High definition is really kicking off now. You can watch movies on Bluray HD, watch over 20 TV channels in HD on Sky and Virgin. Even rent movies from iTunes in HD. So it was time we started shooting our own video in HD too. Time for an upgrade!
So after spending weeks reading reviews on as many cameras and sites as possible I decided to go for the Sony HDR-SR10E.
I’ve now had the camera nearly 6 months so thought it would be a good time to review it for anybody else considering purchasing an HD video camera.
Hard Disc Vs Tape
Firstly the biggest difference to my old video camera is the 40GB hard disc. I was fed up with using tapes. As much as people say even HD on tapes is better quality than what’s recorded onto hard disc video cameras, you can’t beat it for convenience. 40GB of storage gives you 15 hours of high definition. That’s a lot of tapes!
Image stabilisation
One major problem with quick candid shots taken with hand held video cameras is the shake you get. Even when trying to hold it as still as possible there will be shake. It’s even more noticable in HD. So image stabilisation is a must and this camera has the best. A lot of reviews agreed it was very impressive and gets more so the more you zoom in. Its definitely one of the first things you notice about the video. So much less wobble means so much more usable footage.
HD quality
There’s a lot of conflicting reports about what offers the best HD quality from video cameras. Lots of arm chair experts. The truth of the matter is that the biggest influence will always be the lens in front of the image sensor. This video camera has a pretty good one but all compact video cameras have small lenses with tiny apertures so you’re never going to get oscar winning footage out of it. Never the less the Sony HDR-SR10 produces pretty amazing 1080i HD video. Good enough to impress anyone that has to watch one your home movies. Ok it’s not 1080p but you really wont notice the difference.
The price of the camera is pretty reasonable too. Sony products are notorious for being more expensive than similar spec rivals but that seems to be changing. Both Sony’s DSLRs and video cameras are often cheaper than their competitors and you definitely get good build quality.
So all in all i’m very happy with our sony HD video camera. It’s very compact, packs one hell of a punch and was a great price. It also works seamlessly with a mac or a PC which is handy!
Other cool features
- Takes pictures at the same time as recording video. No need to change to a different mode
- Flash for stills
- 4 megapixel stills camera which takes remarkably good quality images
- Large touch screen display
- Night mode that uses infrared pretty effectively
- Fast focussing
- Very bright colours, partly thanks to it being high definition
- The ability to record in SD, almost doubling the storage capacity.
- 5.1 surround sound that actually seems to work!
For more reviews check out the reviews section on Amazon.
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