Sony FDR-AX43A Digital Video Camera

The Sony FDR-AX43A Digital Video Camera is a feature-packed camcorder that combines high-quality video recording capabilities with user-friendly design and functionality, making it an excellent choice for both amateur and seasoned videographers. The camera offers crisp, high-resolution UHD 4K video recording at 24 or 30 frames per second, along with the capability to capture 16.6 megapixel still images. This ensures high-quality content for both video projects and photography. It features a unique built-in gimbal mechanism and optical stabilization, allowing for smooth, stabilized footage even when you're on the move. This is especially useful for hand-held shooting, where camera shake can significantly impact video quality. The 1/2.5 inch Exmor R CMOS sensor is designed to enhance image clarity and reduce noise in low-light conditions, making this camera versatile for various shooting environments, from brightly lit landscapes to dimly lit indoor settings.

The 3-inch LCD screen is not only a touchscreen for intuitive control but also flips out and tilts, providing flexibility in shooting angles and the convenience of self-recording. With a 20x optical zoom and up to 40x Clear Image Zoom, the camera allows you to capture subjects from a distance without compromising on image quality. This makes it particularly useful for events, wildlife, and sports videography. The camera boasts a 26.8mm wide-angle Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* lens, renowned for its ability to deliver sharp, clear imagery with minimal distortion. The T* coating further reduces reflections and flare. Its fast, intelligent autofocus system assures that you'll always get clear, focused footage. The AF tracking feature keeps moving subjects in clear focus, which is ideal for dynamic shooting situations.

The FDR-AX43A records in XAVC S format, allowing for high bit rate recording up to 100 Mb/s in 4K and 50 Mb/s in HD, ensuring that your videos have high detail and minimal compression artifacts. The built-in 5.1 channel surround sound microphone captures immersive audio to complement your video, adding depth and realism to your recordings. The 1-Button Highlight Movie Maker allows for easy creation of short highlight reels from your footage, complete with music and transitions, perfect for quick sharing or as a summary of your filming session.

Product Features in Detail

Gimbal mechanism inside
Sony's Balanced Optical SteadyShot™ is a unique image stabilizer, with a gimbal mechanism about 13 times more effective than other optical systems28. Capture smooth, professional-looking images, even at full zoom or while running, with no need for bulky external gimbals. In HD shooting mode, it further reduces the effect of camera shake with 5-axis Intelligent Active mode compensating for vibration across pan, tilt, roll, pitch, and yaw.

Accessories for every shooting style
Open up new storytelling possibilities with a range of accessories from microphones to grips—all designed for professional results and seamless compatibility.

4K image quality
Capture your movies with the stunning realism and detail of 4K (3840 x 2160). With four times more detail than Full HD, all your images are enhanced by the subtle qualities that bring images to vibrant life.

Up to 26.8 mm wide angle lens
Whether you're shooting movies or still images, the class-leading wide-angle lens can help you capture more of landscapes and indoor scenes when you don't have enough room to step back. Even without a wide conversion lens, the camcorder shoots as wide as 26.8 mm30 (16:9 aspect ratio) in movie mode.

The latest-generation image sensor exclusively for 4K
The new-generation sensor is designed for optimal 4K recording. With pixel sizes around 1.6x larger than previous models29, the AX43A captures beautiful images with less noise, even in the extremes of low and bright lighting conditions.

ZEISS® Vario-Sonnar T* lens for 4K
The AX43A features a custom lens, developed for the highest quality 4K imaging throughout its entire wide-to-telephoto range. The use of AA (advanced aspherical) lens elements ensures, even with the compact design, each scene is faithfully captured, while ED (Extra-low Dispersion) glass delivers accurate color without aberration. The ZEISS® T* Coating further enhances image quality by reducing unwanted reflections, including ghosting and flare.

Lock-on AF31
Enhance your tracking of moving subjects with a simple touch. Simply select your subject on the LCD touchscreen, and the AX43A will automatically adjust the tracking frame and lock onto even fast-moving targets, for precise autofocusing.

Super-sampled Full HD playback
Enhance your viewing experience even without a 4K television. Using super-sampling, the camera automatically down-converts 4K footage to exceptionally detailed Full HD.

Rapid AF response to capture decisive moments
Fast Intelligent AF achieves speedy, accurate contrast-detection autofocus by minimizing lens motion, predicting the AF range, and accelerating lens drive, thereby improving response so you can capture more fleeting moments.

Golf Shot33
Capture and analyze high-speed motion with no need for fancy equipment. Golf Shot mode lets you capture video and a series of stills revealing each step of the action.

Face Detection and Smile Shutter313210
Use Face Detection to optimize focus, exposure, and color for key people in a shot, even in selfies, so you only need compose and narrate the scene. Prioritize a face simply by touching it on the LCD. And with Smile Shutter, you can set the camera to automatically capture still shots of those magical, fleeting smiles even while recording movies.

Extensive zoom shooting capabilities 
With the high-quality, stabilized, 20x optical zoom there's plenty of range to capture your subject. And, when shooting far away, our Clear Image Zoom uses a proprietary algorithm to deliver optical-zoom quality even at up to 40x (30x in 4K mode)28.

High Speed recording for high-quality slow motion
With support for high-frame-rate capture up to 100fps/120fps in Full HD, you can create slow-motion recordings, elevating every movement in startling detail. Simply import your video in the free PlayMemories Home, or other popular editing software, to reveal smooth, sharp action in even the most everyday activities.

Realistic recording of voices, music and other sound
Thanks to the three-capsule mic, the AX43A microphone gathers sound from five directions and, with advanced audio processing, results in dramatically better built-in audio recording. Around 40%29 less background noise is captured, and you'll enjoy better stereo, or 5.1ch surround (AVCHD) separation, for more faithful capture, clearer dialog, and more compelling soundtracks.

4K Time-lapse Capture
With Time-lapse Capture, shoot stills of a scene over a period of time with a chosen interval between shots. The resulting images can be combined at high resolution into a time-lapse movie on a PC, and viewed with a simple variable-speed preview function on the camera, even in high-quality 4K.

Time Code / User Bit
The AX43A can add embedded data elements to your video, for professional workflows and tracking. The Time Code function records a frame-accurate synchronization sequence, ideal for precise edit matching in multi-camera shoots. User Bit lets you embed an eight-character reference, such as a scene number, along with your footage, for easier tracking in post-production.

Trimming playback
You can select a specific portion of the picture and play it back in Full HD, thanks to 4K high resolution. Also, you can change trimming size34 with the zoom lever or on-screen display icon.

Exceptional image quality
The AX43A can capture video using the XAVC S format for high-quality images. Based on formats used for professional productions, XAVC S offers bitrates up to 100 Mbps35, and highly efficient compression, for detailed images and easily manageable file sizes.

Motion Shot Video37
Use Motion Shot Video to create dramatic motion playback sequences, superimposing images of your moving subject to trace each split-second of action. You can adjust the interval between images to create amazing images for sharing with friends, or use it as a powerful tool for analyzing sports motion on screen.

5.1ch surround36 sound microphone
Record clear sound that accurately captures the atmosphere of the scene, and enjoy surround sound playback on your home theater system. Level meters on the LCD panel provide visual monitoring for each channel level.

My Voice Canceling
Reduce the intensity of the voice of a user shooting from close behind the camera, thanks to the innovative microphone and My Voice Canceling feature.

Multi Camera Control
More shots mean more editing opportunities. Easily record footage from a variety of angles, whether using cameras mounted directly to the Handycam® or triggered wirelessly. Multi Camera Control makes it easy to sync shooting settings on compatible Wi-Fi® connected devices. 

Dual Video Recording38
Record two movie formats at the same time—one in the maximum-quality XAVC S or AVCHD format and another in MP4 format. That way, you've got a small file ready for instant upload, plus a professional-grade file for further editing.

Highlight Movie Maker
Streamline your movie editing with Highlight Movie Maker. Using Dual Video Rec, the FDR-AX43A can simultaneously capture at 4K (3840 x 2160) or Full HD (1920 x 1080) for full-quality storage, and at HD (1280 x 720) using an efficient MP4 video format for easy sharing. From the HD version, Highlight Movie Maker can quickly and automatically create HD highlight movies for immediate sharing—complete with video transitions and your choice of background music39.

One-touch remote and one-touch sharing
One-touch remote lets you use your smartphone or tablet as a viewfinder and remote control for a digital camera, and one-touch sharing lets you transfer your photos and videos from your camera. You can control your camera from your smartphone to take a photo from a previously out-of-reach spot, or simply be in your own group shot, as well as transfer them instantly to your smartphone for sharing on SNS. Additionally, by installing Imaging Edge Mobile40 app on an NFC-enabled smartphone or tablet, you can even skip the pairing sequences by simply touching your device to the camera. 

1 When "SteadyShot™" is set to "Standard" or "Off".
2 When "SteadyShot™" is set to "Active" or "Intelligent Active".
3 The factory setting is "Off". Digital zoom ratio includes optical zoom ratio.
4 Backlight brightness will automatically be set to "Bright" when connected to AC adapter.
5 the same as Guide Flame
6 Not supported at XAVC S 4K
7 Not available in the 4K Recording mode with Dual Video Recording
8 With Optional Flash Accessory
9 Bitrate is described by average bitrate (including movie, sounds and others).
10 Not available in 100 Mbps Movie Recording Rate.
11 Not available in the recording mode PS(60p/50p), FX(24p/25p/60i/50i) and FH(24p/25p)
12 Video Mode is XAVC S HD or 4K.
13 Video Mode is AVCHD.
14 Video Mode is MP4.
15 Only record movie
16 PlayMemories Home Ver. 4.1 or later is required.
17 Available only in AVCHD or XAVC S HD or MP4
18 (Configuration method/Access method) WPS or manually/infrastructure mode. When connecting to smartphones, the camera can always work as a base without a wireless access point. (Security: WEP/WPA-PSK/WPA2-PSK)
19 Output only
20 Supports Micro USB compatible device.
21 Except for NP-FV30
22 Recording mode and media are default settings.
23 When using supplied AC adapter. When the AC adapter is not supplied, using USB charging.
24 Including the projecting parts
25 Including lens hood if it is supplied
26 Including a battery pack and a media unit (if a lens hood is supplied, this is also included).
27 The numbers in ( ) are the supplied quantity
28 Sony internal measurement.
29 Compared to FDR-AX/P3x series.
30 When SteadyShot is set to Standard or Off.
31 Not available in the 4K Recording mode with Dual Video Recording.
32 Not available in the recording mode PS (60p/50p), FX (24p/25p/60i/50i) and FH (24p/25p).
33 Available only in AVCHD.
34 Minimum trimming size is 1920 x 1080.
35 Requires SDXC/SDHC memory card UHS-I U3 or higher for XAVC S 4K 100Mbps recording, and SDXC/SDHC memory card Class 10 or higher for XACS 4K 60Mpbs and XAVCS HD 50Mbps recording.
36 Recording in 5.1ch is available in AVCHD only.
37 Available only in AVCHD or XAVC S HD or MP4.
38 Not available in AVCHD PS mode and XAVC S HD 60p/50p (NTSC/PAL) mode.
39 You can replace background music files on this product using the Music Transfer function in PlayMemories Home.
40 A successor application of PlayMemories Mobile™. Existing PlayMemories Mobile users can use this by updating PlayMemories Mobile.
41 Actual color and dimension may differ from the screen image.
42 Colors & features of the product shown may differ by model and country.
43 4K: 3,840 x 2,160 pixels.
44 Services availability depends on region. A part or whole of software/services installed into or accessible through the product may be changed, discontinued, removed, suspended, or terminated without notice.
45 Features and specifications are subject to change without prior notice.
46 The Bluetooth® word mark and logos are registered trademarks owned by Bluetooth SIG, Inc. and any use of such marks by Sony Group Corporation and its subsidiaries is under license.