If you are adventurous and love biking across country roads or cycling tracks, or enjoy creating POV videos, you will love Sony’s Action Cam HDR-AS30V. The Sony HDR-AS30V Action Cam is a slim-bodied camcorder that comes with a 170-degree wide angle Zeiss lens, Exmor R CMOS for low light performance, Wi-Fi and NFC capabilities, and a GPS to track your activities.

The Action Cam’s camera is able to take 12-megapixel photos, 1080/60p HD videos, and can even go underwater with a special waterproof case. Despite the additional case, it’s still slim enough to attach to the side of your face or on a helmet for a first-person view of your adventures. With the battery, it weights around 85-gms.

The in-built Wi-Fi is essentially useful and allows you to connect the Sony Action Cam HDR-AS30V to an optional RM-LVR1 Live-View Remote. The RM-LVR1 Live-View Reote is actually a waterproof wristwatch-style controller that communicates wirelessly to the Action Cam, thus allowing you to operate the Action Cam easily, when the camera is mounted on hard-to-reach places such as your helmet, kayak or surfboard.

In addition, Sony’s organization and editing software, PlayMemories Home, has been updated with some new features. The software can use the captured GPS data from the Acton Cam to overlay the location or speed information onto your videos. If you have more than one camera, the software can also create a split-screen composite for viewing multiple cameras in one video. Also, if you feel the camera was not mounted properly, you can use the Movie Rotate feature to turn video clockwise or counterclockwise every 90 degrees.

Since the camera offers both Wi-Fi and NFC connectivity options, pairing it with compatible devices was a breeze. We personally preferred pairing it with NFC devices to Wi-Fi. Overall, Sony’s Action Cam HDR-AS30V is a worthy competitor to GoPro’s range of similar cameras. The camera worked perfectly out of the box. We were quite amazed with the performance of the camera’s SteadyShot image stabilization with Active Mode, which handled camera Pshakes with ease, to deliver smoother videos.

Price: AED 1599 (comes bundled with a 16GB memory card, underwater housing, a waterproof headband, tilt adaptor, and wrist mount).  The wearable Wi-Fi remote is an additional accessory which retails at AED 449.

Specifications:
Camera Type: POV Action Cam
Image Stabilization: SteadyShot image stabilization w/ Active mode
Wi-Fi: Control with Smartphone
Waterproof: Yes (In use with Waterproof Case (SPK-AS2))
Embedded GPS: Yes
Image Processor: BIONZ
Effective Picture Resolution: Approx. 11,900K pixels (16:9)
Imaging Sensor: 1/2.3″ (7.77mm) back-illuminated Exmor R CMOS Sensor
NFC: Yes (NFC forum Type 3 Tag compatible)
HDMI Terminal: Yes (HDMI micro)
Memory Card Slot: Memory Stick Micro and Micro SD/SDHC/SDXC compatible
HD Output: HDMI Out (micro)
USB Port(s): micro-B/USB2.0 Hi-speed