Sony HDR-SR7 AVCHD 6.1MP 60GB High Definition Hard Disk Drive Camcorder with 10x Optical Zoom by Sony
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Digital camera reviews of Sony HDR-SR7 AVCHD 6.1MP 60GB High Definition Hard Disk Drive Camcorder with 10x Optical Zoom
Digital camera Review: 130 days to failure out of warranty
Summary: 2 Stars
Sony HDR-SR7 AVCHD 6.1MP 60GB High Definition Hard Disk Drive Camcorder with 10x Optical Zoom
Buyer Beware of this very expensive Camcorder. Mine failed in 130 days of very light use and it only has a 90 day warranty (1 year for parts) . Sony was very happy to charge me $149.00 as an estimate in advance to see if they can bring it back to life. Also be sure to download to your computer often as my 15 plus hours of video on the internal hard disk is almost certainly lost!. That is if you can get the supplied software to stop conflicting with other programs such as Sonic already on your computer. The video quality is excellent in daylight, terrible in low light. In order to view your video, you must carry the docking station around with you or find the only store in the US with a "mini" HDMI cable (not supplied)to connect to a HDTV Sony once again invents an answer to a question no one asked.I am bitter that I spent so much on such a poorly engineered product and I was a fool to spend $1200 on any item with only a 90 day warranty!
Digital camera Review: Great Price
Summary: 5 Stars
After having trouble getting this camera from Best Buy because of a UPS fiasco, I was able to get this camera from Amazon for a much better price. (Even with some discounts from Best Buy.)
So far I enjoy this camera. The picture does not show just how small it is, as it is smaller than my old camera and much lighter.
I've been playing around with the Sony editing program Vegas Movie Studio, as it can work with the HD file format. (AVCHD --> .m2ts) My finance has Adobe Elements and Premiere Pro, and neither of them support the AVCHD files. (At least natively.) They do work well with the SD format that the camera can also record too, .mpg files.
I did get the camera to blue screen, (not exactly like a BSOD), when I was recording a friend's band, I'd get a "Buffer Overflow Error" and "Data Error" message after that. Of which recording stops until it "recovers." It happened 3 times in HD mode and only once in SD mode. The overseas tech support told me to reformat the drive in the camera to fix the problem. Seems to me that it did this because the volume of the show was loud and playback of the clips the sound isn't all that great. I may need to get another mic that can handle the loud noise, I'm not sure yet.
Digital camera Review: Airport Security
Summary: 4 Stars
This is more of a question than a review. I am looking to buy this item. I am not sure to what degree the internal hard drive is sensitive to airport security x-ray machines. Has any of the buyers travelled internationally and has an opinion on this? Is there any case that will protect the camcorder, the same way they have film x-ray envelopes?Digital camera Review: Just got the camera yesterday
Summary: 4 Stars
I got the camera yesterday and have spent about an hour with it. The first thing I did was look for a mini-hdmi cable locally, but ended up buying it from Amazon via another vendor. While online on Amazon, I also noticed the price went up on this model - good timing for me as I thought the opposite would happen after I bought it.
The first impressions of this camera is that it is tiny. It looks much bigger in the pictures, but this is a small camera that packs alot of surprises. It just feels right in your hand and looks and feels well made/solid.
After charging it for about two hours, I started using it without reading the instructions. I heard all about the poor low light performance of the unit so I tried recording things in my living room with only one flourescent energy saving bulb on in the back of the living room. Then I went through and played with the menus to get myself familiar with the settings and noticed by default the HD recording setting was at 9MB/s so I changed it to XP - 15MB/s and recorded my living room again. I then connected the camcorder via component cables to my LCD TV. The first clip (9MB/s) came out ok. The clip was slightly grainy in the dark areas. For example, the components of my video/audio system was in a dark recess in the tv stand but I could see it although slightly grainy. That's to be expected since I'm sure a $50k HD camera will have similiar issue (I'm realistic about my purchases so this did not bug me). Now on to the second clip recorded at 15Mb/s. When I viewed the same scene of the A/V components, it was noticeable how much cleaner the edges were on the outlines of the A/V components. The overall clip was much sharper than the previous clip and right now I'm looking over at the components and I think the video in the second clip is clearer than what I can see with my naked eyes right now! Amazing. If you get this camera, make sure the HD setting is set to the highest mode - XP.
One thing I can say about the audio - before reading the reviews, I didn't think 5.1 was available on any consumer camcorders. I was surprised to learn it supports 5.1 (a big plus).
I had the TV on and I recorded my friend laughing in reaction to a program on TV and I could hear the laugh coming from the right (which is where my friend was sitting). The laugh, like the video, came out clear and distinct. I give audio a thumbs up. I heard the HDR-HC3 had issues with audio so I'm a happy camper here.
I basically tested this camcorder in moderate light situations which is a tough test for any camcorder. This camcorder (SR7) actually exceeded my expectations. I can't wait to see the picture quality of the video of scenes outside the house in day light. I can already assume I'll be amazed due to picture quality of the video I've seen in my other well lit rooms.
Coming from a Sony TR-81 Hi8 camcorder, I'd say the video quality is a big step beyond that of the TR-81. The TR-81 takes very good video, but the focus was slow and low light situation made focusing even worse. The SR7 focusing system is fast and in low light it's faster than my TR-81 in well lit areas.
I always wanted the Sony TR-101 after getting my TR-81. The TR101 was the camcorder I always look back and say, "I should of bought the TR-101 instead of the TR-81". Mainly because the TR-101 has mechanical/optical stabilization vs electronic stabilization. The TR81 has no stabilization. All the newer Sonys after the TR101 went with electronic stabilization for a few years (I remember it was due to royalty issues with Canon). Also the TR101 lens and lens housing was much bigger which made it look like a nicer/heaftier unit while the TR81 looked anemic compared to it (anyways, I digress...). Because of this (wanting the 101 over the 81), I got the HDR-SR7 over the HDR-SR5. The HDR-SR7 has mechanical stabilization AND it works well! One thing I noticed with the TR81 is that videos sometimes become almost unviewable when I'm taping without a tripod. With the SR7, the stabilization works! Zooming on a light switch across the house through three rooms, I will notice considerable vibration or jerkiness with the TR81. With the SR7, there is no jerkiness. You can see the video float up or down but there is no jerkiness.
Also, having a HD as the media to record on is nice and one of the main selling points for me to buy this unit. Having read the SR5 review, I noticed a few people complain about the HD noise being recorded on the tape. I didn't noticed this at all when taping the living room clips, but I did notice the HD clicking when the camera was pointed down at an angle. It seems like you can hear the HD stepping and it was caught on film! It's muffled, but it's there.
I'll be adding onto this review after about a month and will adjust my rating accordingly. This camera _IS_ a keeper. I will deduct a star from the 5 star rating for the noise issue mentioned above. Sony (and I'm sure others) will need to work on an isolation system for the HD so hard drive noise don't make it to the audio. I have an old Sony Ruvi camcorder which I bought new that records on some funky proprietary tape. You can hear the motor(s) on the audio track continuously. You can hear yourself zoom/pan and also hear the motor that continuously moves the tape during record. That and the funky proprietary tape was the downfall of that camcorder. I bought it at fry's at a discount - $199. I still wonder why I bought it because the noise is unbearable and I only used that camera a few times. Luckily, the SR7 is no where as bad as the RUVI. If this will be an issue, you might want to look at the HDR-CX7 which is the media stick version of this camcorder.
Overall, this is an excellent camera. I can't think of a better HD camera than the SR7, CX7 (pro duo media), HC7 (miniDV media), and SR5.
I checked both the JVC (GZ-HD7 - really love the looks of this unit) and Canon (HV10, HV20) offerings, but leaned towards the Sony after reading user's feedback on those units.
I probably shouldn't have mentioned the other cameras to keep this review focused on the SR7, but I'm sure there are old timers that had one of these cameras and can relate to my experience.
ADDED on 11/17/07 11:50pm: Ok, I just returned from a trip to San Francisco. I went to the Art Academy with a friend so she could check out the art school. I thought I would be amazed at the footage. I was expecting sharp and clear clips, but what I got was beyond that. I taped some skyscrapers from the base and panned up towards the sky - the entire footage was sharp, clear, and bright. There was no focusing issues. It seem better, if not on par, with the videos on Discovery HD. I'm not easily impressed, but I must say I am!! Anyone have an FTP site I can upload this clip? It looks like it was taped on a much more expensive unit. The blue of the sky was rich and brilliant against the white clouds and usually, with my old camcorder (TR81), if the scene goes from buildings to the sky as I pan up, you will get an overcompensation of light on the video clip. In otherwords, the sky will become too bright, then the video will take seconds to adjust and then the sky looks good, but the exposure on the building gets way too dark. This did not happen on the HDR-SR7. If I can only upload this clip for you guys to see. I'm not sure if I can upload the HD version to you tube. I'll look into it.
Anyways, I'm keeping this camera. It's unbelieveable (and I'm not that easily impressed, however, keep in mind these are consumer grade camcorder and it meets my expectations so YMMV).
Money well spent -- I questioned getting another camcorder the last few weeks, but not anymore.
There will be no perfect camcorder. The SR7 is a good compromise between what I want in a perfect camcorder and what is actually out there in the market. To me, excellent video quality in a small size with good sound was important to me. At first I did not consider the Sony because the effective resolution was 1440x1080 vs 1920x1080, but it seems overall the picture and the color accuracy on the Sony was better. Why get caught up in tech specs when it's the big picture that counts? Also, the Sony just felt right in the hand. It's small and well built. I don't want to be lugging anything that felt awkwardly large on vacation! The smaller the better and my choice was the HDR-SR7.
UPDATED 12/1/07: Still enjoying the camera. The battery seems to last about 90 minutes. Luckily I haven't gotten the "blue screen" issue the newer reviewers have ran into. I'll be using it at the SF auto show tomorrow so we'll see how it goes.
UPDATE 12/2/07: Ok, there seems to be an issue with the camera taking too long to focus sometimes. I mention earlier that focusing seems pretty quick, but at the auto show today, when I was ready to shoot, the camera was not focused for 3-4 shots (video and or photo). I had to move it around to get it to focus. Battery lasted for about 80 minutes or so. The colors came out excellent, but the focusing issue came to light today. It's best to leave the camcorder on standby since, if you turn it off, it will take a few seconds for the HD to come on line and you may miss a video or camera moment.
UPDATE 12/12/07: Because of the AVCHD compression, if you move the camera the clip of the scene as the camera is moved doesn't look too smooth. That's probably the biggest annoyance to me. The sw is great, but limited in terms of editing (very very limited). You can view HD quality clips on your laptop. I have a dell 9400 with a 1920x1200 (WUXGA) display and I'm getting HD quality while viewing it on the laptop - just amazing.
UPDATE 1/22/08: I got back from a trip to Europe last week to pickup a car I bought and used this camera (SR7) extensively. Since this review is already so long, I'll just sum up my feelings of this camera having owned it almost two months:
Pros: Great video quality when there is enough light. Great sound.
Cons: Video quality gets grainier as amount of light decreases. Sometimes you can hear the hard drive step. Picture quality is good, but a stand alone camera is better. Also, the camera sometimes loses focus - you'll have to aim it somewhere else to move back to your "target" to get it to focus correctly.
No surprises really - I covered this before.
Since I've owned this camera for two months, the newness of it has worn off and I'm obviously pointing out the weaknesses more than the the pluses because that's what bugs me. Overall, great camera. I'm sure any other camera will have deficencies (I'm picky but overall still happy with this camera).
Digital camera Review: Be careful ordering from J&R music world
Summary: 1 Stars
We purchased this based on everyone's reviews - but J&R music world sent us the European model instead of the American model. Which means we have to run out and buy an additional adapter. So far I have not tried it. Just very disappointed that they would send out the wrong model. Normally I would return for the correct one - but we are expecting our child in a week (the sole reason we bought this camera) so now, off to Fry's to fix their screw up.