Digital Trends

Sony HDR-SR12

May 22nd, 2008 | by David Elrich

Performance and Use

Since this is a hard-drive camcorder, it boots up fairly quickly and you can record in about 3 seconds. I started off in the Easy mode which basically limits your options to point-and-shoot. Although I’m all for making life simple, you’re better off not using this setting since you cannot record in Full HD. This is big-time ouch and Sony should rectify this for the next generation. And by avoiding Easy, you’re really not giving up anything other than the right to mess up the settings. Still it’s pretty hard to screw things up unless you go crazy adjusting white balance and so on. A smidgen of common sense goes a long way here.

During a visit to NYC on a bright sunny day I did a lot of recording near Madison Square Park right near the Flat Iron building, a classic Manhattan landmark. Safely on a traffic island, I shot the area as taxis and buses zoomed by. I also recorded people hustling off to who-knows-where, blooming spring plants and other objects that caught my eye. One thing I did notice was the LCD since it had a rough time with direct sunlight, forcing me to use the viewfinder. Yes, you can adjust the screen but it takes multiple steps and Sony engineers should add a dedicated button for this task. Or they should add directions to the Quick Guide or supply a full-blown manual like the competition.

I found the HDR-SR12 effortless to operate and it was nicely balanced in my hand. Controls are nicely placed, especially the zoom switch. Although there were some issues with the screen, the large size made it a breeze framing my scenes—and I especially liked the grid lines to keep things level. As noted earlier, this camcorder has Face Detection technology—just like almost all quality digital cameras. When you’re shooting video boxes appear around faces in the frame—and the frames follow the faces as they move (or you move the unit). This is a welcome feature and it also works in still mode. Once done shooting indoors as well as outside, it was time to review my work, make some prints and burn a DVD.

Connecting the camcorder to a 50-inch plasma via HDMI I was quite pleased with the outdoor video taken in Manhattan. Colors really popped including brightly-painted tourist buses, speeding yellow taxis and the like. There was hardly any trace of noise in the blue skies or as I zoomed in on the architectural details of the nearby buildings. The SteadyShot optical image stabilization worked really well with barely a hint of “shakes” from my handheld pans. Some brightly blooming red azaleas looked extremely lifelike. Face Detection also worked well and the 5.1-channel surround sound was fun, especially with traffic coming up behind you. Besides the HDMI connection I also burned a DVD using Sony’s truly effortless One-Touch DVD Burn system and played the material back through a Panasonic BD30 Blu-ray player. There was a touch more noise than the direct HDMI connection (to be expected) but the overall results were quite good.

Where the –SR12 fell down was shooting indoors with very low light. Images were filled with digital noise, particularly in a shadowy, dim room. Once more ambient light was available, the camcorder did a much better job. Overall video quality was on a par with my FiOS HDTV service—which is no small accomplishment.

On a more positive note the stills were top-notch. Yes there was a bit a digital noise in some shots but colors were excellent and you’ll be more than pleased with the results. In fact, these were the best stills I’ve ever taken with a camcorder.


Conclusion

The Sony Handycam HDR-SR12 is a slightly mixed bag with the ledger heavily weighted to the positive. Full HD 1920 x 1080I videos taken outdoors were terrific and they’re solid indoors when there’s enough light. Try shooting in very dim rooms and you’ll have problems with digital noise. Audio quality is excellent and the stills are the finest I’ve taken with any camcorder. With its large LCD and hard drive, the unit goes through batteries quickly so spares are a definite must buy—especially if you think you’ll save anywhere near the 15 hours of Full HD the HDR-SR12 is capable of recording. The menus are a bit quirky and it would be great if Sony supplied a full-blown printed owner’s manual. With the dim-light caveat on the table I’d recommend this camcorder for anyone going on vacation. The video and stills are hard to beat. And if $1,399 is too much, consider the HDR-SR11 with a 60GB HDD for $1,199.


Pros:

• Takes beautiful HD video outdoors
• Best camcorder stills yet
• Incredible storage


Cons:

• Expensive
• Falls down in very low light
• Clunky menu system for key features (LCD brightness, for example)
• Eats batteries