Product Reviews

Impulse buy in Changi. Great video with wide dynamic range. Video is simple to use either on handset or camera. Majority of function intuitive, but switching between video and stills is PAINFULLY slow; a separate button for stills would increase the useability tremendously. Addition of a 'sighting' viewfinder for use underwater in the package would be extremely useful.

I am totally astonished! And amazed With all sony products!

I brought this action cam after reviewing all the other action cams on the market, and deciding this was the right one for me. However after 14 months the camera now refuses to turn on, and beeps every 15 seconds, so is now totally unusable.

The GPS functions stopped working and will be nonfunctional indefinitely. Would not buy this or any other products Sony makes that depend on GPS.

Excellent picture quality, ease of use, great design, love the finger accessory and the remote screen.

great camera ..I'm very happy sony fdr-x3000 !!!!

Great video and stabilization. OK battery life (80 minutes @ 1080p60 50mbs). I motovlog (motorcycle Vlogging) along with hundreds of thousands of others and need (in future models): 1. Wireless audio input. It would be great if the audio could come from the PlayMemories control app where the smartphone could combine/mix audio sources. Bluetooth audio input would also be a great option. You'll steal GP market share with this. 2. Better mounting options. GoPro-compatible mounts dominate, so compaitble mounting or a simple adaptor is important. 3. More battery life (2+ hours). Also, consider an (optional) small separate snap-in pack that connects via the USB.

I"m stuck with a $399 camera that OVERHEATS. You can smell the heat when you enter the room. I purchased this action cam on Oct. 19th. 2018 from Amazon's C**** Camera Seller. It started overheating/shutting down by itself while filming on 720, 1080, and 4k only after 1 month and 2 days of my purchase. I tried to get a refund but because it was over by two days on a 30 days return so "C****** Camera" (seller) refused to accept my request. So after reporting them to the Better Business Bureau they still refused. The overheating has progressively gotten worst. Now I'm stuck sending this camera for repairs to Precision Camera whom are chosen by Sony. I've sent this camera 3 times for repairs without success. Precision Camera don't listen. They keep telling me there is nothing wrong with the camera. The only i can do is continue to send the camera. They don't see the pictures and videos I've sent them. Anyway, Now I"m stuck with a $399 the overheats, without any options. Neither Sony nor Precision Camera don't want to listen. All I've been doing is send this camera for repair and no filming. See pictures and video attached.

Had the camera less than two years...Took it to Moab, Yellowstone and Nova Scotia...Gear videos...but today I can't even use it as paper weight...about a month ago the camera lost the ability to focus...except near focus ...no more than 4-5 inches...everything else in frame is blurry and unusable...Don't buy the camera if you want it to last a while...

A very capable video camera, image stabilisation is excellent. Get a 90mb/s micro SD card, otherwise you'll be limited to low res video.

This model has a great support for older a-mount lenses and in-body image stabilization. These two features triggered my decision to buy a6500. Aside from that, image quality, instant autofocus, bright and colour-accurate display, possibilities of customization and rather compact size make it one of the best mirrorless cameras money can buy.

Have this camera for more than a year now. Really love it. Extremely light and high quality. Use it for scuba diving, traveling and vlogging. Wherever I go, I won't leve home without this in combination with a gimbal. Can't wait to see the next generation or firmware updates to see other features.

Following with previous 10/8 post, as I just received a repair $702 cost to address this issue on a $370 camera, included new LCD which work just fine. this in not right, as this poor focus with motion issue is well documented.

Poor motion focus, sent back to sony for warranty repair.

Straight to the point. Video quality is fantastic. Day scenes at 4K will blow your mind. Stabilizer does excellent job and after a couple of days you will realize that that the use of a viewfinder is not necessary since the wide angle gets it all. Night scenes are OK and nothing special. Now the sound.... As long it is out of the protective case, audio is great, but when it is inside that case, you hardly record anything. Menu is not difficult to master, and the battery will keep up nicely.

I like my sony action cam. I am very happy....))))

I BOUGHT IT BEFORE A TRIP TO MAKE SOME VIDEO CLIPS. IT WAS AMAZING ,SIMPLE,VERY LIGHT AND FAST. I THINK THIS IS THE BEST CAMERA AVAILABLE RIGHT NOW ON THE MARKET AND IT'S VERY CHEAP. 4K VIDEOS ARE AMAZING AND IT HAS GOT LOT OF DETAILS IN IT. WHAT MAKE IT SPECIAL IS HOW SIMPLE IT IS AND THE QUALITY IN EVERYWAY. IT'S JUST AMAZING.

Image quality is very good at both 1080p and 4K, and stabilisation is amazing. HOWEVER, the external mic input has a very hot pre-amp and aggressive AGC, making it impossible to use with most microphones. Sony has said they are not interested in fixing it because it doesn't affect the 3 microphones they list as compatible. See here for more details: https://community.sony.co.uk/t5/action-cam/external-mic-problems/m-p/2493498#M337 Do not recommend this camera if you want to use an external microphone, unless you are sure the microphone you want to use works with Sony's broken firmware on this camera.

I have been wanting to buy this camera for some time now and at last I thought I had to. I am pleased with it. The "link ups" were a bit fiddley but eventually got there. The QR scan pic wasn't supported by any of the QR scanning apps I had, but got over that. I think also it takes a little getting used to changing the settings on the side of the camera, once you get the hang of it, it's OK, but it takes patience, not straight off easy. Other than that I am pleased with it and the results outweigh what I have written above, but still take note of it. It would have been nice for the price to have included a "muffler" for the sound outdoors, it makes a world of difference.

I am overwhelmed with the features of this camera. The manual which I downloaded does not tell me how to delete the video on my memory card.

A one and only Major Concern! The Cam dose not come with a Hard Print Owner's / Operators Manual. This proved so Important, that I would not have bought it had I known Sony was going to be Cheep on that Critical Issue!!

After a month the camera picture getting blurry the quality is useless.

We use it for almost 2 years and it is 100% the best Action Camera on the market for the last 2 years. It has the best quality and the best Optical Stabilization. Also all accessories with good quality. I highly recommend this camera and all Sony Products.

This was given to me as a gift. I love that it is so smooth no matter how much you move. Crystal clear I have only videoed on our boat & on my bike.

i bought this for a road trip and to record water sports. the picture quality is excellent and it has a good wide angle lens to pick up all the action. The only downside is the external controller. This allows you to see what you're shooting and control the camera, the downside is the fact it looses connection quite frequently.

i've had this camera for about a week. i can not use it to record videos because it freezes every 5 to 10 seconds.

Bought to update from an older GoPro, very nicely made, simple to use, footage quality is fantastic, stabilisation seems very good with no loss in resolution. lens protector is an expensive extra though.

I bought it in April used under water to check on the fish in my garden pond for damage to them great video f of them great video on my bike no vibration

I love this and its accesories. im ready for my vacation now.

I already have a Sony HDR-AS100V, which I use for cycling and skiing as a helmet camera and for snorkelling, using the standard waterproof case. For the first two, it has been perfect, giving excellent footage, which I use to produce candid videos for my cycle club and skiing friends. I also liked the idea of attaching it to the side of my helmet, rather than having to look like Tinky-Winky all the time. For the snorkelling, the images were not very good. I decided a second, backward-facing camera would be very useful when cycling and so upgraded this time to the FDR-X3000 4K. Being supplied with the waterproof case with flat window, this should give excellent under-water footage when snorkelling, but I have not had the opportunity to try that yet. I have used it when cycling and the images are first-class. The additional features available on this camera should be really useful, but again, I have not yet used them. The design of this camera has many improved features and I found it simple to set up and use. I would recommend it to anyone looking for an action camera.

My first brand new unit would overheat after only a few minutes of recording. I did not have it inside the waterproof case and it was about 40 degrees outside (we were hunting). I had it replaced with another brand new unit that did the exact same thing. I even did a recording test and placed it next to my HDR-AS50. The HDR-AS50 ran about an hour an a half before the battery died. The FDX-X3000 powered off in 9 minutes of recording.

i bought it a couple of mounts ago it is ok but turns off when i ruin it a long time

Best action cam you can get. Sounds great outside waterproof case in the case it does not.

I really love the FDR-X3000 it has an awesome picture and great ease of use and has no equal with the image stabilization and image quality. But the battery life is the worse. Maybe one 15 min shoot or one time lapse. I have not yet make a determination of how long they actually last.

The feature set on the Sony FDR-X3000 is absolutely AMAZING for the money, the menu is actually fairly easy to understand once one uses it for a short while, and the B.O.S.S. system is absolutely tremendous in both execution and final results. Blown away by it, actually. But the 4K video quality become aggravating in short time! The INITIAL video quality on all three of my FDR-X3000's (my other two I've had to return, HOPING I'd get a "good one.") would be amazing out of the box, but the honeymoon ends soon thereafter. Once the action cam gets warm with use, the camera's lens become unable to focus correctly (focus to infinity like all action cams do), thus the video, which was initially amazingly brilliant throughout, will become very blurry. You're left with unusable blurry videos once the camera gets warm, and the focus becomes temperamental and eventually terrible. There's a obvious glaring design flaw as the primary reason for the blurry video that eventually happens, as MANY people have experienced the same thing with this particular action cam. As you research the 'net, many have taken their Sony FDR-X3000 apart to try to figure out why the focus was becoming progressively blurry, and found the issue. It comes to find out that Sony "engineers" decided it was a good idea to use some sort of GLUE to secure their awesome lens in the B.O.S.S. Housing to secure it in place. As with all glues, heat it up as the battery will do with Action Cam use, and the glue becomes soft and will eventually MELT. Sony absolutely knows about the flaw in their design, as it is in their own forums regarding this blaring design flaw and focusing issue. The FDR-X1000 hasn't had this issue as far as I know. Simply look for focusing issues on the Forums and YouTube videos regarding the FDR-X3000, and you will find many examples of the design flaw, as well as pictures of where the flaw is located! I can only hope that the Sony engineers will redesign this action cam and better secure their amazing lens within the BOSS housing so blurred focusing issues will no longer occur as the action cam warms up. I really WANT to like my third Sony FDR-X3000, but like the other two I've sent back, it now only focuses 4 feet in front of itself, so I'm limited to making a video was at that distance. Talk about frustrating!

I researched over weeks before settling to buy this little gem, I have 3 other Sony cameras of various capabilities and value but this is the more travelled go everywhere camera I own, I don’t use the 4K option but it’s there if I want to, it’s eye catching in style and ideal for YouTube vlogging and FB. It’s very much a unisex device, both men and women have shown love for this x3000.

Pros: The optical stabilization works great on 4k. It does a great job in creating a smooth video. The colors are very good if you have good light. Underwater videos are good and camera catches lively colors. Angle is very good and it's not rounding as much as other cameras. In medium angle there's almost no rounding on pictures / videos. Excellent footage on the slopes with great reaction to shadows / direct sun light. Stabilization in 4k is again super. Sound filtering and wind noise reduction is great. Cons: In low light the pictures are quite bad. Videos are also average but...after all it's an action camera. I got the accessories as well and I just hate the way you need to force out the display from the camera support accessory. If you want to switch the display from camera holder to the wrist holder, you'll have lots of troubles doing it. The buttons on the right / left side of the display require firm pressing. I don't know why you need to push that hard for them to work, sometimes it feels like I'm gonna smash the display because of hard pressing. Overall I think it's a very good product. If it was not for the poor photo performance, I would have rated this a 5 star. The above cons are related more or less to the accessories.

This is a great small camera, which has so many additional items inclusive. I needed a cam for diving and this camera already comes with a case to dive down to 60m! G o p r o you need to purchase separately. The image stabilization is what kills the competition at this size. It is very smooth! I got mine with a remote, thinking it is a gimmicky remote - in realty it is really good, fast responding quality made, up to 3m deep in water if required. This is the ultimate active camera from my opinion. Pack so many features, GPS, WIFI, Bluetooth, live recording - the list goes on!

I bought this a month ago to go scuba diving and the pictures on 4K are shuddering

I have a go pro which is still great for me, but the optical image stabilisation is why I went fro this item, I like the sideways design , it makes it slim on helmets when mounted, and the 4k is awesome quality with stabilisation juts lovely on my 5k monitor

I set it up easily and quickly, tested it and the picture quality was great. It has worked every time since at 4K and 1080p. It is so easy to work with. I would recommend this camera to anyone.

bought the camera to stream to youtube and twitch,but the software/firmware has been neglected im not sure the relationship between IBM & Sony but Ustream is the only Option supported? the cam is old enough to assume they will not be adding support and updates . pointless buy for me

bought the camera to stream to youtube and twitch,but the software has not been neglected im not sure the relationship between IBM & Sony but Ustream is the only Option supported? the cam is old enough to assume they will not be adding it

it beautifully records in 4k and HD quality, ease of use

This camera is the worst camera I have ever had. It is very tough to figure out but even after I think I did and took it on vacation to Cuba which gave me pictures and video. I could not figure why the video was the same that I have had since 15 years ago, there was no 1080 clarity or 4K whatsoever in the least, I changed many of the settings to try and see if I was the problem and I changed the camera back to 1080 from 4K and it was still like video from a camera for 15 years ago, all the changes were made to the camera took video and photos and in low light it was like a camera I had 20 years ago. No support trying to find something in the the instructions doesn't help. My Olympus TOUGH camera is better than this camera and I can hear under the water noises with it. So have someone call me before I begin to bad mouth your product.

Firstly I'll start with the bad points before telling you how good this camera is otherwise... This would have certainly got a 5 star review if it wasn't for the terrible audio quality on the external mic input. The sensitivity is far too high to be usable even when using a standard microphone, regardless of if you plan to use a lapel mic or just an external microphone somewhere. So unless you have an inline volume controller or something to control the gain, there is no way of rectifying this. I suggest to Sony that they issue a firmware update that adds the ability to change the mic sensitivity in the menu to resolve this. This is an action camera, you shouldn't expect to have to plug in extra devices to have it work correctly, especially on a top of the range camera such as this. The same microphones I am trying to use work fine in my other cameras (Drift Ghost S and GoPro's). A minor issue for me, is the Micro SD card can sometimes be tricky to insert correctly. Although it is the right way up and clicks into place, the camera doesn't always detect the card, so I have to re-insert it to get it to work. Now, on to the good stuff... This camera is packed full of features, such as GPS info, Live Streaming, time lapse and burst photo shooting, not to mention various video modes and frame/bit rates. The one button record is a handy feature (something that GoPro stopped doing on their later models). Just press the record button and it will turn the camera on and start recording straight away with the previously set settings. Another handy feature for those who may want an "always recording" option and don't want to worry about having to keep deleting unwanted footage from the card is the continuous loop recording, like the dash cams. It will record a continuous loops of a set time, or you can set it to maximum and it will record until the card is full and then start overwriting from the oldest file. The picture quality of this camera is fantastic! I have attached a video of some 4K test footage I shot from my motorcycle in day and night, all on standard settings. This is at the 60mbps bit rate (the camera can do up to 100mbps with a higher spec SD card, which I don't currently have). Some quality will be lost with YouTube's compression unfortunately, so it doesn't do it true justice. The night footage is by far the best I have seen on an action camera, this is on standard exposure settings. The daytime footage may be slightly over exposed on standard, but I have since tried dropping the exposure a notch which seems to be an improvement. A few people have mentioned that the colours appear to be washed out, even on the vivid colour setting. I would agree, certainly if you compare it to other cameras. However, comparing it to real life, I would say the colours are more true to life. Either way, this can be corrected with editing software, so it's not really an issue. I also have some 1080p, 60fps test footage on my YouTube channel. The higher frame rate does look good, and I think I prefer a higher frame rate over a higher resolution (4K only does a maximum of 30fps). The file size of 4K, 30fps, 60mbps frame rate VS 1080p, 60fps, 50mbps is about the same. A 40 minute continuous clip came to about 14GB, much higher than other cameras but that is understandable because of the higher bit rate and quality. The balanced optical steady shot works very well and gives a nice stable image. It works almost too well for some situations actually. You can turn this off or switch to a standard steady shot which doesn't over-do it. The battery life is significantly reduced when using 4K as you would expect. I'd say you get about 1h30mins at the very most with 4K. You can apparently run this camera from a power bank. I am yet to try it myself, but I hear that it will run off the power bank, but not switch to the internal battery when the power bank power runs out. The camera will turn off, but you can turn it back on again to run off the internal battery. Maybe this is also something Sony can look into, maybe bring out a battery expansion pack? My camera came with the Live View remote, the waterproof housing and the finger grip. The finger grip is a must have accessory if you plan on doing any hand held shooting. It clips the camera and Live View remote together nicely so you can see what you are shooting. It could to with somewhere to hold the rubber lens cap so it's not blowing around on the tether. The waterproof housing does add a bit of bulk to the cameras small size. This is only necessary to use if you are planning to submerge the camera though, otherwise the camera outside of the housing is rain proof. So overall, it is a fantastic camera that is just let down by the external mic audio, something that I'm sure Sony can easily fix. Other than that, I am very happy with this camera and would recommend it.

GREAT PRODUCT ALTHOUGH NOT A FAN OF SONY PRODUCTS THIS CAMERA IS THE EXCEPTION.

Outstanding video quality, Excellent depth of field, a little disappointed in the still picture quality ,but early days yet !!

Beautiful vibrant mode colors, excellent image stabilization and a very easy to use interface. It is a bit hard to find accessories for it being given the shape, but otherwise it's maybe the best action cam on the market. Thank you Sony.

I had Gopro 5 and 6 after selling my fdr x3000 to my friend - they didn't even get close to quality of Sony so I have bought another fdr x3000 but this time I am keeping it. Optical stabilization does its job magnificently for extreme sports. No need for gimbal means less weight and less risk of breaking something. Battery life could be lil bit better tho. I always have two spare batteries with me and that is more than enough for one day. Quality stuff..get it ...NOW!

It comes with a USELESS clip. Must order Adhesive mounts off the internet.

Researched the Sony x3000 and the GoPro, ultimately went with Sony due to optical vs digital stabilization. Took to Hawaii for use snorkeling and hiking. Clarity was amazing underwater and out with footage nice and steady. Recommend getting the desiccant packs for using the housing underwater to avoid fogging. Battery life is decent and mine routinely lasted 1.5 hrs when not in 4K. Adapters are available to use with GoPro accessories if you want a better selection. Didn't get the remote and don't feel it's necessary if you're debating. Mine connected to my phone easily and I could change settings and view video with just some intermittent minor lag, no issues otherwise.

Build quality is fantastic, feels solid, case is brilliantly designed. Audio quality (without case) is very very good. Video quality is crisp as long as you are in well lit conditions. You will need a fast memory card for this camera.