This would be a good starter camera for an active child wanting to record his or her activities. It has passable performance in limited light, meaning that it will produce a decent low resolution image or video in typical nighttime lighting. In daylight it is better, but is still not close to HD quality. Color tends to brighten and wash out and with zero image stabilization tends to be jerky. Panning has to be done very slowly to prevent blurring. These things mean that attached to bike handlebars or a helmet will produce video that's difficult to watch. The camera is vibration sensitive, producing almost constant "jello effect." It's chief value is its low price, and so putting it in the hands of a seven or eight year old or hanging it from the collar of a pet isn't as risky as it might be with a more expensive unit like a Swann, a Contour, or a GoPro. I would suggest that those who want to record their adventures skydiving, snow boarding, biking or other sports spend the extra money for a higher quality unit.It is easy to operate and has easy to use controls that are not at all complex. Choosing photo, video or playback is achieved by a three position slide switch on the side of the unit. The power and shutter switches are on top. It has an LCD screen that allows the operator to see and frame shots when hand held. You will need to purchase a microSD card of at least 2 gigabytes to use the camera. It will recognize larger volume cards --I used a 32GB card and it worked just fine. The camera is NOT waterproof in any way and should be kept away from water in spite of the GoPro-like "waterproof" case.It does not charge quickly. The initial charging took four hours and recharging it after a half hour of video took almost two hours. Transferring files from the camera to computer is pretty slow as well: it took six and a half minutes to copy a 900MB video file to my laptop, a feat that takes two minutes with my GoPro or Contour Roam.All in all the Emerson camera has features that make it useful, but its low video quality limits the camera's value considerably. It comes with a wrist, helmet, and tripod adapter mounts. It recharges and transfers images via an included USB cable.I bought this camera kind of knowing what to expect. For $40 some things have been expectantly left out of the package. These are some of the things that this camera does not have:1. Somewhat narrow field of view. It is notably smaller than my other cameras.2. No wireless connectivity3. No 1080 HD, only 720 and lower4. Battery is not removable - I like being able to swap out batteries out on a shoot. Waiting for it to recharge wastes time.5. Low light shooting get very grainy.What it does have is why I bought it1. It is light, and small2. It uses 1/4 x 20 thread mount, which is a standard camera mount. So it will fit onto tripods and anything else made to mount a camera.3. The waterproof case works, and works well in my experience.4. The menu is simple to use, no need for the manual. Took me 10 minutes to get it set up to use.5. The view finder is a great help. My high end cameras don't have built in view finders. I always use the screen, especially when reviewing footage.I have go pros and contours and know what each one is best suited for filming wise. This camera was bought for 'B' roll film and testing out theories for filming, especially where there is a chance the camera could be lost or damaged. It is no a 1st choice camera but is a great back up/test dummy.I thought I'd try this as an economical alternative to a GoPro. It's cheap. It feels cheap. But it does a respectable job.It records in AVI, which I'm not wild about. The quality is good enough though that I can tolerate the old codec.It does not offer offspeed settings like GoPro. It's one fixed lens, standard depth, not a wide angle. Pan a room with different kinds of lights and you can watch the white balance clicking through it's filters to find the right one. Doesn't handle lowlight at all.It does have a built in mic, but you can only use it if the camera is not in it's housing. The camera though does not have a tripod mount, the housing has a tripod mount. So you have to pick - do you want to capture audio or do you want a steady tripod shot?I put a 16Gb card in the camera and that holds about 90 minutes in full res HD. I don't know how much it will hold in 640x480 and that's because the battery only lasts about 2 hours on a full charge. And it takes three to four hours to fully charge.Overall I'd say it's respectable for the price. This can do 80% of what a GoPro can do and it's 1/5th the price. And if it bites it someday I won't feel like I lost anything.Wanted a camera for my motorbike as you hear of so many accidents lately & I have had a few near miss's with car drivers being impatient & thinking they own the road, this camera if you are lucky will switch on and thats it 99% of the time it never worked, you can charge it up for as long as you like the camera is rubbish. So now I have a small collection of GoPro Hero2. Anyone want a camera for the bike gopro hero2 is what I would suggest. Dont buy cheap rubbish like the emerson. 0/10Die Camera macht schlechte Fotos(1 keine Stabilisierung, dabei die Tasten sind schwer zu tätigen, was nicht unbedingt schlecht ist, aber beim knipsen rutscht das Bild ab und zu weg, 2 Die Bilder sind Farblich nicht gut und die Schärfe lässt sich was anderes wünschen , 3 Der Fokus ist beim Foto etwas verlagert: hatte paar meter zur Person zum Fotografieren unter Wasser-dabei passte ins Bild nur die Hälfte vom Gesicht der Person!Video ist dagegen sehr gut, trotz fehlender Stabilisirung (muss man ruhige Hand haben).Farblich, Schärfe alles gut.Die Gehäuse hat fast immer gehalten, nur ein Mal hatte ich etwas wasser drinn(was dem Gerät aber nichts ausmachte) und nur weil wir sehr unforsichtig mit Camera umgegangen sind.Für den Preis und für Einsteiger ist das Gerät nur zu empfehlen. Bin absolut zufriedenThe camera is too big to use as a helmet cam. It stopped working less than 6 months after purchasing as it had problems being recognized by any PC that ran Windows 7 or Windows 10. The camera/device could not be recognized and it would no longer charge.Poorly made. This was a replacement camera. The initial one I bought (same model) the battery didn't work. Not very user friendly. Would consider purchasing a better model next time.Die Kamera macht schöne Videos und Fotos. Das Preis-Leistungs-Verhältnis ist echt Top, weil auch noch sehr viel Zubehör mitgeliefert wird (Helmbefestigung, Fahrradhalterung und Unterwassergehäuse), mit dem ich sehr zufrieden bin. Das Unterwassergehäuse ist dicht und sehr stabil. Außerdem macht es der Kamera nichts aus wenn sie ein paar Tropfen Wasser abbekommt. Die Lieferung erfolgte schnell und problemlos.