Customer Reviews

Sony DCR-SR68 80GB Hard Disk Drive Handycam Camcorder

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

I bought this at a store, not Amazon. I read good reviews about earlier models, and was a bit hesitant to buy this camera because a few people said the video quality was bad. I took the risk, but they were right. The video (and digital picture) quality are unacceptable. Even in decent lighting, the pictures are very dark and grainy, as if they were taken by an old webcam. Even at high quality, there was no improvement. Also, the autofocus was very poor and did not adjust to fast-moving subjects. Don't be fooled if you try it in a store; the LCD screen has great resolution (better than an iPod) but when you see the video on a computer screen (even when not blown to full size) or on a projection screen, the video quality is so bad. It looks average on a traditional TV. And the zoom mic also does not capture sound effectively. I was going to use this for business videography, but it would have been embarrassing to use this camcorder. I suspect similar camcorders (i.e. 1/6 CCD) may have similar inferior quality. The size, zoom quality, and touch screen might be nice features, but my Canon A570 digital camera from four years ago took better video.

I bought this with 3 basic needs, 1.I wanted something compact, 2. I wanted the capability to take pictures. 3. I wanted it to have a night vision light. You would think these 3 things would be easy to find in many cameras at a decent price range, but they were not! So how did this fair up? This camera is one of the most compact, even smaller than I expected. 2. It's picture taking ability I was least impressed with. It was pretty grainy. 3. The night vision light was pretty weak, but hey I expected that for such a small camera. The battery life with the standard battery was about avg. 4 hrs. As far as working the camera, it was VERY simple, figured it out in 5 minutes w/o reading instructions, needless to say, there are VERY few menu screens, touch screen is kinda nice, but would also liked to have the capability to tape w/the viewfinder closed. All in all, i'm pretty happy w/the purchase, just don't buy it if you want it to take good pictures, i've had phones that took clearer pictures.

I purchased this camera at a store, believing the SONY brand name and previous good reviews about similar Sony camcorders. There are several flaws to this product.
Cons
1. Picture quality is very poor, Indoor and outdoor pictures in good light appear with a bluish tint all over. If you wear a white /gray cloth it appears bluish on video. Like wise the sunlight coming inside your house through window /blinds all appears light blue!! Even with good lighting the quality of images are very bad, lacks sharpness, This in comparison to my old Panasonic PV GS120 is not even close to true color. If you view the pictures on a TV screen it will definitely appear lacking the sharpness. If you are transferring the video to computer using the supplied software it appears very blurry and grainy.
2. There is no way you can charge the battery when camcorder is in use even if there is a spare battery because the battery charging is done hooking up the AC adapter to the camcorder! This seems really stupid. Sony could have made a battery slot on the AC adapter to do this.
3. There is no separate viewfinder. So if the LCD is broken- everything is gone.
4. Audio quality does not seem to be that good but average.
5. I can not find the resolution of the camera for still shots, nothing is mentioned in the manual either. You can not shoot a still picture while recording the video, you have to capture it from the video shots already made. Yea the resolution does not matter in that case.
6. Battery life approximately less than an hour
7. The LED for lighting seems silly


Pros
1. Small size, you can carry in Pants pocket
2. Provision to use SDHC card instead of the "Sony's own" memory stick duo only. I have not used one yet though.
3. LCD is very clear and sharp (good resolution), and it responds well to the touch.
4. Video transfer is quick and easy once the basic Sony software is installed. I would use some other software to edit it though.
5. 80 GB storage space is great
6. The Sony software has a calendar to see events on a chronological order, that looks great if you are time conscious about the video
Overall I am not satisfied with this camcorder. I will return it soon.

I had been looking for a second video camera, one with a sizeable internal hard drive to store a lot of footage. I was partial to Sony, having purchased many Sony products over the years that gave good service. I did my homework and checked out reviews and Tech websites. Finally I settled on this camcorder. When it arrived, I was excited to test it out. I took some footage of my garden, about one minute. Then I downloaded the clip into my computer. Gasp! It didn't look crisp and clear. It looked hazy and fuzzy. To compare, I took a comparable video with my other camcorder and downloaded it into my computer. Much different. Better! Crisper! Clearer! What I had been used to. The second camera, let me say, is also a Sony, but one that uses mini-video-tape. I compared the size of the files downloaded on my computer, each roughly one minute long. Whereas the file from the old Sony was about 276 MB's, the file from the new camcorder was about 75 MB's, about one-fourth the size, more compressed. No wonder!! I called Sony, and registered my complaint. No comment or suggestion on how to improve performance. I called Vanns, the vendor, to arrange a return. The only good thing about the transaction was the great service from Vanns. A prompt refund. No questions asked. Of course, I had to pay the return postage. I saw some very glowing reviews on this product before I bought it. The only thing I can say is these people probably had nothing to compare the quality of the video to. Otherwise, I can't imagine how anyone can think that this is a camcorder that delivers high-quality or even decent-quality videos.

Length:: 3:12 Mins

I'm disappointed in Sony's response to my camera's errors. I would expect a much better response.
"Buffer Overflow" problem, along with lost data. Hard drive errors.
I would not recommend anyone to purchase this camera.

A $349.00 Mistake! Purchased the Sony DCR SR-68 Handycam new from Amazon and had the opportunity to record about one hour of video under a variety of indoor and outdoor conditions during a recent six week trip. Much of the video turned out to be of extremely poor quality due to a number of apparent engineering deficiencies including a puzzling inability to focus in other than ideal light conditions and when using the zoom feature, inadequate compensation for bright light resulting in washed out video, and the fact that the LCD display is virtually impossible to see when attempting to frame a shot in daylight conditions. The Handycam has no viewfinder so all video must be framed using the LCD display. Any type of action shot is extremely difficult if not impossible. It is simply not possible to maintain contact with the subject using the LCD display because of glare and reflection. The scene selection and delete features proved to be the most useful because of the large number of shots that were unusable. My 9 year old Sony Camcorder is a bit more cumbersome but takes better video and is much more user friendly.

OK, I have read an awful lot of bad reviews on this camera. I have to say it took me a while to figure it out. It imports in MPEG format. This is an acceptable and widely used format even for television networks. The software you use also plays a huge factor in the quality of the video. I always use Sony Vegas software to edit and import in NTSC DV (720x480, 29.970 fps, with best rendering quality, and deinterlace method is set to interpolate fields. When rendering depending on what I am doing I will set it at windows media video V9 (wmv) for my youtube videos, or MainConcept MPEG 1 or 2 in the default setting for DVDs. I have to say I havent had an issue with the quality. There is always going to be a quality loss issue with any format of video. This is why I try to stick with the manufacturers software. I like the speed of importing video as well as the full 80 gigs of hard drive. The battery life is really not an issue with me, I keep spares with an inverter in my truck for field charging. I do not take photos with my video camera, they are always inferior. As for youtube videos, Youtube will compress the videos to their formats loosing quality. If you would like to see some rendered videos from this camera type in desertsurvivalsist on youtube and my last 5 videos were made using this camera. I am not unhappy with it even after youtubes compression. We are all learning everyday and this is no exception. At first I was not happy at all with the quality of the camera till I did some research on importing the videos in Sony Vegas software. After I played around with the settings I was satisfied with my purchase.

1. The video quality is acceptable; be sure to check your camera's system settings, however, as the default is NOT the highest quality - which I found out after recording a 90+ minute concert.

2. The controls were a little counter-intuitive to me; I kept finding myself zooming in when I wanted to zoom out, and vice versa. This may be a uniquely personal issue, however, because I'm strongly left-handed and this device's design is oriented solely for right-hand use. This problem may diminish once I've acquired some practice and experience with this unit.

3. The primary negative I've encountered with this unit so far is its total incompatibility with Apple Macintosh computers. I had observed the enclosed CD was Windows-only; I considered this a non-issue, however, as I was planning on using the Mac's iMovie software to manage/manipulate the video file(s). When I connected the camcorder to my MacBook Pro via the supplied USB cable, however, neither the laptop nor the camcorder recognized the existence of the other. A look on Sony's website revealed driver software download for 19 different flavors of Microsoft Windows, but no Mac OS X or Linux driver software. I expect I can accomplish the video file transfer using a memory stick or external drive, but I was VERY disappointed at the camcorder's inability to at least mimic a USB storage device.

I have owned a few Sony Handycams in the past and was always pleased with them, but this Handycam is awful. Of course the battery that comes with the camera only lasts about an hour before it needs to be recharged if you are using the camera a lot. The picture quality is awful, my Sony CCD-TRV118 Hi8 Handycam has better picture quality and more functions than the Sony DCR-SR68. The Sony DCR-SR68 doesn't even have a remote control, it's 2010 how about giving us something. I noticed when you use the telephoto on the Sony DCR-SR68 you can hear the motor when you play back what you have recorded. When I installed the software for the Sony DCR-SR68 on my computer it actually caused a lot of problems, my computer is fine now that I uninstalled the software. In my opinion the Sony DCR-SR68 is only good for use as a paperweight. I definitely wasted my money on this camcorder, I can't even get rid of it no one wants it.

I have been searching for a replacement for my Sony DCR-TRV310 Digital 8 which is a great camcorder but difficult to carry around when traveling. I do a lot of video editing on my older Sony Vaio RS530G PC, running on XP SP3 so I ruled out the new high definition cameras. I bought this camcorder in a store so I could return it easily if I did like its performance or format. In short, I missed the viewfinder; the LCD screen was impossible to see in sunlight and actually reflected a glare. The touch screen menu although easy enough to figure out was also difficult to see outdoors in sunlight and kind of cumbersome to go through the menu. It is akin to press one if you want English, etc. The video quality was poor with a bluish, grainy quality. Low light indoor video was very dark and amber. Actually my Sony Cyber-Shot takes better videos. It does not offer much in the way of faders/transitional effects or manual controls. I downloaded and printed the entire manual because the one supplied in the box was a pamphlet and offered no real technical advice beyond charging and powering up, shooting and burning to DVD. My ability to edit the video format was the biggest disappointment because my editing format of choice to trim video clips is Click to DVD and that is not compatible. I have small hands and still found the arrangement of touch and manual controls to be awkward. The still pictures I took outdoors were better than I expected.
I wish I could put my old Sony on a diet. After trying this out for a few days it went back to the store and I believe I will stick to tape and buy the Cannon HV40.