Customer Ratings & Reviews

Great camera, easy to set up and use. Good product for the price.

I got this to upgrade our church's videos to YouTube, but by the time everything gets compressed, I couldn't see any difference. It still has the limit of recording time as with other Sony handycams, which means I have to always stitch the files together. I ended up returning it. Also, I must not have read carefully that this has no internal memory card.

Nice upgrade from my cx440 to 4k. So worth the money.

Works as advertised. Very pleased with this product!

Good quality and 4K. Doesn't have built-in in memory

Easy to use, good picture quality sound decent.

This is a great little camcorder for the price and very easy to set up and use. The "auto" modes cover most of my needs but the manual settings for "high speed shutter" to capture high speed activity for later viewing in slow motion are really superb.

I own an AX53 and wanted a second camcorder. Open box price was excellent and condition was perfect but ultimately I returned the camcorder. Best Buy service was excellent. This is a quality Sony product it just wasn't the fit to my current needs. Would recommend if it checks all your needs.

I will start out by saying that I do love the video quality that comes out of the AX43. It's crisp and clean, even in lower lighting, and the 5 axis gimbal built into the unit works extremely well, even when doing light running. But this camera is an almost exact rehash of the AX53 with a few features missing such as night vision and a manual focus ring. That's not entirely a bad thing as the AX53 is a beast of a hand held video camera, but the AX53 was released in Dec 2015 and we're now in 2020. So let's go over the basics and some quick comparisons. Being as the AX43 is a rehash, you have a myriad of accessories to choose from right out of the gate. The front ring accepts 55mm filters, which was not available information on the AX43 packaging, but was listed under specs for the AX53 and has been test as still being accurate. Almost all of the bugs have been worked out of the software since the original AX53 release, and the 5 axis gimbal has been shown that it can handle wear and tear without large amounts of failures being reported. This is a larger camera, which may or may not feel comfortable in smaller hands, but the record button is isolated and easy to reach with your thumb. The zoom is nice and smooth on the top switch, but the photo button is extremely close. You aren't likely to accidentally take a photo as that button has two pressure levels, but with larger hands there is a chance you'll be hovering over the button to keep your pinky finger away from the microphone up front. All the connectors on the camera are nice and solid and have covers the click into place. They're not water resistant, but they also won't come flying open while recording. With this being a rehash, you're stuck with Sony's proprietary power connector instead of something newer like USB-C with power delivery. The USB micro port is a multi accessory port for both USB input/output and RCA output with the correct cable. The areas where I feel this camera were a letdown are in the firmware and software. The firmware itself is not user friendly for settings. You get a lot of numbers for file size/bitrate and names in the settings, but no descriptions such as resolution of photos and video. If you don't understand the industry lingo, you'll be going back and forth to the online help guide to figure out what they all mean. Also, anytime you change a setting, you are kicked out to the main screen. If you need to change other settings, you are stuck going back through the menus again. A back button after confirmation would have solved this issue, but it was not included. Also, what is not included is 5 channel sound in 4k video. The manual doesn't cover this, but only AVCHD at 1080p supports the 5 channel mic. Anything else puts you into 2 channel. I'd be more upset about this feature if the 5 channel surround worked well, but I found it to be flat and not worth using due to the placement of the microphone. If you need true 5 channel sound, grab an external recorder and sync up in post processing. That brings me to a bonus of the camera. Because this is a rehash, almost all video editing software from 2016 or newer supports the video files. XAVC-S is Sony's proprietary wrapper for H264 video with PCM audio, but I had no issues importing it into older version of Premiere or even Windows Media Player. On the software side, I used the Sony Imaging Edge software on my phone to control the camera remotely. It connects fairly well, even including a QR code and NFC for quick connecting. The software itself is very basic though. You'll be able to zoom and start/stop recording or choose photo mode with a timer option, but that's it. No changing file formats or other settings remotely. The app also cuts controls on the camera itself while you're logged in, which may or may not be a problem for you. I was pleasantly surprised that I could be in 4k 100Mbps mode and still have remote access. Not all video cameras support their highest mode with remote access. So, with all that said, should you buy this video camera? Probably. It's a great video camera with an amazing built in gimbal. Content creators such as vloggers will have a great time with it without having to spend money on extra accessories. It does have it's flaws, but what camera doesn't. This biggest choice really will come down to if you want this camera, or the AX53 for a little more money. Not everyone is going to miss night shot mode or the manual focus ring, but for some that may be the deal breaker.

The picture for the camcorder is good but it can not handle the audio when we do livestream and recording the sound. It keeps drop the sound so made the livestream had no sounds. This camcorder is not good for livestream.

The camcorder is not as good as the AX53, the screen is dim and u have to look at it just right in order to get a decent picture from it. Ur better off getting the AX53

This is the first camcorder I have ever owned and it has been a great experience. The image stabilization is wonderful and 4K quality of video is amazing. Battery life is good and the whole set up process was quick using the flip out touch screen. There are several different modes and settings to get the look and feel you are after so be sure to take some time exploring what this camera has to offer. Now with cell phones closing the gap in terms of image quality every year it becomes a more difficult decision to purchase a camcorder. So, you will have to determine whether or not your phone is good enough for your uses. If you want more than what your phone can offer, and you are looking for a camera with great zoom, a beautiful lens and amazing quality then pick up this camcorder. You won’t be disappointed.

Very good quality. The only problem is the viewing screen outdoors, is blocked by sunlight, and it's hard to see what you're filming. No eye scope to look thru!

At the time of ordering this product, it was mentioned that the product is in excellent condition. But when i went for pick up, I got only body. No battery, no wires nothing. I was not even sure will it turn on or not, because it dont have a battery. So I decided to not pick it up and ask for refund. Very bad experience.

I had returned it for something better. Really didn’t care for this camcorder.

Love it ❤ gets the job done and im a horrible person when it comes to technology...but this is easy for people like me that dont know about technology

We could not use this for the intended purpose because the connection to the laptop was not true 4K quality. We will use a different camera for broadcasting with multiple camera angles taken digitally.

Got the camera to document all our travels and will be using it for our Hawaii trip starting 7-25-2021 to 8-01-2021. Hopefully it"ll be put to good use.

Very good camera recording I recommended it for a good videos

Awesome camera, the wifi capability is everything. Connecting it to other devices to upload content has never been easier. No more wires....for now.