Customer Reviews

Sony HDR-TG5V High Definition Handycam Camcorder with Built-in GPS Receiver and 10x Optical Zoom

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Are you looking for the absolute best quality video & sound available including astonishing low light performance? Then look elsewhere. Are you looking for a camera that you'll actually carry which is also fast & simple to use while capturing very good HD video and acceptable stills? Then stop looking, you've found it. For my money, a camera that gets used is way better than a studio quality hulk that sits in the closet. This thing will fit in pants or jacket pockets. It's a camera my wife will use!

Talk about simplicity, the TG5V has exactly 4 mechanical controls if you include the switch that turns the camera on when you open the LCD. The other three are all located on the back and controlled by your thumb. Zoom ring, video start stop button, still photo button. That's it! Almost all funtions can be set once on the touchscreen menu and then forgotten. But, you can set up a custom menu with your six favorites on a menu that is accessible with one touch of the screen. Very slick and a good thing because the menu is extensive with 14 sub-sections. I set the whole thing up and configured the custom menu without ever opening the manual so I'd rate the new Sony menu design a success.

Video is excellent in HD and still OK in SD. Low light is not the camera's forte but a well lit room is no problem. Batteries last only about 90 min so you'll want a spare. I also bought the wide angle lens and I think most people are going to want that for indoor shots. This camera has a narrower than usual field of vision.

I bought the spare battery & charger kit to free me from carrying the stand and ac/dc converter block. Lastly, I bought the Sony brown leather case with magnetic closure. It's very nice and protects the camera well but I think most of the time I'll carry the TG5V in my pocket in the drawstring bag that came with my Nikon flash. It's perfectly sized and adds almost zero bulk. The wide angle lens has it's own zip leather case. The case velcros onto the camera handstrap and the lens has a separate leash that also clips onto the camera strap. Excellent overall system design.

Edit: Forgot to mention the GPS function. It seems sort of goofy to me but it lets you search for files by location by pointing at the touchscreen. I may grow to like it but for me anyway, it is far from the main reason I wanted this video camera. And it just occurred to me that you may be able to extend battery life by shutting off the GPS reciever.

So why didn't I save $350 bucks and buy the older TG1? The TG5V is about 7% lighter and 10% smaller in volume, has 16GB memory built in, Sony made the touch screen menu system much more usable, and they improved the looks. And then of course there's the GPS thingy?????

Edit 11/07/2009 : Someone left a comment pointing out that when Sony added a bunch of improvements to the TG5V they also took something away. True and a bit strange for a consumer electronics company to remove features. Sony offered 5.1 audio recording on the original TG1V. The new TG5V on the other hand makes do with 2 channel stereo recording. I can think of several reasons why it should have been stereo to begin with but I can't figure out why, once they had 5.1 audio implemented they'd remove it.

So why go with stereo? A lot of customers don't own home theaters with 5.1 surround sound systems. Those who do will likely play back their video on a computer where multi-channel audio doesn't add much "wow". Or they'll burn their memories to a DVD and send it to grandma and aunt Susie who again, don't have a home theater. Or they'll post it on YouTube for others to watch .....you guessed it, on a computer. Also let's face it, this camera is tiny without an input for an external microphone. How good can a tiny 1/8th inch built in mike do separating 5 channels of audio with directional cues?

Do I miss the 5.1 channel audio? Not at all. I view it as an acceptable tradeoff for the worlds smallest high quality video camera that is actually going to get used because of its portability.

Why did Sony jettison a feature they had already designed into the product? No idea. Cost? I doubt it, this camera is marketed to well heeled consumers and the cost difference was probably a few bucks. Maybe they also decided it was a useless feature for the target buyer. Or, maybe their AVCHD codec was having problems with 5.1 audio. It remains a mystery.

This is a fantastic camera. The video and camera controls are easy to use and the zoom is easy to control. It fits very nicely in my pants pocket. The only deficiency is that the documentation for Macintosh OS use is very poor, and actually misleads you to think that the camera is not Macintosh compatible (I was angry when I read the single page on the Sony website, which implied that only photos taken on the memory stick could be used on a Macintosh). Fortunately, I thought I would try to hook it up via the USB to my MacBook Pro anyways. iPhoto automatically launches when the HDR-TG5V is USB connected, and I was able to download the photos the same as with any other camera. The GPS tags worked perfectly. After quitting iPhoto, I ran iMovie 09 and to my delight, it automatically recognized the movies for download. For GPS users, make sure to turn on the camera when you reach a new location and make sure it has had time to triangulate a location (when the three dots becomes a set of bars). If you don't wait for this, the photos are not linked to that location. The other downside is that it lacks night vision, but it does allow for manual focusing and even automatic optimization of focus on faces. Overall, a very handy and convenient camera with excellent movie resolution and good photo resolution.

I have an older hdr-fx1, but wanted a small pocket video camera.
This camera video is not as good as the full size, but is very nice in 1080i. It is not a 1080p camera, so saying it is "full HD" to me is really not true. The GPS tagging works, as well as using a standard DVD burner to make disks that have to be read on a BD reader. Curiously, if you use a Sony BD burner, which I also have, the video is fine, but none of the menus are burned into the standard DVD disk. I have a fast XP computer, and you will need that to burn the AVCHD disks.
The sound got hollow and very strange when the background was a waterfall, and also at other times with background sound.
This camera eats batteries, so have 2 or a charger with you.
Video is good, but for this price, is a 720p Vado, Flip or Kodak a better deal? Except for the GPS, the older model has 5.1 surround and is cheaper.
Overall, it is small and a good camera, but pricey.

Excellent video quality as a high definition video camera. However, after less than two months, it failed internally due to corrosion. Exen though corrosion is a disqualifier for warranty, Sony stood behind their product 100 percent. Additionally, Sony technicians stated that his HD video camera was discontinued and replaced the unit with an upgraded Handycam. Sweet!

Camera works great, holds a charge OK after a year. The only thing that I do not like is that it has terrible picture wuality in lower lighting. Even regular indoor lighting makes the video VERY grainy.

I am crazy about Sony gadgets, saw this cute little HD camcoder, though it is priced little high I bought it.

Ease of use - There are no too many buttons to operate. It is simple and handy.
Battery Life - Though the specs say the battery can last for 2 hours of video, you loose battery when you replay videos or review pictures. Overall I felt it is better to carry a 2nd spare battery when you are going out
Video in good light - Simply superb
Video in low light - gets grainy, you might start thinking if it is really a HD cam or not.
Audio - crystal clear. Though 5.1 dolby has been removed, 2.1 sounds great
GPS - I had been to India for vacation and there were no maps for major cities

Overall:
I rate this as a great handy HD camcoder + still camera in good light but not so good in bad light. I hope Sony rectifies these things in their future releases.

Good - size, menu, simple controls, build quality, video quality in good light, audio quality.
Not so good - zoom wheel, exposure control/video quality in low light.

Video quality in good light is impressive, comparing footage from the Sony Z1 HDV camera, the TG5 holds up very well.
The compromised manual exposure control is frustrating, but as it's more a carry in your pocket for point and shoot situations I guess the camera fits the category it's marketed in. Still it wouldn't hurt for Sony to ease up on their over zealous restrictions and provide better manual control on consumer products.
There is the ability to lock exposure and dial it up and down, but gain and shutter speed are not easily controlled.
My best experience for indoor shooting has been to use the 'Candle' setting and manual exposure, this results in the camera using 1/30 shutter speed, open aperture and 9 dB gain at 8 clicks below maximum exposure - probably the best compromise between image brightness and noise in low light. Although 9 dB sounds like a lot, it looks pretty good.
In spite of an 'Auto Low Shutter' menu option for 1/30, it isn't shutter priority and when selected in regular 'Auto' the camera uses 1/60. Only after manual exposure has run out of gain increase options (18dB, very noisy) does it finally drop the speed to 1/30 - which is baffling.
There's not much motion blur at 1/30 and compared to the lousy picture at 18dB I'd always choose 1/30 before upping the gain.
Playback on computer is OK using VLC with its de-interlace option, otherwise there is a standard level of interlacing on motion. Modern TV's sense interlacing and deal with it automatically so playback is clean on the big screen.
The wide angle conversion lens is sharp with virtually no distortion or chromatic aberration - definitely worth having, but you do lose some of the sleek pocketability.
The zoom wheel confuses me every time I want to zoom, which isn't often so maybe that's why!
The sparse layout of external controls is a welcome relief from the plethora of buttons and controls on the Z1, and the menu is pretty user friendly with a speed scroll function that lets you whiz through options very quickly.
I thought about some of the Sharp cameras with their low light ability and progressive recording, but the camera will only be used hand held so image stabilization is important and the Sharps apparently fall down badly in that area.
Toast 9 will convert the .MTS files to Apple Intermediate Codec for editing or remux for Bluray disc burning.

Very easy to use. Slim. Great picture quality. Should have been better at low light. GPS works great. Works with MAC OSX. Thank you Sony. Two thumbs up.

Bought this item for concerts, And has worked well.As has been said its low light capture is a little below average,
I`ve recently recorded MUSE live in Melbourne, Set the cam to Standard DVD mode and volume level to Low this allowed 2 hours recording with the standard battery.It has the advantage of slipping into you top pocket nicely.
It was my 2nd attempt at recording so I can only improve....check out the MUSE recordings on youtube.
These Youtube clips have been recompressed 50% to save upload time, So there is loss.
Search for crimeofthecentury1 in youtube or try this link [...]
remember its the MUSE vids.

I've had this camera for about 1-year and absolutely love it. My only gripe about it, as many others have mentioned, is how the quality of the image suffers in low light. This is not uncommon with pocket-sized cameras like the HDR-TG5V. Sound quality, GPS features and touch screen navigation are easy to use and do their job well.