Sony Handycam HDR-UX20 Camcorder Review

Having a chance to shoot this side by side with the Sony HDR-SR12 was useful. It proved that despite the UX20 having a smaller CMOS sensor and less advanced manual controls, auto performance was nearly identical. The responses to changes in light and focus come swift and accurately. The only difference was in low light, when the UX20 failed to perform adequately. Even in some moderately lit indoor environments, the SR12's superior sensor allowed for better auto focusing.

In the HDR-UX20 menu, you'll find the standard array of one-touch image correction tools that allow beginners to feel like they have some control without having to know complicated photography terminology. The most appealing are the Spot Focus and Spot Meter tools. When activated, a frame appears around the edge of the LCD. Simply touch the area of the screen that you wish to be properly focused or exposed, and the camcorder responds. This works best with large subjects rather than tiny details.

You'll also find a host of Scene Modes: Twilight, Twilight Portrait, Candle, Sunrise & Sunset, Fireworks, Landscape, Portrait, Spotlight, Beach, and Snow. This should be more than adequate to cover your difficult lighting environments.

Finally, the Sony HDR-UX20 has multiple low light shooting modes. These have widely different effects, so you'll want to experiment with them before an important shoot. Normally, the camcorder does not allow the auto shutter speed to drop below 1/60th of a second. If you activate the Auto Slow Shutter, it will go as low as 1/30th, which picks up a little extra light. The Color Slow Shutter is very different, allowing the shutter to go as low as around 1/4. Sure, it makes the image more colorful, but there's so much motion blur the image is typically unusable. There are also the Twilight and Candle settings in the Scene Modes menu. All told, you should be able to find something that helps, but be aware that this is not a strong low light performer, and no special setting can change that.

Overall Manual Control (6.25)
There are two levels of manual control in Sony HD camcorders. The tape-based HDV models tend to offer the most advanced, while the AVCHD camcorders have a lighter version. The HDR-UX20 is in the latter group, though the manual control set is still pretty good. No, it’s not pro level, but it will satisfy advanced dabblers. You’ll find exposure, focus, white balance, several low light modes, and all the Sony-special simple adjustments described above.

The menu is split into two distinct areas, the Camera Menu and Home menu. The Camera menu is accessed by hitting the button in the lower left area of the touch screen. This is where you’ll find all the controls that directly affect the look of the image – exposure, white balance, focus, etc. The Home menu contains all the administrative functions, such as time/date settings, activating quality control settings like Zebra stripes and Guidelines, and other options.

Measuring 2.7-inches, the LCD screen is smaller than its sibling model, the hard disk drive-based HDR-SR12. The 3.5-inch LCD on the SR12 definitely makes interfacing with the menu easier, and eliminated some of standard complaints about touch screen controls.

Zoom (5.0)
The zoom toggle is located on the top of the camcorder, towards the back. The toggle on the Sony HDR-UX20 is located too far forward, and making it hit the middle finger instead. The toggle also feels cheap and loose. We’ve seen much better from Canon and Panasonic this year.

It is possible to get a very slow zoom shot with the HDR-UX20, which we did not find on the sibling HDR-SR12. This should be a boon for amateur filmmakers who want the really dramatic push into a shot.

When zooming, a small scale appears in the upper left corner. This gives you a sense of where in the zoom range you are, but an exact numerical indication would have been nice.

Zoom Power Ratio (15.0)
The optical zoom on the Sony HDR-UX20 extends to 15x, the largest zoom of any Sony HD camcorder, along with the step-down HDR-UX10. How could they make the zoom so good, you ask? The sad answer is that Sony shrunk the CMOS sensors on its DVD camcorders, which means that the zoom ratio can be made bigger while keeping the size of the camcorder small.

The digital zoom is engaged in the Home menu. You can set the maximum digital zoom to 30x or 180x. We recommend the former, of just keeping it off altogether.

Focus (5.5)
Focus options are located in the first page of the Camera Menu. There are three choices here. Focus, Spot Focus, and Tele Macro. The first, Focus, is the most basic. When activated, the screen is populated with a slew of graphics and touch screen buttons. You only need two of them: the toward and away buttons, signified by the icons of a man and a mountain. Push each to shift focus. As we’ve said in may Sony camcorder reviews, there’s just too much junk on the screen. It’s hard to even see what you’re trying to focus. We like the fact than the camcorders offers data on focal length (in meters) while you’re focus, but everything else on screen should be eliminated.

It’s also a shame that Sony didn’t see fit to include any focus assist modes, as you’ll find on nearly all HD camcorders from other manufacturers. The best we’ve seen it JVC’s, such as the Everio GZ-HD6. The focus assist mode on that creates peaking - a brightly colored fuzz – around the areas of the screen that are in focus. Even on a small LCD, it becomes much easier to tell if your picture is in focus.

Spot Focus was described in Auto Controls section above. In short, when this control is activated, you can simply touch the area of the screen you want to be in focus and… presto, the camcorder takes care of the rest (in theory).

The Tele Macro function is for shooting close-ups from far away. The 15x zoom is instantly pushed to its full extent.

Manual exposure control

Exposure & Aperture (4.75)
The exposure controls are located in the second page of the Camera menu. There. You’ll find a simple Exposure tool, Spot Meter, and Scene Selection. The Exposure tool looks a lot like the Focus tool. You only need the plus and minus buttons to make the image darker and brighter, but Sony clogs up the screen with eleven separate graphics.

When shifting Exposure, a scale appears in the middle of the screen, but there is no numerical value. This makes it difficult to duplicate a shot later. There are 31 increments in the scale. Oddly, we counted 34 increments on the Sony HDR-SR12.

The Spot Meter works just like Spot Focus. Activate, then push the area of the screen you want properly exposed.

The third option here is the Scene Modes menu, which was detailed in the Auto Controls section above.

Manual exposure control

Shutter Speed (0.0)
The Sony DR-UX20 does not offer shutter speed control. Sony doesn’t include this on any of its non-tape HD camcorders. However, Canon, Panasonic, and JVC do have shutter control. If this is important to you, look to those manufacturers.

There are two low light modes that involve shutter speed. Normally, the auto shutter is not allowed to drop below 1/60th. When Auto Slow Shutter is activated, the shutter can drop as low as 1/30th. The Color Slow Shutter is more drastic, dropping the shutter as low as around 1/4.

White Balance (5.5)
The white balance options are located in the third page of the Camera menu. They include Auto, Indoor, Outdoor, and One Push (Manual). This is a rather limited list, but par for the competition. Canon tends to offer more white balance presets. Making a manual setting is quite easy. Just select One Push, then push then the button underneath that. It would be nice if the screen went black, then came back. This is what happens with Panasonics, and it’s assuring that a change has definitely occurred.

The White Balance controls

Gain (0.0)
The Sony HDR-UX20 does not offer gain control. Panasonic is the only camcorder manufacturer that offers manual gain in the consumer range.

Other Manual Controls (4.5)
x.v.Color – This is Sony’s trade name for the xvYCC color standard, the emerging standard for HD video. It offers wider and deeper color than the traditional color standards. Sony now offers it as an option on almost all its HD camcorders, including the HDR-SR12. In order to take advantage of you, you need to have an HDTV that supports xvYCC color. If you record with x.v.Color on and don’t have such a TV, the TV will simply discard that extra information. This is a major advantage over the JVC GZ-HD6 and Panasonic’s HDC-SD9 and HDC-HS9, all of which completely oversaturate the image.

Zebra – The Zebra function is located in the Home menu. When activated, the camcorder will display moving “zebra stripes” over any area of the image that is overexposed. There are two options: 70 and 100. These refer to IRE levels. 70 is a conservative measurement, but if your areas are hitting 100 IRE, they are definitely completely overexposed.

Face Detection – The Face Detection feature is new for 2008, and new for camcorders in general (Sony is joined by Panasonic in this area). Sony’s version seems to work better. It detects up to eight faces simultaneously, and can auto correct for exposure, focus, and white balance. In fact, Sony showed the ability to detect faces at a 90-degree angle.

Guideframes – Activated via the Home menu, the Guideframes feature draws two vertical and two horizontal lines across the screen to help you compose your shot. These lines do not get recorded to your final footage. Canon and Panasonic offer the same feature with more variations.

Conversion Lens – There are two options here, Wide Conversion and Tele Conversion. These are meant to be activated when you have a wide or tele lens attached to the camcorder.