Product Reviews

I bought this to use as a helmet cam for my motorbike. Really great quality but I find the inbuilt microphone poor on the bike so have gone for an extra one which works great. I think the image quality is exceptional but wish the batter lasted longer

I bought my X3000 about 5 years ago, and it's been a fantastic little action camera. I still use it, but because it's getting a bit dated, not as much as I used to. A couple of years later I bought a Sony ZV-1, but although it's a better camera than the X3000 in some ways - in other ways I find it a lot worse. I keep hoping we'll get a Sony X4000, but in the meantime DJI will have to fill the void.

I own both HDR15 and As 30 so the choice was easy and as a pensioner not smart enough for a smart phone / small screen on the pack and small controls purchase FDR-X3000 and the head band

excellent cam, needs better motorcycle helmet fixings

This was a used item as I was not wanting to spend to much and as I'm getting on in years, may be a bit to tech for me, I was all so a little concerned that I may not get all the back up that came with a new one So when it arrived and I started to look at what I had got, I was very impressed, yes it did take me a little time and a lot of practise goes to get things right, and I know there are things that I should be able to do, which I have not worked out yet but what I wanted it for is fare better than I was expecting with a little help from YouTube and a lot of help from Sony I am over the moon with my FDR-X300 Action Cam

After owning 2 GoPro cameras and constantly having problems with some of the products features especially battery life/usage and complicated user menus I decided to upgrade to the Sony FDR-X3000R. In the past I have always bought Sony products especially mobile phones and have always found the build quality exceptionally high and very user friendly. Although I have just bought the camera my friend recommended it and let me trial his FDR-X300R, I also read many in-depth independent reviews on it which also made me decide this was the best camera to purchase. The FDR-X3000 camera's design, size, weight and very easy to use functions combined with many of it's other features especially the remote viewing unit make it a dream to use in all situations. I also really like the availability of the many Sony branded accessories which are of high quality and design and compliment the FDR-X3000. The only complaint I have is towards myself for not buying the Sony FDR-X3000 action camera sooner!

After a lot of review reading I plumped for this camera to fit 2 requirements. 1) action cam, 2) small business videos. It was the Live View feature that made the difference. I have been using for a week and for most of that time I have been in and out of the manual in order to do what I want to do. Its packed with features and therefore deserves an investment of time and effort to gain the full benefits. Issues for me so far the links to Image Edit Mobile and to Live View sometimes takes multiple retries to establish. Possibly due to a clash with my Garmin Edge. Still in progress experimenting. Buying was a struggle due to supply shortage presumably Covid related, and trying to work out the various bundles available which varied from the Sony website. This made comparing price/value a fun exercise. You need to consider a budget for things like SD card(s), mini HDMI cable, spare battery and charger, and any other accessories that you may need.

I bought this unit(FDR-X300R) more than a year ago, used it extensively and being a Sony fan ...I was very disappointed in the product and Sony's bad response to the design problems on the unit.Three design problems: 1) Goes out of focus in sunny outdoors(25 degr/C)-totally useless as 4k.Image is soft and blurry.Sony says its the Glue they use on the internal lenses, gets soft in the heat and lens moves inside, causing out of focus image. 2)overheats and shuts down after 10 minutes in sunny outdoors-again useless.Processor overheats inside the camera 3)Sony gives no response to problems on these units.Many owners complain about the same issues, and Sony ignores us all.These are design problems and not related to just a single unit.No reply from Sony!!!...so sad.

I have just had the opportunity to unbox and do a test usage on this action camera. I do VLOG's outdoors and on motorcycles. I was attracted to this camera because of its ability to work with a direct plug in external microphone. I have not had the chance to test this feature just yet. Preliminary impressions are good. The very short test video's I did in low light and artificial light turned out to be clear and of good quality. My concern at this time is mounting and operating this camera on and around my person in action scenarios. I have used the competitor "GoPro" for some time and have built up a large accessory bundle for their form factor. So, I will need to experiment with the Sony to have a full opinion. But, preliminary impressions are quite good.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!!

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.

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 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