Customer Reviews

Sony HDR-SR7 AVCHD 6.1MP 60GB High Definition Hard Disk Drive Camcorder with 10x Optical Zoom

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I bought this camera after owning the Sony HDR-HC3, and the Canon HV10, and when I first saw the camera I was in love. Now that I've had the camcorder for over 1 month now, here's an honest review of the camcorder from a keeper's perspective:

Pros:
1. Excellent outdoor image, clarity and picture. The lines are crisp, everything green just jumps out at you, it does seem like you're shooting in HD and it shows when filming out in the sun with light.
2. Price. For a HD camcorder w/ an internal harddrive at ~1100, it's a no brainer. It provides a lot of the goods at the lower end of the price range.
3. New color schema for HDMI 1.3 (the xxYcc or whatever). This is actually good and bad, because it'll bring out the colors if you have a monitor to show them, but Sony advises that you don't shoot in this mode if you don't as it may lead to inaccurate color representation if you don't own a TV that supports this.
4. Small size. The camcorder just feels right, and fits and looks nice.
5. AVCHD now has NLE's that can edit the format, I use Sony Vegas 7.0e and it works excellent, I was an adobe premiere guy before, but now I LOVE Sony Vegas, it's an awesome program.
6. Transfers film as data and so you don't have to wait there until the PC captures the video 1:1 timewise.


Cons:
1. Indoor shooting is almost below SD quality. The indoor shooting gets VERY grainy, and I have to say I'm really disappointed. I got the AIS Flash shoe for the camcorder for this reason, and still, the picture is better, but still grainy. I want to say it's almost as if you have a hybrid camcorder, SD indoors, HD outdoors. My Canon HV10 was superior in quality indoors, probably the same clarity outdoors, but Sony definitely had better colors.
2. No USB or HDMI (normal size) on the body of the camcorder. I do agree with other people with this annoyance. I actually don't mind that using the docking station, and I do at home, but on a couple of occasions my friends want to transfer video over to their computer after a night out and I can't since there's no USB on the camcorder.
3. Sometimes takes awhile before the picture can come into focus. Again, I noticed this a lot when indoors, the pictures just doesn't focus for about 10secs, very annoying.

As you can see, I actually have more pros then cons, but the cons actually are stronger deterrents; than the pros are stronger for desire. I'm okay with my purchase, and know that I will probably get a lot of good video quality over the years with this camcorder, but just feel there has to be something better out there. If this had the quality indoors as it does out, this would totally be a 5/5 no matter what else.

I got the camera yesterday and have spent about an hour with it. The first thing I did was look for a mini-hdmi cable locally, but ended up buying it from Amazon via another vendor. While online on Amazon, I also noticed the price went up on this model - good timing for me as I thought the opposite would happen after I bought it.

The first impressions of this camera is that it is tiny. It looks much bigger in the pictures, but this is a small camera that packs alot of surprises. It just feels right in your hand and looks and feels well made/solid.

After charging it for about two hours, I started using it without reading the instructions. I heard all about the poor low light performance of the unit so I tried recording things in my living room with only one flourescent energy saving bulb on in the back of the living room. Then I went through and played with the menus to get myself familiar with the settings and noticed by default the HD recording setting was at 9MB/s so I changed it to XP - 15MB/s and recorded my living room again. I then connected the camcorder via component cables to my LCD TV. The first clip (9MB/s) came out ok. The clip was slightly grainy in the dark areas. For example, the components of my video/audio system was in a dark recess in the tv stand but I could see it although slightly grainy. That's to be expected since I'm sure a $50k HD camera will have similiar issue (I'm realistic about my purchases so this did not bug me). Now on to the second clip recorded at 15Mb/s. When I viewed the same scene of the A/V components, it was noticeable how much cleaner the edges were on the outlines of the A/V components. The overall clip was much sharper than the previous clip and right now I'm looking over at the components and I think the video in the second clip is clearer than what I can see with my naked eyes right now! Amazing. If you get this camera, make sure the HD setting is set to the highest mode - XP.

One thing I can say about the audio - before reading the reviews, I didn't think 5.1 was available on any consumer camcorders. I was surprised to learn it supports 5.1 (a big plus).

I had the TV on and I recorded my friend laughing in reaction to a program on TV and I could hear the laugh coming from the right (which is where my friend was sitting). The laugh, like the video, came out clear and distinct. I give audio a thumbs up. I heard the HDR-HC3 had issues with audio so I'm a happy camper here.

I basically tested this camcorder in moderate light situations which is a tough test for any camcorder. This camcorder (SR7) actually exceeded my expectations. I can't wait to see the picture quality of the video of scenes outside the house in day light. I can already assume I'll be amazed due to picture quality of the video I've seen in my other well lit rooms.

Coming from a Sony TR-81 Hi8 camcorder, I'd say the video quality is a big step beyond that of the TR-81. The TR-81 takes very good video, but the focus was slow and low light situation made focusing even worse. The SR7 focusing system is fast and in low light it's faster than my TR-81 in well lit areas.

I always wanted the Sony TR-101 after getting my TR-81. The TR101 was the camcorder I always look back and say, "I should of bought the TR-101 instead of the TR-81". Mainly because the TR-101 has mechanical/optical stabilization vs electronic stabilization. The TR81 has no stabilization. All the newer Sonys after the TR101 went with electronic stabilization for a few years (I remember it was due to royalty issues with Canon). Also the TR101 lens and lens housing was much bigger which made it look like a nicer/heaftier unit while the TR81 looked anemic compared to it (anyways, I digress...). Because of this (wanting the 101 over the 81), I got the HDR-SR7 over the HDR-SR5. The HDR-SR7 has mechanical stabilization AND it works well! One thing I noticed with the TR81 is that videos sometimes become almost unviewable when I'm taping without a tripod. With the SR7, the stabilization works! Zooming on a light switch across the house through three rooms, I will notice considerable vibration or jerkiness with the TR81. With the SR7, there is no jerkiness. You can see the video float up or down but there is no jerkiness.

Also, having a HD as the media to record on is nice and one of the main selling points for me to buy this unit. Having read the SR5 review, I noticed a few people complain about the HD noise being recorded on the tape. I didn't noticed this at all when taping the living room clips, but I did notice the HD clicking when the camera was pointed down at an angle. It seems like you can hear the HD stepping and it was caught on film! It's muffled, but it's there.

I'll be adding onto this review after about a month and will adjust my rating accordingly. This camera _IS_ a keeper. I will deduct a star from the 5 star rating for the noise issue mentioned above. Sony (and I'm sure others) will need to work on an isolation system for the HD so hard drive noise don't make it to the audio. I have an old Sony Ruvi camcorder which I bought new that records on some funky proprietary tape. You can hear the motor(s) on the audio track continuously. You can hear yourself zoom/pan and also hear the motor that continuously moves the tape during record. That and the funky proprietary tape was the downfall of that camcorder. I bought it at fry's at a discount - $199. I still wonder why I bought it because the noise is unbearable and I only used that camera a few times. Luckily, the SR7 is no where as bad as the RUVI. If this will be an issue, you might want to look at the HDR-CX7 which is the media stick version of this camcorder.

Overall, this is an excellent camera. I can't think of a better HD camera than the SR7, CX7 (pro duo media), HC7 (miniDV media), and SR5.
I checked both the JVC (GZ-HD7 - really love the looks of this unit) and Canon (HV10, HV20) offerings, but leaned towards the Sony after reading user's feedback on those units.

I probably shouldn't have mentioned the other cameras to keep this review focused on the SR7, but I'm sure there are old timers that had one of these cameras and can relate to my experience.

ADDED on 11/17/07 11:50pm: Ok, I just returned from a trip to San Francisco. I went to the Art Academy with a friend so she could check out the art school. I thought I would be amazed at the footage. I was expecting sharp and clear clips, but what I got was beyond that. I taped some skyscrapers from the base and panned up towards the sky - the entire footage was sharp, clear, and bright. There was no focusing issues. It seem better, if not on par, with the videos on Discovery HD. I'm not easily impressed, but I must say I am!! Anyone have an FTP site I can upload this clip? It looks like it was taped on a much more expensive unit. The blue of the sky was rich and brilliant against the white clouds and usually, with my old camcorder (TR81), if the scene goes from buildings to the sky as I pan up, you will get an overcompensation of light on the video clip. In otherwords, the sky will become too bright, then the video will take seconds to adjust and then the sky looks good, but the exposure on the building gets way too dark. This did not happen on the HDR-SR7. If I can only upload this clip for you guys to see. I'm not sure if I can upload the HD version to you tube. I'll look into it.

Anyways, I'm keeping this camera. It's unbelieveable (and I'm not that easily impressed, however, keep in mind these are consumer grade camcorder and it meets my expectations so YMMV).

Money well spent -- I questioned getting another camcorder the last few weeks, but not anymore.

There will be no perfect camcorder. The SR7 is a good compromise between what I want in a perfect camcorder and what is actually out there in the market. To me, excellent video quality in a small size with good sound was important to me. At first I did not consider the Sony because the effective resolution was 1440x1080 vs 1920x1080, but it seems overall the picture and the color accuracy on the Sony was better. Why get caught up in tech specs when it's the big picture that counts? Also, the Sony just felt right in the hand. It's small and well built. I don't want to be lugging anything that felt awkwardly large on vacation! The smaller the better and my choice was the HDR-SR7.

UPDATED 12/1/07: Still enjoying the camera. The battery seems to last about 90 minutes. Luckily I haven't gotten the "blue screen" issue the newer reviewers have ran into. I'll be using it at the SF auto show tomorrow so we'll see how it goes.

UPDATE 12/2/07: Ok, there seems to be an issue with the camera taking too long to focus sometimes. I mention earlier that focusing seems pretty quick, but at the auto show today, when I was ready to shoot, the camera was not focused for 3-4 shots (video and or photo). I had to move it around to get it to focus. Battery lasted for about 80 minutes or so. The colors came out excellent, but the focusing issue came to light today. It's best to leave the camcorder on standby since, if you turn it off, it will take a few seconds for the HD to come on line and you may miss a video or camera moment.

UPDATE 12/12/07: Because of the AVCHD compression, if you move the camera the clip of the scene as the camera is moved doesn't look too smooth. That's probably the biggest annoyance to me. The sw is great, but limited in terms of editing (very very limited). You can view HD quality clips on your laptop. I have a dell 9400 with a 1920x1200 (WUXGA) display and I'm getting HD quality while viewing it on the laptop - just amazing.

UPDATE 1/22/08: I got back from a trip to Europe last week to pickup a car I bought and used this camera (SR7) extensively. Since this review is already so long, I'll just sum up my feelings of this camera having owned it almost two months:

Pros: Great video quality when there is enough light. Great sound.
Cons: Video quality gets grainier as amount of light decreases. Sometimes you can hear the hard drive step. Picture quality is good, but a stand alone camera is better. Also, the camera sometimes loses focus - you'll have to aim it somewhere else to move back to your "target" to get it to focus correctly.

No surprises really - I covered this before.

Since I've owned this camera for two months, the newness of it has worn off and I'm obviously pointing out the weaknesses more than the the pluses because that's what bugs me. Overall, great camera. I'm sure any other camera will have deficencies (I'm picky but overall still happy with this camera).

UPDATE 10/25/10: I haven't used this camera in over a year as I had many life changing events recently (getting married, moving, honeymoon, loss of job, etc). The camera basically got boxed up and was in storage. I wanted to use it for my honeymoon, but didn't know where all the parts were as they were in separate boxes. I finally got around to finding the SR-7 and its accessories so I can use for Nascar in Fontana. It took excellent pictures and videos and I'm still amazed at the quality of the images, esp in an environment such as nascar (bright daylight). I ran out of diskspace (used up all of 60G) just before the event and decided to upgrade the HD (hard drive) myself. Couldn't find anyone that has upgraded to the 120G drive and ordered a 120GB ZIF drive on ebay (Toshiba MK123GAL). Unfortunately, I didn't get it in time for NASCAR, but about two weeks ago I got the drive. That night I took off the cover to the HD, popped out the old one and put the new one in and it worked! The two things you need to keep in mind is to learn how to work the ZIF mechanism (I was careless and the black strip came off and it took me a while to figure out what to do with it) and the second is that once the HD is installed, you must format it! Before I removed the old HD, I removed all video and pictures and was left with 485 mins of high bitrate recording (XP mode). After I formatted the new drive, I was at 979 mins of recording. Also, the drive is so much quieter. When It turned the camcorder on, it made absolutely no noise. I thought I got a bad HD. For kicks, I formatted it to see if I would get errors and it seem to hang (could hear no noise from the HD). It finally finished and I realize my upgrade was successful. I took a movie and a picture and it did record both. I must have gotten a very quiet drive because there is absolutely no noise. My old 60G HD is noisy in comparison. You can hear the drive step the heads and it gets recorded in the videos! So this upgrade improved not only the recording capacity of the Sony HDR SR-7, but it also makes the camcorder completely silent (I guess I should put a disclaimer and say that your mileage will vary).

Please comment on this review if you upgraded your SR-7 after reading this. Thanks.

Now, I forgot to mention the bad about the SR-7 during nascar. I got a pitpass so I was able to get very close to the action. When the racecar zoomed by, it was loud. My SR-7 would quit recording with a buffer overflow or data error. It happened every time. I learned to work around this but stopping the recording after 3-4 secs of loud noise and restarting the recording, but it was the first time I ran into this issue which I read about here. It seem to have recorded the videos up to the point where the buffer overflow happened. The camcorder would repair the damage to the file and I would be able to record again. I'm not sure how to work around this (other than the one I mentioned above) and I believe there is no fix to this to this day. Is there a way to tur off the mic? I __should__ downgrade my review by one star for this.

I'm also reading the latest comments on this camera and it seems that this line of cameras have issues with the optical image stabilizer causing focusing issues. I have not run into this problem (yet). Hopefully, I will never run into this issue, but I will update again if I do.

If you want a harddrive based camcorder, the SR7 is currently the best one out there. It has a large 1/2.9-inch CCD, has optical image stabilization (which is better than digital), and a 60gb harddrive. It uses AVCHD compression (which more editing programs are now available for).

If you are looking for the best camcorder as far as recording quality, you still have to go with a tape based unit utilizing HDV. The reason is that there is less compression on tape than on current AVCHD systems. You will get excellent video with the SR7, but Sony's HDR-HC7 and Canon's HV20 will give you even better video quality. The Canon HV20 has one of the largest CCDs for a consumer camcorder, 1 1/2.7 -inch.

This is by far best quality I have seen in an HD cam. The default HD setting is set at SP which is the middle of the road, but the quality is already awesome. When I changed to XP, that was when my mouth dropped when viewing back the test footage on my 60 inch SXRD HDTV.

The coolest feature is to be able to play back AVCHD files natively on the PS3. All you have to do is first is to connect the camera to your PC and get the mts file and put it on a USB thumb drive. Be sure to create a folder on your USB thumb drive called VIDEO and put your mts files there for PS3 to recognize. Next plug it into the PS3 and you will see the most stunning footage ever made by a consumer camcorder.

It has HDMI out but it is a mini-HDMI so I have to buy a wire that is mini-HDMI to regular HDMI.

The cam is so small you can almost hold it in your palm. It has a very expensive look to it (unlike the 40G version HDR-SR5 with silver grills and very ugly looking, IMO)

I am very happy with the SR7. With 60G on board and no silly mess with conventional tapes to worry about. This is a blessing.

I went through three of these camcorders before I gave up on this model. I did like the camera though for it's build quality, features and ergonomics....reasons for trying three, let me explain. When I tried the camera for the first time, I noticed that every 3 to 4 seconds you could hear a faint click-click sound each time the buffer emptied to the hard drive. Only problem was, it recorded the click-click or clunk sound however you perceive it. So when I viewed the video through the TV you could distinctly hear the clicking/clunking sound. It's especially noticable recording in a quite environment. I did a three time exchange hoping to find one that doesn't have this issue. I called Sony about this and managed to talk with a co-operative and knowledgeable tech rep. He was willing to perform a test on the camera he had at hand. Sure enough...his did the same thing. He put me on hold while he discussed the problem with one of the engineers. He came back on the phone to inform me that they were aware of this issue on some of them. Great, so in other words when you purchase one of these cameras you have to hope that you pick the right one. Shame on Sony for not recalling them.

If you are planning on buying one of these be aware of this issue. otherwise you are going to have major frustrations exchanging it trying to find the one that works.

I'm a moderately experienced computer user, but knew little about camcorders. I held off for a year on buying one until I was certain the editing software could handle AVCHD, because my experience with tapes was simply that they never got to my PC for editing. Read all the reviews, and took the plunge on the Sony. I have an IMAC with the intel processors and upgraded to ILIFE 08. EVERYTHING WORKS PERFECTLY. The camera is small, and takes excellent videos and stills. I set the video to the highest quality setting, shot the kids all weekend, and then transferred to IMOVIE for editing. Simple enough. From there, I created a .mac account the share the videos with family and used IWEB to mock up a password protected web page. Simply unbelievable. I had barely ever used the used the ILIFE suite of products and I had a working web page with outstanding quality hi-def video up and and running in 3 hours. I really don't see the need for a hi-def DVD burner (and player) at all, when I can share with family across the country via the web. In my own home, I think the next step will be an Apple TV, to sling the videos wirelessly to my HI-Def TV for viewing. If you are at all concerned about the video quality, or ease of working with AVCHD, don't be. I'm no camcorder expert, but friends and family are simply stunned by what I've created in a short period of time.

I don't think this is a bad cam by any means, but I am going to note the annoyances I found in my uses. Sort of the "FYI's" that I didn't find in the extensive research and review reading I did before purchasing this cam. I haven't tried any lower end cams to know how much "better" this one may be than other alternatives.

I spent extensive time trying to decide between this model, the SR7 and the CX7. With a few feature differences between the lines (viewfinder, on board USB, couple others)the main difference is that the SR7 records to hard drive, and the CX7 to memory sticks. I settled on the SR7. I couldn't find any back to back comparisons online.

I have a Hi Def 50" plasma, and was hoping to capture candid family and friend activities like decorating the tree, vacations, nights out for drinks, etc. and thus desired an HD cam. I really didn't really want to spend a lot of time editing the video at this point before viewing it on the TV. I'm an IT manager and well versed/comfortable with technology, so you have some perspective of where I write/review from.

As far as downloading the video to a PC and editing goes, even after the reviews, I did find if you want to burn the video to a DVD instead of playing directly from the TV, the straight forwardness and simplicity of programs that support the "AVCHD format to DVD" is a little clunky. Getting the video out of the cam is more of an important part than you expect with this AVCHD format, since it only records in the AVCHD format which isn't widely supported *yet*. I tried Sony Vegas Platinum, but it was a bit complicated for simply wanting to combine shots and burn to a DVD, plus slow at rendering. I tried Nero and it was much simpler to use than Sony Vegas for simple combining, burning to DVD, converting to MPEG, etc. "Faster on the Draw/rendering/transcoding." The video quality was very satisfactory, but I can't say it was "eye popping". The sharpness was on, but color depth seemed a bit flat compared to many of my Dish Network HD channels, just as a reference. I did have it recoded by Nero, however. I never did try plugging it directly into the TV, because that was not my desired use of the cam.

I'm returning my SR7 for a CX7 for three reasons:

1. The hard drive makes it just a bit more bulky than I was hoping for. With the size, it makes it difficult for the cam to play the "digital camera sized" discrete role in impromptu family & friend activities, to avoid people giving the "oh he has the camera out again" look on their faces. I can't fit it in the front pocket of a sweatshirt with my hand in the strap.

2. I was not unimpressed with low light video quality which some others mentioned, but I was disappointed with "turn on focusing". Often, it seemed like the camera "couldn't figure out" where I was aiming and wasn't even attempting to focus. It almost looked like I was doing an unfocused fade in or something. These were leaning more toward low light indoor situations.

3. The hard drive "turn on to ready" time seemed long. I would power it up, and it would take more seconds than I wanted to catch a shot of something happening "now". Maybe it would start recording if I hit the button while it's spinning up, but I didn't attempt until the screen said "standby". I don't know that the CX7 will be faster, but being flash, there should be no spin-up time, and I'm hoping it will be "faster to the draw."

A few other items about the cam:

1. I did not find the touch screen to be a problem at all, as many of the reviews complain about. I have average sized hands.

2. The viewfinder is so small I almost didn't find it useful. I kept trying to use it but had to be so still and focused in that for me it wasn't worth it. I used the flip out screen almost all of the time.

3. Battery life with the included battery got me about 1 hour combined of recording and standby time, menu on off play around time.

4. Durability and build quality of the unit overall is high, and typical Sony.

5. The icons used in the menu system were not as intuitive as I've found with Sony cameras. After some time, I did figure out what was where. Menu speed response is fast.

6. The dock is nice and the camera easily fits in it without blind sliding around.

7. The arrangement of the buttons around your right hand seems very intuitive, but for my average sized hand, my thumb was almost not long enough to hit the "record" button when my hand felt most sturdily placed around the cam. As well, my index or middle finger kept tilting the zoom button in that position, so I constantly had to zoom out before starting to record again.

8. Battery charging seems to go very quickly compared to expectations.

9. When traveling through the menus, it makes lots of bling blong blip bleep sounds. I don't know if this can be turned off, but in my entire menu time didn't find where to do so. You might want to hit the PDF manual at the Sony site if that is crucial to you.

Since this is the first cam that was meant more for video than pictures that I've owned in many years, I don't have a good baseline to compare it to. The last cam I had was VHS, and I recall it having more "ready at hand" fade and fade out features, but maybe most people manage that in their video editing software these days. I do plan on getting the CX7 and hopefully I'll have more notes to compare the two afterward.

i have the hdrsr7 for a couple of weeks and im so very happy with the camera. Im writing this mainly to talk about the low light on the hdrsr7. I have read reviews saying the camera is terrible in low light. i guess they must have a difective model because this is the best low light camera i have owned. people make it seem that you cant even go out at night and film, well I enjoy taking video of the city at night and this camera is absolutly wonderful, It performs wonderfully in low light, and at home with just 1 lamp in the room the cam is terrific practically no graininess at all, it works great. Also I have never owned a cam with a docking station people make it seem so difficult to take this along.Well the docking station is just a very thin, small piece and no big deal to log around, i like the docking station alot. Hdd is the way to go no worries on changing tapes so you can concentrate on taking videos lots of videos.This to me is the perfect camera to own. the only thing is you have to go to menus to do almost everything, but the good news is the menus are so simple and everything is just so easy to get to.I hope this review is helpful and for those who are skeptic about the low lighting, this cam is a GEM!

I was a little concerned about the software issues, but upon connecting the camera to my MAC, iMovie and iPhoto is able to import directly from the camera without installing a thing. It just works! I didn't install any of the Sony software that came with the camera. Looks like software issues are Windows issues. Solution: switch to MAC! The video and stills are excellent quality. The touch screen is easy to use (and I have big fingers). Manual focus works great. Night Shot is fantastic! Low light shots are good. I would highly recommend this HandyCam!

After doing months of research, reading product reviews and going to camera stores for hands on comparisons I finally settled on the Sony HDR-SR7. The best investment I could have made. I used the night vision function to film Halloween night activities, The HD is beautiful and crisp and it's ability to film low light events is unsurpassed.The 60 GB hard drive has more than enough capacity, Hours of recording time I haven't even come close to running out of memory. I've used this unit now for about 2 months and have no complaints at all.