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113 of 115 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A camera with excellent HD quality but not many features, April 1, 2010
This review is from: Sony HDR-CX150 16GB High Definition Handycam Camcorder (Electronics)
I bought this camera on Monday, had fun with it for two days, and then returned it. Although I can't afford it, I then closed my eyes and ordered the HDR-CX550V. I basically went from the bottom of the Sony consumer class to the top in one fell swoop.
Things I liked about the CX150:
* FABULOUS quality in adequate light. The video in 24 Mbps mode is stunning. Search YouTube for examples. Every hair on my cat, dust particles in sunlight, it all shows up with beautiful resolution. It's amazing. Almost Blu-Ray quality. You won't find any consumer-class camcorder with better quality.
* 25x zoom , when used with a tripod, lets you get really close
* "macro" works without any special settings. Just put the lens an inch away and it will focus. Resolves fingerprints.
* Amazingly tiny. With no hard drive or tape drive, the unit is frighteningly small. You can put it and all the cables + charger in a camera case designed for a DSLR + telephoto
* PMB software works, has good basic editing. Used it to grab frames from movies - almost don't need the "still" function if 1990x1080 res is good enough.
* It will take a 32GB memory stick, even though the feature list says they only support 16.
* The touch screen is responsive
* "touch the object" spot focus, spot white balance is cool
* Give it the NP-FV70 battery and it will record for hours and hours
Things I either did not like or features missing (by "missing" I realize that you have to pay more). Don't mistake the length of my 'cons' list as hating the little guy - it's a good camera for what it is designed to be.
* A bit pricey. I think it is worth about $450.00, not the $549.00 list
* No wide-angle. I wish Sony had made the lens go from slightly wide-angle to about 15x, instead of from normal to 25x.
* No external mic input
* No hot shoe - not even the Sony proprietary one
* Zoom motor noise is very audible in quiet settings - don't expect to use this camera to record acoustic orchestral music in concert halls
* The "smooth slow-mo 240 fps" is NOT HD 1080i60 quality. Might be OK at 720, but I found it disappointingly blurry. I'd love to see it have the same capability as the Casio EX-FX1 (not holding breath)
* Not enough buttons - too much reliance on the touch screen. I prefer buttons to scrolling through menus. Sony could fix this by providing more than 6 "my menu" choices.
* Auto focus works good most of the time, but when it gets confused it is horrible. Combine that with no quick focus wheel and it is a recipe for loosing shots
* Picture mode is not available in 24 Mbps HD mode.
* The electronic stabilization does not work. I've grown used to optical stabilization in my DSC-H50 and there is no going back.
* Short of using something like the Black Rapid Straps Fasten-R2 screwed into the tripod shoe, there is no way to attach a neck strap. I almost dropped it several times.
* The plastic housing is sensitive to noise - any little touch while recording will show up as sound in the video.
* No windscreen for the mics. Combine that with no external mic capability and you won't be able to hear anything in windy conditions.
* No remote
* No "night shot" infrared
* Low light performance is what you would expect from a small lens size. All the electronics in the world can't fully compensate for glass area.
Summary: if you want a fairly cheap, tiny camera for shooting GREAT quality vids of vacations, the kids and the pets, this is an excellent choice. Want to do more, and you will need to pay more for a better unit. Just want to help other people avoid my experience of being a bit disappointed and having to trade up.
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27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Awesome camera!, March 21, 2010
This review is from: Sony HDR-CX150 16GB High Definition Handycam Camcorder (Electronics)
The video quality is great! The touchscreen is very easy to use, the internal memory is great! This is a better buy than the HDR-CX110 which has no internal memory.
The camera is very small which I love, it fits perfectly in my pocket. It turns on when you open the screen and it turns off when you close the screen, very convenient.
The zoom works great and the steadyshot feature is very good and it really works.
If you set the camera to manual focus you can touch the subject on the screen that you want the camera to focus on, very cool.
Overall I love this camera because the video quality and of its size.
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23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing performance in a small package, April 26, 2010
This review is from: Sony HDR-CX150 16GB High Definition Handycam Camcorder (Electronics)
Where do I begin? I'm not sure. I didn't know what to expect when I order this camera, but the minute I powered it up, I was amazed at the clarity. I mean right out of the box, this thing is practically set up for you to succeed with your project.
The camera has many adjustable settings, but many of them a buried within the menu system, which is accessible via it's touchscreen.
Sony was even nice enough to give you a quick menu area where you access the features or settings that you may use more often. I
wish there were more than one screen of these as I often have found myself needing more quick buttons than this.
However, the real reason I am so pleased with this camera is because you don't need to fool around with anything to take good video.
The intelligent auto feature is activated by default and it pretty much has you covered, as the camera will quickly detect scenes
and select the proper settings based on the environment. What this means is, if you are a point-and-shoot type of person (like me),
this camera will not let you down.
And did I mention the picture quality? It is incredible!!!!
The camera has 4 HD modes and 1 SD mode. They are FX,FH,HQ, LP (all for HD), and STD HQ for SD.
I have only tried the different HD modes and I must say they are great, but I found that I often need to shoot longer videos, so
I am currently using FH mode, which allows me a bit more recording. BTW, this camera has 16Gb internal flash memory, plus a
slot for an SD card or Sony's memory stick duo.
And did I mention the picture quality?
No matter which of the recording modes you choose, the quality is absolutely stellar!
Battery life is pretty good. You get a battery that you nearly squeeze 2 hours out of. What I like best is that the battery is
external, meaning you can buy a larger capacity battery (Sony has at least 2 additional batteries that will fit).
What I liked about this camera:
1. Quick and easy to use
2. Excellent picture quality regardless of recording mode (1080i)
3. built in flash memory
4. adjustable microphone (recording is dolby digital 2 channel)
5. small and compact
6. zoom is smooth and steady
7. has touch focus
8. has face recognition, including priority of one face in the picture
9. smile detection will take a photo if one of the faces smiles (and smile detection is adjustable)
10. shoots photos while filming
11. reasonably good low light performance (not great, but the colors still looked like themselves)
What I didn't like:
I waited a while before writing the review to see if I had an issue that I could complain about with this camera.
I don't have any complaints. It exceeded my expectations in every area. I read some complaints about not having 1080p....
whatever.
Video Formats:
For HD this camera produces MPEG4 H.264 AVC/AVCHD files (files have .m2ts extention when imported by PMB, .mts if you browse
the camera)
For SD I believe the format is MPEG2 (I haven't shot much SD footage, but what I have was very good)
Make sure your computer is loaded with the proper codecs and you should have no problems.
The camera came with Sony's PMB software, which I use to download my footage to the computer. It allows you some manipulation
of the files and the ability to burn to DVD in AVCHD format, where it can be played on a Blue-ray player. You can also burn
normal DVDs with PMB as well. However, I only use PMB to import from the camera. I have other software to produce videos.
I would mention the picture quality shot with this camera again, but I think I'll close the review by saying that, this is an
excellent camcorder and it was worth every penny.
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