Sony DCR-SR42 – good enough., April 5, 2007

By 

Mark Wells – See all my reviews

  

I got this camcorder a few days ago. It is very user friendly and simple. This is great for those of us that are not the most savvy. Sadly user friendly can also be a curse. Even though the picture quality of the video is great(still shots not so great, but thats not why I got a camcorder) special effects and other features are lacking. So if you want a camcorder thats easy to use and will make great home videos this is a good buy. You’ll have few worries and no tapes. Easy DVD burn(just one button). If you want features and loads of them you may want to browse some other models. No light, but good night vision. No view finder, but the lcd screen is pretty good, I could even see it well outside with the sun hitting it. No adjustments to still picture quality. No special effects built into the camcorder. But really easy to use.

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Pros and cons of a Sony DCR-SR42, September 28, 2007

By 

Michael Scosyrev – See all my reviews

  

I wasn’t originally planning to buy a hard drive camcorder (was mostly looking at mini-dv), but I saw this one at a discount at Circuit City, so that’s why I purchased it.

After using this camera, I realized that it would have been a big mistake for me if I got the mini-dv tape camera. The advantages of convenience of a hard drive camera by far outweight the extra price (sometimes as low as 50$).

The best thing I like about this camera is of course the convenience of not having to buy tapes, and the ease with which the videos are transferred to the computer. I also really like the fact that I can review the clips on the camera right after recording, or earlier clips on the drive, without having to wait for the tape to rewind and trying to catch the right moment.

I also think that the audio is very good, the sound is clear and it records very quite sounds which make the videos even more interesting.

The other great thing I like about…

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How to calculate zoom…., December 3, 2007

OK, I have to start by saying I have not actually used this product. However, I have to comment on the review that says Sony is falsely advertising a 40x zoom. Unfortunately, the reviewer does not understand what 40x means, and since this is likely true of many readers, I wanted to clear this up.

If you read the specifications, you will see that this Sony camera has a lens with a minimial focal length of 36mm and a maximum focal length 1440mm. To calculate the zoom multiplier, divide the maximum focal length by the minimum focal length. In this case, 1440 / 36 = 40 so indeed the Sony camera has a 40x lens.

So, what happened when the reviewer “GAB” went to the video store and compared this to the JVC and other models? The answer is, he only compared the maximum zooms of the different cameras. The JVC, for instance, turns out to have a greater maximum zoom. JVC’s camera specs for this model indicate it has a minimum focal distacne of 2.3, and a maximum…

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Great camera but faulty technical specs, March 14, 2011

I received my Sony HDR-CX130 today and was shocked to find that IT HAS NO MICROPHONE INPUT of ANY KIND!

I alerted Sony and they thanked me for bringing to their attention this error on their technical specifications listed (and promptly linked me to a page that allegedly says it’s not their fault if errors are made on their advertising.. that link did not work either, btw bwaha).

So, no, NO 3.5 mini jack or ANY mic/audio input whatsoever.

Also, every auto-focus mode is EXTREMELY SLOW, and the “manual” controls are next to impossible to adjust due to the DESIGN. I have been practicing for HOURS and STILL haven’t gotten the hang of using any of the “manual” controls. It’s basically, “set everything to automatic and HOPE for the best” which is not too convenient for any point-and-shoot.

On the bright side, the “touch the screen to focus on that area” DOES seem to work rather well 50% of the time, and I am pretty sure THAT is the way I will be focusing…

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Product description error, March 31, 2011

By 

M. Lisowski “music maven” (Chicago, Illinois) – See all my reviews

  

“The HDR-CX130 features an LED light that can assist in low-light situations giving you more flexibility when capturing your video.” So says the last item under “Product Description.” This is one of the key features I

was looking for. I just bought the CX130, and lo and behold, there is no LED light!

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Good Price, Good Camera, March 28, 2011

Pros = 1) Good price and 2) takes pretty good high definition footage. 3) Memory sticks are pretty handy and easier to deal with than Hi-8 tapes like my older Sony standard definition camcorder used.

Cons = 1) As others have already stated…the LCD screen is pretty hard to see in outdoor sun conditions. Recently tried to capture the USAF Thunderbirds in flight and found it to be quite the challenge. The camera really would have been much better if it had thru-the-lens viewfinder in addition to the LCD. 2) Also, the auto-focus is a bit slow. The camera does allow for manual focus, but the feature is through the menu list and is push-button rather than a twist of the lens. Not very practical for most situations.

Overall, a good camera for the money unless you’re prepared to shuck some big bucks out!

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Unacceptable picture quality, poor focusing, March 9, 2010

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A. Agbay – See all my reviews

  

I bought this at a store, not Amazon. I read good reviews about earlier models, and was a bit hesitant to buy this camera because a few people said the video quality was bad. I took the risk, but they were right. The video (and digital picture) quality are unacceptable. Even in decent lighting, the pictures are very dark and grainy, as if they were taken by an old webcam. Even at high quality, there was no improvement. Also, the autofocus was very poor and did not adjust to fast-moving subjects. Don’t be fooled if you try it in a store; the LCD screen has great resolution (better than an iPod) but when you see the video on a computer screen (even when not blown to full size) or on a projection screen, the video quality is so bad. It looks average on a traditional TV. And the zoom mic also does not capture sound effectively. I was going to use this for business videography, but it would have been embarrassing to use this camcorder. I suspect similar camcorders (i.e. 1/6 CCD) may have…

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Sony Handycam is ok, April 14, 2010

I bought this with 3 basic needs, 1.I wanted something compact, 2. I wanted the capability to take pictures. 3. I wanted it to have a night vision light. You would think these 3 things would be easy to find in many cameras at a decent price range, but they were not! So how did this fair up? This camera is one of the most compact, even smaller than I expected. 2. It’s picture taking ability I was least impressed with. It was pretty grainy. 3. The night vision light was pretty weak, but hey I expected that for such a small camera. The battery life with the standard battery was about avg. 4 hrs. As far as working the camera, it was VERY simple, figured it out in 5 minutes w/o reading instructions, needless to say, there are VERY few menu screens, touch screen is kinda nice, but would also liked to have the capability to tape w/the viewfinder closed. All in all, i’m pretty happy w/the purchase, just don’t buy it if you want it to take good pictures, i’ve had phones that took clearer…

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Poor video quality–overall not good, March 10, 2010

I purchased this camera at a store, believing the SONY brand name and previous good reviews about similar Sony camcorders. There are several flaws to this product.

Cons

1. Picture quality is very poor, Indoor and outdoor pictures in good light appear with a bluish tint all over. If you wear a white /gray cloth it appears bluish on video. Like wise the sunlight coming inside your house through window /blinds all appears light blue!! Even with good lighting the quality of images are very bad, lacks sharpness, This in comparison to my old Panasonic PV GS120 is not even close to true color. If you view the pictures on a TV screen it will definitely appear lacking the sharpness. If you are transferring the video to computer using the supplied software it appears very blurry and grainy.

2. There is no way you can charge the battery when camcorder is in use even if there is a spare battery because the battery charging is done hooking up the AC adapter to the camcorder…

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Great Camcorder – Better than my First., November 14, 2005

I bought this camcorder 4 months after the sound on my other one stopped working and I was impressed. The optical zoom is good at 20x and the digital zoom (which is completely pointless) is 990x. The second thing I noticed is that the LCD screen moved to more places and that there was 2 record buttons. One was on the LCD screen, the other was next to the off button. The viewfinder can also move to different places but is still in Black and white. Another feature that this camcorder has is Nightshot Plus. This feature allows you to record at night with a brighter picture than with a flashlight or lamp. There are also many DSEs or Digital Special Effects that you can play with in recording or editing. They are:

Sepia: adds a brown old tone to the screen

Black and White: the way films used to be

Negative Art: reverses the colors in the picture

Pastel: makes the picture look colored in with a pastel crayon

Solarize: makes the picture out of basic…

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Not good for playing old S-Video Tapes, January 5, 2007

I bought this to play back old Hi8 tapes so I could transfer them to DVD. However, there is no S-Video out and no stereo out. Video quality was bad: output was noisey and reds were over saturated. I imagine this is because there is no S-Video out. I returned it and have ordered a Sony GV-D200. Hopefully it will give me better quality since it was more than twice as much. There are some cheaper used options available, e.g. Sony EVO-250.

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Good enough., January 2, 2006

This is your basic video camera. I’d say it’s good for those who just need a video camera for occassional video recording. It has the basic features, with NightShot as an additional bonus. The picture quality isn’t as great as I thought it would be (it’s a bit grainy on my 36″ WEGA), it doesn’t record in stereo, and I wish it could hook up on my computer, but there’s no USB port. I guess for the price you pay, it’s expected. I’d recommend it if you’re not really looking for something too hi-tech. I wish I could’ve gone with something better, maybe the next model up, but hey, it gets the job done.

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High end Handycam, December 30, 2008

The most versatile handycam I have ever used. You can store on any type of media.

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