Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I've been in the market for an action camera for a while now. Just a few weeks ago, I picked up a GoPro Hero 3 Black Edition. Considering the Hero 3 Black is the industry leader, I was quite surprise to find out that there is no image stabilization built into the camera. Further, while shooting some video clips at night, the video quality was quite bad in low light situations. When Sony announced the predecessor to their action cam at IFA 2013 last month and having heard of all the features, I decided to pre-order the camera. The Sony HDR-AS30V comes with 6 accessories. - Micro USB - Rechargeable battery pack - Waterproof Case - Adhesive Mount Attachment Buckle - Flat Adhesive Mount - Curve Adhesive Mount - Set of printed documentation The 73 page user manual is provided as PDF on the camera's memory and can be accessed when the camera is connected to a pc. To access the settings on the camera, you have 3 buttons. An ENTER button, PREV, and NEXT. Navigating through the menus take some time to get used to, but once you get the hang of it, it's quite easy. Sony also offers a free mobile app called PlayMemories Mobile. With the camera on and app launched, once you enter the SSID and password provided to you on one of the printed documents, you'll have a LIVE VIEW of what the camera is aimed at. This comes very handy when framing your shot. With the app, besides starting and stopping the video recording, you have options to turn on and off the SteadyShot, toggle the camera viewing angle between 120 degrees and 170 degrees, and set the camera in PHOTO or MOVIE, or INTERVAL RECORD mode. The lag time between what the phone display sees versus what is happening in front of the camera has been noticeably improved from Sony's last year model. From initial tests, the camera does an excellent job in low light situation and bumpy video footage. I have yet to test the NFC, GPS Data Overlay on Video, nor underwater picture quality yet. Summary PROS: - image stabilization - gps data overlay on video (shows map view, average speed, distance traveled, current time, duration time, total time, and date.) - nfc for quick one touch connections - excellent low light - battery is REMOVABLE, allowing one to carry spare battery packs without needing to stress about finding a charger when the camera is out of battery - cheaper than industry leader - video quality is better than industry leader all around - one touch START and STOP video recording - PlayMemories Mobile CONS: - does not have "G-sensor" to detect camera orientation and keep horizon consistent through recording. if camera is up-side-down, video will be up-side-down I would highly recommend buying the Sony HDR-AS30V if you're in the market for an action camera that takes really nice video with all the features I've mentioned. This is a very fine camera.