Sony Handycam HDR-CX12 Camcorder Review

Exposure adjustments take an average of 2-3 seconds, even at their most extreme shifts. Even more importantly, the camcorder's shifts in gradual transitions was also good. It's always a disappointment to see exposure shift in a step-function fashion as you slowly pan across a scene. The CX12 is smooth and even.

The auto focus was something we complained about on the HDR-CX7. There seems to be some improvement this year on the CX12. Yes, it's slower in low light than in bright light, but even in light as low as 2-3 lux, the CX12 managed to find the focus eventually and stick to it.

The auto white balance was not great. Under tungsten lighting, it was a little yellow. Shooting inside with ambient light from a window, the colors skewed too blue. Fortunately, the manual white balance setting could get it in the ballpark, and we could perform these manual settings without the use of a white card. Just point at your subject, and if there's some white in the shot, it can do a half-decent job.

Of course, you'll find a whole host of one-touch correction features that affect image quality without requiring a doctorate in photography. The old Sony stand-bys include Spot Meter and Spot Focus. When either is activated, a frame is drawn around the screen. Simply touch the area of the screen that you want adjusted for exposure or focus, and the camcorder makes the shift automatically. Sony also combined the two in the Spot Meter/Focus tool—two great tastes that taste great together! All three tools are simple, but only effective for large, simple objects onscreen. They're not great for small or finely detailed work.

There are also two separate low light shooting modes. Normally (with these modes off), the slowest possible shutter speed is 1/60th. If you activate Auto Slow Shutter, the shutter can drop as low as 1/30th. This lets in a lot more light without causing too much motion blur. The Color Slow Shutter mode is more drastic, allowing the shutter to drop as low as around 1/4 or 1/2 of a second, resulting in tremendous blurring.

Overall, the auto modes are fine for most kinds of shooting. The menu design is too complicated, but once you find the one-touch controls, they're clearly designed for the beginner.

Overall Manual Control (7.0)

	The celebrated Cam Control Dial

Sony made a big leap forward since last year in terms of manual control. The HDR-CX12 includes a "Cam Control" dial on the front of the body, borrowing from cousin models like the Sony HDR-SR11 and HDR-SR12. The dial, though seemingly small and unassuming, frees you from relying entirely on the touch screen. Sure, touch screens are okay for certain functions, but they fall short for certain critical tasks like focusing.

Our extensive handling of a wide sampling of camcorders this year has shown that a dial as well-implemented as this can be just as effective as a large ring control around the lens. Of course, so much is dependent on what the dial or ring allows you to perform. The dial on the HDR-CX12 offers four functions: focus, exposure, AE shift, and White Balance shift. This is a solid choice of controls, but we miss an option for zoom. By comparison, the new Panasonic HDC-HS100 and HDC-SD100 feature a full-sized ring that controls zoom, white balance, aperture, shutter speed, and gain. That is a powerful set of controls indeed, and perhaps overwhelming for the beginner.

Getting the hang of how to use the dial in combination with the multiple menus can take some time. Sony used to be the pride of the ease-of-use crowd. But after putting Sony camcorders in the hands of beginners, it's clear that Sony needs to scale back and simplify.

Zoom (5.0)
The zoom control on the Sony HDR-CX12 is a toggle located on top of the body. It's located a little too far forward for convenient index finger access. Instead, you have to use your middle finger, which has less fine control. We were able to get about four distinct zoom speeds, from a very slow crawl to a quick blast across the zoom speed. When zooming, a scale appears on screen to give you a sense of where in the zoom range you are, but the camcorder doesn't give give you an exact number.

Zoom Power Ratio (12.0)
The Sony HDR-CX12 offers a 12x optical zoom, comparable to the competition. The digital zoom extends all the way out to 150x, but can be capped at 24x.

Focus (6.5)
The focus on the Sony HDR-CX12 can be adjusted in two ways. The method common to all Sony camcorders is the touch screen. In our opinion, this is not the method you want to use, but we'll be nice and tell you about it anyway. Touch screen Focus controls are located in the second tab of the Camera Menu. The operation is simple—just push and hold the near and far buttons to shift focus. The problem is that when activated, the screen is junked up with so many graphics and buttons that you can hardly see the shot.

The better option for focusing is with the dial. To activate, push in on the button inside the dial. If you've never used the dial before, manual focusing is the default action. Just spin the dial and focus. At the bottom of the screen, the camcorder provides an approximation of the focal distance in meters.

Exposure & Aperture (5.5)
Like the focus control, there are two methods to adjust exposure. To use the touch screen method, the exposure control is located in the second tab of the Camera menu. When activated, there are plus and minus buttons on opposite sides of the screen. Push to adjust the exposure up and down. The problem with this control is that the screen gets cluttered up with graphics, though less egregiously than it is when focusing.

The second method is to use the Cam Control dial. When using this method, the onscreen graphics are minimal, but no less effective. A small scale appears along the bottom. In both the touch screen and dial methods, there are 31 increments by which to set the exposure.

Both the touch screen and dial offer a second method of exposure control called "AE Shift." The interface is the same, but the level of control is much finer. There are only five increments, +2 to -2, and the effect is much more subtle than the regular exposure control.

The camcorder does not offer direct control over the aperture. You can only bump the brightness up and down, without any real understanding of how the aperture and shutter are being affected.

Shutter Speed (0.0)
The shutter speed cannot be directly controlled on the Sony HDR-CX12. Sorry, folks. Almost every other HD camcorder in the market gives you this option.

White Balance (6.0)
The white balance options on the Sony HDR-CX12 are pretty good compared to most camcorders. There are two methods. The first, standard to all camcorders, is the ability choose between some preset white balance modes—Auto, Indoor, and Outdoor—as well as manually white balancing by pointing at a grey or neutral target and tapping the "One Push" button.

The second control that the CX12 offers that sets it apart from other camcorders is the WB Shift. Once the white balance has been established, you can use the WB Shift to bump the color temperature up or down a few degrees. The effect is subtle and you can only shift up and down +2 to -2, but it could come in handy for some users.

Sony HDR-CX12 at 3000 lux in auto mode

Sony HDR-CX12 at 3000 lux with the WB Shift at -4

Sony HDR-CX12 at 3000 lux with the WB Shift at +4

Gain (0.0)
There is no gain control on the Sony HDR-CX12. Only Panasonic offers this option in consumer camcorders.

Other Manual Controls (6.0)
Tele Macro - This tool is meant to help with getting macro shots from a distance. When activated, it automatically extends the zoom out to 12x. If you try to shift the zoom, the feature shuts off. All in all, it's not too useful.

Face Detection - The face detection function recognizes faces, then adjusts for exposure, white balance, and focus. While we couldn't notice much of a shift in color or focus when activated, we could see that the camcorder at least recognized the faces. A small box appears around each face as they appear on screen, up to eight at once.

Zebra - The zebra control is an option that allows you to spot overexposure hot spots. When they appear, scrolling black and white "zebra" stripes appear. You can set the sensitivity to 70 or 100. These numbers correspond to the IRE levels.

Guideframe - The Guideframe option creates an onscreen grid that helps you set up your shot.

x.v.Color - This is Sony's marketing term for the xvYCC color standard, a new standard of displaying color for HD broadcast. You can choose to record in x.v.Color or not. If you don't have a TV that supports x.v.Color, then the extra color information will simply be discarded.