Sony DCR-DVD305 Camcorder Review

Like other consumer camcorders, the DCR-DVD305 can suffer from adjustment lag when moving between two very different shooting environments, such as a brightly lit exterior to a dim interior, and has trouble focusing in low-contrast shooting situations. In general, we found this camcorder’s auto adjustments to be a slightly more refined than those found on Panasonics or Canons. In less demanding situations, picture adjustments feel relatively seamless, while in more demanding situations, the adjustments hold their own with similar DVD camcorders.

The DCR-DVD305 also offers some Automatic Exposure (Program AE) presets shared by both the step-down DCR-DVD205 (Review, Specs, $384.99) and the step-up DCR-DVD405 (Review, Specs, $649). AE modes include: Spotlight, Portrait, Sports, Beach and Ski, Sunset and Moon, and Landscape.

This camcorder also offers Spot Meter and Spot Focus auto controls. These controls provide a higher degree of control over what part of the frame is used to make auto adjustments, and when engaged, a frame appears on the LCD display, and then you simply touch the part of the frame you want to focus on, in the case of Spot Focus, or expose correctly, in the case of Spot Meter. These auto controls won’t give you the degree of fine-tuning you’ll get making manual adjustments, but some users will find them a useful shorthand.

Overall Manual Control (3.0)
Now that we’ve discussed this camcorder’s strong auto controls, it’s time to take a look at manual picture control, a serious weak point for Sony consumer camcorders. The Sony DCR-DVD305 is no exception, and the bottom line is this is not a camcorder to buy if you typically shoot in Manual control mode. In fact only high-end Sony consumer camcorders deserve consideration by shooters who eschew the imprecision of Auto.  Panasonic camcorders like the VDR-D200 (Review, Specs, $324.99) generally have very strong manual control feature sets, with independent settings for gain, aperture, and shutter speed that are controlled with a nicely designed joystick.

The few manual controls that are available on the DVD-305 are accessed through the touch screen menu system. It’s an efficient and accessible means of navigating a menu that anyone who has used an ATM will intuitively understand, but we think it does as much harm as good. Making picture adjustments on-screen while shooting hinders your ability to track your shot, and it’s impossible to hold the camcorder steady when you’re navigating through options such as the 24 manual exposure steps. Touching the screen will also lead to grease buildup, no matter how good your hygiene is, and this can impair the clarity of your LCD’s image. Finally, scrolling through Sony’s extensive menu options can be time consuming. So, if you do plan on making adjustments manually, you’d be advised to give yourself plenty of time.

Zoom (8.0)
Sony’s zoom toggle design is very good, and may be the best iteration of this control among the major consumer camcorder manufacturers in terms of handling and performance. The toggle on the DCR-DVD305 has a raised rocker design that most users will find positioned comfortably for hand-held shooting. This design offers good control over zoom speed with little finger strain. The surface of the toggle has thin ridges to add friction, and is raised slightly from the top of the camcorder. The optical zoom ranges up to 12x, and the digital zoom can be turned off, capped at 24x, or set to the full 800x in the P Menu

The primary zoom (left) and secondary zoom controls on the LCD panel (above).

Zoom Power/Ratio (12.0)
This camcorder sports a modest optical zoom of 12x, which seems especially low in comparison to many camcorders with zoom powers exceeding 30x from Panasonic, JVC, and Samsung. While this may be a drawback for people who insist on getting close to the action (voyeurs and birdwatchers, anyone?),  it is partially a function of this camcorder’s slightly larger 1/5.5” CCD. Given the same-sized camcorder body, smaller chips are generally capable of higher optical zoom power but produce lower video performance scores than camcorders with larger chips.

Focus (4.0)
Manual focus may be the control that suffers most from the touch screen interface. Here’s how it works: you tap the P Menu icon on the screen, which brings up various image control setting. You then scroll to page 2 of the menu, and select Focus. Once engaged, a frame appears around five icons – large buttons for Auto or Manual focus control, an icon of a person on the left for tight focus, an icon of a mountain on the right for telephoto, and a Return to Previous icon at lower right. When Manual is selected, another icon of a hand, indicating “manual” appears in the center of the screen. Most infuriatingly, these icons cluttering up your view remain on-screen as you tap the right and left sides to adjust focus! For anyone who has used a camcorder with a manual focus ring, this system probably sounds absurdly cumbersome and slow since fast and accurate manual focus adjustment is one of the keys to getting a good shot. We think manual focus on this camcorder is sufficiently flawed as to render it useless for the majority of shooting.

The DCR-DVD305 does offer automatic Spot Focusing, a feature that allows the user to tap the area in the frame on which s/he wants the camcorder to focus. This provides another means of coaxing the camcorder to focus where you want it to rather than relying on auto. It’s effectively a compromise between manual focus and auto focus, and may provide a workable alternative to touch screen focusing.  Yet this camcorder would be better still if it included truly useful manual focus - something Sony has implemented with aplomb on its high-end models like the HDR-HC1 (Specs, $2295), with its excellent focus ring.  Even lower-end Panasonic and JVC camcorders offer better manual focus control via the external joystick.

Exposure (Aperture) (4.0)
Fast and accurate exposure adjustments are another major manual control, and Sony’s interface for exposure is just as difficult to use as focus. You reach manual exposure adjustments via the same circuitous path, and engaging the control similarly obscures your view of the image. This time, the icon on the left is a minus sign, and the one on the right is a plus sign. A long scrollbar crosses the middle of the screen between these two icons. The exposure level is raised and lowered by pressing the buttons on either side of the screen. Needless to say, assessing your exposure level is not easy when a morass of icons blocks your view of much of the image.

As a way of increasing or decreasing the brightness of your image, this control works – but there are no exposure measurements, save for a line on the scrollbar which moves left and right. It’s probable that this control adjusts exposure and shutter speed on an EV-type scale, but it’s neither precise (what you see will change depending on your LCD brightness settings and ambient light reflecting off the screen) nor easy to use. Getting good results from this control will require trial and error, and developing a feel for how the image on the LCD translates to your final presentation context. Like manual focus, this may well be a control you’re better off avoiding in favor of Spot Metering.  And once again, its useful to compare this camcorder to Panasonic's VDR-D200, which offers efficient and independent control over aperture as well as shutter speed (only auto on this camcorder) and gain (totally lacking on the DVD305). 

Shutter Speed (0.0)
Like the DCR-DVD105 (Review, Specs, $399.95) and DCR-DVD205, the DCR-DVD305 provides no independent manual shutter speed control. JVC, Samsung, Canon, and Panasonic in particular, all offer more than Sony, in this regard. The camcorder does include an Auto Shutter that is set to on by default. When Auto Shutter is turned off, the shutter speed is not allowed to drop below the 1/60, which helps you avoid the risk of slow shutter speeds causing the image to stutter.

White Balance (7.5)
Manual white balance is serviceable, and is the one manual control that is easy to use. Its main drawback is that, like the others, it is buried deep in the touch screen P Menu.

To reach white balance, you enter the P Menu and select Setup > Camera Set > White Balance. Manual white balance is set by selecting the One Touch option and then pressing the White Balance set button to its right. It’s a quick control (once you’ve reached it…), produces good color balance, and resembles manual white balance settings in many other camcorders. In addition to One Touch manual white balance, the DCR-DVD305 includes presets for Auto, Outdoor, and Indoor. Other manufacturers offer more in the way of white balance presets, and Canon’s DC series camcorders include six presets for Auto, Daylight, Shade, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, and Fluorescent H.

Gain (0.0)
There is no manual gain control on the DCR-DVD305. Panasonic camcorders have very strong manual control feature sets, including independent control over gain.

Other Manual Control (0.0)
There are no other manual controls on the DCR-DVD305.