Sony HDR-CX500V

Color (7.25)

The Sony HDR-CX500V’s bright light image looked good, but its colors weren’t that accurate in our testing. The camcorder registered a color error of 4.83 and a saturation level of 92.47%. These numbers are slightly worse than what most high-end models earn in this test. The Sony HDR-XR520V, however, had a very similar color accuracy score to the HDR-CX500V. More on how we test color.

Color Accuracy Performance
	Color Error Map
	The map on the left is a diagram of the color error. The length and direction of each line indicates how the camera processed each particular color while capturing video. The Sony HDR-CX500V produced a color error of 4.83 and a saturation level of 92.47% in our bright light color testing.

In the Color Error Map above you can see the HDR-CX500V produced most blue colors with tremendous accuracy. On the other hand, the camcorder had trouble with certain yellows, greens, and browns. The CX500V doesn’t have any controls that allow you to adjust color depth, but you can alter the White Balance Shift to give your image a cooler or hotter tone. Examples of the WB Shift option in action are shown below:

Sony HDR-CX500V Color Modes
Auto 100% Crop
WB Shift -4 100% Crop WB Shift +4 100% Crop More...

Despite the fact that the CX500V had slightly less accurate colors than the competition, the camcorder still managed to produce a very pleasant bright light image. The CX500V looks very good in the comparison images below, offering vivid colors and a bright, crisp image.

Sony HDR-CX500V Color Comparisons
Sony HDR-CX500V
Panasonic HDC-TM300 Canon Vixia HF S11 JVC GZ-HM400 More...

When looking at these color comparisons, keep in mind that color accuracy is only one aspect of a camcorder’s color quality. The quality of a camcorder’s color rendering is strongly based on personal preference. Many people prefer over-saturated colors so the skies in their videos look bluer and the grass looks greener. Looking at all these high-end models from various manufacturers we must say that not one of them really stands out as ‘the best’ when it comes to color. All of them look very good and it is up to your personal preference to determine which model produces the most appealing color.

Close-Up Color Comparisons				Expand
	Ideal	Sony HDR-CX500V	Panasonic HDC-TM300	Canon Vixia HF S11	JVC GZ-HM400
Red
Green
Blue
Light Skin
Dark Skin

Low Light Color (6.53)

The HDR-CX500V showed a significant drop in color accuracy when we did our low light tests, but its image still retained a good amount of saturation. We measured a color error of 5.6 and a saturation level of 77.92% for the camcorder in our low light testing. This saturation level is quite a bit higher than any of the competition was capable of, and the color error score is average for a camcorder of its class. More on how we test low light color.

Low Light Color Accuracy Performance
	Color Error Map
	The map on the left is a diagram of the color error. The length and direction of each line indicates how the camera processed each particular color while capturing video. The Sony HDR-CX500V produced a color error of and a saturation level of in our bright light color testing.

In the comparisons below you can see how much richer the colors captured by the Sony HDR-CX500V were compared to the competition. The Panasonic HDC-TM300 shows colors that are a bit more washed out, while the JVC GZ-HM400 offers a slight yellow-green discoloration on its image. The Canon HF S11 also captured very deep colors, but its overall image was also darker than the Sony HDR-CX500V.

Noise (10.57)

The Sony HDR-CX500V showed very low noise levels in our bright light testing, which is what we expect to see from a high-end camcorder. The CX500V was more impressive than usual, however, as it had even lower noise levels than the Canon HF S11 and JVC GZ-HM400 (the Panasonic HDC-TM300 had roughly the same amount of noise as the Sony). More on how we test noise.

Sony HDR-CX500V Noise Comparisons
Sony HDR-CX500V 100% Crop	Panasonic HDC-TM300 100% Crop Canon Vixia HF S11 100% Crop JVC GZ-HM400 100% Crop More...

Since you can’t really see any noise in the crops above, the images instead do a very good job showing off each camcorder’s sharpness ability. All of these models are capable of capturing crisp, detailed images, but it is the JVC GZ-HM400 that does the best in bright light. Notice how sharp its numbers are going down the side of the vertical trumpet. The Rest of the camcorders show a slight amount of blur at the bottom of each vertical trumpet (the lines blur together), while the JVC GZ-HM400 retains a strong definition throughout.