Many reasons might have driven you to search for the best action camera for hunting.
Maybe you want to share your hunting videos with your children or hunting buddies. Or perhaps you want to get better at hunting, and reviewing your videos; improves hunting skills. It might even be to get Youtube Famous by creating your channel.
Whatever the reason, you must purchase a good quality action camera, and that’s why I present the best action cameras for hunting.
A quick look at my favorite hunting video cameras
Image | Product | Features | Price |
---|---|---|---|
Best Camo | 8.6 | Check Price On Amazon | |
Best 4K | 8.6 | Check Price On Amazon | |
Best Portable | 8.5 | Check Price On Amazon | |
Best For The Money | 8.8 | Check Price On Amazon | |
Best For Most People | 8.6 | Check Price On Amazon |
Key Takeaways
- An action camera is the best type of camera that can be used while hunting.
- If you want a camera that will camouflage you while hunting, look at the LiDCAM LC-WF camera.
- You should check out two main features of a camera for hunting: durability and weather-sealing.
- In case you don’t want to spend too much money on an action camera, you might want to check out AKASO Brave 4 Pro.
Without further ado, let me help you find a good hunting camera.
Top 5 Best Action Cameras For Hunting
5. LiDCAM LC-WF – Best Camo
What I Like
- Shoots 1080p HD videos
- Decent Audio
- Includes chargers even for a car
- You can mount it on a lot of things.
What I Don’t Like
- To get the best out of this camera you will have to wear a baseball cap.
- Battery Life
Starting the list with a quite unique camera, the LiDCAM LC-WF.
This one has a genius design that was made to clip onto any baseball cap, imagine how cool is that.
What’s more, it sports a camouflage color so it can easily blend with nature and not stand out, pairing this bad boy, with your hunter camo clothes and cap will be a joy, no doubt.
It weighs under 4 ounces, so it will almost feel like you don’t have it on your had and has great capabilities thanks to the wide-angle lens and image sensor.
It can record the content in 1080p resolution that looks quite nice. If you want an affordable and solid-built well rounded hitting camera, LC-WF promises to be right up at your alley.
What I like more about this camera is how well it integrates with smartphones. Not only does it come with a Wi-Fi connection, but it also has a companion app that is simple to use and through that you can view the content you just captured. Your kids or friends will love that footage of the deer or rabbit you just captured.
As for battery life, we can’t talk much about it since it falls a bit short, capable of lasting only three hours.
Why should you buy it?
Relying on its name, this one is a very compact tripod with excellent ergonomics; at the same time, it is packable.
4. Sony FDRX3000 – Best 4K
What I Like
- Unbeatable image quality thanks to its EXMOR R CMOS sensor
- Amazing video quality
- Smooth Zoom
- Great Mounting
- You can even live stream
What I Don’t Like
- Painful Price
- The sound quality comes a bit muffled
If it reads Sony, it must be good.
The next option comes from Sony and what I like to call an “action camcorder”. The Sony FDR x3000 is a great action camera that comes in a camcorder form factor and offers a lot of features, including 4k and 1080p content.
As I mentioned, it has a different design to the boxy shapes we are used to seeing on action cameras like, DJI Osmo Action.
It comes in a sleek white finish, it looks quite compact and stylish. It is durable and you can pretty much take it anywhere you go, it is made to survive. It can survive immersion of 197 ft(60m), all that thanks to its underwater housing, which ensures to keep the action camera dry during wet seasons like autumn and winter.
Besides being well built, the FDR X3000 is also a splendid performer. It records in 4k Ultra HD, at 30 fps. Or if you want more fps, you can keep your hunting content on 1080p with a whopping 100fps. It also has some nifty shooting modes to choose from like, time-lapse, burst photos, etc.
What’s more, it has built-in optical stabilization, in order to make the footage look more natural without shakes and such.
As for battery life, it is on the mediocre side, not the best one but not the worst one either, sits right in the middle.
Why should you buy it?
Relying on its name, this one is a very compact tripod with excellent ergonomics; at the same time, it is packable.
3. Garmin VIRB Ultra 30 – Best Portable
What I Like
- Great Alternative to GoPro
- 3-axis image stabilizator
- Great Video Quality
- Well built and has good waterproofness.
What I Don’t Like
- Short battery life
Garmin decided to push boundaries and watches are not the only thing they can make. It released several tools for outdoor activities, Garmin Virb Ultra 30 is one of them.
VIRB Ultra 30 is the successor of the previous model, the VIRB XE.
Ultra 30 is here to cover what his sibling couldn’t. For example, XE was maxed out at 1,440p resolution while the Ultra 30 easily reaches 4k.
It is as robust as they come, even though it is mostly made out of plastic, it is a high-quality one. Its waterproof housing gives us the freedom to take this action camera anywhere with us since it can dive up to 40m (130ft).
The mounting system is also a thing on its own. Virb Ultra 30 can be a hat action camera so you can have your hands free to focus on hunting and it can also be mounted on a gun or bow; simply put, it is ideal for hunters.
Under its hood, it has a CMOS imx078 sensor with Novatek 96660 chipset. As far as the recording goes, as I mentioned above it is capable of recording in 4k at 30fps, or 120fps at 1080p.
Just like the above option from Sony, it built-in Electronic Image Stabilization that detects when the action camera moves or shakes.
Battery-life promises to last 120 mins in 4k recording and gradually increase, by decreasing the quality of your footage.
Why should you buy it?
Relying on its name, this one is a very compact tripod with excellent ergonomics; at the same time, it is packable.
2. AKASO Brave 4 Pro – Best For The Money
What I Like
- Well Priced
- Well Built
- Great Performer
- Unbeatable Value
What I Don’t Like
- Battery Life on the weak side
- Video quality is not the best, despite 4k content – but you get what you pay for
Second on the list comes a pick from Akaso, the Akaso Brave 4.
This is a great handy, entry-level action camera under 200 dollars that will reward hunters on a budget, with great performances and features.
While GoPro and DJI are the main players in this industry, Akaso offers what those prominent brands offer but in a wallet-friendly manner.
Akaso decided to stick to the same blueprint design that they maintained for years now. For sure, it is the same design that you will find in most action cameras, but it doesn’t take cues from its rival, GoPro.
The Brave 4 is really light and compact, you can just add it to your pocket or bag without noticing. Yet, it is robust enough to be loved by extra sports enthusiasts, let alone hunters.
What I like the most is the great mounting accessories that are included with the action camera, it gives you huge freedom on placing it almost anywhere.
It can record at 4k with 24 fps, which is quite surprising for the price it comes with. Even 2k content at 30 fps and the FULL HD, 1080p one sits at 60fps.
As for the battery life, just like most action cameras it doesn’t have much stamina, it goes around 1/2 hours if you are recording, but if you are taking only stills it can easily withstand 8 hours.
Why should you buy it?
Relying on its name, this one is a very compact tripod with excellent ergonomics; at the same time, it is packable.
1. TACTACAM 5.0 – Best For Most People
What I Like
- Well built and water-resistant
- Great Image and Video Capabilities
- Slow-motion
- 8x zoom
What I Don’t Like
- Battery-Life could have been better
Last but not least, we have one of the best choices for hunters, you simply can’t go wrong with the Tactacam 5.0.
This hunting action camera is constructed with hunters in mind and is a full set of hunting gear. Not only that it also has high capabilities as a hunting action camera, such as the 4k resolution.
It comes in a cylindrical shape and is really well built while being quite lightweight.
The star of the show here must be its capabilities to mount on almost anything. It comes with a Bow mount, Gun Mount that mounts your camera tightly onto your gun, crossbow, and scope, to offer steady filming.
Tactacam 5.0 uses a unique lens design, which gives a similar view to what we see with our human eye. There’s also the 8x optical zoom to draw your prey as close as possible, and it doesn’t leave the built-in image stabilization behind either.
This hunting action camera allows you to capture great 4K footage. With all that being said, it just simply ticks all the boxes, we need to look for in an action camera for hunting.
It does fall short a bit in the battery-life aspect, but it’s nothing groundbreaking. It promises to take you through 2.5 to 3 hours of constant recording.
Why should you buy it?
Relying on its name, this one is a very compact tripod with excellent ergonomics; at the same time, it is packable.
What To Look For When Buying The Best Action Camera For Hunting:
You simply don’t go blindly in the market and grab the first action camera that you spot. Those are some key factors you should take into consideration when picking the action camera that serves your hunting necessities.
Durability
We all know that hunting takes place in nature and mother nature is not a garden with flowers, it’s a harsh place. If you planning on bringing an action camera with you, it needs to be formidable and withstand what you can.
There are also a lot of action cameras that come with extra protection/housing, so always make sure to see what the package includes.
Resistance to Elements
This is also part of durability, waterproofing and shockproofing are essential features that you need to look for in the camera that will be used for hunting.
There are cameras that can survive even immersion up to 100 feet, but some of them can barely withstand rain; so always make sure to read the specifications and see what it is capable of withstanding.
You don’t want your camera to break down due to sudden rain.
Mounting
Yet another important factor, you want your camera to be as easy as possible to mount and carry around.
For example, compact and lightweight action cameras are incredibly important towards that end.
There are a bunch of tools that you will be taking with you while hunting, it would be nice for your camera to be mountable to most of them, it results in huge comfort and easy capture of footage.
Silent Operation
This is a part that most people overlook due to being too much invested in the specs of the camera.
Imagine it this way, you have been all morning waiting for that rabbit to pass by and sit, you turn your camera on and the loud beep scares the rabbit away, resulting in you missing the shot.
You don’t want that right, so make sure you get a camera that can operate with vibrations.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What’s the difference between an action camera and a camera?
An action camera comes in a compact and portable form factor while compromising on some features that a professional filming camera offers. With that being said, we come to conclusions that an action camera is the type of camera that you should seek for hunting, since you don’t want your content to be looking “cinematic” but instead just to look clear and nice, an action camera just does that or even more.
Why Isn’t GoPro Included On This List?
Well I can’t deny the fact that GoPro is synonymous with Action Cameras, it is a household name. Their latest offering is the GoPro Hero 10, which offers really high capabilities but a lot of users including me had issues with it, in a way it feels like GoPro was downgraded. Besides that, the price is painful and overkill for a camera that would be used only for hunting. But if you are interested in some GoPro articles, feel free to take a look at the best GoPro for kids or the best GoPro gimbal.
Can I Dive With My Action Camera?
Well, as I mentioned earlier, it depends on the IPX rating of the camera, and how much resistance it is. Some cameras have a good amount of water resistance, or they can go as far as to dive and immerse, while some can barely withstand splashes of water. The ones I included have a good amount of resistance. Even if a camera doesn’t have one, they sure have a housing that is included in the packaging or bought separately.
Closing Words
I feel like I have successfully included everything you need to know when looking to buy a hunting camera.
But at the end of the day, it all boils down to preferences and budget.
What may appeal to me or someone else, won’t appeal to you or vice-versa.
Even with that being said, you should really do your homework prior to buying a product.
Wedding Photographer
From nature to urban landscapes, my camera is my tool for expressing my creativity and telling stories through my lens.