Sony HDRAS300/W HD Recording, Action Cam Underwater Camcorder, White

Did not see many reviews online anywhere for these newer Sony action cameras. Image stabilization was a big important factor for me, and I was deciding between this camera and the newer Go Pro Hero 5 Session. Ultimately price and the mediocre Amazon user reviews for the GoPro led me to take a risk and order this Sony camera. I am glad I did ... however, I do not have much experience with other action cameras so I may not necessarily know what I could potentially be missing out on with some alternatives.Here are my thoughts on the HDRAS300 after about a week of using it extensively:- I am pairing it with Samsung EVO 32GB Class 10 Micro SDHC Card; seems to be perfectly fine keeping up with the highest resolution this camera records at (1080/60p). With 32GB and 1080p/60p the camera's LCD tells me i can shoot almost 3 hours of footage- Form factor is comfortable in my hand, with or without the included underwater housing- Camera has three angle settings (Wide, Medium, and Narrow). After doing test shots with each three settings I liked wide the best. It is fairly wide, but doesn't have an extreme fish eye effect. Narrow is not that narrow, and I would still feel fairly comfortable getting my subjects in frame. I just personally like the "action cam" look of wide angle better.- This is the first camera i have owned that does not have a live preview of what you are shooting (you need to buy a separate remote accessory for that, or I think you can pair w/ cell phone). I was worried that it could be difficult to frame the shots. I can happily say that since the Wide angle is very wide, as long as you try somewhat to just point the camera in the direction you want to shoot almost certainly you will get your subject matter in frame. I havent missed any shots yet (knock on wood!)- There are two shooting modes - Normal, and Underwater. I hope i don't forget to set it to underwater when shooting in the pool.- The sparse online comments on these new Sony cameras mention a poor/confusing menu layout. I can say that in my experience the menu isn't as bad as those comments make it out to be (then again, I don't have any other action cams to compare it to). But compared to my NEX or 6D, the menu is slightly more cumbersome but not that bad, and easily forgivable in my opinion since the form factor is so small. Certain menu functions do require more than 4 or 5 button presses though.- There are red recording lights on the back, top, and front of the camera that let you know when you are actively recording.- My footage so far as been great. Low light performance is decent. Image stabilization is very good.- Just FYI - might seem obvious - when the camera is in its underwater housing, pretty much no audio will make it through (voices will be VERY muffled)

If you're an IRL streamer, you've probably already heard about this camera and how great it is. That's what I use it for. It's compact design and white shell make it great for walking around all day in the sun. It provides perfect image stabilization and good image quality for a decent price. It's very light to hold as well and gives a 'clean' video feed (no battery info, date/time, etc).Keep in mind that this camera was never built for IRL streaming specifically, we just kind of adopted it as a community for now until something better comes out.It definitely has a multitude of great features for IRL streaming that I'm sure you've already heard about by now, so I'll focus on the critical side and what to look out for when using this camera for live streaming.My main nitpicks are that you can't mute it on the fly (for safety/security/TOS reasons while live) and it doesn't have any kind of zoom. There's also no feedback screen if you want to 'see yourself' as you film, so setting up specific angles when live may be difficult. Not a problem for most IRL streamers, but something to consider.A big thing for most streamers is that you need to keep an HDMI and power cable plugged in at all times when streaming. This in itself isn't a big issue, but the camera wasn't designed to be walked around for 5-10 hours straight with 2 cables hanging out the back of it. You'll notice that the cables aren't very secure and may actually fall out as you're streaming which is bad. You'll definitely want to pick up some kind of cable sleeve and maybe shrink tube or some other accessories that help you keep the cables in place better.Other than those small issues, I still highly recommend this camera for IRL streaming! I will keep using it until a company designs a new camera made specifically with IRL streaming in mind.Hopefully this review helps other streamers out there!

Been testing this action camera for 3 days now. Quality is excellent for its max 1080p50/60. You can most certainly view live via cell phone.Only thing I notice is that with settings set high and battery fully charged (total of 4 times), it only last about 113 minutes and not the 120 minutes Sony claims. Perhaps I need to let the battery cell wake up some more? I dont know. For now, it doesn't really bother me. Now, the stabilization in this camera is phenomenal! Oh, and the colors.... Ooooooh... They're so spot on! You will, however, need to bring in more lighting than normal but no big deal.As of right now, I'll give it a 4 star rating as I haven't tried it for my main purpose.Update:The Sony hdr as300 can run a full 120 minutes as claimed by Sony. I just now realized, that I can use a full 128gb micro sd and have an external battery hooked up so I can record longer than 120 minutes. 240 minutes or so!UPDATE - 8/2/17I have used this camera so far in the freezing rain and snow. I've even used dirty work gloves all over it. I love this little action cam. I love it so much, I might just buy another one or a model below it. Hasn't given me any issues, either. Now that's a relief. This camera, by far, is better than any GoPro on the market.

Nice camera. Love Sony Action Cams. It is a shame that they have never introduced a newer model and that its accessories are so expensive.

Great little action cameraShoots HD video that is crisp & clear with excellent audioUse it as a dash cam in my vehicle at times & the camera does a great job.Highly recommend this camera

Couldn't believe something so compact could deliver such great results. Love mine.

Great little video camera good pic quality easy to use ..small great for those underwater shots