Sony Handycam HDR-CX500V Camcorder Review

Still Features Summary
• Not overloaded with still features, but there are a few—built-in flash, self-timer, capture photo while recording, capture photo during playback, etc. • Sony boasts a 12-megapixel still image capability, but that resolution is interpolated. The highest native resolution is around 6 megapixels. • Still color accuracy was very good, as was the saturation level. • Noise and sharpness levels were okay, but nothing overly impressive.
	Manual Controls	(Page 8 of 17)	Handling & Use

Still Features (10.38)

The Sony HDR-CX500V doesn't have a huge set of still features, but it does have some basic ones. The camcorder touts a 12-megapixel still image capability, but its top native resolution is around 6.2 megapixels. This means the two highest image size options (4000 x 3000 and 4000 x 2250) are interpolated from a 2880 x 2160 image. A 6.2-megapixel capability is still quite good, although it is not as large as the native resolution you'd get even from a cheap digital camera. There are also numerous HD camcorders out there at offer native 8-megapixel and 9-megapixel still image resolution options (like the Canon HF S11, JVC GZ-HM400, and Sanyo VPC-HD2000).

The built in flash has a number of settings.		The Mode button switches between photo and video mode.

The CX500V does have a built-in flash located just above the lens. The flash has a variety of settings including redeye-reduction and three brightness intensity options. The camcorder also has a 10-second self timer and 5 different photo size options in still image mode. You can capture still photos in video mode, but the images are limited to a 3840 x 2160 (8.2 megapixels) resolution when you're shooting HD video.

One of the more unique features on the HDR-CX500V is its Smile Shutter technology. The Smile Shutter will automatically snap a photo—even while video is recording—when a smile is detected within the frame. The feature actually works quite well at detecting smiles and you can even set the detection sensitivity to low, medium, or high. All of these "Smile" features are only available if Face Detection is also activated on the camcorder.

There's nothing incredibly special about the photo playback setup on the HDR-CX500V. Still photos are arranged as small thumbnails and can be viewed in full-screen or output to a television via any of the camcorder's video-out terminals. You can also run slideshows on the CX500V and display photo data (like aperture and shutter speed) for a selected still image. The camcorder's GPS system can tag the locations of photos as well as videos.

The Photo Settings section of the menu		Still image playback mode

Still Color (12.5)

The HDR-CX500V did quite well on our still color accuracy test. In fact, it did better with color accuracy here than it did in our video color testing. The CX500V managed a color error of 2.8 with a saturation level of 101.9%. These are both excellent scores, and it bodes well for the CX500V's overall still image performance. (More on how we test still color.)

The still photography color error map: the length and direction of each line indicates how the camcorder processed each particular color.

All of the camcorders in this set had very good color accuracy in their still images. The Panasonic HDC-TM300 (2.65 color error) produced the most accurate colors, although its numbers weren't that much better than the Sony. The JVC GZ-HM400 came in third (3.08 color error), followed by the Canon HF S11 (3.87 color error). As you can see below, each of these camcorders captures a detailed still image with solid colors. The Canon did appear to overexpose the image a bit, while the JVC did the opposite and underexposed its still image.

Sony HDR-CX500V Still Color Comparisons
Sony HDR-CX500V	Panasonic HDC-TM300
Canon HF S11	JVC GZ-HM400

Still Noise (4.06)

The noise levels on the Sony HDR-CX500V's still photos were okay, but they weren't anything spectacular. The camcorder averaged 0.87% noise in our still noise testing, which is less noise than the Canon HF S11 and JVC GZ-HM400 measured in the same test. Still, this is more noise than the CX500V measured in our bright light video recording, so we expected better from the camcorder. (More on how we test still noise.)

Still Sharpness (6.9)

Still sharpness is probably the most important of our still image testing because it gives you an idea of how much fine detail its photos are able to capture. In our testing, the Sony HDR-CX500V managed a horizontal sharpness of 1914 with 7.8% undersharpening and a vertical sharpness of 1676 with 10.6% undersharpening. These scores aren't bad, but they are a far cry from the 12-megapixel resolution (4000 x 3000 image size) Sony touts the camcorder as having. In reality, the camcorder has an effective pixel count of around 6 megapixels for still photos, which we talked about earlier in the Still Features section of this review. For a 6-megapixel camcorder, the CX500V's sharpness scores aren't bad. They are better than the Panasonic HDC-TM300 was capable of, although the Canon HF S11 and JVC GZ-HM400—both of which have higher pixel counts—did better in this test.  (More on how we test still sharpness.)

Sony HDR-CX500V Comparisons
Panasonic HDC-TM300	Canon HF S11	JVC GZ-HM400