Customer Ratings & Reviews

I recently returned from a 7 week vacation in Europe where I took over 4 hours of superb video with this new camcorder. (I had previously used a Sony HDR-XR500 HD camcorder on four earlier trips to Europe. While I was pleased with the results of the HD camcorder, I wanted something better.) I found the camera easy to use. After I returned home I used Adobe Premiere 15 to edit my videos and I saved them to an external Western Digital My Passport hard drive as high quality 4K ISO files. This allowed me to view the videos at 4K resolution on a 55" 4K TV via the USB port. Incredible viewing experience. When filming I used 128 GB SD cards and produced ISO files of approximately 150 GB. I am very pleased with this camera and look forward to taking it on my next trip to Europe in 2018.

We ordered this camera to livestream church services and it has been a great experience. The quality is outstanding!

I haven't had much of a chance to use the camera yet, although set up seemed easy. Camera is a little bigger and heavier than the standard HD camera which was expected. Battery is a bit bulky, and it doesn't lock in really tight. The battery hasn't came loose or fallen out, but there is a small rattle when you move the camera much since the battery was a little loose. My only concern so far is with Best Buy and their choice of camera bag that they gave away with the purchase of the camera. "Sony LCS U11 Soft Camera Case - Black", is not big enough to hold the camera even if you take the battery off. Best Buy certainly didn't plan this out very well. I will update more once I have used the camera more.

Camera takes great video and the sound is top quality as well. Definitely worth the purchase

Excellent product in every way. Amazing zoom and lens stabilisation.

This camera is very nice. It has a lot of great features, almost too many. But even using it on the basic settings is nice. I wanted a camera that worked well in low-light situations as well as recording in 1080p60p and this one does the trick perfectly. Can't tell you how many times I've been asked what camera I'm using from my YouTube videos. It's a bit heavy, but that's because it's a pretty big camera. You can definitely feel the quality. It's not "native" 4K, but I doubt I'll use it to record 4K anyway. At least not in the foreseeable future. If you can afford the $900 price tag, definitely go for it.

I owned more than 5years this model and still perfect!

The Sony 4K Handycam FDR-AX53 camcorder is very good. But there is an exception. I used the camcorder on our recent trip to Hawaii. When using the camcorder outside in bright sunlight, it is almost impossible to view anything on the LCD monitor, you only see a reflection of your face. The LCD monitor is excellent indoors, but not outside. Maybe they can come up with something to reduce the glare on the LCD monitor.

Purchased this for live streaming as there were many positive reviews about it online. Apparently you cannot turn the display completely off - the HDMI output is not clean. I researched online, turns out this is a limitation of this camcorder...even though it's marketed as "great for live streaming!!" I brought it back to BestBuy within the same week, explained the issue, and asked to exchange it for a camcorder that was $250 MORE than this one, and capable of a clean HDMI out. They refused to waive the restocking fee in exchange for the purchase of a more expensive camcorder so long story short, I will be buying the Cannon VIXIA HF G50 from AMAZON instead. I understand that restocking fees exist to protect against loss, but when the product purchased is missing basic features that camcorders from 10 years ago have (when live streaming was not even a thing), it's extremely frustrating. And allowing me to exchange it for an item that is more expensive ultimately still leaves the transaction net positive for the retailer, so instead of working with me they lost out on an $1100 sale. Unrelated to the issue at hand: the picture quality was great and the stabilizer was a nice feature.

Junk! Used it for about a year. Went to use it on our vacation and it turns off and back on when you hit the record button. No longer useable. I went to Nest Buy they said to call Sony! Of course! I call Sony they went through ALL troubleshooting steps and nothing would work. They gave me a number to a local repair place on their preferred list. They called me back to schedule. I finally got ahold of someone and they told me they don’t work on Sony camcorders that I needed to call Sony!!! $1200 down the freaking drain! Thanks Sony and Best Buy- next time you want a donation let me know so I can write it off on my taxes. My Daughter is now in college and we lost all those memories.

Great camera does what o need awesome you should buy it

Works really well and I have no complaints. 10 out of 10

I have had the camera for about a month now. It has stopped recording video. It looks like it is recording with a red REC on screen, but videos no longer record. I watched my son’s soccer game through it today and none of it saved. It will still save pictures. I am using the same card that I have been using all month, so up until today I’ve been fairly happy with it. Today was frustrating to loose the entire event.

Bought this camera for making home movies with the holidays coming up. Purchased it about a month and a half ago and it completely crapped out today. only recorded maybe 1 and 1/2 hours of footage since purchase and it wont come back on or charge after turning off. I never buy warranties but the one time I did I'm glad I did, I ended up needing and returned the camera luckily I was able to keep the recordings and didn't lose them.

4k recording an issue. Lot of people complain about it.

Has known issues with stabilizing error. Happens after 1yr when warranty is up. If search name with stabilization error you will see. Do not waste your $$. Buy something else.

I'm not sure how well the camera works because I bought one that was an open box and it does not work. Unfortunately for me I did not buy the extended warranty so I only had 15 days to return it unbeknownst to me. So now I'm stuck trying to get Sony to repair a bunk product that Best Buy sold me.