The Wasp 9907 4K ($329.99) suffers from an identity crisis. Its captures solid 4K video and is waterproof without a case—two big pluses for an action camera. But it disappoints in other areas. It's physically uncomfortable to open, its digital stabilization doesn't really work, nor does its Wi-Fi system. If you're looking in this price range, get the GoPro Hero5 Black instead. If you're happy with a less expensive option, the Sjcam SJ6 Legend is your best bet.

Design

The Wasp 9907 4K is a small, black camera with a waterproof design. It measures 3.1 by 2.3 by 1.9 inches (HWD) and weighs about 4.0 ounces. The foot, compatible with GoPro mounts, is built in. It looks like you should be able to unscrew it and remove it, but it's permanently attached. It's also quite tight—I had to push on it very hard to reposition it. The screw that holds the foot in place should turn to adjust tension, but it's just there for show.

The foot's durability is dubious. My Wasp got stuck in its mount the first time I used it, and one of the prongs snapped as I attempted to remove it. Because the foot isn't easily removable, as it is with most waterproof cases, this is something to be careful about.

There's also an accessory mount rail on the left slide; it can accept standard GoPro feet, so you can mount an additional camera to the Wasp if you are so inclined. But more likely you'll use it to get creative about positioning and securing the camera.

The camera is rated for depths of about 100 feet (30 meters). That's better than you get with the GoPro Hero5 Black, which can only go 33 feet deep without a case. But the GoPro ($159.99 at Amazon) is smaller, at 1.8 by 2.4 by 1.4 inches.

On-camera control buttons are black, with etched icons directly on them to let you know their function. The etching isn't painted in, so it's hard to see what each button does unless there's ample light. The two top buttons—Power and Record—are square plastic and easy enough to press. You do have to hold down the Power button for longer than you'd expect, about three seconds, to turn the camera on. You'll know you've waited long enough when the Wasp splash screen shows on the rear LCD.

But the rear buttons are all covered in rubber and require a significant amount of pressure to activate. At the left of the LCD there are M (Mode), Menu, and OK buttons. To the right you get Wi-Fi, Left Arrow, and Right Arrow. Both sets are arranged in a column. Left and Right control the camera's digital zoom function, and are also used for menu navigation.

The rear LCD is very small, just 1.5 inches in size. It's adequate for framing up a shot, but rather tiny to read the text in the menu system. The menu is difficult to navigate, as you have to press hard on those rear buttons to cycle through settings, and it's not always clear which button will confirm, back out of, or move to the next page in the menu system.

There are some other design decisions that exacerbate frustration when using the Wasp. The case itself is difficult to open. The top latch is very tight, and you have to depress a switch while pulling it back to open the back. There's no worry about opening it accidentally, thankfully, but I managed to pinch my finger in the clamp when first trying to set up the camera, a painful experience.

Opening the camera provides access to the microSD slot and battery. The card slot is under the battery, and is the style that uses a metal clamp to keep the card in place, which is also a bit of a pain to open.

Connectivity

The Wasp doesn't use a standard micro USB connector. Instead its tiny USB port, which supports charging and data transfer, requires the cable that ships with the camera. I've seen this style of connector on other devices, but you won't be able to use the same cable you use for your smartphone, which is an inconvenience. The cable is protected by a watertight plug. You'll need to unscrew it to access the connection.

I had issues transferring files from the camera to my computer. My iMac didn't recognize the Wasp as an external disk drive when connected. I opened the Image Capture application and it found the camera, but could only transfer images, not video. I ended up using a card reader to offload videos. Normally this isn't a hassle, but given the difficulty of accessing the card slot, I found it to be a nuisance.

There is built-in Wi-Fi. Normally you could use it to offload images and videos to an Android or iOS smartphone, and then move them over to a computer if that's part of your editing workflow. But the Wasp's Wi-Fi is barely functional. Even with my phone right next to the camera, the Wi-Fi wouldn't stay connected. This was with the current version of the app—there's also an older one floating around in the Apple App Store, with outdated code Apple warns will slow down your phone.

For the brief times I could keep a connection alive between the camera and phone, I noted that you won't get a live feed from the lens if the camera is set to 4K. At lower resolutions the feed comes through, but there is several seconds of lag time between reality and what you see on the phone screen.

You get about 65 minutes of 4K capture on a fully charged battery, which is a solid number.

Video Quality and Features

The Wasp 9907 shoots 4K video at 24fps and a 25Mbps bit rate. The video quality is actually quite good, albeit with the limited dynamic range we're used to seeing with 4K footage captured at this bit rate. You can see this in our driving test footage; the sky is blue, with clouds, and while the camera did capture that properly for some of our ride, other sections show the sky as completely washed-out white. The Sony FDR-X3000, which doesn't cost that much more, preserves the blue sky at all times, thanks to its much higher 100Mbps capture quality.

The Sony also offers optical stabilization. The Wasp 9907 supports digital stabilization, even at 4K, but it's not effective. The first section of our test video was captured with it disabled, and you can see the jitters and jumps in the handheld footage. The second section had stabilization turned on, but the results are not much better. We see better quality stabilization with the Sjcam SJ6 Legend.

Other available recording options include 1440p at 30fps, 1080p at 60 or 30fps, and 720p at 120 or 60fps. There is also a time-lapse option, as well as a video looping function. There aren't multiple field of view options; instead you need to use the digital zoom function to get a tighter shot. The Wasp adds a date and time stamp to videos and images by default. You need to turn it off if you don't want your video to have a 1980s camcorder-style branding at the bottom.

Photo quality is just okay. The camera shoots JPGs at 12MP resolution. Detail is a little fuzzy with close-up subjects, and distant subjects are blurred. You can take better snaps with your smartphone.

Conclusions

The Wasp 9907 4K delivers decent video quality and can go underwater without the need for an external housing. But the actual design is cumbersome and sometimes painful to operate physically, digital stabilization is ineffective, and the Wi-Fi system barely works. At $330 it's priced at the higher end of the action cam price range, and you can do a lot better for your money. The GoPro Hero5 Black is our favorite premium model, and it too is waterproof without a case. Our favorite budget option, the $160 Sjcam SJ6 Legend, offers better digital stabilization. It requires a case for waterproofing, but it's an included accessory.

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