Comments

Piton wrote on 4/1/2007, 8:35 AM
I've been using it for a couple weeks as a light camera for backcountry ski outings. No viewfinder, so just using the lcd screen is kind of new to me. Editing is a pain in the butt, as you have to convert with Nero (slow process). But otherwise, it shoots a nice picture compared side to side with my FX1. Great lightweight cam.
John_Cline wrote on 4/1/2007, 9:51 AM
Hunter,

Here is an extensive review of the HDR-SR1

http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/Sony-HDR-SR1-Camcorder-Review.htm

Basically, they said it was a decent camera but that AVC-HD compression was visibly inferior to HDV.

John
RBartlett wrote on 4/1/2007, 10:40 AM
Panasonic's consumer AVCHD (HDC-SD1) camcorder looks slightly better. However my eyes were soon drawn to their slightly enhanced AG-HSC1U camcorder spec sheet. This has a more representative color processing circuit and also supports on-camera transfer from the recorded SDHC cards to the an onboard harddisc.

However, I'd have to admit, the JVC Everio GZ-HD7 looks more favourable. Especially given that AVCHD support hasn't been provided to co-incide with these convenient camcorders being launched. Just under 30Mbps of any compression format on a sub US$2000 camera has to be half decent, doesn't it? One can surely hope......

The disc versions of this camera don't interest me, but then I don't have a PS3 and most of the people I'd provide such a video to wouldn't have a PC capable of HD rez decoding of almost any format. Not yet anyway.
riredale wrote on 4/1/2007, 12:04 PM
We've discussed this before, but I don't see the huge benefit to hard-disk recording, given that tape is not only reliable but also provides a permanent long-term storage method for the raw video. I guess it would be nice to be able to transfer video to a PC in faster than realtime, though.
John_Cline wrote on 4/1/2007, 1:34 PM
"I don't see the huge benefit to hard-disk recording"

In a "run and gun" situation with lots of short takes, tape still makes a lot of sense. However, I often shoot at a fixed location with takes that last well over an hour and currently, no Sony HDV camcorder can take standard size DV tape, only MiniDV. I just use Vegas HDV capture utility to record directly to my laptop. No file transfers necessary.

John