Sony HDR-SR8 - Expert Reviews

Review summary: Sony's latest sets a new standard for HD.

Pros: Beautiful HD video. Massive storage

Cons: Could do with a video light

Verdict: It's like when the Wizard of Oz goes colour. The best HD camcorder around

Award: Recommended!

Review summary: The best hard-disk AVCHD camcorder yet?

Verdict: When AVCHD first arrived, it was hard to recommend the format to anyone but incurable gadget lovers. Even though it is now more widely compatible with editing software, AVCHD's inferior image quality to HDV precludes it from being the right choice for ...

Pros: 100GB hard drive, attractive & comfortable design, vibrant picture quality, excellent stills mode

Cons: Price, AVCHD format incompatible with most DVD players

Verdict: The Sony HDR-SR8E is a stylish and easy to use HDD camera with a gargantuan 100GB hard drive. It might not be the cheapest model out there, but you definitely get what you pay for.

Review summary: Having spearheaded the high-definition video revolution with HDV, Sony is again pushing the technological frontier with its support for AVCHD, the format that uses a very efficient MPEG4 compression system

Pros: Great handling and ergonomics, Lots of good features and connectivity, HD clips are excellent in good light

Cons: Manual control can be fiddly, Mic suffers from wind noise, CMOS creates lower light issues, Expensive

Verdict: Despite some niggles, the SR8's HD quality, capacity and ease of use will undoubtedly entice newbies away from digital tape

Review summary: On first impressions, the camcorder looks no different to a tape-based model

Pros: Great handling and ergonomics, Lots of good features and connectivity, HD clips are excellent in good light

Cons: Manual control can be fiddly, Mic suffers from wind noise, CMOS creates lower light issues, Expensive

Verdict: As for sound, the upper body is occupied largely by an upward-facing 5.1ch microphone designed to provide surround sound pickup. The adjacent hot accessory shoe is designed for use in connecting a video light or, if you rather, an optional external ...