Sony HDR-SR1 AVCHD 2.1 MP 30GB High-Definition Hard Disk Drive Camcorder with 10x Optical Zoom

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Price: $1,199.99    

Product Feature

• Record high-definition video on a HDD with AVCHD technology
• ClearVid CMOS sensor for high-quality HD or SD images
• 3.5-inch widescreen hybrid touch-panel Clear Photo LCD
• Professional 30mm Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* lens
• HDMI, USB 2.0, component, and composite connectivity

Product Description

CL) U)Sony HDR-SR1 HIGH DEF 30GB HDD

Sony HDR-SR1 AVCHD 2.1 MP 30GB High-Definition Hard Disk Drive Camcorder with 10x Optical Zoom Review

I received the camcorder a couple of days ago to replace my older Sony miniDV camcorder that is nine years old (still works well). I bought the new one after buying a Samsung 46" LCD flat screen and seening what I have been missing in HD television and it made the my existing camcorder look mediocre. I needed an HD camcorder to go with the HD display.

I have seen other photographers using hard drive camcorders with USB ports and decided then that I would go that for next purchase of a camcorder. I saw two advantages over the miniDV tape of the hard drive: (1)the ability to transfer the images onto a computer quickly (it is more than twice as fast as transferring a miniDV tape using firewire) and (2) the HD had 4 hours or more of operation without changing tapes. I film my son's sporting events that run two hours and changing tapes is always ackward.

I have used on trial basis a camcorder that had the small DVD burner built inside and it worked fine but the need for for having the camcorder operate on the charger for 15 minutes or more to "finalize" the disk was very annoying. I also worry about the miniDVD disks skipping during filming while using miniDVD camcorders in high shake environments such as in the back of speedboat. The just seem intuitively more vibration prone, but I could be worried about nothing. Thus I chose the hard drive version over the miniDV tape and the miniDVD disk similiar camcorder that Sony sells.

Thus far the device has worked well and looks great on the HD large screen TV. I film my son's first football game in HD tommorrow. I had to go back to the store to buy the bigger QM71 battery. The battery the come with camcorder claims to work 90 minutes, but this goes by quickly. The QM71 battery lasts for more three hours. I amd considering also buying the QM91 battery but it very thick and takes up lots of space behind the camera. I like to have two batteries, one to charge and one to use. I also bought a travel charger for the camcorder that makes it possble to charge the battery at home while using the camcorder untethered with a second battery.

I read reports about some people no liking the touch screen and finding it confusing. This is a complicated and it is at time confusing but I like the touch screen.

The worst part of the camcorder is not the camera at all, the software is not up to the rest of the amazing capabilities of the rest of the gear. I use the camera with Windows XP and so I used the free sony software the came with the camera. THe camera puts out .m2ts files. I would guess that none of your current software recognizes this. Mine certainly did not and I have lots of different current software. Apparently .m2ts is the file extentions for the new AVC/H.264 the Sony and Panasonic (of VHS tape fame) are jointly trying to establish. I bought this camera because I this this new disk format with dominated the prosumer video space and many companies will sell slick software for it.

One surprise (it should not have been but I did think about it) was that the HD video images require much more computing horsepower to display than the prior generations of video. A 3 GHz Pentium 4 is the bare minimum to allow a PC to show the video images without jerkyness (Also the new Pentium DUOs work was well). If your current computer is a little old you can use the camcorer to play the videos on your flatscreen but this is not a long term solution. Is possible to fairly easily move videos back forth between the camcorder and your old computer using the USB port. The transfer speed is around 500 MB per minute so the entire 30GB may take an hour. I may a little optimistic on this transfer rate but it not way off. I have just done a few transfers thus far and never have I transfer the whole drive. The longest transfer was 20 minutes and this around 1/3 of a drive. This is much, much fast than the 120MB per minute that I have been getting using my miniDV tape drive on my old Sony camcorder. The radical increase in transfer speed is what I was looking for. While the now think of this as being awesome fast, it will not take more than a few weeks before I think that even this speed is painfully slow. That is why technology is, never enough.

The camera controls, zoom, etc are fairly conventional. Although the detail in the images is awesome since they are HD. I use the 10X optical zoom with a 2X digital zoom mode selected which give me plenty of zoom range. There is a 10X digital zoom range mode but the images are very pixelated at the extreme end of the zoom.

The camera is surprisingly small and compact, moreso than my old camcorder.

The sound is awesome (Dolby 5 channel surround sound). I never new how important sound was until four years ago when I got the surround sound for my DVD player. Have surround for football games and basketball game filming will put the crowd behind me and the field noises in front of me. I will learn more how works out in the future, but inital test show it is working as it seems it should.

The real test will come after using the camera couple of months and seeing all the difference in the new film results. I sure the camera will out well. I many have to buy a new computer or a new video card to using my computer as a player, but I still have some software changes to try.

I can burn traditonal DVDs or a new kind of HD DVDs (called AVCHDs). If I get a bluray burner I can make Bluray HD DVDs. Many options for playback. I store all of our currently family videos on a 750GB hard disk for which I have a USB 750GB drive for backup. I like this method of storing the video collection. Many Blurays or othe DVDs is not my first choice. I have seen dedicated HD video players that can operate through the ethernet. This another avenue to explore. Meanwhile I will use the camera as a video player and see if buy a new video card for my computer fixes my jerkiness with my 2.5 GHZ Pentium computer.

The best thing about the camera is the awesome look of the videos on the large flatscreen LCD display and the worst thing is the annoying software that comes for free with the camera (although it does 75% of what you want).

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