Picture the scene. You’re snowboarding down fresh powder just as the morning sun crests the peak behind you, sending dazzling rays all over the pine forest and picturesque alpine village below.
It’s a wonderful moment, one that could only be improved by sharing it with your thousands of Instagram followers, and for that, you need a camera that is robust, capable of operating in extreme conditions, can be operated hands-free, and which can easily be hooked up to your phone to decant the footage onto the internet.
These are action cameras, tiny bundles of lenses and circuitry wrapped in rubber armour and tripod screws. They can be mounted on your helmet for exciting first-person footage, on a pole for a 360° wraparound view, in an underwater housing, on a drone or anywhere else you can think of. You can even just stick them on a table and talk into them, if you want to.
The beauty of modern action cameras is the way they have improved since the days of the very first GoPro back in 2004, a small camera in a waterproof case that used 35mm film. Today, they’re fully digital, you can control them from your smartphone, they have built-in GPS, and you can use them to shoot high-res, slow-motion video to really show off your skills, or the beauty of the landscape you’re exploring.
While some come with a case, you’ll want to factor in some sort of extra protection for the camera you buy, especially if you intend to use it underwater, as well as lots of large, high-speed memory cards to capture your footage on. While almost all action cameras have screens on the back, some have them on the front too, which makes them ideal for vloggers who want to see what they’re capturing while appearing in their own footage.
So you supply the lights, these are the cameras, time for action.
Best action cameras at a glance:
GoPro Hero 13 Black Creator Edition
Best for: a full movie-making kit
This bundle nets you the powerful GoPro Hero 13 Black action camera, plus some accessories that will make the process of filming your exploits go more smoothly. The camera boasts a high-res 5.3K sensor (in an unusual 8:7 aspect ratio that provides plenty of headroom for cropping) that can also produce 24MP stills, along with in-camera image stabilisation, 400fps slow-mo, a front-facing screen and swappable lenses, as well as GoPro’s excellent software support.
The Creator Edition bundle adds a carrying case, battery, the Volta battery grip/remote, and a video light, plus extra mounts and cables to create an instant kit to take anywhere.
Buy now £599.00, Amazon
Akaso Brave 8 Lite
Best for: a cheaper model
Action cameras are pretty small devices, but their price can creep upward at an alarming rate. This model from Akaso isn’t a bargain basement model - you’re still going to miss it if it tips off the side of a boat or takes a plunge down a mountainside - but you do get a lot for your money.
It can shoot 4K video at up to 60fps, and raises the framerate to 120fps if you drop down to a 2.7K resolution. You can shoot 20MP stills, there's a front display, and you even get image stabilisation to smooth out the bumps and jolts if you’re running or on a vehicle. You’ll find stronger construction and better battery life elsewhere, but this is nonetheless a solid offering for the price.
Buy now £200.00, Amazon
GoPro Hero
Best for: a small, light option
GoPro has made compact action cameras before, with its Mini series, but this (the newest addition to the stable at the time of writing) is a waterproof 4K 30fps shooter that weighs only 86g - almost half the weight of the Hero 13 Black.
There's no front screen, but a rear touchscreen allows you to swipe between capture modes or tap to adjust settings, and there's a mount adapter built into the body for attaching accessories.
Buy now £200.00, Amazon
Insta360 Ace Pro
Best for: 8K video
Being able to shoot at a resolution of 8K (7680x4320) at 24fps is a good headline feature, but exactly how useful this will be in an action context is debatable. More practical are the other resolutions this combination of sensor and processor unlocks, such as 4K at 120fps, which makes it a versatile camera for all kinds of fast-moving endeavours.
You get a front screen, as well as a rear screen that can flip up and face forwards, and the camera is capable of 48MP stills along with all the video. There's a magnetic base plate to quickly switch between mounts, image stabilisation, AI-assisted image processing, and the lens was co-engineered with Leica. It may be expensive and heavy (180g), but few can match it for specs.
Buy now £330.00, Amazon
DJI Osmo Action 4
Best for: a good all-rounder
This action cam from drone company DJI uses a larger sensor than many other models, which means it’s a better bet to create video that doesn’t dissolve into a mess of digital noise as the light levels fall. It also offers 4K at 120fps, is waterproof down to 18m, and can record 10bit colour, or a flat colour profile if you intend to grade the footage in post-processing.
The camera is compatible with DJI’s AI selfie-stick removal system, which even works in slow-motion video, and a magnetic quick-release mount makes switching from landscape to portrait orientation quick and easy.
Buy now £380.00, Amazon
Insta360 One RS
Best for: versatility
This unusual action camera comes in a three-part modular design. You take the battery section and connect a lens block and a processor block to it. This means you can switch out the sensor between standard 4K and 5.7K 360° modules, or quickly slap on a new battery. This versatility is enhanced by 5m waterproofing and three mics for audio, along with a wind-noise reduction algorithm and in-camera image stabilisation.
If you want slow-mo video, the camera can produce 100fps at a 2.7K resolution, which is beaten elsewhere, and thanks to the modular design the screen on the back is very small, but if you can live with these compromises having a camera that’s effectively two units in one can be very useful.
Buy now £280.00, Amazon
AKASO V50 X
Best for: 4K on a budget
As the flagship models take on new features and push boundaries, so the budget action cameras become more capable, and this cam from Akaso, while not the cheapest out there, is an excellent place to start any journey in action film-making.
It tops out at 4K/30fps, and you’ll have to drop down to 1080p if you want to go any faster. It’s capable of 90fps in Full HD for slow-motion purposes, however, and with an underwater housing and spare battery in the box, as well as a smartphone app to remotely operate the camera, it’s an excellent kit for not too much money.
Buy now £110.00, Amazon
Insta360 X4
Best for: 360-degree filming
If there's one thing 8K footage is useful for, it’s cropping. The current king of movie resolutions offers four times as many pixels as 4K, so you only need to look at part of it to get a sharp picture. This makes it perfect for 360° filming, as your viewers will only be looking at part of the scene as they move their viewpoint around.
The Insta360 X4 has two back-to-back lenses and can remove a selfie stick from its footage, and also has a one-camera mode that turns it into a standard action camera filing at 4K/60. Pair all this with an excellent app that offers plenty of editing options (there are plugins for desktop editing apps too), and you’ve got all the angles covered.
Buy now £500.00, Amazon
Verdict
Being able to mount a video camera on your helmet or handlebars and have it capture your descent into a cave, or ride along a coastal path, is a great way to capture memories of your holiday adventures, whether you want to share it with friends on social media or more widely on YouTube.
Cameras such as the GoPro Hero 13 Black offer the ability to film a wide view of what you’re doing, and even insert yourself in the footage thanks to the front-facing screen, which vloggers will find perfectly aligned with their interests.
