Sony DCR-DVD910 Handycam Camcorder Reviewby Michael PerlmanPublished on Jul 1, 2008 3:08 PM
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Picture & Manual ControlAutomatic Control (6.75)
Standard definition DVD camcorders are aimed squarely at families with kids - those that have the least amount of time and want a camcorder that works in auto mode. In that sense, the Sony DCR-DVD910 is a good choice. Push the Easy button on the side, and the DVD910 goes into full idiot-proof mode. When you're done recording, you can pop the DVD out and put it right in the home DVD player. (Remember, this is for standard def DVD only. High definition DVD camcorders do not enjoy the same ease of cross-compatibility just yet.)
Operation is simple. The external buttons are all labeled clearly. Menu is split into two sections, which we call the Home Menu (activated by the button in the upper left), and the Camera Menu (activated by the button in the lower right).
If you intend on keeping the Sony DCR-DVD910 a strictly point-and-shoot device, you'll be pleased. The automatic responses to typically shooting are quite good. The automatic exposure is fast, taking about 1-3 seconds for extreme leaps from bright to dark. Gradual shifts were met with a smooth transition, which is just what you want to see.
The auto focus is merely okay. As long as the light was strong, the camcorder could quickly adjust to anything you put in front of it, from less than a inch to infinity. But when the light lowered even a little, we saw some difficulty with focusing objects up close. However, the camcorder seemed to fine with focusing objects as far as five feet in very dark conditions with low contrast. The auto white balance worked fairly well in all conditions.
The DCR-DVD910 also included the standard Sony fair of one-touch controls that give the shooter a small amount of input without having to know the in's and out's of photography. Two very cool features are the Spot Focus and Spot Meter controls. When either is activated, a frame appears around your shot. Simply touch the area of the screen that you want focused or exposed properly, and the camcorder does the rest. It works best on large areas. Anything small or of fine detail will require a manual adjustment.
The Scene Modes as the appear in the menu
The camcorder also come equipped with Scene Modes, located in the Camera Menu. Options include: Auto, Twilight, Twilight Portrait, Candle, Sunrise & Sunset, Fireworks, Landscape, Portrait, Spotlight, Beach, and Snow. This is a great selection that should cover most of your tricky shooting environments.
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| Sony DCR-DVD910 mode dial |
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Overall Manual Control (5.0)
Sony does not excel in manual controls. The company has done quite well positioning themselves as the easy to use choice for the masses. It's hard to argue with that. Most Sony camcorders are easy, but it costs them with some of the enthusiast crowd that loves to get into the technical details. The DCR-DVD910 offers basic exposure, white balance, focus, and other controls, but the implementation is just so-so. Touch screen operation makes certain functions, particularly focusing, an uphill battle against fingerprint smudges and cluttered screen graphics. The menu is easy enough to navigate, but you'll certainly want to make a few test runs before an important shooting event.
If you want better options for manual controls, we recommend looking into comparably priced Canons, like the FS11, or the Panasonic SDR-H60 (Review, Specs, $329.00). Considering the proximity of high definition options in this price range, you may also look at the newly announced JVC GZ-HD10 or Panasonic HDC-SD9 (Review, Specs, Recent News, $485.00). All of these offer a much greater level of control.
Zoom (5.5)
Zoom toggle
The zoom toggle on the Sony DCR-DVD910 is located on top of the body towards the back. It's placed a little farther forward than is ideal, and it falls under the middle finger rather than the index finger. The camcorder gives you a very smooth zooming action. The slowest zoom is very slow, making for great crawls. Depending on finger pressure, you can achieve about three different speeds.
When you zoom, a progress bar appears in the upper left corner to give you a rough sense of where you are in the zoom range. Unfortunately, the actual zoom power is not displayed numerically, which can make it difficult to replicate a shot.
Zoom Power Ratio (15.0)
The Sony DCR-DVD 910 has an optical zoom of 15x. This is low for the latest batch of standard definition camcorder, but average for this upper-end price range. Sound counter-intuitive? The issue is that camcorders with small sensors (around 1/6-inch) can allow for huge zoom ranges - the Canon FS11, for example, has a 48x zoom. Camcorders with larger sensors, like the DCR-DVD910 (with its 1/5-inch CMOS) cannot have that large a zoom and retain its compact frame. So you lose some zoom power, but gain resolution with the larger sensor, which is probably the better end of the bargain.
Focus (3.5)
Manual focus is a half-baked affair on most consumer camcorders, but Sony has the worst of the lot. Think we're being too hard? Sony camcorders rely on a touch screen operation, which has two drawbacks. First, the screen accumulates a lot of fingerprints and grease. Secondly, the touch screen "buttons" are large, and take up a lot of the screen. Once manual focus is activated, the screen is filled with no fewer than eleven buttons and graphics. At that point, it's hard to even see the subject that you're trying to get in focus, and that's assuming you can see it clearly through the finger grease. Sure, you have the option of a viewfinder, but you can't shift focus using it because all the controls are on the LCD screen.
The Focus tool as is appears onscreen
Sony does a much better job with manual focus on its HD camcorders, particularly the HDR-SR11 (Specs, $717.00) and HDR-SR12 (Review, Specs, $832.00). Both of these models have a front-mounted dial that allows you to smoothly shift the focus with a minimum of on-screen clutter.
Exposure & Aperture (4.5)
The Sony DCR-DVD910 offers an simple Exposure up/down tool, but not explicit control over the aperture. It's located on the second tab of the Camera Menu, along with the Scene Modes and Spot Meter tool (described in the Automatic Controls section above). The importance of having a simple way to make the picture brighter and darker should not be underestimated. It's perhaps the most common manual control that people will want, and let's face it... most people don't know how to work their DVD player, let alone their camcorder.
The Exposure tool as it appears onscreen
To activate, push the Exposure button in the Camera Menu, then select Manual mode. Like the Manual focus control, the screen gets cluttered up with a lot of graphics, which is annoying. In the center is a scale, with plus and minus buttons on either end. Push the buttons to raise or lower the exposure. There are 33 increments total in the scale, though the camcorder does not offer any numeration to help you keep track.
Shutter Speed (0.0)
The Sony DCR-DVD910 does not offer any direct shutter speed control, which sets it apart from similarly priced Canon, Panasonic, and JVC camcorders that do. You will, however, have the option of lowering the minimum auto shutter speed. There are two options. Auto Slow Shutter, which is located in the Movie Settings section of the Home Menu, allows the auto shutter to drop from its normal minimum of 1/60th down to 1/30th. This is a useful setting to leave it in if you plan on shooting in anything other than daylight.
The second option is one that requires more judicious use. Color Slow Shutter, located in the Camera Menu, allows to shutter to drop as low as around 1/2 to 1/4 of a second. The idea is that this speed allows you to capture more color in low light. The problem, of course, is that your video will look like a stuttering mess.
White Balance (5.5)
The white balance settings for the Sony DCR-DVD910 are located in the third tab of the Camera Menu. There are four options here: Auto, Indoor, Outdoor, and One Push (Manual). Making a manual adjustment is very easy. Just point your camcorder at a white or neutral grey target, tap the One Push button, then tap the button underneath it. The icon will blink for a few seconds, and your white balance is adjusted.
The White Balance control in action
Gain (0.0)
The Sony DCR-DVD910 does not offer the ability to adjust gain. Only Panasonic camcorders have this option in the consumer range of products.
Other Manual Controls (5.0)
Face Detection - The hot new feature this year for a lot of camcorder manufacturers is Face Detection. It works by recognizing the architecture of the human face, then adjusting the focus, exposure, and white balance accordingly. The camcorder gives you the option of drawing a frame around the faces so you know when it's working, keeping the frames off, or turning off the whole recognition system entirely. The recognition software is quite good. It could detect up to eight faces at once, and detect some faces at a 90-degree angle.
We also had some fun taking photos of faces and running them through some ridiculous filters in Photoshop. The camcorder took it all in stride and recognized every one. Strangely, it can even recognize some cartoon faces if the architecture of eyes, nose, and mouth are all in the right place.
Guideframe - The Guideframe tool that creates an onscreen grid to help you line up your shots. The lines are not recorded to the final footage.
Zebra - This is a highly effective tool that warns you when your hotspots are getting too bright. It works by detecting areas in your shot that are becoming overexposed. Those areas are filled with moving black and white "zebra stripes." The sensitivity can be set to 70 IRE or 100 IRE. If you see the stripes, it means you should manually lower the exposure.
Tele Macro - The Tele Macro feature is intended to shoot macro (tiny, detailed shots) from a distance. In reality, it just automatically extends the zoom to 15x. You can do this better manually by using the zoom and focus controls.
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