build quality;
• compliance with the declared technical characteristics;
• cost level;
• speed of delivery and level of safety of goods during transportation.

FF3309 Wireless Underwater Camera

Camera for fishing from a boat in calm water. Wireless communication radius of up to 80 meters, up to 6 hours of image transfer to a smartphone/tablet or several of them. 20 meter cable with wide-angle camera and infrared illumination. A little testing while fishing.

I already have several devices from the LUCKYLAKER brand - they sell a variety of echo sounders and several models of portable cameras for underwater photography. By the way, they are sold not only on Aliexpress. You can search national online stores within the country and find the same model with a local warranty, but significantly more expensive. Or you can take a chance and purchase directly from the official store.

In my last order there were 2 items and you can read about the top-end echo sounder here. And the second part of the order was a wireless camera.

SPECIFICATIONS:

1) Compatible with Android/IOS system

2) Function: take photos, record videos, take screenshots and power bank

3) WI-FI working range: 80m

4) 4 IR LEDs design, providing wider underwater vision range

5) Viewing angle: 120 degrees

6) Channel reception: AV/CAMERA

7) Maximum cable length: 20M

Cable Voltage: 10kg

9) Power: 3.7V lithium battery (5000 mAh)

10) Charger: 110-240V Power Consumption, 5V/1A Power

11) Working time: 5 hours full charge

12) Operating Temperature: -14°F to 122°F (-10°C-50°C)

Already at the characteristics stage, you can closely experience all the nuances of Chinese technology. On the page in the specifications one thing, in the instructions in the specifications another, in fact everything is a little different. For example, the operating time is actually more than 6 hours, but the question is how much wi-fi will reach - after all, 50 meters and 80 meters the difference is significant. If installed on a boat, then it is not too important, but if this is a key characteristic and for some of the owners of yachts longer than 50 meters SUDDENLY the real 50 meters coverage radius of the Wi-Fi camera is not enough?

Let's finally unpack this row of boxes and examine the camera itself.

The kit includes a case, an external antenna, traditionally there are a number of chargers - mains and car, there are a pair of camera mounts and the FF3309 camera itself in a case.

There is a whole range of waste paper, including instructions for the camera completely translated into Russian.

Key points have been translated and that's good. First, we need a smartphone with Android/IOS, download the FISHING DV application.

Now we take the camera out of the case and unwind the required cable length. If necessary, you can use a mount or an additional Wi-Fi antenna (at organic 3-5 meters I did not use it, the connector is under the red rubber cap).

We unscrew the plastic cover with the inscription “lucky lacker” and the only button here is on/off.

We turn it on and see 4 charge level indicators and just an activity indicator. After turning off, the charge level indicators light up for another 5 seconds - you can simply connect your smartphone to the USB connector under the OUT plug and recharge your device. After inactivity they fade away.

On the one hand, recharging a smartphone will reduce the overall operating time of the camera, on the other hand, without a smartphone the camera is seemingly useless. If it is possible to get about 2000 mAh output and a total operating time of more than 6 hours, I consider this function not superfluous. The charging current of the camera itself fluctuates around 1A and this results in 5+ hours of charging its battery.

So, we turned everything on, we connect to the newly created network (it’s not indicated correctly on my screenshot, I double-checked the echo sounders before fishing and I have a smart phone connected to one of them, and the correct network is indicated by an arrow). We enter the standard password “12345678” and I already see myself. You can do a similar procedure on several devices and have a picture for several “colleagues” fishermen at once while fishing.

The resolution, of course, is very so-so. A 120-degree wide-angle lens and 4 infrared LEDs partially save the situation, but after full HD it doesn’t look that great on a smartphone camera. The application has its own functionality for taking screenshots and shooting videos from the device. After that, a folder with the name of the application and photo/video subfolders are created in the root directory of the memory card in the smartphone.

Of course, I couldn’t resist checking the general functionality at home and looking at the picture.

Afterwards there was fishing, albeit from the shore. We stood at the cliff and lowered the camera at an angle. We got a good feel for the issue of “fragility” of the cable when we took out the camera at an angle and there was a non-zero chance of catching it on some rocks at the bottom.

The place was very fishy, ​​so on the very first cast a good asp appeared in the frame.

On the right is a frame from the video review at the end of the post and in fact this is horizontal shooting in the water column. There is about a meter of water to the fish in the screenshot on the right.

I recommend watching a video review with an excerpt of filming directly from this camera

As conclusions, I will note that the level of Chinese equipment from LUCKY is not bad and this model did not turn out to be a failure. But this is still a Chinese camera model, still with petty Chinese desires to exaggerate characteristics and save on little things - like a dull box and, more importantly, a cable without a metal winding. In the niche of echo sounders, this difference with well-known branded models is felt more seriously, as well as a difference of 3-5 times in favor of the Chinese. With cameras it’s a little more difficult, since I haven’t come across branded cameras of a similar format so that you can solve problems with its help: - from purely fishing ones - look for a “bed”, watch the biting process; - to the fishing grounds - look for a sunken motor/boat, just look for trophies waiting for a new owner at the bottom; - to a completely unfishing type of plumbing/automotive endoscope; - or a banal land camera with infrared illumination (only then the camera will turn out to be unreasonably expensive).

When purchasing on Aliexpress, there is no warranty for the device and this adds sadness, but when purchasing the same model offline, the price tag will add sadness and besides, the warranty may again remain an open question.