The New Sony Action Cam: Our Review

Sony, as we all know, has been around for a long time. And it has dominated the electronic and entertainment industry for years. Its video cameras are some of the top models you can buy. However, the action cam industry has been one area in video where Sony has been lacking. Until now.

Sony released its own action cam a few months ago, making it the first company to really give GoPro a serious run for their money. I had the chance to get my hands on some of these cameras and put them to the test during Bridge Day in West Virginia.

The Review

Mounting options are few right now for the Sony Action Cam. There are curved and flat adhesive mounts, a handlebar mount, and a helmet cam. If you’ve ever used a GoPro, at one point or another you’ve probably had a problem with its rattling or shake. The Sony is built to avoid that rattle. Its elongated shape keeps the Sony Action Cam steady and focused on the field of view. It’s just a more snug fit.

Along with its steady shape, Sony’s added a feature called SteadyShot,which works wonderfully to automatically reduce shake in your video while filming. This was particularly noticeable when I was in one of the boats at Bridge Day gathering footage.

Obviously, being in a boat whizzing around gathering jumpers on Bridge Day, you’re bound to shake a lot. However, after reviewing the footage, it looked as if I was hovering over the water. Hardly any shake whatsoever.

Another interesting feature Sony has included is its “Press-N-Go” recording. The “Press-N-Go” means that there is one large button for start/stop recording; you don’t have to worry about multiple buttons. That being said, having one button on the outside casing does not mean that there is only one button on the camera. There are two next and back buttons on the camera, letting you navigate through the menu. There’s only one downside to having one button on the outside. If you want to change your video settings, you have to take the camera out of the case to get to those two buttons. I found that very tricky in wet environments.

Video Quality

Now you might be wondering about the actual video quality of this camera. Well, it is one of the sharpest pictures I have ever seen with an action cam. It uses a changeable Carl Zeiss lens that gives you an option to choose the lens angle. This means that if you are not a fan of fish-eye, you have other options. Carl Zeiss lenses are some of the best on the market and have been integrated into this tiny camera.

The Sony Action Cam can shoot 4x slow motion at 120 frames-per-second (fps) at 720p, which was probably the feature I had the most fun with. It allowed you to rethink your capture opportunities. Now obviously you would have to lower it from 1080p to 720p to shoot 4x slowmo (and would have to deal with quality loss), but the amount of information you capture in every motion is spectacular.

If there is anything negative about this camera, it is it’s light balance. If you looked up at all on a cloudy day it would silhouette everything. However, on a sunny day, the camera seems to work just fine no matter where you’re pointing. Also, forget about shooting indoors; this camera has nightmarish grain. But who uses action cams indoors anyway?

This camera is also waterproof, and Sony claims it can go as deep as 197 feet. I was not able to perform a test to see if it could make it to 198 ft, so I will just take Sony’s word for it. The protective case is interesting, as the water runs off it way better than competition camera cases. You don’t even have to shake it. I dunked the sh*t out of this camera so many times, and it looked like it was never underwater at all. So you can imagine how it would do in the snow; you’d never have to worry about any little droplets on the lens at all. I know I didn’t.

Another cool feature is this camera’s Wi-Fi capabilities. Sony provides an application for your smart phone that shows an image of what the Sony is shooting. So, if you placed the camera in a distant spot and wanted to record, you could simply open up your mobile app and hit record and stop as necessary. It was actually pretty responsive too.

Keep in mind that the Wi-Fi is an optional feature. You can pay $199.99 for a camera without Wi-Fi, or $269.99 for a camera with Wi-Fi. You still get the same quality of camera either way. If you are the kind of person that likes to be hands-on with your camera then you might not need the Wi-Fi. And hey, you’ll save 70 bucks. It does have the ability to shoot still photos, but let’s be honest, that is not what you will be using this camera for.

Overall, I really enjoyed using the Sony Action Cam. It’s refreshing to see somebody give GoPro some serious competition.

What do you think of the new Sony Action Cam? Let’s talk in the comments.