The Revl Arc ($499) is an upstart competitor to industry-leading GoPro, built on the promise of steadier video, thanks to an integrated mechanical gimbal. But we found it to be less than effective in testing, to the point where it's more of a hindrance than a feature. The waterproof action cam can shoot smooth 4K, 1080p, and even 720p video, as well as JPG still images, but the additional frame rates and photo features promised in Revl's advertising are not yet available, even with the latest firmware. Skip this one and get the GoPro Hero6 Black instead—it's a better camera, $100 less expensive, and our Editors' Choice.

Design

The Arc is a small, cylindrical camera with a rubberized exterior, two control buttons, and a small information LCD. It measures 3 by 1.8 by 1.8 inches (HWD) and weighs 6.6 ounces. The camera itself is black, with silver accents, and includes a rubber beauty ring around the lens. The ring is removable and Revl includes a bunch with the camera. It ships with a bue ring, but you can change it to black, green, purple, or yellow.

The gimbal sits at the rear and detaches. You can use the camera on its own without it, although you won't enjoy protection from water with it detached, nor will you have access to any sort of mount. When the gimbal is installed the Arc is rated for underwater use as deep as 33 feet.

The gimbal doubles as the attachment for mounts at its rear. Three are included. One is a GoPro-style foot mount that slides right into the included sticky mounts. The second is also styled after GoPro, the type of mount that slides into compatible accessories and secures with a locking screw. Finally there's a standard tripod mount.

You'll need to remove the gimbal to charge the camera, change the battery, and access the memory card. There's a micro USB port for charging, a removable battery slot (two are included), and a microSD memory card slot that supports cards up to 128GB. Because of the design, you can't run the Revl off of power and while it's mounted or stabilized. That's in stark contrast to the GoPro Hero6, which can be powered from an external USB source and remain fully functional, albeit not waterproof with its battery door open.

That is a concern, as battery life isn't great. You can expect to get a little less than 45 minutes of recording time on a fully charged battery at 4K resolution. I got close to double that with the Hero6 Black. To get more life out of the Arc you need to drop the resolution—expect about 80 minutes at 1080p, and close to two hours at 720p.

You're limited to two control buttons on the camera itself. The top, marked with an oval icon, controls power, confirms menu input, starts and stops video, and snaps photos. The bottom, marked with three parallel lines, scrolls through the menu, displayed on the small monochrome LCD.

You can also connect the Arc to an Android or iOS device and control it with your phone. You get access to a few more settings, like video frame rate, which are not accessible from the camera itself. You can also see through the camera's lens with the app, and stream video directly to Facebook. Because the connection with the camera is Wi-Fi, you'll need to use your LTE data for streaming.

Video Quality

Revl attempts to solve a real problem with action cams, stabilization and leveling. Most cameras of this type use ultra-wide lenses that introduce a bit of fish-eye distortion to video, an effect that is exacerbated at the edges of the frame and more noticeable when a camera isn't level. The Arc incorporates a single-axis gimbal into its design. The gimbal is designed to keep it level at all times.

It doesn't work that well. I tested it in a few extreme mounting situations—first using a dog mount to put it on the chest of a very young and active pup, and then on the shakiest platform I had access to, the hood of a John Deere tractor. The dog footage is extremely shaky and the camera struggles to stay level as the gimbal makes some absolutely terrifying noises that are highly audible on the soundtrack.

A more modest stress test, walking with the camera in hand, also netted less than elegant results. The gimbal tends to overcompensate for movement, and while it promises to keep the horizon level, it doesn't. I didn't hear any loud gimbal noise here, but there is an underlying, constant static created by its movements.

The camera does include electronic image stabilization, but not when shooting in 4K. This is in contrast to the GoPro Hero6, which applies a very slight crop to its 4K footage to keep it digitally stable. GoPro's stabilization tech is very good, and you don't need to worry about noise from a gimbal to take advantage of it.

As for video quality itself, the 4K 30fps footage is saved at 60Mbps in H.264 format and is definitely sharp. White balance is a serious concern—the camera is all over the place, adjusting the color temperature of footage as it records. While you want a video camera to adjust to changing light, our test footage was outdoors under consistent sunlight and the changes were unnecessarily drastic.

And there are a lot of things that you expect the Arc to do—based on the advertising in the company's marketing material—that don't work yet. It's supposed to support 24fps capture at 4K, as well as various frame rates at 2.7K and 1440p. Even with the latest firmware installed, it doesn't. It's also supposed to shoot time-lapse video and offer a burst image capture mode; those are also missing. It can snap 12MP JPG stills, but that's it for still imaging. Revl expects the firmware which unlocks these features to be available in July.

Conclusions

I'll give credit to the engineers at Revl for trying something new. I haven't seen another action camera with an integrated gimbal design. The problem is, the Arc's gimbal seems to do more harm than good, and while its digital image stabilization works at lower resolutions, it's not available at 4K. Add in a price that's higher than better cameras, and a slew of promised features that have not yet been delivered, and you have a product that simply isn't worth your money. Our Editors' Choice, the $400 GoPro Hero6 Black, is a better performer all around, and $100 cheaper. If you're on a stricter budget you can still get the GoPro Hero5 Black for $300, or the YI 4K+ for around $340.

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