Sony DCR-SR80 Camcorder Reviewby John NeelyPublished on Nov 2, 2006 7:00 AM
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Automatic Control (9.0)
The SR80 shines when it comes to ease-of-use, and it’s even easier to use than most Sonys, which is saying something. Like most Sony consumer camcorders, the DCR-SR80 has a prominently labeled Easy button in the LCD cavity. Pressing the Easy button engages full auto mode where the camcorder takes care of all image adjustments other than zoom and record start and stop. In full auto or easy mode, menu options are truncated, but this should not bother easy mode shooters since by definition most of the controls that disappear are relevant to manual functions. Language settings, clock set, and a few other basic menu options are available.
The Easy button is located inside the LCD cavity.
In easy mode, the DCR-SR80 performs quite well, which is typical of Sony consumer camcorders. Exposure, focal adjustments and white balance all work well in conditions without mixed lighting or low contrast. Compared to other manufacturer’s easy or auto modes, Sony’s tend to snap more quickly into focus, and transition between exposure settings at a speed that gives an impression of seamless transition. The camcorder runs into problems in the areas that usually challenge auto controls, however. In mixed lighting, such as indoor mixed with outdoor light, the camcorder tends to favor the strongest source of illumination which can leave parts of the image too warm or cold. In low contrast environments, including low light, the camcorder has difficulty finding focus and sometimes ends up “pumping” or “breathing” as it searches for focus. These issues are characteristic of the limitations of easy mode.
The camcorder includes a number of additional controls that we place in the automatic control category. Program AE modes are preset exposure settings optimized for specific shooting situations, and essentially change the parameters in which the camcorder makes its automatic adjustments to produce a better image. The Program AE modes are labeled intuitively, and include Spotlight (for shooting a brightly lit subject on a stage), Portrait, Sports (for shooting fast moving action), Beach & Ski (for shooting in very bright environments), Sunset & Moon, and Landscape (for distant subjects).
Spot Meter and Spot Focus are two additional auto options that offer a higher degree of user control over exposure and focus respectively. In the spot modes, a frame is superimposed on the LCD that bounds the image. Touching the part of the screen that you want the camcorder to use for setting exposure or focus overrides the full auto controls. These control modes must be set individually, and can yield much better results than easy mode, especially in the challenging shooting situations mentioned above. A final automatic control is Auto Shutter, which can only be turned on or off. When Auto Shutter is set to on, the camcorder automatically adjusts the shutter speed.
These auto controls have a more finely tuned feel than in some other camcorders like the JVC GZ-MG77, but the situations that challenge the DCR-SR80 are universal. Ultimately, the manner in which a camcorder makes adjustment transitions in auto mode is the most appreciable difference one finds between comparably featured camcorders, and we find Sony’s auto controls achieve a good balance of speed and accuracy without being too jarring.
The top level of the menu (left) and the second level, Setup, of the menu (right).
Overall Manual Control (3.0)
Sony has virtually cornered the market on camcorder buyers who want to keep things simple, and the DCR-SR80 is a case in point. In fact, it may be the user-friendliest Sony yet released, along with its SR40 and SR60 siblings. Like most Handycams, the DCR-SR80 offers a relatively limited number of manual controls, and the only way to operate those controls is via the touch screen interface.
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The mode dial on the rear toggles between video mode, still mode, and VCR mode. |
Additional controls are deeper in the menu structure, and can be reached by pressing the Setup button, the first option on page 1 of the P-Menu. This brings up a new menu interface that takes the form of an endlessly rotating scroll of menu subsections that are navigated by pressing up and down buttons at the screen’s left side. The submenus include Camera Set (with options including Program AE, Spot Meter, etc.), Pict. Appli. (Fader, D. Effect…), HDD Set (HDD Format, HDD Info…), Standard Set (Rec Mode, LCD Set...), and Time/Language. (Clock Set, Language Set, etc.). See the animated gifs above for an illiustration.
We’re generally critical of touch screen interfaces, especially when they are the only way manual image controls can be adjusted. We discuss our problems with touch screens at greater length in the Handling section (below) and prefer the joysticks found on Panasonics, some Canons, and some JVCs, as well as the Cam Control rings found on high-end Sonys. JVC’s GZ-MG77 employs a well-designed joystick located on the left edge of the LCD panel, and it’s a very efficient means of menu navigation.
Zoom (7.0) The DCR-SR80 includes two means of controlling the 12x optical zoom, a zoom toggle and buttons on the LCD frame. The zoom toggle is the primary controller, and is positioned on top of the camcorder positioned for easy access while hand-held shooting. The zoom toggle follows Sony’s pressure-sensitive rocking lever design, and provides excellent control over zoom speed. In comparison to the zoom toggles found on most other manufacturers’ camcorders, the rocking lever is both responsive and sensitive. We find it to be better than the sliders found on Panasonic camcorders and some Canons, while JVC and Samsung employ a similar if less polished design.
Two buttons mounted on the outer edge of the LCD frame offer a secondary zoom control option. This zoom moves at a fixed rate in contrast to the pressure-sensitive zoom toggle, and is most useful for shooting positions that make the primary toggle difficult to reach, such as when holding the camcorder overhead.
Zoom Power/Ratio (12.0)
The Sony DCR-SR80 offers 12x optical zoom and 800x digital zoom. This is the same zoom setting as found on the DCR-SR60. The low-end DVR-SR40, with a smaller imager, offers a higher zoom setting of 20x. The top-end standard definition HDD camcorder, the DCR-SR100 has a 10x zoom. 12x is certainly enough for most kinds of shooting. At even 6x - 8x zoom a tripod is in order or your footage will be too shaky to watch.
Focus (4.0)
Sony DCR-SR80 users can control focus manually, but this can only be done via the touch screen interface rather than an external controller. The manual focus option is found on page 1 of the P-menu on the lower right. Pressing the Focus button opens the a sub-menu display with options for auto and manual focus. When manual focus is selected, the manual focus interface above the manual/auto buttons is highlighted. The interface takes the form of a horizontal slider, with an icon of a portrait bust at left, and a mountain icon on the right. The icons correspond to near focus (portrait bust) and distant focus (mountain), and pressing either icon moves the focal point in the respective direction.
The control is certainly easy to use – but its plagued by the fact that it's on the touch screen, and blocks much of the image information on the screen – precisely the information a user needs to make an accurate focal adjustment. It’s also much more difficult to make adjustments manually via a touch screen than using an external control by virtue of the inaccuracy of tapping a screen versus rotating a ring or tapping a joystick. If that’s not enough to discourage you from using this control, the fact that it (and other manual controls) is buried in the menu may lead you to abandon full manual for the easier to use Spot Focus control.
Exposure (Aperture) (4.0)
The manual exposure interface resembles the manual focus interface, and it is also found on page 1 of the P-Menu, at top right. Pressing the exposure button brings up a sub-menu that shows two options for auto and manual. Selecting manual highlights a horizontal bar with indicators at its left and right sides for – and +. Pressing the – icon on the left lowers the exposure level and pressing the + icon on the right raises the exposure level. As with manual focus, this is an easy control to use, and suffers less from the fact that the interface blocks much of the screen. The DCR-SR80 offers 24 exposure steps, with 12 to the left of center, and 12 to the right.
Shutter Speed (0.0)
The Sony DCR-SR80 does not allow for manual control over shutter speed, but does feature a Color Slow Shutter mode. Color Slow Shutter is an AE preset that automatically drops the camcorder’s shutter speed to between 1/4 and 1/30 in low light. The DCR-SR80 automatically adjusts shutter speed in auto mode between 1/60 and 1/4000 of a second depending on available light and AE mode.
White Balance (7.5)
White balance options are accessed by selecting Setup on page 1 of the P-menu, and then selecting the Camera Set submenu. The white balance sub-menu reveals five options, displayed as rectangular buttons as in the P-Menu. These options appear as semi-transparent overlays on top of the video image, and a frame indicates the current white balance mode. The options available are auto, indoor, outdoor, and “One Push” or manual white balance. All those buttons create a lot of clutter that makes selecting an appropriate white balance setting by eye difficult. Our advice is, don’t even try this – rather, set your white balance and exit the menu so you have an unobstructed view of the screen, and can assess the color without all that clutter.
One Push is easy to use, and similar to most manual white balance controls. When you have placed the camcorder in front of a true-white board, you simply press the One Push button once and the camcorder adjusts color within a second or two.
Gain (0.0)
The SR80 does not permit manual control over gain – an omission that is typical of all Sony consumer camcorders. Panasonic is the only manufacturer to offer independent control over gain across its entire consumer camcorder line.
Other Manual Control (0.0)
The Sony DCR-SR80 features no other manual controls image controls besides those detailed above.
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