 The Last Camcorder you will ever need |
| Review Date: July 16, 2008 |
| Reviewer: E. Smith, Glen Burnie, md United States |
I've now had this camera for about a month now and I couldn't be happier. The video quality is STUNNING as well as the recording sounds. It comes with a base and proprietary power and video cords (both component-HD and composite, which means that they are not interchangable with over the counter video cords), but thats ok. It also has the software for transferring the videos and photos to your CPU. Back to the picture and sound... amazing really. The sound records in 5.1 surround which is so cool, plus you have many options on the video such as night vision, black and white, sepia, old movie mold, etc and some of them you can combine (I did night vision with black and white to make a short zombie movie, it looks wicked). There are so many possibilities with this cam. The play back is all touch screen, which the screen can get smeared by fingerprints (easy to wipe out), but I suggest buying a stylus. Of course if you hook it to your television, it does come with a remote control, and you can do everything with that remote except for deleting images. But that is a positive because you don't want to accidentally delete your images. And it does ask for you to confirm deleting so it's hard to do that accidentally.
Plus, it's a great photography camera. With the flick of a thumb you can change from filming to photographer easy and it takes crystal clear pictures in 10.5 mega pixel. Although I do find it a bit awkward to reach the photo button. Now it takes better picture in photo mode, then it do in filming mode (While filming you can snap a picture also),
Another word on the night vision, I had all the lights off and it films in that greenish color sort of like the movie Cloverfield. But even filming at night without the night vision on, it picks up everything. I had a buddy drive at night, while I was shooting and the only lights were coming from headlights and streetlamps (when we passed them) and you saw everything on the camera that you could see with you naked eye and I even thought it was better than my eye.
Now when you film and take pictures, it organizes the images according to date and when you film several scenes it will play them one after another without a bit of a pause. The camera also has little doors on the back and the side so you can hook up your cords without the base, which is good. Also inside of one of the doors are an hdmi output, a headphones output and a mic input. I ran my iPod through the mic input to make a music video and it turned out great (although be sure not to have your iPod any louder than half).
The camera also has a one touch DVD burning button on the camera and the base, but I haven't used it yet.
The only real negative is that the battery only last 90 minutes, but I bought a bigger battery, which last 14 hours. That battery weighs as much or more than the camera (the camera is really light) and it sticks out the back some but that isn't really that big of a deal.
The software is pretty smart. You hook the camcorder with the use of the provided usb cable (after loading the software) and it finds the camcorder and asks if you want to transfer all the items to your computer. But the cool thing is that you can keep those images on your camcorder after transfer, film other stuff, hook you camera back up to the computer and it will only transfer items that haven't been transferred yet. This is good because you don't have to try to figure out what has or haven't been transfer and you don't get dup copies, or that annoying message about whether you want to overwrite a file. And it organizes by date and you can do a total calendar view and see what dates you filmed on. When it organized and transfer to your CPU, it organized by date filmed, not date transfer, which is extremely helpful, especially if you visit multiple locations during multiple dates.
This is really the last camcorder you will possibly buy for many many years. The only thing is that it has so many cool accessories you can buy, like wide-angle lenses, telescopic lenses, attachable lights, and underwater case etc that you may eventually end up with a $2500-3000 total purchase when you are done. The accessories are not a necessity but they do look like a lot of fun.
Auto focusing can be a pain at times, but it does have a manual focus, which you can set to infinity and if you zoom, set it up on a tripod.
Oh and one last thing, I actually filmed something for 5 minutes that was playing on my plasma in HD and it look as if its the movie itself.
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A 5-Star Camcorder Indeed!
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| Review Date: April 7, 2008 |
| Reviewer: MichaelFla, Homestead, Fla |
| I'll keep this short and sweet... After "purchasing" and "returng" camcorders to different stores in my area; FINALLY I found what I was looking for in a video camera... I just cannot begin to explain how crystal clear this camera shoots... Everyone I show the previews on the screen to want to either buy one or jokingly tell me if they can have my camera... The kicker is that it behaves extremely well in low-light situations... the best I've seen so far (and the reason why I returned so many camcorders after trying them out for a couple of days)... This is a no-brainer... The Sony HDR-SR12 is THE camcorder to get... Recording in space saving SP is incredible but when I switch to the highest setting (FH) the picture details became almost three dimensional... The fact that it has a Carl Zeiss lens doesn't hurt either... Beware who you buy online from as I did get burned by a New York based internet company (who shall remain unnamed... NOT AMAZON mind you)... They played a major bait and switch where I ended up paying at least $200 overprice... but oh well, live and learn... buy it here on Amazon and play it safe... 5 Star Camcorder and I can't even imagine how much any company can improve on image quality in the future after seeing what the SR12 can do! |
Superior Camera
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| Review Date: April 19, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Undercover Angel, California |
This camcorder is phenomenal! The shots are beautiful and clear - the auto focus is very intuitive. The sound is fantastic. I love this camcorder. This takes very high grade professional videos in HD. I love that it shoots in widescreen.
I haven't had any problems with the software it came with; but if you don't like it then you can rest assured that you don't have to use it much. The only thing I've used the software for is to open the videos; you can immediately and easily convert them to a different file type (using the software); then you can use any software you want to work with them.
I've seen a lot of people give bad reviews for items because they didn't like the software it came with. In my opinion that's a bit like saying you hate a cereal because you didn't like your free toy surprise. The software is a bonus; it's the company's way of insuring that the buyer is able to use every part of their new device. The free software discs aren't generally intended to be your primary video editing software - they're just included for convenience.
This camera so far is excellent; I'm beginning my career as a filmmaker and I bought this camera to help me make a high quality film portfolio for grad school. I was absolutely right to do so - this camera will definitely help me make high quality films. (I actually bought two because it's almost impossible to do an entire film with one camera, even with a dolly.) Both cameras work great! |
Some thoughts on HDR-SR12
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| Review Date: September 7, 2008 |
| Reviewer: J. Robuck, Lake Worth, FL |
I ordered this camera in mid-August, then used it on a 7-day trip to Cape Cod.
I rate this unit 5 stars because of its great picture quality and general ease of use.
Specifics:
1. Images were beautifully sharp and clear, just what I'd expected from a High Definition camcorder.
2. Image stabilization worked very well.
3. Autoexposure and autofocus worked well for me. Autofocus was quick and accurate. With varied lighting (full sun, heavy shade, back lit scenes), all images came out very well. Sometimes a manual adjustment would improve the exposure a bit, but things were fine with exposure set to Auto.
4. Mac users:
(a) You'll need iMovie08. A lot of camcorder forums describe additional software for using this camera with a Mac, but those threads are old. iMovie08 downloaded and converted the image files, and allowed editing, with no problems.
(b) Amazon's item description says it has "i.Link interface (IEEE1394)." I can find no iLink/Firewire connector on the camera or in the manual, but it worked fine with USB2.
5. The manual is short and not as informative as it should be; coverage of menu options is especially inadequate. I wanted to know about the HD capabilities, but all the manual says is you can shoot movies in High-Def or Standard Def. In the menus on the camera itself you'll find 4 video-quality modes, but there are few details.
6. The supplied battery (NP-FH60) will run 40 minutes of normal recording, per the manual. I had to restrain my shooting early on to conserve power, so missed several opportunities. I should have ordered a larger battery (like the NP-FH70).
7. It was hard to tell whether this camera had switched from "REC" mode to "STBY" mode when I pressed the "START/STOP" button; my last camcorder (also a Sony) had a larger button and more positive feel. I've never shot so much "pavement and pants legs" before (but beautifully sharp and clear), or missed so much action that I thought I'd captured. I'll be more careful in the future. |
Very nice upgrade from SR11
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| Review Date: April 30, 2008 |
| Reviewer: R. Lau, New York, NY United States |
| This is truly a awesome and perfect camera. Being my first camcorder it is perfect because it is easy to use. All the functions are self explanatory and there are very few buttons to confuse you. I thought taking stills by just pressing one button was pretty cool. I didn't need to switch to camera mode. I also can barely even hear the hard drive, it's as if they put 120gig onto a flash memory. They have added the USB port onto the camcorder making the docking station an option now. Which I thought was the best upgrade from the SR11. It almost seems like they took all the bad reviews they had with the SR11 and fixed them with this model (SR12). I am very satisfied with this camcorder. Sony has came through once again. In addition, you can also move hard drive data to the flash memory if you like. |
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