Monday, August 18, 2008

The Sony Handycam HDR-SR11 Camcorder

Our review of the Sony Handycam HDR-SR11 camcorder is our second in the camcorder line. A little while ago, we reviewed the The Canon HF100 Camcorder. The big difference between the two lies in the way they handle storage.

The Sony Handycam HDR-SR11 has a built in hard drive for high capacity storage. Clearly catering to the lazy among us, who refuse to go to all the trouble of taking a backup of their work, this camcorder sports a 60 GB hard drive. That means you can go a long time without having to transfer your data onto a computer.

Most camcorders support the miniDV storage format, which is basically just a tape the size of a matchbox that fits into the camcorder. But in my opinion, these are on their way out as the digital world takes over more traditional means of data storage.

Sony has tried to maximize the use of space in the The Sony Handycam HDR-SR11 Camcorder by putting some controls onto the 3.2 inch touchscreen. Some people may find that if they're recording, and they need to make a setting change, it will disturb their steadiness, causing the picture to shake. However, the camcorder makes up for this by having one of the best grips in the industry.

The Sony Handycam HDR-SR11 Camcorder comes with a mini HDMI cable. I suppose they were trying to be neat making the cable miniscule, but they're not really standard and this makes it hard to find spare parts. Corporations really should standardize on their hardware to enable interoperativity. But Sony doesn't have a great track record in that department.

The picture quality of the Sony Handycam HDR-SR11 is great, being able to record at the highest capacity - 1920x1080 HD. This means that you can record a little more than 14 hrs of video at the highest quality setting, and 41 hrs at the lowest. That's plenty of range to satisfy anyone. The camcorder renders color perfectly, and even recognizes faces. This means that when a face comes into view, it focuses on it instead of simple going for the object in it's specified range. This makes a great deal of difference when recording your son's birthday party for example.

All in all, a pretty good looking camcorder to go with, giving you all the expertise that has made Sony products famous. Find the best prices at www.pricealerter.com

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