Sony HDR-SR1 First Impressions Camcorder Review

by David Kender

Published on Jul 25, 2006 6:00 AM
Add to My Yahoo!





Conclusion
The HDR-SR1 (Review, Specs, Recent News, $1119.99) is one of the best examples of why this is an exciting time for camcorders. Within this single model, we see the major advance of an emerging media – hard disk drive – and the birth of a new video standard – AVCHD. Within the last two months, the possibilities of high definition for home recording have tripled; whereas until recently tape was the only medium available, now DVDs, hard disk drives, and flash media cards have become viable candidates.

We're incredibly excited by this camcorder. We thought this was going to be a year of better developments on the low end, but, Sony suprised us with something truly amazing for a last minute holiday season push with these new models. Even on its own, the HDR-SR1 is something to celebrate. It's a great camcorder, with a big LCD, a control ring (which we loved on the GS400 (Review, Specs, $1099) the king of all camcorders), mic inputs and headphone inputs. Oh yea, and we forgot, it's HD! High definition has finally been matched with the great features at a reasonable price. While we haven’t yet seen solid results of the video performance, the word on H.264 is almost entirely positive and we expect some pretty big things - possibly even comparable to HDV.

Sony's only real competition in the hard disk drive market is JVC and their Everio series. We give all due credit to JVC for innovating and paving the ground, but their camcorders have been racked by poor performance for two years, and Sony is clearly trumping them. Even in their first time out, the SD DCR-SR100 (Review, Specs, $999) easily out-classed the top-end Everio with video quality. Now that they've upped the ante with high definition plus prosumer features, JVC doesn't stand much of a chance.

Remember, there’s a lot to learn before you should buy, because $1500 is a sizeable investment and there are a lot of choices out there. But take a good look at the HDR-SR1; it’s a compelling glimpse into the future of consumer camcorders.



<< Other Features | >>