Sony Handycam HDR-UX20 Camcorder Reviewby Michael PerlmanPublished on May 5, 2008 8:33 AM 
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Still Features (7.25)
The HDR-UX20 (Review, Specs, Recent News, $0.00) is not stacked with extensive image size options like the HDR-SR12 (Review, Specs, $1399.00), which offers up to 10MP stills. 4MP is the max, which is a downgrade from the previous generation HDR-UX7 (Review, Specs, $1399.00) (Review, Specs, $0.00)’s 6MP max. The HDR-UX20 captures still images in the following sizes: 2304 x 1728 (4.0MP), 2304 x 1296 (3.0MP), 1600 x 1200 (1.9MP), and 640 x 480 (0.3MP VGA) to Internal Flash Memory or Memory Stick PRO Duo. In Video mode, the HDR-UX20 can capture a 3MP still via the Dual Record function.
The HDR-UX20 has a flash mounted to the left of the lens. The placement of the flash will most likely lead to uneven lighting, so play with the Exposure before settling on the flash. The flash can be set to Auto, On, or Off and the level can be adjusted to High, Medium, or Low. A Redeye Reduction feature can be set, which reduces the infamous demon eyes of a subject in an image.
Sony also implemented Face Detection on the HDR-UX20, which can detect up to 8 faces at a time. This is available in both video and still modes. When Face Detection is activated, a white box will appear around a subject’s face, concentrating primarily on color, Focus, and Exposure. You can activate Face Detection with frames on or off. Sony’s Face Detection is superior to Panasonic’s, which only picks up 6 faces at a time, and has a particularly difficult time doing so.
The HDR-UX20 also has a 10 second Self-Timer, located in the Function menu. All Manual Controls are available, and the Flash modes and Image sizes can be accessed from the Function menu as well as the Home menu.
The Photo menu can be accessed from the Home menu, and contains the following items:
| Photo Settings |
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| Page 1 |
Image Size, File Number, NightShot Light, SteadyShot, Guideframe, Zebra |
| Page 2 |
Flash Mode, Flash Level, Red Eye Reduction, Face Detection, Conversion Lens |
In order to view recorded stills, press the Playback button above the LCD cavity or in the bottom left hand corner of the LCD screen. Just like Video playback mode, captured media will appear as thumbnails that can be pressed to access the particular clip or image. The Photo Playback menu contains the following options:
| Photo Playback Function | |
| Page 1 |
Print, Slideshow |
| Page 2 |
Delete, Delete By Date, Delete All |
The Photo playback menu
Still Performance (11.28)
We tested the still performance of the Sony HDR-UX20 camcorder by shooting an industry-standard X-Rite Color Checker chart at an even, bright light at a variety of exposures. We then ran the stills through Imatest imaging software. At best, the camcorder was able to produce a color error of 5.32. This was very similar, virtually identical to the Sony HDR-SR12, and a very good score in terms of color accuracy. The Panasonic HDC-HS9 (Review, Specs, Recent News, $0.00) was a little farther off the mark at 6.62, and the Canon HF10 turned in a much poorer performance. The noise from the UX20 measured 1.1725% - better than the SR12 and Canon HF10, but not nearly as good as the Panasonic HS9. Finally, the saturation measured 95.75%, just about on target.
Though we shot in several exposure settings, the auto mode proved to be the most accurate. That should prove to be of some hope to beginners.
Still Resolution (17.45)
The resolution of the Sony HDR-UX20's stills were tested by shooting an Applied Image ISO 12233 resolution chart at an even, bright light, then exported to Imatest imaging software to determine the line width per pixel height (lw/ph). At best, the UX20 was able to produce a horizontal resolution of 1144 lw/ph, with an undersharpening of 4.62%. In order to get this best score, we had to bump the exposure up by one increment from auto mode. As you may have read elsewhere in the review, Sony is pretty conservative in its manual control offerings. We had to read the EXIF data after the picture was taken in order to see the aperture and shutter speed: f/3.4 and 1/60th.
This is resolution score is right on target for a camcorder with this imager size and pixel count, nothing great or terrible.