Sony FDR-X3000 - any input?

[John Nantz]

Paul -
Since you really like tricking out your boats, and after seeing your web site, this guy Russell Brown in Port Townsend is on your wavelength: https://gougeon32.blogspot.com
He’s doing a lot of (based on what little I know about the stuff) fancy fiberglass work. Very detail oriented and obviously a lot of technical skills. Reminds me of your work.
He’s trying to get ready for the R2AK (Race to Alaska) next week. Needs a furler that was ordered in plenty of time but not delivered, so he’s frantically looking for a substitute. Sails a tri. See sailing anarchy (one word) dot com and R2AK.

Meanwhile, Back on topic:
Read over your attachments list and there’s a few “~ easy starter” ones and then things start to get progressively more difficult:
Custom stanchion mount
Gimbal mount for the stern rail
Spinnaker pole? That is interesting
And the “working on a half dozen more” list. Yea! (Are we having fun yet?)

Getting the cam is the easy part, some of the attachments are going to be the killers.

Mark -
Read your comment about the wrist band Live View Remote availability as a separate item then did some searching. You know, back near the end of May when I was scoping this out I came across a web page that had all three of the remotes on it. I *thought* it was a Sony page but I couldn’t find it again. You could be very well right on this.

There are three action cam remotes: RM-LVR3 (support said it comes with the x3000 back then but I think the Philippines have this wrong), the RM-LVR2 and the RM-LVR1. For the most part, only Amazon and eBay seem to have these and B&H has one on their site. Buying the cam with the remote ups the price. Also, another little detail, Not all remotes work with all cams.

Then, what you said about Bluetooth control and 25 feet … there are quite a few posts citing poor distance, some even talking INCHES. And then there’s the problems with dropouts. Still, I think a remote is a must-half for the boat. If I can’t find a package deal then I’ll use the iPhone app for the time being and keep an eye out for the remote separately.

Thanks for the heads-up about the remote.

[Mark Watson]

I bought the FDR-X3000R kit, which was the X3000 camera and RM-LVR3 bundled together. That was at Yodobashi Camera in Japan. The same thing is available at B&H. Yodobashi's web-site shows the RM-LVR2 and RM-LVR1, both apparently still available as stand-alone products. B&H just shows the RM-LVR2 for $148. They include a list of compatible cameras, and the X3000 is listed. The RM-LVR1 is about $75.

https://www.yodobashi.com/community/...88/review.html

[Paul Cronin]

Originally Posted by John Nantz

Paul - question here ...
Question: Because you say to don't store the cam when it is closed up is it safe to say it was in the waterproof enclosure when doing those videos?

Since you have three cams and Mark has five of 'em (but he's using them on cars so his setup may be different), for sailing videos (not prop or fin keel testing) have you used any of them together as in Multicam or B-roll? If so, was it advantageous?

Reason I'm asking is I'm kinda thinking about getting a used/open box item for this season to have something to play with then waiting for the new model when it comes out.

Edit: just read your newer post about using the waterproof enclosure when underwater.

John,

I do you all three together. But same experience as Mark, the connection drops off all the time on the 3000. On the 1000 I have better experience with the connection. As for running all three at once I do that all the time. But with out the remote. I have them mounted, frame the shot, and always have them in the waterproof case, then go around and turn them on.

[Paul Cronin]

John,

Yes, I know Russell Brown, and Paul Bieker. They do a lot of very cool stuff. The R2AK looks like a blast. But hard for me to leave New England when it is the best time of year. If I do I normally race from San Fran to Hawaii, that ride has been worth it.

As for attachments/mount for the cam I have so much gear in my studios from mounting all kinds of cameras over the last 35 years that I just go to my shop and build mounts. Take them on the boat and of course always modifying them.

Reason I store with the door of the waterproof case cracked open is the change in temp and pressure can create a leak. Same as when you fly or travel in the car. Better to not stress the seals. Also make sure they are clean and I use very, very, little super lube grease on the seals.

[John Nantz]

Mark -
Nice picture of the cam with it’s remote. I tried to find information about the differences between the remotes but stuck out. Went on to looking at accessories and there are lots them. Getting the cam with the LVR3 really bumps the cost up for something I don’t even know if I really need it.

Went to a somewhat nearby Best Buy to see what I could find out but even though it seemed like a big store they didn’t carry the Sony action cams. Wound up talking to a nice young salesman (appeared just out of high school) about accessories and found out he has the X3000 and a number of other Sony cameras. He does photography and wedding videos to supplement his BB income and was very knowledgeable. Didn’t ask him about the remote because I hadn’t read your thread yet. During the course of the discussion about accessories he mentioned that the X3000 doesn’t use a standard 1/4-inch accessory screw. WHAT?

Couldn’t believe it, but hey, it’s a Sony and they’re known to be proprietary so it’s believable. Spent the rest of the afternoon and evening trying to find out about this special thread but haven’t got anywhere. One ad called it a “camera screw (1/4) (S-Type)” and that’s the best I could find.

Paul -
Re: #18 Have you or Mark any idea if the Bluetooth range is any better with an iPhone? For the first cam I’m thinking about passing on the remote option. Maybe when the new one comes out it’ll have a slightly longer range (like the 1000?).

Brown and Bieker … you know these guys? 2,000+ miles apart - small world! The R2AK is not your average kind of race - lots of currents, winds all over the map, and if it can go wrong it will. At least one team is continuing onto Nome.

The Pacific Cup has been a popular race. Returning, though, is a LOT longer trip (unless the boat comes back on a ship). Of course, the volunteer crew get to take the plane back. Met a guy on a Baba in Alaska below Ketchikan and he lost his computer (and weather following) a few days out of Hawaii (spilled coffee on the laptop keyboard) but fortunately, he got his ham license just before leaving but weather forecasts aren’t quite the same. He was sailing solo.

Mounting accessories is going to be really important. I’ll have to watch your boat videos again to get some ideas about mounting locations. Super Lube - same stuff as Max Prop uses? Good suggestion!

Won’t be able to do any more on this until Thursday.

[Mark Watson]

John N.,

The X3000 takes a standard 1/4" tripod screw. The hole is shallow, and the manual points this out, saying not to insert a screw more then 7/32nds long. I've had the camera mounted on a variety of Sony and non-Sony mounts; tripods, clamping tripods, multi-cam mounting bars and suction cups. No weirdness noted. Now, Sony does like to tinker with their LANC remote port protocol, but I was trying not to bring that up here.

When you say, accessory mount, I think of cold shoe on top. No such thing on these, even with the waterproof case there's no provision for mounting a mic or video light, etc.

I'd buy one camera and a couple batteries and give it a try, rather than go the whole hog and find out it doesn't work for your situation. You will need to be running from cam to cam to replace batteries about every 40 minutes. If you use that RM-LVR3, it will cut the time down some more, about half if you use the remote with the camera's Bluetooth turned on. The Bluetooth is needed to turn the camera on/off remotely. If you plan to turn it on/off manually, I think you can leave the Bluetooth setting OFF and get some extra battery time. Test, test, test.

I have not used a smartphone to control the camera, sorry can't comment on that.

Mark

[Paul Cronin]

John,

Same as Mark here I have not used the phone. And buying one cam with out remote is a good start, but two batteries is needed.

I have known Paul Bieker since 1991 when I was doing the AC with A^3 in San Diego, one of my three cup campaigns. We are both NA's so had a lot in common to discuss.
For Pac Cup I did it on a Class 40 so fast ride, and I flew home. Been a long time since I was running the boats and did all the deliveries, rather be back cranking out my singlehanded miles against my buddies.

To wind the R2KA it takes the right boat, right mind set, and some luck. Good race

[Steven Digges]

Hey John,

I love my FDR X3000. The BOSS system is mind blowing. I would not worry about a new release, just go for it.

You are going to want a suction cup. On your boat it will be a great tool. My suction cup is ridiculously large for this cam because I already had it for camcorders but it works. When mounted to the hood of my truck the engine vibration I can see with my eyes is terrible. The camera is vibrating at a high frequency. The BOSS takes almost all of it away. Truly shocking to see the result. To see if I could improve it I bought the Sony engine vibration adapter. It is a cheap plastic and rubber device that made things worse! It is in the junk pile.

As it stands right now I can not recommend the liveview remote because of the reasons already discussed. I will be upgrading to the new firmware this week and hoping that improves stability as claimed. I do use my phone for a monitor and remote control and it works quite well, Android & Sony Play Memories for me, don't know about your i-phone.

Spare batteries are a must, but there is good news. The camera, remote, and my android phone can all be powered or charged by 5V micro USB. So. I not only keep spare camera batteries in my kit I have other power options and charging options. Like USB batteries, car power adapters etc.

It is a great camera. Go for it!

Kind Regards,

Steve

Edit: Do not store the camera with the battery inside and the Bluetooth set to on. Even powered off it will drain the battery.

[Steven Digges]

Update is BUGGY. Updated both the camera and remote, also Play Memories Mobil .

No love yet, can not see any improvement in stability/connectivity. In fact it is worse. Both the remoteview and the phone are now having trouble shutting off the camera. Fifty percent of the time when I hit "turn off" the camera, it does not work. Not only that it now repeatedly pings like sonar until you acknowledge the error message on the CAMERA. I mount this thing up in truss and other hard to get to places in live shows. I cant have it pinging away until I can get to it. Come on SONY, great camera but peripherals don't work!

Sony cautions you there is no way to reverse the update. I'm stuck with it!

Kind Regards,

Steve

[Paul Cronin]

Steve,

Very sorry it is not a good update. Hope my notice that there was an update did not push you to do it? I always hold off some times for a year with updates from Sony, Apple, Adobe, and Black Magic. Just amazing how many of them have bugs.

Can you still make them work enough to keep them in service?

[Steven Digges]

Hey Paul,

I got the same update notice as you from B&H. Went for it straight away hoping to improve the live-view remote connectivity. No dice. Tested it more yesterday. It is still buggy and inconsistent. With the RM-LVR3 it might connect a little bit more consistently at 3 feet. At 25 feet it connects sometimes but shuts off less often than it connects. The remote turns off and the camera does not. Hard to give numbers, the bottom line is buggy and inconsistent. Frustrating.

The update was also supposed to add the turn on/off function to the Sony app on my phone. It seems to have made everything more inconsistent. When turning the camera off with the phone even at short distance is when it can send the camera into error mode with the continuous ping. Frustrating. I'm 90% sure the live-view remote put it into ping mode once but it is mostly from the app.

The camera is fine. This is all about the bluetooth/wifi functions it is supposed to have. Fifty percent reliability is a no go.

Kind Regards,

Steve

This thread really should be in the micro/POV camera forum where many of us have already discussed this camera.

[John Nantz]

Steve -

Originally Posted by Steven Digges

Hey John,

I love my FDR X3000. The BOSS system is mind blowing. I would not worry about a new release, just go for it. ...

It is a great camera. Go for it!

Kind Regards,

Steve

Steve -
How does that song go? "What a difference a day makes, 24 little hours ...."
What about 4 little hours?

Ouch! ... I feel really sorry for your situation. Dang!, what a mess. Probably not within the 90 day warranty period (if something like that is even covered). How does one "fix" this, ... ship it to a Factory Authorized Warranty Station? Hassle. $$$ Pain in the derriere.If you can't tell,I hate stuff like that.

After reading your post , just a little while ago (that was last night - tried to post this back then but this morning I see it didn’t take)) I called Best Buy before they closed and asked them if one bought a cam would the Geek Squad do the update before I left the store?
Answer: No, send it to Sony.
I had the impression their Geek Squad was supposed to be able to deal with these technical issues. Maybe I'll give Sony Support a ring tomorrow and see what they suggest.

With regard to the suction cup in the previous post (the one where you liked it four hours earlier), the boat basically has anti-skid on any flat surface and the rest of the surfaces are basically curved so I don't know how that'd work because generally they need a flat surface. Something for a 1-inch round rail would be helpful, though.

Sony AKA-MVA Vibration Absorber: Actually had that high on my accessory list but will definitely reconsider. There's a lot of other "parts" one can get with the money so thanks for the heads-up.

1/4" screw threads: apparently the problem is the shallow hole for the screw. According to the Help Guide: The length of the corresponding tripod screw should be less than 5.5 mm (7/32 in.).
Sony X3000 Help Guide [2]
A neoprene spacer would probably solve the problem for any long screw.
Based on the ads I've read it eems as though the X3000 is helping GoPro sell accessories.

Anyway, I'm sure we'll all be interested in how things work out, and Good Luck!

As for the best place to post this thread, I was unaware about the micro/POV camera forum. At the bottom of my first post I asked the question about a better location ([over land and]"over water"?) but the micro/POV would make better sense - I'm okay with that.

[Mark Watson]

Originally Posted by John Nantz

Something for a 1-inch round rail would be helpful, though.

I've been using clamping tripods for many years and they are worth having as a mounting/support option.
I have both the small and the larger one, and find the large one gets used much more, but that's for all kinds of general video and photo applications. For this little action camera, I've actually used the smaller (8" long) version to mount the X3000 to a post on a boat. You can find these by Googling "clamping tripod" or, for the small version, try "Promaster Clamper Jr". The larger one has been used on many hotel balcony rails, things up to around 3 inches in diameter. They can also stand on any flat surface with three points of contact to support a camera. I've used them with the 7D, 6D, AX100, AX53, etc. Very versatile.

Mark

[Dave Sperling]

For smaller rails check out the Manfrotto Nano Clamp

[Paul Cronin]

John,

I have a range of clamps and will take a pic or put it in my next video. But also recently bought two of these. Work well, but as with anything in saltwater you have to stay on top of it.

https://www.amazon.com/s//din02c-20