Sony FDR-AX43 UHD 4K Handycam Camcorder

Yes its a little expensive, but you get what you pay for. Sony is a name brand that provides top shelf items. meaning its great. True Color 4K, real ZOOM thats clean and crisp! , no pixel crap in your video, true image coloring. usb and dc power options, mic input, hdmi out, i have a 512G samsung Pro Ultimate SD card in there and its rocking at over 200MB/s wifi to a peer to peer to allow your phone to use it as a remote control, so you can remotly zoom pan focus, change features on the fly, Massive battery and its a big girl. look at the photo compare to my Cannon Vixia 1080P its replacing. comes with all cables, and 2 chargers, dc and ac , proprietary plug on the dc charger, but its WAY faster. you can use while charging, and swap batteries while on AC or DC power. DC power IS powered by AC but the power brick is big and converts it to DC for your battery fast charge. Anyway, its a great freaking camera, ive bought the cheaper chinese knock offs that say they are 4K, or 8K and there not. this is it. theres even a better model than this. but its like 1200.00 usd. this ran me 800$ and its great.

Very nice camcorder! I use it for Church Events! Very easy to operate, and very sturdy without being too heavy. Made very well and takes quality videos. Worth every penny!

The camera seems to be fairly good, on a par with my Panasonic HC-V180. For me, the problem lies in the physical size of the camera. It's too big for my hand to both hold and reach around for the zoom lever on top. The zoom level with the lens is less than the V180, before it transitions to digital zoom. The gimbling method used to steady the image can have some odd effects. The image can wander around at high zoom factors. I think I like the software image stabilization better

I upgraded and the camera is excellent. The zoom is very nice. Im not a fan of rhe large battery hanging out the back but it doesnt get in the way. It does not any internal memory so you must also have a memory card to use it

The 30x optical zoom lens is outstanding! I can zoom all the way in to distant trees, and every leaf is crystal clear. The Wi-Fi connection works well, but it would be nice if it outputted HDMI while in this mode. 4K recording is stunning in detail and clarity. My only complaint is that it arrived with no documentation whatsoever. Packing error maybe? But easy enough to find manuals online.

I purchased this Handycam Camcorder with the intent to use it on paranormal investigations. I charged it up and inserted a SD Card. Wanting to test out the Night Shot function, I realized there was no button where it would be normally located behind the flip out view screen. I searched the menus, screen and the instructions there is no Night Shot. I purchased this on the answer from Sony Support USA about the availability of Night Shot, but now I'm disappointed and have to go to the trouble of returning it. Otherwise, it's a nice camera and the stabilization (Balanced Optical Steady Shot) is great with the gimble, but without the Night Shot it's useless to me and not worth the money. It does fall short of my expectations since there is no built-in memory and only one card slot. My old DVC and mini VHS tape Sony Camcorders at least had Night Shot. This is step backward for the ghost hunting community.

I needed a better camera for my video projects after spending a bunch on low quality cheaper products. I finally decided to stop trying to find a cheap solution and happened to come across this camera. I didn't need a DSLR so I went with the camcorder unit as video is my prime focus. My son is a professional photographer and he swears by Sony products so I knew I would be getting good quality. I have pretty bad shaky hands due to essential tremors so a gimbal and stabilization is a must and boy this thing really steps up in that way. Steady video finally! I also managed to snag a reduced price through Amazon on a unit that had been returned with "minor cosmetic damage". I didn't care and I'm still trying to find that damage. A good deal became a great deal. Very happy!

Update: 09/15/2026 Barely made it a year and it stopped focusing. It makes a horrible grinding noise when I turn it on and a few seconds after I turn it off. I beat the heck out of my Sony HDR CX380 on all my adventures to include kayaking in the now Gulf of America. It finally gave up after many years. This Sony FDR AX43A is giving me some beautiful shots, but be very aware that it is larger and the battery sticks way out of the back is a little weird. The smaller camera is perfect to use on a selfie stick, but the bigger FDR , it's manageable but a bit of a struggle. I've added a picture with both camera for comparison. Still, the FDR is a very good camera and you will not be disappointed with the video quality.

Aún siendo una cámara algo vieja, sigue siendo una excelente herramienta para lograr buenos resultados en tomas para documentales. Tiene una calidad que le compite a los smartphones de alta gama actuales, pero con un sonido nítido y un zoom óptico real.

GOOD FOR THE JOB

For the price this camera is certainly not worth it. The viewfinder is terrible to use in bright light conditions so If you are looking for an outdoors camera, forget this one! You can’t see anything on the viewfinder in sunlight. My phone is much better! The AX 43A has a much better LCD which I believe is better for outdoors. I don’t even know why Sony made this camera. If you can’t use a camera outdoors then what’s the point ? I can us my phone. Also… it has a small sensor so shooting in low light conditions is really bad. The camera is very heavy and bulky due to 3 axis Gimble. Only has one memory slot Camera for vloggers!! Panasonic camcorders are better value for money. A year later I stand by my comments above!, I absolutely cannot use this camera in daylight. The best is cloudy days where I can vaguely see the LCD SCREEN. What a waste of money. I’m already search for something with a viewfinder.

Una camara con muy buena calidad de image, estabilizacion y duracion de bateria. Esta camara no cuenta con Viewfinder, por lo que en exterior puede ser dificil de ver la pantalla LCD, sin embargo, esto sucede pocas veces dependiendo de la posicion en donde uno se encuentre y la direccion de la luz. La duracion de la bateria puede es mas de 2h30m. La calidad 4k es extraordinaria aun en sitaciones de luz tenue. El zoom optico es una maravilla, alcanza grandes distancias y no disminuye la calidad de imagen.

Tal cual se muestra en la tienda de Amazon, con un mejor precio que la competencia y llego en muy buen estado.