Review: Walksnail Avatar 1S Mini VTX + Nano Camera

The Walksnail Avatar 1S Mini VTX and Nano Camera are designed for 1S whoops and micro drones. It’s light weight and takes 1S input voltage, yet with little compromise to image quality and features. Let’s check out how it compares to the full size camera and VTX in this review.

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The Avatar 1S Mini VTX and Nano camera are first used in the BetaFPV Meteor75, check out how it flies here.

Further Reading:

• What’s Walksnail Avatar FPV System?
• How to setup Walksnail Avatar System?

Where To Buy?

Update (Mar 2023): there is now a new version, the Walksnail Avatar HD Mini 1S Lite Kit!

• GetFPV: https://oscarliang.com/product-cxxb
• RDQ: https://oscarliang.com/product-3uda
• Amazon: https://amzn.to/3SKKiHk
• AliExpress: https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DDO8Qmr

It comes with the following accessories:

• 1x Walksnail Avatar IPEX (U.FL) Antenna
• 1x 6-Pin Power Cable
• 2x M2 4mm Screws
• 1x 4-Pin USB Cable

Specification

AVATAR HD NANO CAMERA

• Resolution: 1080p/60FPS or 720p 60FPS or 720p/120FPS switchable
• Aspect Ration: 4:3 / 16:9 switchable
• Minimum Illumination: 0.001Lux
• Shutter Style: Rolling Shutter
• Cable Length: 90mm
• Image Sensor: 1/2.7″
• Field Of View: 170°
• Aperture: F 2.0
• Lens: 2.1mm
• Dimensions: 14x14x17mm
• Weight: 3.5g

AVATAR MINI 1S VTX MODULE

• Up to 350mW Output Power
• Input Voltage: 3.1V – 5V
• Input Power Connector: JST1.0 6-pin
• Firmware Update Connector (to USB-A): JST1.0 4-pin
• Supported FC Firmware: Betaflight
• Antenna Connector: IPEX (U.FL)
• Bitrate: 25mbps/50mbps
• Internal Storage: 8GB for recording
• Mounting: 25.5×25.5mm
• Dimensions: 33x33x6.5mm
• Weight: 6.8g

WALKSNAIL AVATAR VTX ANTENNA

• Radiation Efficiency: >= 98%
• Bandwidth: 5.6-5.9GHz
• Gain: 2dBi Average
• Polarization: LHCP
• Connector: IPEX
• Length: 90mm
• VSWR: <=1.4
• Weight: 1.5g

Closer Look at the Avatar 1S Mini VTX Nano Camera

The Avatar 1S Mini VTX and Nano Camera combo has pretty much the same feature set as the full size setup:

• full Betaflight OSD support
• 1080p 60FPS / 720p 120FPS, 25/50mbps switchable
• same 25.5×25.5 mounting

The chipset appears the same.

The main difference is just the much lower input voltage, weight, and reduced maximum output power of 350mW, which is plenty for 1S builds.

For simplicity and weight saving, there’s no metal bar securing the camera connector and antenna U.FL connectors, it’s just glued in place. It still has the same 25.5×25.5mm mounting.

Image Quality

Here’s the testing footage.

In case you can’t watch the video, here are some screenshots.

Although the specs claim the Nano Camera and Standard size camera having the same 170° FOV, in my testing I found the standard size camera has slightly wider FOV. Image detail and sharpness appears to be quite similar.

The way they handle high light and shadow also appears identical.

Both cameras are not ideal for low light flying as you can see in the night testing pretty much like the DJI OG camera. Both Avatar cameras seem to have dynamic exposure that changes with lighting level. You can see the exposure increases in steps as I move the camera down facing the ground (towards the darker area). But the initial threshold seems a bit too low in my opinion, exposure didn’t change until the frame gets really dark (probably too dark to fly).

The DJI OG camera doesn’t have dynamic exposure, it’s constant the whole time.

At some situations the DJI is doing better than the Avatar, and others the Avatar’s are better. But if Avatar fix the initial threshold I think it will perform slightly better than DJI in low light.

Here’s an indoor flight using the Mini VTX and Nano cam on the BetaFPV Meteor75: