Awesome picture quality on SD or HD
I moved from Hi8 directly to this so have not seen the difference in quality between Hi8 and MiniDV but if compared to this one, I was totally blown away with the clarity and colors. This is an awesome camera for anyone looking for budget HD camera in market for average user. Though kit battery life is not that great so probably I will buy another one soon but otherwise I...
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
Good, but far from perfect
I've been using this camera for almost 3 months now. I really like the quality for the most part and having the video go directly to a digitized format is awesome. However, I do have some serious problems with a few things.
1. No USB connection on the camera body.
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Now, I really...
I've been using this camera for almost 3 months now. I really like the quality for the most part and having the video go directly to a digitized format is awesome. However, I do have some serious problems with a few things.
1. No USB connection on the camera body.
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Now, I really don't understand why they didn't add a port as important as the one for the USB connection directly on the camera body. That is basically the only way for you to transfer the video files directly to your computer. It seems like either of the ports for the A/V Out or the Component connection (which I hardly use) could have been left to the base if it was a space issue, or perhaps even the mini-HDMI port (which I think they should have included an adapter to standard HDMI for).
If they HAD included the USB port on the camera body, there wouldn't be a need for the base at all. The more I think about it, the more nonsensical it seems. Of course, perhaps there was some engineering issue that made it more feasible....but for $700 bucks, I don't want to have to make excuses for them or figure out why they made something more complicated when it could have been so simple.
Also, although the newer versions USB seem to be overtaking firewire, they could have put that type of connection on the base rather than additional component and A/V ports which are already on the camera body.
2. Shooting in low light has lots of noise.
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I thought the CMOS sensor on this camera was supposed to eliminate noise in low light situations, but from what I can tell, shooting outside at night or even in dark rooms, there's plenty of noticeable noise in the dark regions of the video image, even when shooting at the highest quality level, HD XP. I don't know if it's something I can have checked out, perhaps my sensor just isn't working properly, but in any case, that's been somewhat of a disappointment for me.
What I expected was video quality like that in the movie Collateral, which had lots of great night shots using HD cameras. Maybe that is a bit too much for a consumer camera, but still, I expected more.
Also, another problem that I've found with night shots, is that the auto-focus has a really hard time getting zeroed in on the right area. I usually have to end up focusing it manually if I want a consistently clear shot at night.
3. The bundled software doesn't convert to an uncompressed format.
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Since AVCHD is a relatively new format, I was certain that they would have a feature in the software to convert clips to some more universal uncompressed format. But the software that comes with the camera only has the option to export the video to MPEG2, which creates a clear loss in quality. So, I don't understand why they wouldn't make it easier for us to convert the video into some more widely used format with that losing that HD clarity. I know there are third party applications that do this, but Sony should have provided this feature with the camera.
Additionally, working with the AVCHD format is a pain in general. In order to view the video on your computer as a video file, you have to import it using the Sony Picture Utility software that comes on a CD-ROM with the camera. When it imports the files to a selected destination folder, you actually get 3 files for every video clip you've shot. The extensions are 'm2tsm', 'modd', and 'moff'. The 'm2tsm' file is the one that actually contains the video data (I had to assume since it's always the largest). I'm not sure what the others are for.
Even after you've installed all the provided software, you can't just double click a video file to open it. You have to "Register" the folder the video files are in in the Picture Motion Browser. Only then can you view your video. They have a program called 'Player for AVCHD', beut it stupidly only plays the video on your camera harddrive, and doesn't even have an option to directly open the files on your computer. Personally, I've found the software to be more cumbersome than useful. The program doesn't have an option to move folders, so if you do move the files, you have to re-register them and delete the old folders from the Picture Motion Browser yourself. While it's nice in someways to keep things organized, it's not really that helpful. And the editing features made available are almost completely worthless, unless all you want to do is split a clip in two.
Despite it's shortcomings, I still think it's a decent camera, although I really wish they had better software with more editing features. Still, I think it's worth $700 or so for the clear image (in daylight) and the convienice of having the video go directly to a harddrive. Despite it's shortcomings, this might actually be the best HD harddrive camcorders on the market, but having not had the opportunity to try any others, I can't say that for sure. What I can say is that it's good, even if it's not perfect.
*I had to edit this because I kept thinking of other things I had problems with. And the more I thought about the file format situation, the more annoyed I became. So I think I would have to modify my recommendation and say that you should just wait until future versions to buy this camera when they improve the software or just try out another camera altogether. Considering these other difficulties, I think I would have to drop my rating to a 2 out of 5 stars.
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I moved from Hi8 directly to this so have not seen the difference in quality between Hi8 and MiniDV but if compared to this one, I was totally blown away with the clarity and colors. This is an awesome camera for anyone looking for budget HD camera in market for average user. Though kit battery life is not that great so probably I will buy another one soon but otherwise I have no issue till date. Go for it guys!!
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The picture quality and features on the camera are great, BUT...
Sony shot itself in the foot when it decided to push the AVCHD video format. You are forced to use Sony's substandard software tools; there is no good conversion story if you want your video in MP4. WMV, or any other format. So, Adobe Premiere (which I use for all my home editing) is useless, as is Edius, Ulead VideoStudio, or anything else.
After reading about the quality, I bought this camera to take video of my son's wedding. Now, about all I can do is make a raw video onto DVD of the footage and give away copies, as opposed to putting together something nice for them.
If all you're going to do is shoot video, and play video from the camera to a TV, then go ahead and buy it; if you have any intention of bring the footage into a computer, then avoid this camera like the plague.
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I love the camera and everything that it does. The HD looks incredible on my TV. Here is what you need to be careful about. Know how you plan to edit the material. If you have a PC software is included. If you own a make know that FCP 6.0.1 works, but only if you have an intel chip Mac Book Pro. It does not work with a PowerPC or imovie. The camera does film in SD mode however and that works fine.
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I bought the Sony camcorder last month to take on a tour to Japan. The shipping was fast and free. Fortunately I tested it before going on tour. I tried to follow the instructions for loading the software on to my HP computer I bought about 18 months ago. I could not get my computer to burn a DVD of my test recording. I tried 5 times using different methods and gave up. I was able to view my test video on my computer but the video and sound were not in sink. I paid for a new camcorder but the box I received had been opened. That would have been OK if I could have gotten everything to work right. The tech guy at HP said he could get my PC to burn the CD if I paid $100. Since I was not sure I could get eveything to work right I sent the camcorder back to Amazon. They promptly refunded my money. I will continue to buy from them.
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It really is a great camera, lots of fun and excellent quality, and very easy to use, just keep in mind it has a hard drive so it cannot sustain vibration. I purchased mine to take motorcycle videos and it couldnt record, so i replaced it with the cx7 that does the job well!
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I got this small peice a month back. Its great Camera. Picture quality is very good. Size is very small comparable with other Cameras. Storage is very good.
But Only the problem is battery is small. It last only 60 to 70 min. So I purchaged spare battery.
Finally I can say its great.
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I got this camcorder a few weeks ago and have tested it in a few different locations and under a few different lighting conditions. I bought it specifically because it was on sale, and it is compatible with my iMac (intel based). Overall, I'm less than impressed with the quality of the camera when considering how much it was originally priced at. However, since I purchased it at a "steal" of a price I'm taking it all in stride.
Positives:
-Lightweight
-Takes "on the fly" still pictures during video recording
-Easy to use menu system
-Works with my iMac! (Intel based iMac and iMovie '08) No problems so far.
-Harddrive storage for video
-SD storage for still shots
-initial battery life is "ok" on all settings (the starter battery)
-all normal video/cam controls are easily reachable w/out using left hand
Negatives:
-The video capture to my computer takes an eternity
-Does NOT handle low light situations well AT all. Extremely grainy.
-Doesn't focus well AT ALL in low light situations.
-Does not focus well AT ALL in night-vision mode either!
-Low light pictures are downright awful.
-Pictures taken in the best of lighting conditions are very low quality
-Handle/strap is uncomfortable (weird). The cam flops away from my hand.
-I consider the boot up time to be "extensive".
-no view finder
-"on the fly" still pictures is limited to 3. After 3 you must stop and restart video recording in order to take more
-no hook up areas for an extra lanyard or anything of that sort
-zoom is incredibly sensitive. It "goes" so fast it's completely unrealistic and almost uncontrollable.
After months of usage I can state these opinions with clarity. While the camera still excites me because it's a Sony and it's an HDD camcorder, and most importantly - it works super awesome with my new iMac and iMovie '08, the low's of my experiences with this camcorder have made me rethink quite a bit in terms of how I judge my pre-purchase education of Sony products such as this.
First let me say that the boot-up time of this camcorder is so slow it's unbelievable. If you plan on capturing that perfect moment as it happens, while your camcorder is off, forget about it. It ain't happenin'. By the time you boot this puppy up, that moment has been lost to time. No kidding. The boot up time is sooooooo slow it could be considered a cryin' shame.
If I were to choose 1 characteristic of this camcorder that I could consider a "defining experience" with this product I'm, unfortunately, going to have to choose a negative one. It's the "focus". It has gawd-awful focus response. And by "gawd awful" I certainly mean "Atrocious!" It doesn't matter if it's light or dark, regular mode or night-vision mode, although I must admit "night-vision" mode takes much longer to focus, most of the time. It's a constant struggle with this camcorder. The night-vision focus is so awful that when it doesn't grab a focus point I, literally, have to zoom in and zoom out repeatedly until it does find something to latch onto so it can bring itself into focus. It's unbelievably NOT worth $1200 . Not on a good day (which are few and far between).
I'm sorry my opinion is so negative, but I wouldn't consider my experience with this camcorder to be all that grand, either. I want a camcorder I can "know what to expect" when I pick it up, and this isn't it. I never know if the thing is going to focus or not, and that's kind of important, don't you think? I've had RCA's, JVC's, Panasonic's, Canon's... this time I went with the Sony. I expected more out of this experience and given Sony's reputation I don't think it was asking (or expecting) too much.
My opinion? Don't buy this camera unless it's incredibly inexpensive for you to purchase.
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I bought this camera abt a month ago. This is my first Handycam, and so far I am very satisfied with its performance (in daylight as well as night). The only problem I found was in its software. In the time I've spent trying to play with the s/w, so far I have not been able to find a simple functionality for concatenating to videos.
pros:
exellent performance
no camera clicking sound problem (someone wrote it in their review)
compact HD camera.
cons:
software is not so intuitive.
revords in AVCHD format, which is not as well known.
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