Interested in getting in to videography or need something small to record your adventures and hobbies? An action camera with image stabilization will help tremendously with offering the smoothest video recording. We have also ordered the ranking list by cheapest and most affordable first, so if you are on a budget, this is the perfect place to find cameras that are right for you.a
Image Stabilization
The types of image stabilization differ from camera to camera but for those at the bottom end of the price range, you can expect electronic image stabilization and gyro image stabilization. This means that the stabilization is done electronically, otherwise known as digital image stabilization and you can record in different resolutions and frame rates, depending on the camera with stabilization.
Activities That Can Benefit From Image Stabilization
Wondering whether you need image stabilization for the activities and purposes you will be using the action camera? If you are using it on a stationary platform, for time lapses, or for taking loop footage on your cars dashboard you probably won't need or require stabilization.
Even if you are walking around and actually moving whilst using the camera, stabilization still might not be needed, especially if it's your own footage and just for memories. Other hobbies and activities that won't need it are paragliding, even road cycling if you are putting the camera on your head might be ok without it too. Mountain biking, down hill and cross country is a different beast and will definitely benefit from this feature. Kayaking and even surfing should be ok without stabilization as well because they are both smooth activities when on the water. When taking an action camera underwater, with scuba and freediving, you should be ok without it as well as these are both sedate activities and the movement of your camera underwater is helped by the forces of water around it, making movement smoother.
If you are doing something more energetic, something that has a lot of movement in it, especially going from static to a movement and back to a static position again, you will definitely benefit from it. These movements are in sports and activities like mountain biking, running on road and trails, which includes fell running, hiking, skydiving has a lot of movement in it, especially during the jump and free fall and many others.
Best Video Resolutions with Image Stabilization
When looking at a new action camera with image stabilization and you want something on a budget and as cheap as possible, you have to remember that if you are purchasing a camera that has both 4K video recording and Image stabilization as a feature, this might not mean that the stabilization works at that video resolution.
We have listed this down for each camera, showing their best video resolution which works with image stabilization, there are only a couple of cameras that can achieve smooth recording video with stabilization at 4K res and these are not the cheapest cameras to buy.
Usually you can expect up to 720p and 1080p video resolutions to work with image stabilization and up to 60fps in most cases.
Another thing to remember is that the slower you go with your frame rates, up to 120fps and 240fps the need for image stabilization becomes less. Because you are recording so many frames during an action, it actually smooths out the jolts and movement anyway.