Sony HDR-AS50R

Features

Overview: The Sony HDR-AS50R is a lightweight, durable digital HD video camera that captures your point of view while performing action sports. The camera comes with a waterproof clear plastic case, and the Live View Remote (RM-LVR3). The Action Cam can record high-quality XAVC-S HD video and 11.9 MP still images. The AS50R also has built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth so you can share your videos wirelessly to your smartphone or tablet or control it remotely.

Image Sensor: The AS50R is equipped with a 1/2.3" (7.77mm) Exmor R CMOS image sensor with 16.8 gross megapixels (MP), and 11.1 MP effective for movies, and 11.1 MP effective for still images. Still image max pixels equals 11.9 MP. The camera also utilizes the BIONZ X high-speed processing engine for more realistic images, natural details, richer colors and gradations, and lower noise for your videos and photos.

Lens: The ultra wide angle 2.8mm ZEISS Tessar lens gives you a wide perspective for video and still images. It has a bright F2.8 aperture, and a variable (35mm equivalent) focal length that changes with the Angle Setting: Wide: 18.4mm and Narrow: 21.8mm. ("Wide" is only available when SteadyShot is off.) The minimum shooting distance is 11-7/8".

Digital Zoom: When the digital zoom is set to On, you can enlarge the image up to 3x. The higher the zoom rate, the more deterioration of the image quality will take place. You can operate the zoom control from the optional Live-View Remote or from a connected smartphone. The zoom is not available during movie shooting, loop recording, live streaming, or time-lapse shooting.

Underwater Housing: The AS50R comes with the MPK-UWH1 Underwater Housing that allows you to shoot images underwater up to a depth of 60 meters (197 feet) for up to 30 minutes continuously. It protects the camera from minor bumps and shocks, and helps keep dust away from the lens. The housing is equipped with buttons that control all of the camera's functions.

LCD Screen Interface: The HDR-AS50R has a small LCD screen on its right side panel that serves as an intuitive user interface. You can easily view and change the settings using the menu. Icons are displayed on four levels, including Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections, battery level, the movie format and frame rate, SteadyShot setting, and the shooting mode.

Live-View Remote: The included RM-LVR3 Live-View Remote lets you wirelessly control and monitor your recordings while they occur. The Live-View Remote has a small display screen and allows you to see what you're recording, plus view the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connection status, clock time, and remaining battery charge of the camera and the remote. It has the same user interface as the camera, so you can change settings, start/stop recording, and playback your videos and still images on the screen. You can also control up to five cameras simultaneously. You can mount the Live-View Remote in the supplied mount adapter, or wear it on your wrist in the included wristband. The Live-View remote is powered by an internal rechargeable battery which can be charged via USB on the supplied charging cradle.

SteadyShot: The Sony HDR-AS50R features SteadyShot image stabilization that helps produce crisp videos by reducing the effect of camera shake. It normalizes the oscillation the image brings to the image sensor, including motion blur and noise levels in low light shooting. You can activate and deactivate SteadyShot in the menu. It is not available for still image recording.

Recording Media: The AS50R can use microSD, microSDHC, microSDXC, and MemoryStick micro (Mark2) memory cards, with the following recommendations:

Built-in Wi-Fi: The AS50R has built-in Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11b/g/n - 2.4 GHz). You can operate the camera via Wi-Fi using the included RM-LVR3 Live View Remote or the remote control function with your smartphone. You can also transfer and display images to a smartphone or tablet wirelessly via the downloadable "Imaging Edge Mobile" app (compatible with iOS 13.7 or later and Android 7.0 and up). The Sony Action Cam app (iOS 8.1 or later; Android 4.4 and up) also lets you easily cut, trim, and make slow motion videos, as well as Time-Lapse videos. The Multi-Camera Control function lets you connect and control up to 5 cameras on the Live-View Remote or the Imaging Edge Mobile app on your smartphone.

Bluetooth: When the camera is connected via Wi-Fi, it can also communicate with those devices via Bluetooth. The Bluetooth connection allows you to turn the camera on or off to save battery power.

Live Streaming: You can stream movies in real time via video sharing websites, such as Ustream using a Wi-Fi router or your smartphone.

Video Recording: The HDR-AS50R can record high-quality Full HD video in the XAVC-S Format, as well as easily shareable MP4 video. AAC audio from the built-in stereo microphone is captured along with your videos. You can choose from the following recording resolution options:

Still Image Recording: The AS50R can record still images at different resolutions, depending upon the Angle setting. When the lens angle is set to "Wide", the still photos are 11.9 MP. At "Narrow", the photos are approximately 7.0 MP.

Time-Lapse Capture Mode: The camera can record still images at regular intervals of 1, 2, 5, 10, 30, or 60 seconds. The total number of images you can take can be limited to 300, 600, 900, or until you stop shooting (up to 40,000). You can choose 4K Capture Mode for 8.29MP (3840 x 2160) time-lapse videos, or HD for 2.07 MP (1920 x 1980) videos. Software is available to transform these images into impressive time-lapse movies. Action Cam Movie Creator (for Windows or Mac) and Action Cam App for iOS and Android allow you to import movies for editing and creating time-lapse movies.

Burst Shooting Mode: The HDR-AS50R can record multiple still images in a short burst to catch fast-moving action. The Burst Shooting Mode image size is the same as standard still image shooting, and depends upon the Angle setting (11.9M-wide or 7.0M-narrow). The Still image shooting intervals are:

• 8f 1s: Records 10 still images in 1.25 seconds, at a speed of approximately 8 frames per second.
• 5f 2s: Records 10 still images in 2 seconds, at a speed of approximately 5 frames per second.
• 2f 5s: Records 10 still images in 5 seconds, at a speed of approximately 2 frames per second.

Motion Shot LE: With Motion Shot LE, you can capture an entire action sequence in a single frame. A 3MP composite image of the subject in motion is created from a burst of single frames, shot at up to 8.1 frames per second. Use of a tripod and the remote control function of the Live-View Remote or a smartphone to prevent camera shake will result in better photos.

Loop Recording: You can set the camera to record in a loop to avoid missing an upcoming event or moment. The loop duration can be set to 5, 20, 60, or 120 minutes. When the recording reaches the end of the loop, it starts overwriting the recorded video from the beginning of the loop.

Battery: The AS50R comes with the NP-BX1 Lithium-Ion rechargeable battery (3.6V, 1240mAh, 4.5Wh). The battery can be charged in the camera from your computer's USB port in approximately 4 hours 25 minutes. You can also charge the battery using the optional AC-UD20 USB charger (sold separately). The estimated battery life of the NP-BX1 is as follows:

Computer Compatibility: The HDR-AS50R comes with no software, but you can to download the following software for viewing, editing, and sharing your videos and photos:

• Imaging Edge Mobile: This software replaces PlayMemories Mobile for transferring videos and still images to a smartphone, shooting remotely using your smartphone, and to provide location information from your smartphone to your images captured by the camera. It is compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch and requires iOS 13.7 or later, and Android devices with version 7.0 and up.
• Imaging Edge Desktop: Software for PC and Mac that lets you create time-lapse movies, and shoot remotely with wired or wireless connections. Works with Windows 8.1 and Windows 10, and macOS 10.13-10.15.
• Action Cam Movie Creator: This software create an impressive movie using advanced editing, effects, trimming, and combining. Compatible with Windows 8.1 and Windows 10, and Mac OS X v10.10-10.11 / macOS 10.12-10.13
• Action Cam App: The app allows you to create impressive videos from footage shot with the Sony action cam. You can import video from your action camera to your smartphone, and edit the images, create time-lapse movies and other projects. The app is compatible with iOS 8.1 or later and Android 4.4 and up.
• Highlight Movie Maker: This built-in software uses face detection to create in-camera highlight videos. It automatically selects highlight points of footage from a wide range of scenes to create a highlight movie with background music that can be shared using your smartphone.