Wading through a mass of deals on Amazon Prime Day can feel a bit bamboozling – after all, there’s lots of choice and much to keep in mind to ensure you nab the best bargains. We often see Prime Day action cam deals pop up, especially on the cheaper models, so now is the time to take advantage if you’re in the market for one.
There are so many of these rugged shooters around now that there’s something to suit every budget and level of filming experience – for a thorough guide, check out our ranking of the best action cameras right now. So what should you keep in mind when considering any deals that drop? And how can you ensure you pick a good deal? We answer these questions and more below…
But first, want to know the juiciest pre Prime Day action cam deals that are live right now? There's savings for a limited time only today on the following budget cams from Akaso, Campark and Crosstour...
Buying an action camera on Prime Day: what to expect
It’s impossible at this stage to know exactly which specific action cam deals we’ll be seeing pop up across July 15th and 16th, but we can make some educated guesses upon what we're seeing right now with early pre-Prime Day deals, and set out what we’d love to see tomorrow and Tuesday…
The biggest name in the action camera market is GoPro, but it has encountered some rivalry from cheaper action cams and newer brands in recent years. It would make sense, therefore, for GoPro to use Prime Day to reassert its stronghold.
Couple that with how we expect the Hero 8 range to be launched in the next few months, and it’s not unreasonable to expect offers on GoPro’s action cams. Hopefully that will include our 5-star rated or the , or even older yet still brilliant models such as the plucky Hero 6.
The newer , which we raved about in our recent 5-star review, is another camera we’d love to see popping up in any Prime Day deals. That might not happen as it’s still new, but if it does, this is a no-brainer purchase.
How to bag a great action camera deal
It’s all-too easy to get carried away by sales fever and end up jumping on a deal just because the clock is ticking and the world and its nan seem to be snapping it up.
This is where making a short list of the features your ideal cam must have will help you select the best deal for you. Make the list in advance of the sales starting and keep it handy when considering any action camera deals.
If documenting fast-paced and rocky action is your motivation for buying an action cam, the top feature to look out for is quality image stabilisation. Our primo choice for this is GoPro’s HyperSmooth, which you’ll find on the Hero 7 Black model, but at this stage we don’t know if there will be any Prime Day GoPro deals.
So how can you tell if an action cam offers this feature? In the camera’s product description, look out for something called electronic image stabilisation. This might be abbreviated as EIS. Here are some other considerations to make…
- Want to shoot underwater? Most action cams offer a degree of waterproofing straight out of the box, down to around 10 metres. For diving even deeper, you need one that comes with an additional waterproof housing – or that is compatible with a third-party housing if it doesn’t come with its own.
- Stills just as important as video? Look for an action camera that offers 16MP resolution and above.
- If you intend to create action edits with your videos, you’ll need a camera capable of shooting 4K. However, if you only want to share clips on social media or to sites like YouTube, you can get away with lower resolutions. For these purposes, 2.7K or 1080p is fine.
- Love action adventure kit? Shop the Go Outdoors sale now
Do you need a budget or pro action shooter?
This boils down to how serious you are about action videos and photography, and how often you’ll be using the cam for filming. If you’re buying a waterproof action camera solely for the odd beach holiday, it’s not worth investing too much cash.
Popular budget action camera brands include Akaso, YI, SJ Cam, Campark, Vemont, Crosstour and Apeman. Some of their super-cheap cams are worth taking a punt on because they don’t represent a big cash investment for beginners or casual users, yet offer enough features to help you cut your teeth on this type of photography.
If you regularly go surfing, mountain biking, climbing and the like, and want to film your adventures, it’s worth spending the extra to have a richer feature set and good app support at your disposal. In these scenarios you’ll be well-served by the types of tech commonly found on the models in our premium action cameras guide.
Where to find Amazon Prime Day action camera deals
We’ll be rounding up any sweet action cam deals we find during the entire Prime Day period, whether from Amazon or competing retailers. This should save you a ton of research time – unless of course you enjoy scouring the online sales yourself!
It’s all too easy to get swept away in the deals mania and assume something is a bigger bargain than it is. So if you have time – and that’s not always the case with super-popular Lightning Deals – it’s worth checking the price history of a product to see how big a saving it really is.
Many retailers will also be doing their best to compete with Amazon Prime Day 2019, so ensure you’re buying from a trusted retailer. If you haven’t bought from the company before, check their Trust Pilot rating to get a general idea of what previous customers have said about buying from them.
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