I wish I’d tried the Sony FDR X3000 when it first came out. It’s a far superior action camera in almost way over the GoPro, which I’ve been using for around 5 years.
GoPro have been owning this segment of the market for years now. Their marketing is heads and shoulders above anything Sony does and if you look around, the vast majority of people filming shit on holidays for personal use are doing it with GoPro’s.
But GoPro has become a little bit like Apple, with the fan boys and the cliche product announcements with the crowd cheering like some cult. It’s all a bit too much so I decided to jump ship and try something different.
If you’re a bit of a tech nerd like me, before you buy something you have to do the usual search on YouTube and watch at least 5 different videos on the product you’re about to buy. Pretty much everything the reviewers say is true. First up. the Sony FDR X3000 has better image quality.
This is somewhat subjective, but the colours look better, there’s less distortion, even in the super wide angle mode. Secondly and probably most importantly for the vast majority of people using this type of video camera, the image stabilisation blows GoPro’s out the window.
To be fair, I’m comparing this to the past two GoPro’s I’ve had, the GoPro Hero 3+ and the GoPro Hero 4 Silver. Since then GoPro has released the Hero 5 and 6, it’s all a bit like Apple, minor changes in each iteration and really only releasing new ones to make a buck. Anyway, The Sony FDR X3000 has optical image stabilisation compared to the GoPro’s digital image stabilisation.
Basically what that means is you get way more steady footage with the Sony FDR X3000 and when you’re taking some quick holiday videos to patch together a short clip at the end, the difference is noticeable. I don’t pixel peep or do any in depth tests, but it doesn’t take a professional videographer to notice the difference.
There’s one glaring disadvantage with the Sony FDR X3000 compared to the GoPro’s. And that is the lack of a screen. Yeah, the Sony FDR X3000 comes with a little (big) watch type thing with a screen, but even if you don’t consider the fact you look like a complete plonker wearing it, it’s just not practical. When you’re on holiday, dealing with two other cameras, gear for the kids, trying to find directions, you don’t want to be messing around pairing up the action cam to the screen on your wrist. There’s another little screen you can attach to it and then hold the camera like a gun, but that also looks ridiculous and is just another piece of tech to worry about.
For someone like me who’s used to shooting these little action cams, it’s not a huge deal, but for the average consumer, not having a screen is going to end up in a lot of wasted video. I guess it’s the form factor of the Sony FDR X3000 which makes it difficult. They wanted to go with something different but I suspect have cut out half the potential market by not having some kind of built in screen. If it wasn’t for this fact, I’d say the Sony FDR X3000 would be way more popular than it is. The only time I miss it is when I want to do time lapses, and want to see my framing and what’s going to be in the time lapse.
This requires me to pair the Sony FDR X3000 with my phone, which is not a difficult or particularly time consuming task (about a minute), but it’s still one more step than I’m used to doing and would like doing. Other than this, the Sony FDR X3000 is awesome. It is actually easy to hold because of it’s elongated form factor and you can record more anonymously which is useful in some cases, like when my son has had enough of me taking 2,000 photos and 150 videos of him.
So anyway, if you’re thinking about getting a GoPro or any action cam, I’d recommend the Sony FDR X3000 over the GoPro any day of the week.
For more info about the Sony FDR X3000, visit Sony’s website here. Sample shots taken in Cebu.
