|
|
BookPrices.net - Sony HDR-SR12 10.2MP 120GB High Definition Hard Drive Handycam Camcorder with 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom
|
List Price: $1,299.99
Our Price: Too low to display
Your Save: $ ( % )
Availability:
Manufacturer: Sony
|
Average Customer Rating:  
|
|
Batteries Included: 1
Binding: Electronics
Brand: Sony
Color: Black
Connectivity: AV
Digital Zoom: 24
Display Size: 3.2
EAN: 0027242727755
Feature: Record 1920 x 1080 Full HD video to 120 GB hard drive
Has Red Eye Reduction: 1
Included Software: Yes
Label: Sony
Manufacturer: Sony
Maximum Focal Length: 58.8
Maximum Resolution: 3810000
Minimum Focal Length: 4.9
Model: HDR-SR12
Monitor Size: 320
Number Of Items: 1
Optical Zoom: 12
Publisher: Sony
Studio: Sony
|
|
|
Features
|
Record 1920 x 1080 Full HD video to 120 GB hard drive
10.2-megapixel still image capture
Face Detection technology for video and still images
ClearVid CMOS sensor with Exmor technology
3.2-inch widescreen touch-panel Xtra Fine LCD screen
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Spotlight customer reviews:
|
Customer Rating:
Summary: Horrible shipping!
Comment: Beware of the shipping on this product. The boxed camera was thrown into a larger box with NO packing to protect it. When the UPS box arrived, it had been crushed, scuffed, and kicked. Since this thing has a digital hard drive, I am amazed that Amazon would allow such carelessness. BE CAREFUL OF ORDERING ELECTRONICS OF ANY KIND FROM AMAZON. This is not the first time such careless packing has been an issue
Customer Rating:
Summary: HDR-SR12 stands out from current competition
Comment: By comparing powered up camcorders at the local Best Buy I found that the
speed of zooming and of focusing was noticably faster with this model
over the SR11 and other companies' HD camcorders.
Bought it. Picture quality is great for both movies and still shots.
Appreciated the price on Amazon. Order was filled quickly and accurately.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great camera but need lots of CPU power to edit video
Comment: I moved from a Sony Hi-8 camera that we had for 5 years prior to this, and the first word out of my mouth was "Wow!"
The tape-based camera was great for an NTSC camera. The video and audio quality were great for home movies and the occasional training videos that I used it for at work. Aside from the fact that it was a standard def picture, the biggest complaint was for the need for tapes. Needless to say, that old camera is now gathering dust.
No tapes, no memory cards means that you can take hours and hours of video without having to worry about missing anything (except when your battery runs out, so keep a spare).
The 1080i video from this camera is great. For those who are looking for professional quality video, I doubt that any consumer model is going to do it, but this camera comes very close. People choose point-and-shoot cameras for convenience, and DSLRs for quality. To expect otherwise is to fool yourself. However, I have not been disappointed by this camera for shooting video. The size and weight are great. It's not too small or too light to give you shaky videos, and it's small enough to fit into a small camera bag.
The low light shots are still good, but a little grainy - as expected. You can use night shot mode, but then you get that eery effect. The daytime shots are better than anything that I've seen on my satellite HD channels. AVCHD still looks better than that super-compressed MPEG4 video that they're transmitting on satellite. The colors are vibrant, and the video is quite realistic. We recently used this to record a cooking demonstration at work, and the closeups, even on a cheap 720p 32" television were clear and detailed so that people 20' away could easily see what was going on. The camera's LCD display even had better picture quality than the television itself! I like the touch screen display to keep the camera's looks clean, without cluttering it with tons of buttons.
Although I prefer to use a DSLR to take still photos, the HDR-SR12 takes really nice pictures. The flash is quite bright, and the photos come out very crisp and vibrant. The Sony software utilities even allow you to take hi-res still shots out of the video, which is quite nice. Sometimes, during video, you see a shot that would make a great still shot, and you can easily extract it.
The Sony utilities are a nice way to download the videos and stills from the camera. It's a nice way to browse your collection, and supports converting files to other formats. It's a little slow, but fortunately, the latest version of Adobe Premier Elements handles AVCHD natively. However, you will need at least a dual-core processor to handle video editing at HD. Even then, it's very processor intensive, and you'll notice skips in audio and video as you try to work with the clips. Of course, converting to MPEG2 resolves those problems completely, but who wants low-res video except for on the Internet?
The standard battery that comes with it is good for about 1.5 hours of recording. I bought a second one that gets me almost 2.5 hours of recording. With just 2 batteries, you can handle most tasks.
I did have a problem with static using a Sony wireless mic, but I think that it's the mic's fault, and not the camera's.
A feature that at first seemed gimmicky to me was the face recognition. It recognizes faces, and indexes them so that you can quickly view clips that have that person in them. It's nice to be able to go through lots of video on the camera, find a family member, and play a specific clip of them.
Although this is a great camera, I do have a few reservations that keep me from giving it 5 stars:
1) I had to get a separate battery charger to avoid carrying around a huge AC adapter.
2) What happens when the hard drive fails? We all know that it will some time, but if you don't back up, you'll lose everything. It doesn't seem like a user-serviceable part either.
3) I had to buy the mini HDMI cable separately.
4) My computer's hardware is barely able to work with AVCHD video. That means that I'd have to consider going to a quad-core one to get better performance (assuming that the software can handle the extra processors). This isn't necessarily the camera's fault, but hi-def video is just cpu-intensive.
5) No easy way to make hi-def videos for friends and families who don't have a computer, Blu-ray players or memory card readers for their TVs.
6) Trying to the videos on a Mac (or an older PC) was a nightmare because you have to convert to MPEG2 before doing anything... There may be affordable software for the Mac that can support AVCHD by now.
Overall, this is the camera that I wanted, and still would buy again if I had the choice. I've had it for 7 months, and have not regretted it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Sony customer service is the issue
Comment: Sony HDR-HC7 6.1MP MiniDV High Definition Camcorder with 10x Optical Zoom
I do not own this camera but please see my review of the HDR HC7 camcorder under that model information on Amazon. While Sony is barraging the market with new and innovative camcorders which do produce stunning video, it is product quality that becomes the issue if the camera has a problem. Sony customer service is incredibly frustrating and poor. Warranty information does not disclose astronomical repair charges and should be embarrasing in comparison to the ten year warranties we are seeing on complex machines like automobiles. If your product is well designed, well built, and reliable then the warranty should include internal flash memory tracking of actual customer usage. 90 day labor and 12 month parts warranties are worthless for devices which sit unused by purchasers for most of their existence. At the same time, Sony's rush to saturate the market with new products seems to occur at the expense of reliability.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Loaded with value and features!
Comment: I'm amazed that a tiny little camcorder like this can pack in so many features. And the quality is fantastic! I've only begun to explore the capabilities of this thing, but I'm already in love with it! And the street price is pretty darn good and getting better all the time. Don't miss out on getting hi-def video of your kids while they're still young. I used a Sony Hi8 during my daughter's early years. It did a great job, but this---well, this is at a whole new level! And you can buy inexpensive wide angle and telephoto lenses for it. I bought a 2x lens so I can get 24x optical zoom from it now. Wow!!! Should be great for all sorts of settings--nature, family, sports, whatever! And you can take 10 megapixel stills to a memory card-- on the fly-- while you're recording video to the huge 120GB built-in hard drive! What's not to like?
|
|
|
Editorial Reviews:
|
Take command and get creative with Sony's HDR-SR12 HDD Handycam camcorder. Capture your memories in HD and relive them years from now in exceptional detail, color and sound. Boasting an impressive 120GB built-in Hard Disk Drive, the HDR-SR12 lets you record up to 48 hours of high definition digital video while its professional grade Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar Lens ensures stunning image quality with 12x optical/24x digital zoom, bringing the action closer to you. Capture both video and still digital imagery at the same time without switching modes with its Dual Record Mode function and eliminate blurring from unsteady hands with the Super SteadyShot optical image stabilization system. Expressing a fuller color range than conventional models, HDR-SR12 makes watching home videos more life-like and colorful. With the HDR-SR12 Handycam camcorder in hand, recording life in HD just got more interesting.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
