Sony HDR-SR7 AVCHD 6.1MP 60GB High Definition Hard Disk Drive Camcorder with 10x Optical Zoom by Sony
|
List Price: Category: Digital Camera See more digital camera details and other models |
|---|
(Click here)
Digital camera reviews of Sony HDR-SR7 AVCHD 6.1MP 60GB High Definition Hard Disk Drive Camcorder with 10x Optical Zoom
Digital camera Review: Best camcorder I've ever owned
Summary: 5 Stars
After doing months of research, reading product reviews and going to camera stores for hands on comparisons I finally settled on the Sony HDR-SR7. The best investment I could have made. I used the night vision function to film Halloween night activities, The HD is beautiful and crisp and it's ability to film low light events is unsurpassed.The 60 GB hard drive has more than enough capacity, Hours of recording time I haven't even come close to running out of memory. I've used this unit now for about 2 months and have no complaints at all.Digital camera Review: buffer overflow and data error
Summary: 1 Stars
I rated this item low although I really like the camera for most things. There is one MAJOR problem I have seen. When I record my son's garage band in the highest quality, the recording mode kicks off after about 30 or so seconds whith a "buffer overflow" message followed by a "data error" message. When the noise level being recorded is more "reasonable", the recording proceeds without a problem. Now I am looking for a way of attaching an external mic that will "dampen" the volume to a level the camera can handle. However, it seems that the camera should do that on its own.
Any suggestion on how I can record this very loud, rock and roll event successfully? Type of mic, etc.
Digital camera Review: Not as perfect for the casual "press and go" user as I thought
Summary: 3 Stars
I don't think this is a bad cam by any means, but I am going to note the annoyances I found in my uses. Sort of the "FYI's" that I didn't find in the extensive research and review reading I did before purchasing this cam. I haven't tried any lower end cams to know how much "better" this one may be than other alternatives.
I spent extensive time trying to decide between this model, the SR7 and the CX7. With a few feature differences between the lines (viewfinder, on board USB, couple others)the main difference is that the SR7 records to hard drive, and the CX7 to memory sticks. I settled on the SR7. I couldn't find any back to back comparisons online.
I have a Hi Def 50" plasma, and was hoping to capture candid family and friend activities like decorating the tree, vacations, nights out for drinks, etc. and thus desired an HD cam. I really didn't really want to spend a lot of time editing the video at this point before viewing it on the TV. I'm an IT manager and well versed/comfortable with technology, so you have some perspective of where I write/review from.
As far as downloading the video to a PC and editing goes, even after the reviews, I did find if you want to burn the video to a DVD instead of playing directly from the TV, the straight forwardness and simplicity of programs that support the "AVCHD format to DVD" is a little clunky. Getting the video out of the cam is more of an important part than you expect with this AVCHD format, since it only records in the AVCHD format which isn't widely supported *yet*. I tried Sony Vegas Platinum, but it was a bit complicated for simply wanting to combine shots and burn to a DVD, plus slow at rendering. I tried Nero and it was much simpler to use than Sony Vegas for simple combining, burning to DVD, converting to MPEG, etc. "Faster on the Draw/rendering/transcoding." The video quality was very satisfactory, but I can't say it was "eye popping". The sharpness was on, but color depth seemed a bit flat compared to many of my Dish Network HD channels, just as a reference. I did have it recoded by Nero, however. I never did try plugging it directly into the TV, because that was not my desired use of the cam.
I'm returning my SR7 for a CX7 for three reasons:
1. The hard drive makes it just a bit more bulky than I was hoping for. With the size, it makes it difficult for the cam to play the "digital camera sized" discrete role in impromptu family & friend activities, to avoid people giving the "oh he has the camera out again" look on their faces. I can't fit it in the front pocket of a sweatshirt with my hand in the strap.
2. I was not unimpressed with low light video quality which some others mentioned, but I was disappointed with "turn on focusing". Often, it seemed like the camera "couldn't figure out" where I was aiming and wasn't even attempting to focus. It almost looked like I was doing an unfocused fade in or something. These were leaning more toward low light indoor situations.
3. The hard drive "turn on to ready" time seemed long. I would power it up, and it would take more seconds than I wanted to catch a shot of something happening "now". Maybe it would start recording if I hit the button while it's spinning up, but I didn't attempt until the screen said "standby". I don't know that the CX7 will be faster, but being flash, there should be no spin-up time, and I'm hoping it will be "faster to the draw."
A few other items about the cam:
1. I did not find the touch screen to be a problem at all, as many of the reviews complain about. I have average sized hands.
2. The viewfinder is so small I almost didn't find it useful. I kept trying to use it but had to be so still and focused in that for me it wasn't worth it. I used the flip out screen almost all of the time.
3. Battery life with the included battery got me about 1 hour combined of recording and standby time, menu on off play around time.
4. Durability and build quality of the unit overall is high, and typical Sony.
5. The icons used in the menu system were not as intuitive as I've found with Sony cameras. After some time, I did figure out what was where. Menu speed response is fast.
6. The dock is nice and the camera easily fits in it without blind sliding around.
7. The arrangement of the buttons around your right hand seems very intuitive, but for my average sized hand, my thumb was almost not long enough to hit the "record" button when my hand felt most sturdily placed around the cam. As well, my index or middle finger kept tilting the zoom button in that position, so I constantly had to zoom out before starting to record again.
8. Battery charging seems to go very quickly compared to expectations.
9. When traveling through the menus, it makes lots of bling blong blip bleep sounds. I don't know if this can be turned off, but in my entire menu time didn't find where to do so. You might want to hit the PDF manual at the Sony site if that is crucial to you.
Since this is the first cam that was meant more for video than pictures that I've owned in many years, I don't have a good baseline to compare it to. The last cam I had was VHS, and I recall it having more "ready at hand" fade and fade out features, but maybe most people manage that in their video editing software these days. I do plan on getting the CX7 and hopefully I'll have more notes to compare the two afterward.
Digital camera Review: "Buffer Overflow Error" and "Data Error" messages
Summary: 1 Stars
I got this camcorder for thanksgiving holidays. First two days of recording was great but on the third day of use, I kept getting "Buffer Overflow Error" and "Data Error" messages. I know that formatting the disk might fix the problem but at the same time doing so resulted in me loosing all that was recorded that day. I returned the device and got a refund.Digital camera Review: Nice camcorder, but has an issue.
Summary: 1 Stars
I went through three of these camcorders before I gave up on this model. I did like the camera though for it's build quality, features and ergonomics....reasons for trying three, let me explain. When I tried the camera for the first time, I noticed that every 3 to 4 seconds you could hear a faint click-click sound each time the buffer emptied to the hard drive. Only problem was, it recorded the click-click or clunk sound however you perceive it. So when I viewed the video through the TV you could distinctly hear the clicking/clunking sound. It's especially noticable recording in a quite environment. I did a three time exchange hoping to find one that doesn't have this issue. I called Sony about this and managed to talk with a co-operative and knowledgeable tech rep. He was willing to perform a test on the camera he had at hand. Sure enough...his did the same thing. He put me on hold while he discussed the problem with one of the engineers. He came back on the phone to inform me that they were aware of this issue on some of them. Great, so in other words when you purchase one of these cameras you have to hope that you pick the right one. Shame on Sony for not recalling them.
If you are planning on buying one of these be aware of this issue. otherwise you are going to have major frustrations exchanging it trying to find the one that works.