Sony FDRAX53/B 4K HD Camcorder (Black)

First of all, I am a severe weather photojournalist, thus my primary reasoning for this camera is to shoot storm and weather video. I have also shot high school football games with this camera, and both types of videos have been used on TV. That said, I am reviewing this from that perspective.

General thoughts, I love this camera. For many years, I have been shooting on the Sony XR500v models (HD) that I swore by, mainly because of their low-light capabilities and the quality they rendered out, even if I was just using headlights as my only source of light at night.

I finally graduated 4K, this being my first go, and after a month, I have to say that I love what I am getting. One of the bigger initial reasons for buying this was because the batteries from my XR500v models were the same as what this camera uses, so I was able to keep all my accessories the same without any further investment.

WEATHER VIDEO: I have shot in daytime, low light (cloudy or stormy conditions), and at night, and all three look terrific. The quality is outstanding, the low light and nighttime videos turned out great. One of the notable differences between the XR500v and the AX53 at night was that while the AX53 was not as bright as the XR500v (slight difference, but noticeable), it had much less noise and was much cleaner. The details on this camera are great, colors are bright, and while the 4K is great for building a library, I render out clips in 1080 and they look outstanding.

FOOTBALL VIDEO: Shooting under the Friday Night Lights, I love this camera. It focuses well and easily, very quick, and handles the action very well. Lower light situations mostly, and the clips look crisp and sharp. Have even done interviews on the fly and they sound good even on the built-in mic, so that’s a perk for that (I’d use a more professional microphone system for more formal interviews). You won’t get professional sound from this, but I feel like it rates higher than most built-in sound on cameras, so for most, I think it’ll work just fine.

TECHNICAL: I LOVE the focus ring… one of the things I loved about the XR500v was the ability to adjust the focus on the camera using a knob as opposed to going into the menu. This is super handy for me and allows me to set this camera to infinity very quickly without having to access menus. Note that you can turn the focus to auto/manual via a button that is easy to access beneath the ring on the left side. The position of the photo button has lead me to inadvertently shoot photos when using the zoom toggle, and I have done it a lot while picking up the camera, etc. That is slightly annoying, but hardly an issue overall. The image stabilization is terrific when hand-holding (which I shoot 90% of the time using this camera), but on a tripod, you need to let it settle a bit or your image will float a bit. But it is smooth when using by hand, or in a moving car. It is even very stable when at full zoom.

DUAL-SHOOTING: This camera is capable of shooting 4K as well as 720 video at the same time. My station uses 720, and having compressed 720 files immediately available makes for a very quick turn around. The file sizes are small, but the quality of the video is noticeably low, but will suffice in a pinch. It is extremely handy for me to have that feature. But in most cases, I will not substitute the 720 files for the 4K files in my edits, only using them for mobile uploads cause of small file size, or for quick turn around in tight deadlines.

ADVICE: Get a UV filter for the lens just to keep it safe from scratches. And you likely will not find a hood you can use at full wide because the lens shoots so wide, it will get the hood in the shot.

MEMORY CARD: I use a Transcend Class 10 card at 128GB and have had no issues with it in dual record.

BATTERY: I have a FV100 on the camera and it sticks out a lot. The tab that holds the battery in place does the job, but definitely feels small and breakable (have not broken it on this camera, but it just has that not-so-stable feel). Be weary of that if you’re using extended batteries. The FV70 will probably work fine. The FV100 also makes it hard to use the viewfinder to shoot if you use that method. I have shot two hours of football on the battery and have had plenty of time left. I don’t have an exact, nor am I shooting continuous (10-second clips), but I feel confident in saying it will last you a couple hours easy.

COMPLAINTS: The position of the photo button will probably give you a few accidental photos, but again, more of an annoyance than anything else. I’m not a fan of having to flip open the LCD screen to turn on the camera because the card access is located behind the LCD, so I get into the habit of manually turning the camera off before taking out or inserting the card. That manual power button is also behind the LCD screen. Again, as mentioned earlier, use of the FV100 extended battery virtually renders the viewfinder a bit tougher to use. It can still be used, but the battery sticks out further than the viewfinder, even when it is pulled out. BTW, pulling out the viewfinder also turns the camera on.

VIDEO EDITING: Post-processing 4K files is very hardware intensive… my laptop I edit on needed at least 8GB of RAM with a stout processor. I use Premiere CS6, and originally had 4GB of RAM which was terrible for editing. The upgrade helped immensely, but still is a bit lagging in areas. My desktop is loaded and edits beautifully. Just make a note of that if you plan on editing much.

OVERALL: I love this camera and am happy I made the investment. My XR500v camera have lasted nearly 8 years, and still going (the only reason for the upgrade was to get into 4K). My hope is to get a lot of life from these babies as well. Strongly recommend for anyone casual looking to shoot, but certainly would not stray away from doing some semi-professional stuff with it as well.

Came for the 4K, stayed for the stabilization!

The Balanced Optical SteadyShot (B.O.S.S.) image stabilizer on this thing is phenomenal for handheld shooting, best I’ve ever seen. Supposed to be slightly better in HD mode than 4K, but I didn’t notice a significant difference. You can walk while shooting in wide angle, or zoom in all the way while standing still, and get usable to great footage — no tripod necessary. Of course, you can’t do swish pans and fling the camera around and expect miracles, but if you at least make an *attempt* to help it out by smoothing and dampening your motions or bracing yourself (like any decent cameraperson would), you can get unexpectedly great results.

Yes, the AX100 has the much bigger 1″ sensor. But that model is now about 3 years old and about $700 more, while this camera has the very latest (2016) vastly improved optical stabilizer technology. Since I’m shooting lots of handheld documentary footage, often in remote locations with only occasional tripod shots, I opted for the better stabilizer rather than the bigger sensor and am VERY glad I did.

Requires a fast SDXC card — I used this SanDisk Extreme Pro 128GB UHS-1/U3 card with no problems: 

SanDisk Extreme PRO 128GB UHS-I/U3 SDXC Flash Memory Card with up to 95MB/s- SDSDXPA-128G-G46

. You can fit about 2.5 hours of 4K @ 100mbps in XAVC-S mode on this card, more than double that for only HD resolution.

I can report that the XAVC-S video from this camera works GREAT as-is when imported directly to iMovie 10.1 or greater on the Mac. I was pleasantly surprised — you don’t need a top-of-the line machine for basic 4K editing, my 2012 MacBook Air with an SSD does OK, and anything newer with an SSD should be even better. You do NOT need any scammy 3rd-party XAVC-S transcoding software, which you will find plenty of links to if you are googling around for AX53 and XAVC-S. I just mounted the SDXC card in my computer, clicked Import in iMovie 10.1.2, selected some clips, and could start viewing and editing them right away. The 4K video looks GREAT on a calibrated HD monitor and TV downscaled to 1080p. Update: finally got the chance to view it on a large calibrated 4K monitor, and yes you really can tell the difference; you don’t perceive it as 4x more detail, but finely textured areas definitely seem more lifelike and tactile than in 1080p.

The camera has some features for transferring video wirelessly, but that looked like a lot of trouble to me. I like simple things: just pop the card out, and stick it in your computer.

Reading reviews, people kept complaining about two main things with this camera: not enough manual controls, and some kind of “bug” with the stabilizer when shooting on a tripod. Actually, I really like the Manual button, you can use it to choose which ONE of about 6 settings the lens ring controls, and you can do that from just the viewfinder (no touchscreen necessary). I wish I had 3 manual buttons like you do on the AX100, but I’ll live. I also used the “My Button” feature to put 3 quick-access “soft buttons” always on the left side of the touchscreen: White Balance, Spot Focus, and Audio Rec Level. That’s enough to remind me to take care of those things before every shot. As for the stabilizer “bug”, I didn’t see it. For moving shots on a tripod (live panning and tilting with a fluid head) you want to turn SteadyShot off, otherwise it will fight you — same with any lens that has optical image stabilization. But for locked-down tripod shots I didn’t bother turning SteadyShot off and didn’t notice any problems.

Focusing system is fast in reasonable light — when picking a target on touchscreen (Spot Focus), it goes from infinity to a foot away in less than a second. When in auto-focus mode and moving around, the camera actually takes its time and waits for things to settle down a bit before selecting a target, which I liked.

When shooting, I start out by putting the camera in “full auto” mode with the little “iAuto” icon on lower right of screen (SONY calls it “Intelligent Auto”), which resets everything to auto while the camera tries to figure out a scene mode, exposure, shutter speed, etc. Then if necessary I make a few manual changes: white balance (using a white card), focus (using touchscreen or manual dial), and sound level. I observe the on-screen guides for Focus Peaking and Zebra Stripes. If I see too many zebra areas, I press and hold the Manual button for a second, pick the Exposure setting in the on-screen menu, and dial it down a little. That’s about it — but for quick run-and-gun the camera does a surprisingly good job when in iAuto mode, even in low light, and always with that great stabilizer.

I use external mics exclusively, and the audio quality has been excellent: Rode VideoMic GO (powered by camera) or Rode Wireless Filmmaker Kit (transmitter, receiver, and lapel mic).

I love the Time Lapse feature — but unfortunately it stores the frames as individual 4K JPEGs rather than a movie, which means you have to use external software before importing to iMovie or whatever. I use the free Mac app called “Interval” (from the App Store) – pick an input folder with all the frames, pick your output settings, export as 4K QuickTime movie, then import that into iMovie. You don’t need the SONY PlayMemories Home software for ANYTHING.

This is a great hobbyist/prosumer camera for getting into 4K/UHD shooting, small and lightweight, feels very comfortable in your palm for on-the-go situations, and can yield amazing footage with a little care.

Buen equipo. Mi tercera Sony camera. Recomende.

Filmadora amadora com corpo robusto. A lente não é tão luminosa quanto o modelo anterior que era só FullHD, mas ainda assim é muito boa! Fácil de usar.