Recently we were lucky enough to get our hands on GoPro’s latest pro-range action cam – the Hero 4 Black – and we were impressed. Like, really impressed. It’s streets ahead of any competing models if what you’re after is a powerful, ultra-HD camera to bump up your quiver. Until now that is… Maybe.

Sony  have had a hand in the action cam market for a while now, but they’ve never been able to make waves compared to the market leader and the likes of  the market leader as well as Ion, Contour and Drift. But now their latest model has been announced – the snappily titled FDR-X1000VR – and it packs a punch equal to, and in some respects greater than that of the latest GoPro.

We’ve said it before, but if all you want from an action camera is something to shoot a holiday video on, you don’t need all these added features, or even need to know what  they all mean – look for something like the Contour ROAM3 or the GoPro Hero instead – but for videos pros these stats should get you a little excited.

Whilst it shoots the same 4K at 30fps as the Hero 4 Black does, it does this at a 100mb/s bitrate compared to the Black’s 60mb/s. Whilst it makes no difference to the resolution of the image, it means there’s a ton more information to play with in post production.

It also has a key feature that many people were expecting from the 4 Black: 240fps at 720p. It’s the same level of slow motion capabilities that the latest iPhone has, the ability to stretch one second into ten resulting in gorgeous detail that wouldn’t be out of place in the next AOF installment.

It’s also even lighter than the GoPro, comes with stereo recording and top optics courtesy of a Carl Zeiss lens, but the lack of case makes us feel that it won’t be as rugged or versatile as the GoPro. However we’ll do our best to get our hands on one and report back to you it’s full capabilities!