Sony Handycam DCR-SR100
Starting at: $350.00
CNET Editors' Review
CNET Editors' Rating
- Reviewed by: Will Greenwald and Lori Grunin
- Released on:
- Reviewed on:
The good: Superior image quality for a single-chip, MPEG-2 camcorder; decent still photos; hotshoe for a light or a microphone; fluid and fast focus.
The bad: Too dependent on its touch-screen interface; small LCD.
The bottom line: The Sony Handycam DCR-SR100 is a solid hard-drive-based option, especially if you like Sony's touch-screen interfaces.
We've complained before about Sony's touch-screen interface--that it's simply annoying on a large LCD and close to unusable on a small one such as the DCR-SR100's. It's full of tiny buttons and the touch screen itself is prone to smudges and fingerprints. Tweak-happy users will find themselves either cursing this camera or praying for a stylus. If you like the touch screen, however, then you can kick the SR100's design rating up by a point. The left bezel sports duplicate zoom and record buttons, though they're neither responsive nor very useful.
As befitting its price class, Sony put some nice finishing touching on the DCR-SR100, including an automatic lens cover and a snug accessory shoe protector. Although it might sound trivial, that lens cover eliminates a significant speed bump when you're shooting.Like JVC's Everio models, the Sony Handycam DCR-SR100 records directly to a hard drive. Its 30GB drive can store as much as 440 minutes of high-quality video, 1,250 minutes of low-quality video, or 10,000 3-megapixel still images. You can play the video directly on a TV via the bundled composite cable or copy the files to your PC; the camcorder mounts as a hard drive via a USB 2.0 connection. Like DVD camcorders, hard drive camcorders record using MPEG-2, and Sony saves the files as media-player-readable MPG files; your system--Mac or PC--may require a codec update in order to play or edit them, however.
For the DCR-SR100, Sony couples its 3-megapixel HAD CCD with one of the better Zeiss T* lenses. It uses 2 megapixels to capture video before downsampling to 720x480 (16:9) or 640x480 (4:3), and snaps 3-megapixel still photos in both 16:9 and 4:3 aspect ratios.
You'll find the typical array of Sony premium-priced features in the DCR-SR100, such as Super SteadyShot hybrid image stabilization, NightShot and Super NightShot infrared modes, and a four-channel microphone for Dolby 5.1 Surround audio recording. With an optional mic, you can capture center-channel sound. The hotshoe can also accept a flash/video light, to replace the SR100's built-in lamp.
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Senior Editor Lori Grunin has been covering digital imaging and all types of tech for two decades and photographing for four, but the stat she's proudest of is the approximately 5,000 photos she's taken of cats (and some dogs) for the animal rescue where she volunteers.
User Reviews
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Most Helpful User Review
stars 16 of 17 users found this review helpful
"Pretty good for standard use." By jrnsr8500
Pros Fast/Easy transfer to PC, better quality than it's current competition
Cons Pricey (HD quality mini DV for only $300 more), video quality still just ok.
Summary I bought this camera (the SR-100) 4 days ago. I spent the entire evening playing around with it. I took video in low light, no light, and outside with sunlight. My initial reaction was very dissapointed in the video quality, and I had to refrain from coming here the next ... Expand full review
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Specifications
See full specsQuick Specs
- Optical sensor type: Advanced HAD CCD
- Effective sensor resolution: 3.05 megapixels
- Flash type: Built-in flash
