Customer Ratings & Reviews

It seem easy to use, but when it came time to use it won't work.

Bought for family adventures. Rarely used because of poor quality resolution

Sony AZ1 GPS feature not working with US versions of this camera! This is only for the "NEW" AZ1 with the external GPS located inside the "NEW" Live View GPS remotes. Look online and you will see that every person (US version) cannot get the GPS to sync with video during editing. It may be fixed in the future, but as of 11/15/14, it is still not working! If you go on Sony's official website you will notice that they don't even sell the "NEW" Live View GPS remotes. They only sell the "OLDER" Live View remotes without GPS! Sony must realize they can't sell the "NEW" GPS remotes, because the MAIN feature of this remote (GPS) doesn't work!! I am assuming they needed to get the AZ1 cameras on the selves before Christmas and they would worry the GPS BUG later!! I guess SONY can't sell their "BRAND NEW" $350 AZ1VR action cam with the caption: "GPS-COMING SOON" or "GPS, we're still working on it"!! The GPS bug is NOT affecting the other Sony (AS100/AS20/AS30) action cams with the GPS inside the cameras. I am giving it 1-Star so people will know about the GPS issue before they spend their money. The camera definitely deserves a higher rating, but if I were to give it 3-stars, nobody would read my review or be informed about this major problem! The GPS was a major factor for me when selecting this camera over other Action Cams, so that is why I am posting this review to inform people who may be choosing this cam based on the GPS feature. If you don't care about the GPS, then please disregard this review because I still like this Sony Action Cams. My AZ1 camera by itself works great. The camera is small and light weight, which is nice when riding my bike. The remote, although a little tricky to sync, works good with the camera. But since the GPS (which is housed inside the remote) doesn't work, I think you could save $100 and just buy the AZ1 camera by itself. Then just use the FREE smartphone APP (PlayMemories Mobile) to adjust the AZ1 camera settings. I personally think the APP is easier to use then the remote. I haven't decided if I will just exchange this camera for another AZ1 without the GPS remote ($100 less) or for the larger Sony Action Cams (AS100). Another small issue is that the Sony mounts are limited and expensive. I made my own "Sony-GoPro" adapter ($2), so I could use cheaper GoPro mounts. (I went to Home Depot and bought 1/4in-20 x 1in "Socket Set Screw" and a 1in-20 nylon set screws). If you care about GPS then don't buy this camera until Sony fixes this bug. If GPS in not an issue, then I recommend this camera based on its smaller size, lighter weight and excellent video quality.

I needed something to hook up to my projector so that I could use it for training purposes. While the price was right it was not able to do anything other than record to a flash drive or stream to android. It does not hook up to windows.

So I just picked this little guy up at Best Buy, I was originally going to get me a GoPro, but when I saw that this camera has a live feed on your wrist (the live-view remote), I changed my mind, and boy am I glad I did. The live view remote is awesome, the video feed is crisp and clear, and the camera is very easy to use and change settings. The picture quality does suffer at night, when the iso raises to capture the darker image, it becomes very grainy, but that is fairly standard with all action cameras. Overall, for the money, this is a great action camera and I am very happy with my purchase. I use my camera for hiking, car shows, and some auto racing. Thinking about getting one or two more for multiple angles, and they can all be controlled from the one wrist remote.

I got this Sony Action Cam for my trip to Key West. I currently own the GoPro 3 and now the the Sony. By far the GoPro takes better under water pictures & video. GoPro images in both video & picture mode are sharper and clearer. The Sony is smaller, lighter and is easy to turn on and easy to view its postion on the wrist. I am a liitle disappointed with the Sony Cam being that it is a newer item then the older GoPro 3 I have and the way the image looked. Now the Sony did shoot good video out of the case, but still not as good as the GoPro. I still would recommend the Sony for its easy and size. I do however still edit my images in Photoshop.

bought camera to use Thanksgiving and grandaughter doesn't work

This is a great size and the wrist remote is a clever idea. Unfortunately for my use (dirt bike) it just didn't work out. The deal breaker for me is the finicky wrist remote and abysmal battery life. The remote would never stay linked consistently. So the ability to start and stop recording on the fly was always in question. I finally just left it recording. Which is when I learned battery life is measured in minutes when recording with wifi on. Also, to me, the Sony mounting equipment is lacking and ridiculously expensive. All I wanted was a simple, low profile Gopro style helmet mount. Try finding that. By the time you add the tripod adapter or waterproof case, some kind of swivel and fussy connectors there is no longer a size or weight savings. Since I bought an open box for $165 it was almost worth keeping. But in the end the erratic wrist remote just makes it too difficult to use. If I am going to be forced to use a cell phone app (more than a little impractical on a motorcycle) I might as well buy the Gopro Session4. At least it comes with a simple, workable helmet mount. If Sony included (or even made) a decent helmet mount, multiple batteries with charger and if the remote worked and it were priced like a Session4 this would be a good buy. As it is I can't recommend it at this price. At least not for dirt bikes.

I was originally going to purchase a GoPro, but then found out that the GoPro did not have image stabilization. This Sony Action Cam has image stabilization and also a GPS built in to the remote. When using the Sony software to edit the videos, you get your start and end points and average speed. So far I am not disappointed.

Traded my GoPro in for this camera. The Action Cam is awesome! Great picture, good microphone, small, mounts good. But I traded the Gopro in for the Action Cam for the GPS feature. Turns out the GPS feature doesn't work. I mean it really doesn't. It's not a settings issue or software issue. The remote is literally broke. Gave it 2 stars because camera picture is awesome. But GPS doesn't work and battery time only last about 30 minutes. So you'll have to make sure it's off when not using it if you want it to last the whole trip.

I was going to buy a go pro, then I saw the Sony action cam which was a little smaller, and cost $100 less. The attachments work great for me, some other people might need more. The quality is great, as expected. The wrist camera is nice too.

I bought this camera after reading online reviews and comparing it to GoPro. I went with this camera because of the built in image stabilization feature that the GoPro didn't offer at the time. Also the camera is splash proof without the case which is another plus. My main use for this camera is for road and mountain biking. The camera does NOT have built in GPS but the remote does. The remote is very easy to use and allows the ability to control up to five (5) cameras simultaneously. The biggest downside to this camera is it's battery life. The size is great for traveling and doesn't add a lot of weight if mounted on a helmet. The most I've gotten out of it is about an hour and half without the remote/wi-fi. If you enable both of those the time drops to about an hour. I bought a second battery and that has helped a lot. The quality is great and personally better than GoPro. The software is fairly easy to use and edit videos. Overall very happy with the camera.

We knew when buying this camera that it was slightly more hi-tech than what we are used to. The salesperson convinced us that this would be amazing for our honeymoon cruise. We originally bought it to record our wedding. It seemed simple enough. Although when we got home, nothing was recorded! I STILL cannot get the thing to record. Oh, the kicker - our instruction manual is in French! Awesome.. I don't know French. So now we have a $300+ camcorder we will never use.

This is perfect if you don't want to spend too much money and is a quality product. The picture doesn't bounce around while recording and the sound is average for an action cam. Battery life is good and I always carry an extra but never need it. Haven't had an mishaps or dropped the cam so I wouldn't have a durability test but it works great

Camera worked fine except the GPS does not work. Best Buy support was great and tried to assist, but no luck. I tried 2 camera's and had the same issue with both. I really liked the size and specs but the GPS didn't work and I returned both.

We purchased in Dec. for Christmas. Remote has died already. Returning for repair.