Sony HDR-CX500V

Ease of Use (5.50)

Sony got rid of its prized ‘Easy’ button on its new crop of camcorders this year. While most experienced users won’t bat an eye at this omission, many novice users may feel a bit overwhelmed without an ‘Easy’ mode to hold their hand. The thing is, the HDR-CX500V is still a fairly simple camcorder to use. The touchscreen system is intuitive and there are only a smattering of buttons on the camcorder itself (most of which are located inside the LCD cavity). Still, it seems rather surprising that Sony would cut such a praised feature like its ‘Easy’ mode.

The only major difficulty we found with the HDR-CX500V was its confusing menu navigation system. The menu is quite simple overall, but the navigation tools can be difficult for a first-time user to grasp. We also found the camcorder’s on-screen touch buttons to be a bit confusing—especially if you use the default display setting that makes the buttons ‘disappear’ after a few seconds (they reappear if you tap the screen). Lastly, we were not impressed with Sony’s provided instruction manual for the HDR-CX500V. The manual is easy to read, but it doesn’t cover all of the camcorder’s options or controls—not a good sign for a camcorder that is loaded with some unique features. In its defense, the camcorder does include a small info box in its menu system that is helpful for figuring out controls.

Sony rolled out a new menu system on the HDR-CX500V that is entirely different than the menus found on the HDR-XR520V or XR500V. In a way, we like the new menu setup. It is stylish, easy to read, and all the camcorder’s features are listed under one, long menu. The problem is, this main menu is extremely long (15 screens in length) and the navigation system takes a bit of getting used to. The menu is similar, but actually quite a bit better than the one found on the Sony HDR-TG5V. Sony reduced the number of menu screens and sections on the HDR-CX500V.

Navigating the menus is done by using a set of touchscreen buttons on the left side of the LCD. You can press the single-arrowed buttons to scroll through the menus screen by screen, or you can press the double arrows to switch from section to section. Switching by section is faster and the section dividers are helpful, but the camcorder does have 7 sections, so even when you scroll by section you’re still going to be pushing lots of buttons. Sony does have a few helpful icons on the side of the LCD that let you know what section you are in (there is also a section header at the top). As we said before, all the camcorder’s options are listed under this menu, which means the playback and still image controls have their own section instead of having their own menu.

If those two navigation options aren’t enough for you, Sony has included a third, more unusual system. If you hold and drag your finger along the side of the LCD (in the space where the horizontal lines are) you can scroll through the menu as if you are rotating an imaginary wheel. The farther you drag your finger, the faster the menus will scroll. This system can be useful, particularly if you know exactly where you want to go in the menu, but it is very unusual and is unlike any touchscreen option Sony has included before. We don’t think this menu navigation system is easy for beginners to figure out.

Lastly, Sony has included a customizable menu with this new design. The custom menu (called My Menu) allows you to pick six options that will be available for quick-access when you open My Menu. There are also three My Menus available—one in record mode, one in photo mode, and one in playback mode (each can have their own six options). We’re happy to see Sony include this kind of feature, particularly when you consider how extensive the camcorder’s main menu is. Strangely, you can include any options in My Menu—even things that don’t apply to specific mode. For example, you can put white balance adjustment in the Playback My Menu screen or audio settings in the Photo My Menu screen.

We did find it a bit awkward when switching between My Menu and the main menu. When you press the menu button on the CX500V, you immediately go to My Menu. To access the main menu, you have to press the small menu button that is flanked by two arrows in the lower left of corner of the LCD. With this setup, we’re afraid some first-time users may think the only options available on the camcorder are those seen in My Menu—when in reality, the camcorder’s list of features is far greater.

The main menu	The customizable My Menu is available in movie, photo, and playback mode.

Auto Mode (10.22)

Even though the Sony HDR-CX500V does not have an ‘Easy’ mode, it does have very good automatic controls. Its auto exposure and auto white balance work very well, both producing accurate results in a short amount of time. The camcorder’s auto exposure also adjusted very well when we shifted between different light sources. Another benefit of the CX500V is its AE and WB Shift features that allow you to adjust how the camcorder determines its auto exposure and auto white balance. The camcorder also has an auto backlight feature that helps correctly expose subjects who are illuminated by a strong light behind them.

Sony camcorders often do quite well with auto focus and the HDR-CX500V was no different. It did sometimes take a few seconds to shift between extreme focal lengths, but we were impressed with the camcorder’s quick ability to produce crisp, well-focused close-up images without having to switch to a tele-macro setting. The Spot Focus and Spot Meter features on the CX500V are also quite useful, as they are basically manual controls that any novice or beginner can enjoy using.

The HDR-CX500V is also loaded with face detection features, which includes something called Smile Shutter that has the camcorder automatically snap a photo when your subject smiles. Smile Shutter works well, although it is very gimmicky. You can set the smile sensitivity on the camcorder to low, medium, or high—with low only detecting big smiles and high detecting everything down to little smirks. The Face Detection function itself also works well and it enables the camcorder to automatically adjust focus and exposure based on faces it detects within the frame. You can set a face priority to child or adult on the HDR-CX500V, and the Face Detection feature must be turned on in order for the Smile Shutter system to be engaged.

Low Light Modes – The HDR-CX500V includes Sony’s popular NightShot illumination system. NightShot uses an Infrared light to enable you to shoot in complete darkness, although it coats your image in a bright, green glow (like night vision goggles). It can be a very useful feature if you’re shooting outside at night, or trying to recreate a cheesy horror-film aesthetic.

In addition to NightShot, Sony also has a Low Lux mode, but all it does is allow the camcorder to use a slow shutter in low light situations—just like auto slow shutter on other camcorders. Using the Low Lux mode won’t change the look of your footage in bright light, but when you shooting low light situations the camcorder will use a 1/30 of a second shutter speed. This will make motion look choppy and it can be very unappealing, particularly if you’re shifting between light and dark scenes.

Scene Modes – There are number of scene modes on the HDR-CX500V: Twilight, Twilight Portrait (photo mode only), Sunrise & Sunset, Fireworks, Landscape, Portrait, Spotlight, Beach, and Snow. Some of these scene modes change the shutter speed, while others alter the white balance and color tones. All these scene modes are available in photo mode as well, but some of them work a bit differently. Fireworks, for example, enables the camcorder to use shutter speeds as low as 1/8 of a second in photo mode, while it doesn’t appear to go below 1/60 in video mode.