Sony DCR-SR80 Camcorder Reviewby John NeelyPublished on Nov 2, 2006 7:00 AM
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The Sony DCR-SR80 captures stills to the HDD. Stills can be saved in two qualities, Fine and Standard, in two resolution sizes, 640 x 480 and 1152 x 864. The camcorder does not shoot wide angle, 16:9 stills. The larger resolution size is not available on the bottom-end DCR-SR40.
Most of the manual controls found in video mode are also found in still mode, including exposure, white balance, focus, the Spot Meter and Spot Focus controls, Program AE modes, and more.
Additional features include bracket and continuous shooting (Burst) modes are both included, though the manual gives no specifics as to the speed of the continuous shooting of the EV differentials in the bracketing mode (it is likely +1/3EV, 0EV, and +1/3EV). There is no built-in flash, but if you decide to purchase an external flash, there are controls in the menu, which can set it to red-eye reduction, force-on, force-off, and a flash strength of +/-1.
Still playback is extremely simple. Thumbnails appear onscreen, and you can expand them to fill the screen by touching them. You can also create in-camera slideshows.
Still Resolution (3.27)
The stills of the Sony DCR-SR80 were tested for their resolution by shooting a standard ISO 12233 resolution chart and running those stills through Imatest imaging software. In total, the camcorder produced an approximate resolution of 326007.37.
Still Performance (3.75)
The Sony DCR-SR80, like most low- and mid-level Sony camcorders, and most low- and mid-level camcorders for that matter, produced poor quality stills. At a maximum size of 1152 x 864 (about 1MP), the camcorder makes a pretty fierce competitor for a digital camera from 1998. In the year 2006, however, these stills don’t cut it. It’s not simply a matter of size. The color performance is terrible, and not surprisingly so. This is essentially identical to every under-$1000 Sony camcorder. The picture is noisy, both fine grain black noise and blue discolorations. The entire green -yellow spectrum is a pea-green mush. There is no red to speak of. Despite a manual white balance, the whites remain a bluish hue. In short, you would not stick these photos in the family scrapbook. The DCR-SR80 is a poor choice for a hybrid camcorder / still camera.
Comparatively, the Sony DCR-DVD305 looked exactly the same, and offered the same maximum resolution. The JVC GZ-MG77 produced larger stills, at a maximum 1632 x 1224. It showed lower noise and better color. The Sony DCR-SR100 did not have quite the color balance and strength that the JVC showed, but the resolution was higher (2016 x 1512). The larger imager shows a marked improvement over the SR80’s 1/5.5” CCD, but we’ve seen better. The Panasonic SDR-S150 was probably the best of this bunch as a hybrid camcorder. The images were a little grainy, but the color balance was good (sluggish in the greens) and the resolution was high (2048 x 1512). The picture sharper looking than the rest, rounding out a best overall performance.
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