If you're just getting started, the settings right out of the box are pretty good. You might want to set the video quality to the highest possible and the sharpening to the lowest possible. Personally, I like to turn on lens distortion correction and EIS in 4kp30, but YMMV.

For free editing software, look around this site a bit and there are lots of suggestions for free or inexpensive editing software.

There are NO issues with SD cards if you purchase the SD cards that are listed on the Yi site and in the sheet that comes with the camera. Many choices. They all work perfectly.

It is also true that since the camera was released there have been multiple firmware upgrades. You must upgrade the firmware. That is done first. The firmware upgrades have added features, improved performance, increased picture quality, and increased compatibility with SD cards not listed.

Good deal for $231

https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/YI-4K-Plus-Action-Camera-Set-International-Edition-FIRST-4K-60fps-Amba-H2-SOC-Cortex-A53/2230079_32815250464.html

With waterproof case it is $219

https://www.amazon.com/YI-Action-Camera-60fps-Waterproof/dp/B01CW4B2P8/

Did anybody try to get dng to operate at video rates?

One trick used in the past to get better quality on product, is to try to speed up still mode in continuous burst at 24fps or so.

A lot of sensors actually support higher speed frame readouts then the chipset, which often supports a higher frame ingress than the encoding circuits handle, then the profuct restricts it, as can be seen here. Which is why you can encode better on a mobile. The chipset has way more capability for implementations on different products. Sensor windowing is common on chipsets, and chipsets have to support different resolution sensors and resolutions (like 4k video being windowed out of 4.6k on a narrower field of view. That is the way it works. Some try to overclock the circuites to get extra speed, which something like ribcage with the right thermal cooling setup might have been useful. Apert from programming the thing, you can try to find the relative set of registers and how they work, and see how many dng's or JPEGs, at how low quality, can you get out a second (like I think E1 camera people are trying, or was that M1). Maybe it is 1fps. At this stage, I expect the 4k+ to be superseded or something better to come out, so it is really one for those already deep into it, and not worth too much for a new project.

Rather like saying Android abandoned Android, one of the things they were good at. No wonder the 180 degree 3D camera didn't turn up. We know who would be responsible for this, the same competition busting company that usually interferes. After seeing the less than 4k video frame rate action cam, it should have clicked.

Yi has successfully stollen defeat from victory. They were on a good thing, where they could have made much money in place of go pro. I was waiting for their follow up camera to the M1, to buy. This is industry defeating news. There should be at least 6k action cameras by now, but there is mostly cheap nasty .... The action camera market has a long way to go, if vested interests would keep their anti-competive minded out of it. We should have 4k actions cameras with BM micro like capabilities by now, in miniature form under $500. So disappointing.

I don't want to drag on the posts. But that is the way a good competitive circuit works, you reprogram it's timing circuits to support and compress different resolutions bit deaths frame rate, everything you need to. If it doesn't, it's a bit suspicious, though ultra low energy performance and maximum density you might, but on a billion big chipsets devices, is that going save you ten thousand dollars these days, and a modest power saving? On Internet of little things, this might be more the way, but even on an modern action cam, is it going save much. This is how GoPro likely did 4kp15 and the red magic 3 phones, nubia z20 do 8kp15 on a 4k p60 chipset. Note, all these preliminary advanced modes are basically the same pixel as the previous lower resolution mode 4kp15=1080p60. It is how the Asus Roh2 and another Asus phone is doing 8kp24, and the red magic 3 and z20 are supposed to be upgraded to 8kp30 in the future. You can spend the same sort of compression work over a larger area or replace the routine or overclock the device. So 6k can be done this way can too. But it's been years since they announced the ambarella H3 advanced chipset, and a number of mobile chipsels can pull 8l frames in, but that doesn't mean their hardware compression circuit sectioms have enough performamce to compress it at quality. No hacker has done really hard stuff which I know of to get much better performance.

Many companies simply book in with common foundries to make good chips. There are a handful of these handling for the industry Of know clients. You calculation for cost of asic is not the way it is. Sure stepping from 10nm to 5nm might be a lot more expensive, particularly in the short term, but the reality is that actual 2k, 4k, 8k, 1 billion K part is very similar in size and style, trying to squeeze compression performance enough for the bigger data rates is the issue though, as h264/265 is big and complex, and trying to figure out how to get that at high quality on a small chip is an issue, where of they expand the circuites with more parallelism, it's going cost heat and circuit space. But 4kp60 is a bit more data rate then 6kp30, so not such an issue to maintain image quality. But, if you go to a simpler compression scheme, like dng, you get a lot more chip real-estate but less low power consumption short cuts as h264/265 could use before and during compression. But, if you want to capture uncompressed,. Things are simpler again.

Now, what's happening seems to be what has been happening in recent decades. Companies rationalising the cost of production by delaying the entry of new technology until it is cheap/er to make, then charging you like it costs a fortune. Latter editions of HDMI, disc, 4k, 8k got delayed like this. I'm happy if they release a camera for $50k, if it is because it is not yet cheap to make because it is cutting edge chock a block. I'm happy of they keep their profit margins low with aspirational camera gear, and release stuff that should be cheap, as cheap and low margin.

https://www.kandaovr.com/qoocam-8k/