Sony AS100V

Good quality and featured camera, let down by some silly usability issues – I bought AS100V several years ago as an in-cabin camera for when I take my car out on track days. Video quality and stabilisation was important, but also sound quality was important as I wanted to capture the full motorsport experience. Video quality is certainly impressive, in most light conditions. Even when the camera is facing into the sun… Read more

it did very well. Video stability was also put to the test in the car and was impressive. I found the built in microphone quality was very good. However when the camera was mounted near an open window of the car, the windnoise was overpowering. It was good to have the option of an external microphone which solved the issue. The GoPro's at the time didn't have this option.

Also good to have the option to power the camera from an external USB power source. Running WIFI and/or GPS kills the battery fairly quick. So I connect a USB power brick to the camera, which means battery time is not an issue.

The remote wrist mounted viewing screen is a very handy tool as is the ability to preview on a phone. Very handy in tweaking the camera position just right.

GPS feature is handy as it has the capability of tracking the cameras movements and displaying speed. But unless you have the camera mounted right near the windscreen of the car, it won't pick up a satellite. Whereas my phone GPS is a lot less fussy. Either Sony needs to make the GPS sensor better, or have the option to connect an external GPS antenna.

Like most of these compact action cams, navigating around the camera is fairly painful and difficult to find the functions you want. I wish there was a motorsport version, where compactness isn't a priority. I would rather the option of a larger sized camera, with more buttons and larger view screen that make navigating the options a lot easier.

A couple of frustrating design issues. The only way to delete video files is to reformat the SD card, even when it's connected to a PC! How could Sony overlook such a basic function! There is no power off button. You have to cycle through a menu to select the 'pwr off' mode, which is a painstaking process just to turn the camera off, especially when it is mounted. The ability to connect an external microphone is great, but if the camera is mounted using the the tripod mount (which it is in my car), the microphone jack is covered by the mount, so you can't connect the microphone. I ended up having to mount the camera backwards on the tripod mount, which doesn't give the camera a lot of support.

A good little camera – I bought this camera recently direct from Sony. It has Wi-Fi and the capacity to control up to 5 of these little cameras at once. It has a wide range of image modes and can take still photos too. It comes with many attachments. My only gripe is that there is no pause feature. Only a start/stop button. If buying one of these cameras I recommend one… Read more

goes onto the Sony web site and downloads the instruction manual in PDF mode. I had to go onto the Sony UK site to get this. Also I have a mains charging unit for it as one can charge from a PC but the PC may have trouble charging and extracting footage at the same time. I put the SD micro card into it's larger housing and insert it into the SD card slot to extract footage taken. I also recommend that one buys a larger battery for the camera for in HD modes the supplied battery soon goes flat. Inexpensive for it's size, excellent video quality, many attachments Unable to pause only stop and start.

Excellent POV action cam – I have mine RAM mounted onto my motorbike, and it works beautifully. I added some foam to the handle bar mount to reduce the jello effect. Quality of the vids is amazing. Battery life with everything maxed is poor, so I have a USB cable to keep it charged on the go. The wrist view finder is useful as is the phone app. Highly recommended. Quality of the vids Battery life Show 2 replies