My Review of the Sony FDR X3000 BOSS Action Cam

Markr041 · Sep 6, 2016

I have the Sony FDR X3000, with the new LiveView remote plus the new holders. Since it has BOSS, one can now shoot handheld 4K video with a miniature camera.

Here are two ways to shoot just like you have a tiny camcorder (you do!):

1. The finger grip, with wireless LiveView:

Note: the angle of the remote is fully adjustable, from horizontal to vertical.

2. The grip+ table tripod, with wireless LiveView:

To test, I used the finger grip, holding the camera with one hand. I mistakenly set the 4K video to 60 Mbps (the default 4K) instead of 100 Mbps. I set the stabilization to BOSS but without active mode - I wanted the max resolution (darn 60Mbps). Here is what I concluded:

1. As with almost all Sony cameras, the camera overexposes. It has ev compensation, so one can deal with it. And in post, it turns out a lot of what looks like washed out areas come to life by just lowering luminence. So, nothing new here.

2. Yes, you can handhold effectively, with one hand. One is free of tripods! With the other action cams, one had to walk around with a little Joby tripod and attach the camera to whatever was convenient to avoid shakycam.

3. No, forget walking while shooting, at least without active. It is no substitute for a gimbal for moving with the camera.

So, here is the first 4K test video, shot at the end of the day, one hand, 60 Mbps, BOSS only, Vivid color:

Select 2160.

Frame grabs:

There will be more.

heyqd · Sep 6, 2016

Is Boss plus active available at 100mbps? Thanks for any testing you may do, your a great help as it seems your interest in stable 4k cameras, gx85, rx100iv, etc are very much like mine.

Samaistuin · Sep 6, 2016

Markr041 said:
3. No, forget walking while shooting, at least without active. It is no substitute for a gimbal for moving with the camera.

And with that, a Yi 4K with Mercalli becomes competitive again for my use.

Question about the three different focal settings : is it basic cropping like on other action cams, or is it actually an optical zoom ?

Markr041 · Sep 6, 2016

heyqd said:
Is Boss plus active available at 100mbps? Thanks for any testing you may do, your a great help as it seems your interest in stable 4k cameras, gx85, rx100iv, etc are very much like mine.

Yes. I just forgot that the camera default in 4K is 60 Mbps (no idea why) when I shot this right out of the box. Active definitely works at 100 Mbps, both for 4K and 1080 120P. I am not using Active to avoid the slight resolution degradation.

Yes, the first priority is stability, not moving around!

Markr041 · Sep 6, 2016

Samaistuin said:
Markr041 said:

3. No, forget walking while shooting, at least without active. It is no substitute for a gimbal for moving with the camera.

Click to expand...

And with that, a Yi 4K with Mercalli becomes competitive again for my use.

Question about the three different focal settings : is it basic cropping like on other action cams, or is it actually an optical zoom ?

Cropping. No innovation here.

But, no, BOSS+Active beats the Yi 4K hands down, so less distortion and resolution loss from any Mercalli treatment in post. In camera, before compression optical+digital stabilizing has advantages over the post-processing of highly-compressed video. The Yi 4K is nice, however.

Samaistuin · Sep 6, 2016

Markr041 said:
Cropping. No innovation here.

But, no, BOSS+Active beats the Yi 4K hands down, so less distortion and resolution loss from any Mercalli treatment in post. In camera, before compression optical+digital stabilizing has advantages over the post-processing of highly-compressed video. The Yi 4K is nice, however.

Interesting explanation, thank you for this input.

Then the only remaining "issue" for me is the form factor, of which I prefer the Gopro/Yi's. Depth is a concern. I wish there were a pentaprism of sorts for the Sony action cams, so that their body could be reoriented (at the cost of some optical degradation).

But well, that's really up to me to make up my mind somehow.

ijm5012 · Sep 7, 2016

Is there any difference in resolution/sharpness between the various 1080p modes (120/60/30)? Is the 120fps mode noticeably softer than the 60 or 30fps modes, or does it remain nice and sharp?

Markr041 · Sep 7, 2016

Frame grabs:

Markr041 · Sep 7, 2016

ijm5012 said:
Is there any difference in resolution/sharpness between the various 1080p modes (120/60/30)? Is the 120fps mode noticeably softer than the 60 or 30fps modes, or does it remain nice and sharp?

I will make a test. The question is, what is best - shoot at the different frame rates and then render a video conforming all to 1080 30p, or what?

ijm5012 · Sep 7, 2016

Markr041 said:
ijm5012 said:

Is there any difference in resolution/sharpness between the various 1080p modes (120/60/30)? Is the 120fps mode noticeably softer than the 60 or 30fps modes, or does it remain nice and sharp?

Click to expand...

I will make a test. The question is, what is best - shoot at the different frame rates and then render a video conforming all to 1080 30p, or what?

I would't even go through that much effort. I'd just shoot 1080p video at 120fps, 60fps, and 30fps, and look to see if there are any differences in terms of sharpness. The Yi 4K gets noticeably softer the higher the frame rate, but my RX100M4 doesn't. So it's likely due to the sensor being used, and the sensor in the FDR-X3000 is completely new as far as I can tell (I believe it's a 1/2.5" sensor while most action cameras are using a 1/2.3" sensor).

What I'd hope for is that the 120fps 1080p footage looks just as good as the 60 or 30ps footage, so that when mixing slow-mo footage in with regular footage rendered on a 1080p timeline, the slow-mo shots aren't noticeably softer.

LSHorwitz1 · Sep 7, 2016

Markr041 said:
I have the Sony FDR X3000, with the new LiveView remote plus the new holders. Since it has BOSS, one can now shoot handheld 4K video with a miniature camera.

Here are two ways to shoot just like you have a tiny camcorder (you do!):

1. The finger grip, with wireless LiveView:

Note: the angle of the remote is fully adjustable, from horizontal to vertical.

2. The grip+ table tripod, with wireless LiveView:

To test, I used the finger grip, holding the camera with one hand. I mistakenly set the 4K video to 60 Mbps (the default 4K) instead of 100 Mbps. I set the stabilization to BOSS but without active mode - I wanted the max resolution (darn 60Mbps). Here is what I concluded:

1. As with almost all Sony cameras, the camera overexposes. It has ev compensation, so one can deal with it. And in post, it turns out a lot of what looks like washed out areas come to life by just lowering luminence. So, nothing new here.

2. Yes, you can handhold effectively, with one hand. One is free of tripods! With the other action cams, one had to walk around with a little Joby tripod and attach the camera to whatever was convenient to avoid shakycam.

3. No, forget walking while shooting, at least without active. It is no substitute for a gimbal for moving with the camera.

So, here is the first 4K test video, shot at the end of the day, one hand, 60 Mbps, BOSS only, Vivid color:

Select 2160.

Frame grabs:

There will be more.

Really great to see your review and sample video for this exciting new camera, and thanks for posting it.

How / where can this camera be purchased? I have found sources in Japan but no availability in Noth America.

Thanks very much!

ijm5012 · Sep 8, 2016

LSHorwitz1 said:
How / where can this camera be purchased? I have found sources in Japan but no availability in Noth America.

Thanks very much!

You wont' find it in NA until November.

Markr041 · Sep 8, 2016

ijm5012 said:
Is there any difference in resolution/sharpness between the various 1080p modes (120/60/30)? Is the 120fps mode noticeably softer than the 60 or 30fps modes, or does it remain nice and sharp?

I shot some 1080 120p and 1080 60p video. The X3000 is no RX100 IV for 1080 120p. There is also a noticeable difference between 1080 60p and 1080 120p. The X3000 is a great 4K shooter of video and time-lapses. Not so great for 1080 Unless you dowrez from 4K to 1080 - terrific.

gmcooper · Sep 9, 2016

Mark: Is the remote wired into the camera body or wireless. How close to the body does the remote need to be? Thanks for your excellent review.

ijm5012 · Sep 9, 2016

Markr041 said:
ijm5012 said:

Is there any difference in resolution/sharpness between the various 1080p modes (120/60/30)? Is the 120fps mode noticeably softer than the 60 or 30fps modes, or does it remain nice and sharp?

Click to expand...

I shot some 1080 120p and 1080 60p video. The X3000 is no RX100 IV for 1080 120p. There is also a noticeable difference between 1080 60p and 1080 120p. The X3000 is a great 4K shooter of video and time-lapses. Not so great for 1080 Unless you dowrez from 4K to 1080 - terrific.

Thanks for your feedback Mark. Kind of a bummer to hear that 1080p 120fps noticeably softer, as it would have been great to have sharp, 5X slow-mo video. There's no doubt that the 4K footage and BOSS is impressive, but I was really hoping for good 120fps footage.

Markr041 · Sep 9, 2016

gmcooper said:
Mark: Is the remote wired into the camera body or wireless. How close to the body does the remote need to be? Thanks for your excellent review.

The remote is wireless, via wifi. You can wear it on your wrist (a wrist band is supplied). There is a mode in the camera to boost the wifi to 'Hi' that doubles the range. I have not tested it, but the range is something like 30 feet in that mode or more.

Markr041 · Sep 10, 2016

The X3000 has the same sensor as the AX53, designed for video and to maximize pixel size on a small sensor - so the new sensor is not 4:3 but 16:9 and has just enough pixels for 4K.

The new shape mean its size cannot be simply compared to the Sony 1" sensor, which is 4:3, so that many pixels on it are not used for (16:9) video.