TESTING THE SONY HDR AS20 CAM 

EXCELLENT CAM BUT NOT REALLY SUITABLE FOR SPEARFISHING

Today we have tested an action cam that is not really new since it was launched in 2014 but that is still available in several stores. That is the SONY HDR AS20.

Its technical characteristics make it particularly suitable for our sport because it is able to film, according to the setting chosen (see table), up to 120fps which means that you can get top quality slow motions thanks to the high rate of frames per second. All that with a 1280x720 resolution (the same as Midland XTC200).

The best setting for us, unless you need to film a shooting test of a speargun, will be the PS which combines the maximum 1080p resolution with a 60fps shooting rate. If you then select the "SteadyShot" function, that stabilizes the flickering, then you can also benefit from a 120° wide angle instead of the native 170°.

However there are negative points that could direct your choice to other items.

The biggest flaw is the fact that the cam is sold with a case that is waterproof up to 5m and which allows the use of all functions, video, photos, settings, etc. However if you want to push yourself to greater depths then you must buy separately an appropriate waterproof case that instead does not allow the use of all functions. So if you want to use the cam in the water to film catches you must set it before diving and if you want to switch for example to the photo mode, the operation must be made necessarily out of the water.

Furthermore the underwater case costs on average € 50 that together with the 160€ of the cam may encourage to direct your attention elsewhere for something that you can instead take full advantage of.

The cam has a wifi system and after downloading an app for your smartphone you can remotely control the camera and see the pictures taken directly on your phone. However you cannot see the movies instead, which makes this function almost useless for spearos like us.

The only way we can benefit from this function in our sport involves bringing a smartphone in a waterproof case on the buoy to change the cam settings..provided that you have a wifi connection available ...

Below you may notice, however, the quality of pictures taken with the PS + water + SteadyShot setting.