Sony Handycam DCR-SR47 user reviews (Red)

Pros Ease of use, touch screen, zoom in mic, 60GB hardrive but still fits in the pocket

Cons Slower to zoom than FH20, lack of on board editing features

Summary Okay, I have only had this Camera for a few days, but I think it works fine for what I paid for it. I was almost going to buy a HD camera, then realized that I don't have an HD TV, I don't have a Blue Ray player, I don't have a Blue Ray Burner, and I don't have a super computer that will easily edit the footage. All that said, I decided to buy a less expensive SD camera now and buy HD later when I have the matching equipment.

Picture quality, Yes it is soft, BUT YOU ARE LOOKING AT SD! You should expect SD. I actually made the sales person at Best Buy take all the cameras that I was interested in and plug them into a TV. The JVC and Samsung cameras could not compare, the Canon FH200 had a very slightly sharper picture, but it was also 50 dollars more had no memory and shorter zoom. The mic and sound was better with the Sony as well. I compared them to the HD and whle it was definitely no where near as good, the HD wasn't so Amazing that I was willing to go out and purchase everything I would need to make movies. Also you need to think about what you want to do with the movies. I send them to my Mother and Mother-In-Law and store them for when my kids are older. Neither of the Grandmas has a HDTV or a Blue Ray player. So right there I would have a problem getting videos to them. I've already sent them video with my Sony and they LOVED IT. I used to have DC100. I hardly ever used because it was such a pain to edit and burn more discs. This is great and with a 60 Gig hard drive I never have to worry about cards. I do plan to get an extended life battery though.

So there you go.

1. Picture quality is good for SD

2. Sound is really good, plus the zoom mic is great

3. Included software is not so great hence four stars

4. Touch screen is easy to use and programabe

5. Huge Zoom and Optical stabilization is decent as long as you don't zoom too much

6. The camera is useless, I sometimes wonder why they bother putting the things on there in the first place

7. My wife like the choice of colors

8. Spring for the 60GB Drive over the flash only models

9. Overall the Camera does what it should do and does it well as long as you don't expect HD picture quality on a SD camera.

Pros Very compact but solid feel. 60GB HDD offers a LOT of space. Touch screen display. Ease of use. Color options aside from just silver or black. USB2.0 interface. 60x optical zoom. Image stabilization. 16:9 and 4:3 format.

Cons Low res still shots (1M pixel). Battery life not the greatest but you at least have options to upgrade. Manual lens shutter.

Summary The pros far out weigh the cons, especially for what I was looking for. The 60GB HDD is huge. I have a Canon HG10 with 40GB recording AVCHD and I have never come close to filling that up. So this provides more than enough space. I got this as a gift and didnt need to get HD as they would most likely have a hard time converting or even making use of the AVCHD format at this point. Since this shoots in 16:9 format, this works great for them. The battery life for HDD camcorders isnt the greatest but you at least have the option to buy a higher capacity battery. I almost got a flash based camcorder but the battery life isnt much better (at least the stock one). So for a little more money, I got a lot more storage space as the Sony memory sticks are quite expensive to even get up to 16GB. The touch screen felt kinda flimsy but it worked all right. I think they might try to improve here and make a better, more solid feeling screen in the future. Screen kinda felt plasticy. Ease of use was great. You don't have to be a techie to figure out all the standard features nor do you have to sift through layers of menus to do what you want. Start up time was pretty good relative to others I looked at, such as the JVC and Panasonic. Only Canon seemed comparable. The image stabilization worked fine as this technology is quite mature and standard these days. Definitely would recommend this one if you're looking for standard, non-HD recordings. For most family shoots and quick clips, this works great. Was exactly what I was looking for. I took off only a half-star due to the price as it was about $100 more than other vendors ... but that's just the way Sony has always been. Plus its a new model.

Updated on Mar 21, 2009

Another thing I wanted to mention when comaring the flash based cams against the HDD - the flash-based were really slim which doesnt fit my hand very well and will most likely not fit most mens' hands. So controlling zoom and other toggles on the top of the cam was awkward. The SR47 (as well as other HDD cams) seemed like a more comfortable fit.

Pros It's small. Good HDD space for lots of recording. Good Zoom. I set mine up to record video to the HDD, and pictures to the Memory Stick.

Cons Very poor image quality - even for Standard Definition. This is NOT an HD Camera. Mine was a gift, and I cannot import the .mpg into my 1-year old Mac with iMovie '08. I'll have to try to exchange it.

Summary It's a decent entry-level camera, but the image quality leaves too much to be desired. I would recommend a different entry camera which is more universally compatible that has better video quality.

Pros Just got this, easy to use, like the LCD touch screen

Cons records in MPEG-2, not compatible with older (before 2008) Macs. I can't view mpgs on my Macbook Pro or import clips into iMovie. I think iMovie 08 and 09 can import MPEG-2 but I don't have that software, so am stuck putting them on my husbands PC.