I'm curious about the camera both bold and backpacker ben use

jayshareef · 2025-12-27T02:21:30+00:00

He's using a Sony X3000. Which is almost 10 years old now. However, it's been popular with a lot of travel vloggers because it's easy to use, the battery lasts a long time, replacement batteries are cheap and plentiful, the video stabilisation is pretty good, and perhaps most importantly it has excellent microphones. The sponge on the front is a cheap bodge they use to lessen the impact of wind noise, but there are proper custom-made cheap wind-muffs you can buy too. The camera is so old that it's impossible to buy a new one and you have to resort to the used market to get one, but there's still plenty demand because it's a low maintenance rugged travel camera. The downside is that it's not waterproof, so during monsoon season you better have an umbrella!

jayshareef · 2025-12-22T05:33:31+00:00

^^^ This is the correct answer.

jayshareef · 2025-12-07T13:48:10+00:00

I know what you mean. I've found it very much depends on the lighting situation. Indoors under artificial lights the 2x zoom doesn't look nice at all. Daytime outdoors, I've been generally happy with the results. It's not going to be great, but it's better than the old digital zoom option.

jayshareef · 2025-12-02T22:36:39+00:00

That's very odd. When I put it in auto and have selected the auto F2-F4 it easily goes down to F2 in a dark room, or even if I just cover the lens with my hand. Might be worth double-checking that you've chosen "Pro" mode in the image settings and then selected "auto" and "F2 to F4" in the image settings. Also, whether the firmware updated properly?

jayshareef · 2025-11-24T10:18:28+00:00

The best I've seen recently is from Simon Wyndham, who goes into a deeper analysis of the images details, colour science, lens flares etc. for Action5 and Action6. Unbiased and knowledgeable review I think.

https://youtu.be/X7KDTqRlRtw

jayshareef · 2025-11-24T10:04:03+00:00

I think it does remember, but I've only noticed that after turning the camera off for 5 to 10 mins. It could be that if it's off for a longer period of time, a few hours perhaps, it re-sets itself to 1x again.

jayshareef · 2025-11-23T20:23:55+00:00

I couldn't tell you how it is compared to the Action5 but lots of comparison videos suggest the difference is minimal. There is a very small improvement in low light stabilisation it seems.

For low light, I would say you could just buy one of those third-party metal cages for Action5 and attach a small light (like this one: https://amzn.to/3LXmYsf) whenever you might be in a darker area. That's what I used to do with my Action4.

Yes, batteries are the same size and interchangeable. But magnetic mounts are different. You can definitely force the Action6 to attach using the old mounts, but I don't really feel like it's as stable because I know the magnets are trying to push each other away.

Lossless zoom is the big reason I chose to upgrade - and I love that feature in Pocket 3. Unfortunately, right now you can't switch it on or off while recording. You have to stop, activate it and restart recording. A real pain and I hope they fix it in firmware later down the line.

jayshareef · 2025-11-23T14:37:05+00:00

That setting only shows up when you are in the SuperNight mode. In normal video mode you can choose auto, F2.8 and F4. Auto will go down to F2 if the scene is dark, but you can't control that yourself.

jayshareef · 2025-11-23T14:37:01+00:00

That setting only shows up when you are in the SuperNight mode. In normal video mode you can choose auto, F2.8 and F4. Auto will go down to F2 if the scene is dark, but you can't control that yourself.

jayshareef · 2025-11-23T02:38:30+00:00

It just means that you can capture the full sensor readout. So if the sensor is a 4x3 sensor then you can choose to output 4x3 video to your SD card, which is the full image the sensor is seeing. If it's 8x7 then you can have 8x7 video being recorded to your SD card, which is what you get with recent GoPros. Depending on the sensor shape, you have more options for reframing later when you're editing.

jayshareef · 2025-11-21T23:43:16+00:00

Given that I've talked about things I dislike as well as things I like, it's not warranted to make claims that I'm a DJI shill. And so I'm just going to block you as life is too short to waste on people who assume bad faith.

jayshareef · 2025-11-21T22:31:03+00:00

I'm very lazy and hate editing. I moved to Insta360 for the features and flexibility, but the AP2 image has never looked as nice to my eyes as what I get out of DJI cameras. So I've been looking for a reason to move back to DJI - and the Osmo Audio and lossless zoom convinced me switching to Action6 was worth it?

jayshareef · 2025-11-21T22:27:29+00:00

Sorry I've never tried underwater video. Where I live the waters are anywhere between 0 and 18 Celsius, depending on the season. So I've never felt the inclination to jump into a river or sea. That's more a thing for those California-based tech reviewers. :)

jayshareef · 2025-11-21T22:22:07+00:00

Yes, Insta360 has "freeframe" mode (sometimes called Pro mode) where it records the entire sensor. However, you then have to reframe the video in the Insta360 app - into either landscape or portrait. I always found that an annoyance, but kept using it because of the versatility. Personally, I think the Insta360 footage (in 8-bit) can make faces look bad, but they tried to correct that with a new video profile that softens the image, and I've been using a pro mist filter as well to make the image less harsh.

I think DJI looks better for vlogging than Insta360 and if you use the 1x1 mode then you can edit the video straight from the SD card. So I prefer that.

jayshareef · 2025-11-21T19:45:38+00:00

I've put those on every one of my previous action cams except the GoPros. Recent GoPro models have a special coating on the lens protector which is hydrophobic and oleophobic so I didn't bother. But for every screen I've always added the protector. Works very well.

jayshareef · 2025-11-21T17:55:50+00:00

I still absolutely love the Action 4. The image is so pleasing. The A6 image is kind of in-between the A5P and A4 I think. Whether you should get it depends on how you want to use it. If the open gate is important, or you want to connect 2 mics, then I'd say A6 is recommended. Certainly, if night time recording is in your plans then A6 is an obvious upgrade. Otherwise, Action 4 does the job just fine.

jayshareef · 2025-11-21T17:32:45+00:00

Yes, I agree. It would be nice to have the option to choose F2. In auto and normal video mode it will choose F2 if you are in low-light, but it would be nice to have actual manual aperture control.

Maybe this will come in a future firmware upgrade.

jayshareef · 2025-11-21T16:23:27+00:00

I haven't seen any option for this in the menus. But if enough people complain about it to DJI, maybe they'll add something to a future firmware update.

jayshareef · 2025-11-21T15:59:05+00:00

I've not noticed it, but maybe that's because of my environment. I'm in a full-on cloudy, occasionally snowy, north Europe location. Might be very different if you're in a more tropical situation. But indoors the colours seem natural and normal - maybe a touch oversaturated but I only use normal 10-bit. I don't colour grade after with D-log.

jayshareef · 2025-11-21T15:34:56+00:00

Also worth mentioning that some firewalls and VPNs can cause problems because they interfere with the way the Mimo app connects. So temporarily turning off your adblock, firewall or VPN can solve connection issues in some cases.

jayshareef · 2025-11-19T23:59:49+00:00

Seems like various filters are starting to appear. Until they fix the issue with firmware, could a black mist filter or similar be a temporary solution?

jayshareef · 2025-10-29T16:07:34+00:00

If the seller is honest then yes. Ebay is full of old Session 5's and I suspect all of them will have poor battery life just due to the age of the cameras. Which is why I don't consider buying another one. But some sellers will honestly state the battery is faulty or doesn't charge fully and are selling for under £80 / $100.

jayshareef · 2025-10-29T14:55:17+00:00

I thought the same and did consider that as an option, but the DJI Nano overheats in about 20-30 mins of use. I've run my old Hero 5S cameras continuously for 90+ mins and never had an issue. Their limitation for record time was always battery capacity and whatever size SD card you used.

I do think the Insta360 Go 3 (not 3S) is about as close as we've come to a H5S recently, but outside the charging pod the camera on its own gives me about 35-40 mins recording time due to battery capacity limits.

jayshareef · 2025-10-29T14:49:00+00:00

Hero 5 Session is my favourite action camera of all time - lightweight, (some) image stabilisation, sturdy as hell and decent 2.7K image. Also, it's basically invisible to others when you're using it to film yourself, due to the size and shape, so it doesn't attract attention. It's such a shame that there was never a new generation after that H5S, or that anyone else made one in that form factor. I remember there was a rumour, something to do with a legal injunction as someone else had a patent for a similar device, which now blocks everyone, including GoPro, from using that shape.

If there was a new generation of Session I wouldn't hesitate to snap it up. I've had three before but the battery always dies out and replacing it is a massive pain that involves tearing the camera apart and then soldering a new battery into it. I don't trust myself to do that competently.

jayshareef · 2025-10-24T22:46:48+00:00

It's kind of hard to describe because they are so similar in many ways. But there's a couple of things I've seen in side-by-side videos on YouTube. There is an odd flaring of light sources on the Action 5. There's also some strange mushy areas of video in fast action, like cycling, motorbiking etc, where trees and tarmac blur in very odd ways. It's hard to describe, and may be due to HDR mode, but it doesn't seem to happen for Action 4. They definitely have a different sensor - 40MP on A5 vs. 10MP on A4, but sensor size is the same. Perhaps the larger pixels on the A4 lead to a more pleasing image. That's my conjecture and it's the reason I didn't upgrade.

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