I've posted over 25 fast action Landsailing videos on Youtube over the last 5+ years, using go pros (2, 3+) with decent results. After almost 4 years of using my go pro 3+, I felt it was time to upgrade to 4K. Naturally I started looking at the gopro5. As I was researching the gopro5 I started noticing on youtube the Sony FDR X3000 with "optical stabilization" and after watching the comparison videos with other action cams, it didn't take long to "pull the trigger"
My Sony arrived on my front porch in 2 days. The next day I went landsailing and shot 2 hours of 4K@30fps using "Active Stabilization" with my new Sony Action Cam! You can see the results in my video. It was unwatchable!!! I quickly sent an email to sony about the problem. The next day I tried it again but changed the settings to 1080p@60fps "active stabilization" ON I also changed the stabilization to "standard" and some with it "off" during my day of shooting.I thought 60fps will stop most of the "jelloing" or rolling shutter. NOPE! It was just as bad.
I tried the Sony hard mounted on my quad going 35mph on smooth dirt and blacktop and the result was terrible. My 4 year old Gopro3+ did a MUCH better job controlling the distortion and rolling shutter on the street and the dry lake bed .
I think that the Sony FDR X3000 has a slower read rate than my 4 year old Gopro3+ and can't read fast enough to handle ANY camera vibration at all... Walking or using a helmet cam, your body absorbs any vibration to your head. So video shot while riding a bicycle or motorcycle should work OK for this camera, maybe even skydiving. I only tried it for my land sailing and quad riding. Maybe if you don't attach it to anything that vibrates or moves quickly back and forth it'll be OK.
Sony did get back to me a couple of days later and said to set the camera to "active or standard stabilization"!!!
