Hands-On First Impressions: Sony HDR-AS10

A great little Action VideoCam for us extreme videographers.

By now, anyone who has looked at the category of Compact Action Camcorders knows about the HERO brand. I have friends who have them and most of the ActionCam videos on YouTube are done with it (if you don’t count iPhones). For good reason too. They started this revolution in compact rugged video cams AND they deliver a quality image. There’s even a ‘4K’ version for those with a 4K TV.

That said, I’m on kind of a budget so I went looking for a cheaper alternative. I don’t shoot video often enough to justify spending $400 or $500 on a video camera solution. Yes, I could simply shoot video with my NEX-7, but I do not intend to expose it to the elements or risk trashing it. I ‘settled’ on the little Sony AS10 for $180. That makes it about half the cost of the HERO.

The basic AS-10 kit comes with battery, but no card, the waterproof housing, a non-adjustable clip, 2 permanent stick-on mounts for the clip (for flat or curved surfaces) and a short USB cable.

Note: There is a somewhat more expensive WiFi version with SmartPhone App, if you need it- the AS-15. WI-FI usage will zap the AS-15’s battery quite quickly. There is Windows editing SW too.

There are cheaper ActionCams out there, but this one has an absolutely awesome feature set.

At the top of the feature list for me:

All of the above for $180 seems like a deal.

What got left out of the mix?

There’s no color LCD to see what you’re doing nor eye level viewfinder. The only way to view your shots is from a TV or your computer, after the fact. The little tiny black and white LCD is strictly for accessing the ActionCam’s adjustments.

There is a nifty goodie to convert the AS-10 into a small ‘clamshell’ type camcorder which does incorporate a color LCD viewer ($99). It would make handheld shots a lot more intuitive. Especially if you were shooting from a monopod or something like it.

No provision for using filters, though that would be hard to do at 170º of view. 120º view maybe?

The other weak point is if you want to shoot stills. It captures photos at the same rez as videos- 1920 x 1080. They are useable, but not near as large as some ActionCams will do. I never understood why anyone would use a video camera to capture stills. It seems so counter-productive. Besides, I have real cameras for that.

If using the waterproof case, all settings must be made before you put the camera in it. Once sealed in the case, you can only start or stop recording. No access to the LCD. There is a lever you can set to prevent accidentally turning it on, but that’s it. On the upside, a replacement case is pretty cheap. If you are going to use the camera for an extended period of time or in a humid area, it’s important to add a little Silica Gel pack to prevent condensation. I had read some criticisms regarding this problem, but this is a common issue with ANY waterproof case.

Also worth mentioning is that the lens is somewhat vulnerable to scratching as the front element curves out slightly like a fisheye lens.

I intend to always store the camera in its waterproof case so as to protect the lens from abuse. I can score another case cheaper than replacing the camera. In fact, I scored the optional front covers for the waterproof case as back up.

File Size Matters-

Though almost all the new action VidCams will now shoot 1080p, this makes for very large finished projects. No biggie if all you are going to do is show it on your big flatscreen TV. I’m OK with shooting in 1080p, but I always down sample my finished project to 720p.

My first AS-10 effort is a good example- The 24 minute 40 sec. YouTube upload was 1.45GB (at 720pix x 480pix).

It took over 9 hours to upload because of our poor ADSL service (Puerto Rico!).

The actual 1280pix by 720pix file was a whopping 7.42GB. Think how long THAT would have taken to upload. So I like shooting at 720p, but down sampling the finished vid to 720×480. Render times also make for a lot of ‘dead time’ while waiting on the computer to crunch big files. Of course none of this matters if you just want to do is sling little video clips to FaceBook or YouTube.

YouTube might want us to upload high resolution (HD) videos, but I don’t have the time or band-width for that.

Since I edit all my video clips on an iMac, I don’t need to view or share them before that. I simply drop the MicroSD card into an SD card adapter and pop that into my computer for down loading. I use an old copy of FinalCut Express to edit, but I’m looking for a cheaper alternative. I cannot afford the update to FinalCut X. So I’m open to ideas. I must be able add in titles, a watermark over the entire video and background music, at minimum.

What about the image quality, you ask?

Since this is a straight up hands-on report, my observations are strictly qualitative. Sony’s been in the biz of making consumer and pro video gear for a long time, though this is their first attempt at making a small ‘ActionCam’. I suppose the ‘Bloggie’ was its forerunner, but this is an entirely different beast.

I think it’s the perfect YouTube ActionCam. I think it does a wonderful job and will be using it a lot more, in the near future. I may still try to adapt a graduated Neutral Density filter like I used on my old Vado HD. It helped balance a bright sky against a dark foreground. I’ll report on my results in a future update.

My first series of clips was done from a heavy tripod using the waterproof case for shooting a local marathon. All from the default settings (1080p).

I did an awful lot of panning around as people and cars zoomed by. In post production I noticed a lot of noise transferred to the microphone via my rotating the camera by hand. I can say I’ll be using it from a padded monopod when I get around to shooting hand held.

I’ll also be using it mounted to the top of my SUV like so many of my other videos. I have a bracket and camera clamp I cobbled together for that. I’ll let you know how bad the ‘road noise’ is, once I try it.

“We have a drive planned for the mountains of Puerto Rico. Seems like a perfect trip to try it out.”

The Marathon video (San Blas Half Marathon of Coamo, Puerto Rico) is way too long, even though I edited it down from 46 minutes of ‘useable clips’. I hate tossing out interesting stuff. It does show what you can expect on a nice sunny day, a cloudy day and at the very end, I’m shooting directly into a bright sunset. Some lens flare pops up at the end, but that’s to be expected. There is an edited conversation with a neighbor too, so you get a sense of what it’s like to use it for interviewing people. Works for me!

You can also see the soft halo effect of not using Silica Gel in the waterproof housing. I had to cut out a bunch of video because of that issue. And I knew better! The very quick pans show no jaggies or breaks so I was impressed. Resolution and color depth were very good. Not bad for a camera under $200.

If you are seriously considering buying one of these, here’s a link to the AS-10/AS-15 Handbook (pdf) on Sony’s US Website. It took about 30 minutes to review the 60 page booklet and learn the camera’s operations. Easy stuff.

I give the AS-10, 2 Thumbs Up! I love it.

As I’ve said, I’ll follow with an update in a later post about my experiences with it.