Consider Sony's Action Cam Mini HDR-AZ1 to be a streamlined version of the Action Cam HDR-AS100V, its top-of-the-line POV camera.
Basically, Sony shed much of that higher-end models extra features like its video and audio jacks, but kept its excellent high-bitrate XAVC-S-format video, Zeiss Tessar f2.8 lens with a 170-degree field of view, electronic image stabilization and wireless features. It even updated its Live-View Remote that puts a color LCD on your wrist to control the camera and preview and review shots.
Getting rid of those extra features allowed Sony to make the camera very compact. Though with small bodies come small batteries and other compromises that may put you off.
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GoPro's Hero4 Silver may have received our Editors' Choice Award, but the Action Cam Mini is great in its own right and, for some, will be the better choice. The Sony is also technically less expensive than the GoPro, too (there are some potential hidden costs).
The Action Cam Mini HDR-AZ1 can be bought alone in the US for about $250. It is also available as a bundle, the AZ1VR, with the second-generation of Sony's Live-View Remote for around $350, £279 in the UK and AU$479 in Australia.
Features and design
With traditional cameras, small and lightweight can be a good thing, but there's a point where cameras can be too small and light making them difficult to use. With mountable video cameras like the AZ1, the smaller and lighter, the better.
At about two-thirds the size of the AS100V Action Cam, the Mini is just as wide as that camera at 24.2mm (0.95 inch), but its height has been cut by 10.5mm, down to 36mm (1.4 inches), and the length is 76mm (3 inches), shaving off 5.5mm. Plus, it weighs about an ounce less at 2.2 ounces (63 grams).
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That size difference is all the more impressive because there isn't much of a performance gap between the two. However, they are different enough that you may want to go with the higher-end model.
