Sony Handycam HDR-CX12 Camcorder Review

If you hate interfacing with complicated menus, but love having home movies, Sony has got the answer. In the LCD cavity, you'll find a clearly marked "Easy" button. In this mode, all manual controls are switched to auto mode. The menus that are still accessible are simplified in order to prevent you from making changes you don't want and don't understand.

By comparison, the Panasonic menus are the simplest, cleanly laid out and now featuring a scrolling text bar at the bottom that explains every feature as they're highlighted. Canon's interface is roughly the same as Sony's. Samsung's menu interface is better.

The Sony HDR-CX12 in hand

Handling (7.0)
The Sony HDR-CX12 handles very well. It takes a lot of the strengths of the cousin model, the Sony HDR-SR11 and HDR-SR12, and shrinks it down to a smaller package. This may not be a positive shift for every type of user, especially those with big hands, but most people will probably like it. Also, the CX12 lacks a viewfinder, which could steer power users away.

	The celebrated Cam Control Dial

The biggest improvement over its predecessor, the HDR-CX7, is the inclusion of the Cam Control dial, ported over from SR11 and SR12. The dial is located in the front of the body, positioned under the lens. It's not quite as potent as a full ring around the lens, but we like it a lot. The dial has an easily grippable surface. There's a small button in the center of the dial that calls up a small onscreen menu. Here, you choose what function you want the dial to control: focus, exposure, AE Shift (a finer-tuned exposure control), or White Balance Shift. A fifth option for zooming would have been nice, but it's certainly not a deal-breaker.

The HDR-CX12 has a solid feel despite its compact size. Of course, there are always compromises to be made with compacts. The buttons in the LCD cavity are small, and may be hard to push for stubby fingers. The mode dial sits on a hump along the back ridge of the body, which means the zoom toggle had to be pushed forward. It now falls under the middle finger instead of the zoom. Like so many camcorders, the entire camcorder body is a little unbalanced. When you hold it in your right hand with the strap secured, the body leans left. This can easily be combated in the design phase by positioning the hand strap higher, but few manufacturers seem to do it.

By comparison, only the Panasonic HDC-SD100 and HDC-HS100 can really compete for power handling that higher-end consumers want, because both feature a full ring around the lens that has even more functions that Sony's dial. The Canon HF11 and JVC GZ-HD10 / GZ-HD30 / GZ-HD40 all utilize a joystick control that is convenient, but less powerful. The Samsung SC-HMX20 is comfortable in hand, but only offers touch screen control.

Menu (6.0)
We who spend all day playing with camcorders can easily fall into habits and opinions that may tend to stray from Joe Public's. In order to realign ourselves with the vox populi, we've been putting camcorders in less experienced hands and polling their opinions. It turns out that, despite our earlier conclusions, people seem to dislike Sony's menu structures, citing the confusing layout and lack of clarity as to what any of the buttons actually do.

We have to agree with them. The problem is particularly egregious with the HDR-CX12 and other Sonys using the Cam Control dial. On these models, there are three separate menus to pick through, and a lot of overlapping options.

The first menu we'll look at is the one related to the Cam Control dial. Pushing and holding the button in the center of the dial brings up a small menu in the corner of the screen. No, you can't touch the screen to select, which doesn't make sense, because you can touch everything else. Instead, you spin the dial to select.

The Cam Control dial menu contains the following options:

The second menu is the Camera menu, which contains most of the controls that directly affect image quality, including all of the stuff you can also access from the Cam Control dial. Yes, all of it. However, the interface is quite different, and not nearly as good as if you went through the dial. When you access something like Focus, the entire screen is choked with buttons and icons that make it hard to see your shot. Use the dial and thank us later.

The Camera menu contains the following options:

The third menu is the Home menu, accessed via the button in the upper left of the screen with the little "house" icon. This menu is the kitchen sink of the camcorder. Everything is here, laid out like the Junior Jumble. Good luck finding anything if you're not well-acquainted with the menu.

The Home menu consists of the following items:

Portability (6.5)
The Sony HDR-CX12 is a relatively compact camcorder. It's certainly not on par with ultra-compacts like the Sony HDR-TG1 or others. Strangely, despite a different design and much different requirements for media type, the CX12 has the same dimensions as the hard-drive based HDR-SR11 and HDR-SR12. All three measure 83 x 76 x 138mm (3 3/8 x 3 x 5 1/20 inches). Mercifully, the CX12 is lighter, weighing in at 450g (1 lbs) with the battery. The HDR-SR12 weighs 650g (1 lbs 6 oz).

UPDATE: Thanks to savvy readers who voiced their opinions, Sony has retracted the previous specs for CX12's dimensions. The new, corrected dimensions are 69 x 67 x 131mm (2 3/4 x 2 3/4 x 5 1/4 inches) including protrusions. This makes the HDR-CX12 smaller than the HDR-SR12, and about the same size as the Canon HF11.

The included 4GB MemoryStick Duo card buys you only about 25 minutes of video in the highest quality. You'll likely want to stock up on at least one more MemoryStick before a big event. Vacations can get tricky. Sure, the camcorder and media itself is light, but where will you dump your footage at the end of the day? Do you want to pack a computer? Or a standalone DVD burner? It's a tricky question that you'll need to answer before you take the plunge on a camcorder that only records to cards.

LCD and Viewfinder (7.0)
The Sony HDR-CX12 features a 2.7-inch LCD with a resolution of 211,000 pixels. Compare this with the Sony HDR-SR12, which has a much larger 3.2-inch LCD and a huge increase in resolution (921,000 pixels). When you see them side by side, the difference is immediate, and makes a big impact in tasks like manual focusing. If you only plan on simple point-and-shoot operation, you probably won't require the higher resolution. However, like all Sony camcorders, the HDR-CX12 is a touch screen camcorder, and the amount of surface area has a major impact on handling. Pushing the onscreen buttons on the larger screen is much easier than on the CX12's 2.7-inch screen. We suggest you try these out at a local camera store to get a real feel.

Battery Life (9.9)
The Sony HDR-CX12 ships with the NP-FH60 battery. We tested it for battery life by running the camcorder continuously. The LCD was open and no manual controls or zoom were engaged for the duration of the test. In all, the battery lasted 99 minutes and 30 seconds (1 hour, 39 minutes, and 30 seconds).