As with the rest of the Sony consumer camcorder family, the SR42 uses a touch screen-based menu system. On this camcorder's 2.5-inch, 4:3 aspect LCD, you need tiny fingers to navigate, preferably ones without fingertips, since the screen can literally become obscured by fingerprints. You don't need to use the menu much, since the SR42 has only the most basic of feature sets. It includes 10 scene program modes, a few digital effects and transitions, spot metering and focus, and NightShot infrared shooting mode.
Video records to the hard disk in MPEG-2 format, and thankfully, you needn't rely on the bundled version of Pixela's Motion Browser to edit, since there are plenty of alternatives available. Still, if for some reason you wanted to use that odd piece of software on the Mac, you'd have to fork over $100 for it. Stick with iMovie.
Like all but the SR300, the SR42 uses the electronic image stabilizer version of Sony's SteadyShot. But the video tends to be so mushy and artifact-ridden that it's hard to tell whether the stabilizer is working, even zoomed out to its 40x maximum.
Despite its range, it's fairly easy to control the zoom switch for a fast or consistent crawl, though the autofocus takes a little longer to catch up. The stereo audio, though surprisingly decent, suffers from the lack of a wind filter. Even a modest breeze whips across the audio track with tornado-like rumbles. The camcorder lacks a microphone input as well as an accessory shoe--typical omissions in budget models.
As the Handycam DCR-SR42 exemplifies, for the moment, there are still no bargains to be had in hard-disk-based camcorders--unless you really don't care about the video quality. If you want a decent hard-disk model, you've got to pay a little more. Despite its inconveniences, in this price range, tape-based models like the Panasonic PV-GS320 or quality DVD-based models like the Canon DC40 are still the way to go.
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