An action camera or action-cam is a digital camera designed for filming action while being immersed in it. Action cameras are therefore typically compact and rugged, and waterproof at surface. They typically record video as a priority over stills, as this allows continuous capture of the action without having to interact with the camera or indeed removing it from its housing, if an additional protective housing is used. Most record on a micro SD card, and have a Micro-USB connector.

Action cameras are associated with outdoor sports, and, often attached to helmets, surfboards or handlebars, are an integral part of many extreme sports such as base jumping and wingsuit flying. Sometimes several cameras are used to capture specific perspectives, such as a helmet camera that sees the perspective of the actor in combination with a second camera attached to the environment of the rider, such as a board, wing, handlebar or wrist, that looks back onto the rider and records his reactions. Action-cams may therefore be referred to as helmet cams and by other similar names.

The category is associated with the GoPro range of cameras, and many action cameras come with a GoPro mount adapter to take advantage of the accessories available for these cameras.

Other models of action cams include the Sony HDR-AS10, HDR-AS15 and HDR-AS30V,^] Garmin VIRB,Xiaomi's YiCamera, Panasonic HX-A500E,Toshiba Camileo X-Sports, Polaroid Cube, Mobius, Ricoh WG-M1, and TomTomBandit.