Product Reviews

I've used Sony movie and DV cameras for over 40 years from Super 8 onwards, many in very demanding environments such as underwater housings and up ships and yacht masts dangling round my neck, none have ever failed. Never used eyepiece as spectacles get in the way. I many shooting situations there is no time to get into manual settings, never a problem that cant be sorted in post production especially with resolve 18 editing and Topaz. Gor me on the wrong side if 70 I need to to consider weight of equipment, and size, I use and carry action camera, small Gimbal cameras. and drones. With this Sony I can now also use the excellent optical zoom to get the movie shots along with stills. I can also use my filters. And one point, if you do Pan do it slowly and keep the horizon steady. This camera will look after you at this great price. But its one third of the price of the nearest Pro Sony. The one real benefit is I don't have to put myself at risk clambering over hazards and making an idiot of myself by falling over. A good ploy when explaining to my wife why I need this new essential bit of safety gear.

For more than 20 years I have been using Sony Video Cameras (this is the 5th one) and 3 old ones are still in very good conditions. Therefore I did not purchase a new one for almost 10 years. As I wanted to see the quality of 4K video I purchased this one. Previously Sony used to give a free training for new video cameras or cameras when we purchased them. But this time I did not receive any information about that. After reading the Operating instruction I tried the new one several times but the video images taken seems to be always darker than than those taken with my old one - Handycam PJ260. Using Manual mode will be a bit troublesome as I have to experiment several times to get the correct exposure. I very much appreciate it if Sony can arrange a workshop for beginner's video shooting using this video camera.

Gimbal stabilization the best. Too bad 4K does not have higher frame rate only 25fps, if it does, it's gonna be a perfect handycam. So must shoot in Full HD with max 50fps then can do slow motion to 25fps. Overall it is a good handycam, replacing my old one Sony HDR-PJ540 FullHD projector Handycam.

The performance of the camera is very good, with excellent battery life. The overall package is let down by the lack of a viewfinder. This could be compensated for to some extent by having a brightness control of the viewing screen. Filming in cloudy-bright conditions makes it almost impossible to see what you are shooting.

I bought this a month ago and was very pleased with its ease of use, picture quality and stabilisation features. Its only on a bright sunny day that I realosed the monitor was absolutely useless, and maybe I should have bought a camcorder with an optical viewfinder as well. I was also disssapinted that the Sony Centre sold me "old stock" in that the FDR-AX43A has now been introduced with a better display.

a very easy to use unit with access to more in detail operations if required

The quality of this camcorder in regard to image quality, stabalisation, battery length is great. But the real downside is the associated software. I would like to use this camera for youtube content creation. It would be so useful to have the option to use the item also as a webcam, yet sony doesn't support software for this as it does for other cameras. I purchased a capture card to help, but it was still glitchy, continually switching off midstream despite having changes settings.

Although I have had this camera since last November, the lock down, the weather and other priorities have meant that I have only done a little indoor testing do far. Come the Spring and easing of lockdown and I'll be in a better position to report back to you.

This is a small device but with great quality. Easy to carry and use

I'm still learning what I can with this amazing device and look forward to learning more - the quality of image seems excellent.

Amazing camcorder and great video results. Good design.

I purchased this recently as I am a golfer and a musician (not both at the same time obviously) and I wanted to record some music and my golf swing. I've only tried the music up to now and whilst the instructions do say that the reproductive quality when recoding in 4K may not be brilliant that I found to be an understatement. When trying to replay my music on my laptop the 4K version is unwatchable as there is juddering and drop out on the tape to make it useless. It does replay very well through my 4K television but it was the laptop that I needed it to play properly through. Overall not a good purchase for why I bought it.

I see following features missing in AX 43 model as compared to CX7 I have Nearly the same number of pixels Auto Focus is not precise, you can't shoot an object moving away from you or approaching towards you. Night shot is missing but that is documented Switching modes like HD, 4k, photo is not at all easy, you need to set the file format type each time before switching the actual mode Photo clicks are not possible during 4k mode LCD monitor has too much of reflection as compared to cx7. I wish Sony replaces it for all camera, unless you have an umbrella with you, you can't see the target in the monitor, if you have day light behind you, even cheap Android phones dont have this problem. Effectively this camera cant work in brighter light behind you and also does not have flash built it. The Android app is has delay in rendering live video. My Sony 4k Android TV is not able to render video captured by FDR43, but video from cx7 is good

overall the camera shoots excellent video in low and high speed frame mode. the start up is less then 3 seconds from power button/opening side viewer and it is recording. play back is easy to access when quick reviews are needed. 4K is a nice feature, but I use it very little since the true HD is already excellent quality.

This is a quality item. Highly recommended, easy too use with excellent results

I have tried out so many cameras lately from DSLR to Hand-held action cameras. I was about to give up until I purchased this. I now feel like a videographer even though I’m far from one. Excellent video and easy to use. Highly recommend if you don’t feel like going to film school to learn how to use.

Disappointed. Just a dumbed down version of the Ax53, nothing new.

I bought this and now I am returning it because they took out the Night Shot feature. I didn’t mind it not having the external viewfinder, but the Night Shot IR System is what was needed for ghost hunting. The Balanced Optical Stabilization System would have been great to provide a less shaky video than with the FDR-ax33 when walking around and filming. When I purchase a product I want the same features or more that I saw in older models and not fewer. Another weakness is that even though it is a newer model it is still recommended to use only a 64GB SD Card when larger capacity SD cards are out in the market for years. If it had the Night Shot it would have been the perfect Camcorder for my needs.