10.7.2009

I bought this recently to replace my six year old Sony mini-DV camcorder, wanting to take advantage of the widescreen size, improved technology and of course the high definition capability. In particular I was interested in the AVCHD functionality, Sony's format for playing back hi-def footage written to a DVD-R or DVD-RW through a Blu-ray player.I've had the camera for a couple of weeks now and have made a few hours of footage with it. I started off in the highest quality mode, HD FH, which runs in 1920x1080i at 14MBps. You can store about 50-55 minutes of footage on the internal 8Gb flash memory in this mode, and of course you can plug in Memory Stick Pro Duo cards to increase the capacity.The output in this mode is superb, very sharp when played back on my 40" Sony HD flatscreen.The only problems I've noticed so far are an occasional failure to apply the correct white balance to footage shot in bright, contrast-y sunlight (though I've yet to play around much with the white balance settings), and the difficulty of editing the AVC-format data that comes off the camera on a PC (the footage comes out in .mts format, which can be converted to HD compliant .m2ts using the supplied Sony PMB software). The PMB software is not particularly good or useful - you can use it to burn DVDs or Blu-ray disks straight from the footage from your camera but you can't edit the footage in any useful way, not that I've found anyway.I've therefore been using Sony Vegas and DVD Architect to build my projects, but have found problems with these. Sony camera, Sony software all the way...it should be easy, right? But even with a decent processor and 3Gb of RAM in my PC the editing of the admittedly large files is haphazard, and the rendering in DVD Architect often fails. This is not a fault of this camera of course, but Sony really should be making the post-shoot process a lot easier.The camera itself is tiny, lightweight and very easy to use. I haven't noticed any noise from the camera during quiet moments in playback - older generation camcorders were notorious for the microphone picking up the noise of the zoom motor when there was little ambient noise during recording, but this seems fine. The functionality is great with lots of control over focus and metering, and the on-screen display is intuitive and easy to use, though the buttons on the touch-screen are a bit too small.I haven't used this for photos and can't see why anyone would bother - the ability to take photos with a camcorder seems totally pointless to me; if you want to take still photos, use a proper still camera. You wouldn't think of filming a wedding on a still camera that happens to have built-in video recording, would you? I think it's just one of those gimmicks that manufacturers feel obliged to include, like the notorious digital zoom on still cameras and video cameras - absolutely pointless as all it does is pixellate and degrade your footage, but it sounds impressive to customers with limited knowledge of what the heck they're buying.Anyway, the main thing we're all buying a camcorder for is the quality of the video produced and easy of use, and this comes out very well in both respects. The HD FH quality setting records in 1920x1080i at 16MBps, HD HQ records in 1440x1080i at 9MBps, and there's an HD SP mode at 1440x1080i at 7MBps, with quality deteriorating going down at each step (though available recording time goes up, since there's less data being written out). There is also an SD (standard def) mode, which I haven't used and won't be using. The camera has got the Sony EXMOR sensor which is very highly rated and produces excellent HD video.Another reviewer said you need a tripod to use this as footage comes out very shaky - I haven't found this to be the case at all; this is not the camera's fault anyway, it's the fault of the operator. Just use nice steady zooms and pans as you would with any camcorder, job done.Summary: great little camera, excellent quality HD footage, easy to use, superb price; with £50 cashback at the moment you can't go wrong!

5.10.2009

Where do I start?Amazon. Bought it here because they offered it for £377 rather then £599 in the shops. Plus I got the £50 cashback from Sony, this made it £327, for that price, I thought I'd give it a go...I used the camera for a few weeks, getting used to what it could do and found it simple to use and about the right size for carrying around on my belt for those 'wish I had my camera moments'. By the way, don't buy the recommended bag, it's far too big. I bought this bag and now use it to store the charger etc.The little Sony bags made for the Cybershot cameras fit the CX105 much better.I am going to avoid going into detail about the camera itself, many other reviews here have covered that much bettter than I ever could.Instead I am going to go over the issues I found after living with this camera for a while.After reading the reviews here, confirmed by my trials of the camera, I bought an extra battery. The standard size one fits nicely in the cybershot case too, anything bigger would not.Be wary if you buy the 16GB memory stick to go with this camera, I bought one from a reseller here because Amazon was out of stock and they sent me the version that does not have the external usb adaptor. When I contacted them, they said Sony had stopped selling the one with the adaptor. Funny that as 2 days later Amazon got the item back in stock and are still advertising it with the adaptor. Is Amazon breaking trading standards advertising guidelines or is the reseller telling me porkys, you decide.Anyway back to the camera. As others have said, it is not great in low light but this is easily solved. As the event I was going to recording was to be at night (Singapore GP) I was a bit concerned about how it would fair. The solution is to be found by buying a wide-angle lense, this allows more light into the sensor and provides much better images in low light conditions. I saw these lenses on amazon but did not buy one here as I wanted to see if the difference was noticable. My lense was demonstrated to me in a little shop in Chinatown (Singapore) and blew me away with the difference it made to indoor/low light filming. Using such a lense does reduce the zoom distance but this was not a problem when I used it to record the event.In the title I mentioned forgetting the bundled software. I admit I have only used it once so it might get better with more experience.. If you want to make good videos/dvds with this (or any other camera) I recommend getting an iMac. For more years than I care to remember, I have been a PC follower but my recent purchase of an iMac has shown me the light. Imagine a world where you plug in your new camera, don't have to install a driver or any software and the computer says 'new pictures/event found, would you like them importing' then being able to drag section of clips into a video timeline, press one button and hey-presto you have a DVD of your footage. A techno-phobes dream. If you want to get more creative you can, the tools are all there and they just work quickly and effortlessly.In short, the camera is great for the money I paid, small enough to be practical, quality of footage is better than anything else I have ever owned, the battery is OK but you should have a second one, the software is not the best and if you can, get an iMac to use for video editing.

19.8.2010

I purchased this camcorder some months back but wanted to really test it out before I posted a review/comments.The previous reviews below are very comprehensive and I cant see the point of repeating a lot. All I will say is that the I have not had a single problem with the camcorder. It has worked perfectly every time without a problem. Some comments I would say however having now used for several months:(a) This camcorder is very small and very light. You can almost put it in your inside pocket! It is worth the time to get used to this a bit before going on an expensive holiday. If you have upgraded from a model from a few years back like I did you really do need to get use to such a small instuement.(b)

19.8.2009

Although I've used camcorders previously I've not used any in the last couple of years so this camcorder impressed me with the range of features, size and quality. After comparing it to others on the market I had narrowed my choice to a similarly spec.ed Panasonic and this Sony. The decision to go for the Sony was purely down to there being a £50 cashback on offer at the time. I don't regret my purchase but do feel I would have been equally satisfied with the Panasonic. The only thing I feel slightly let down by is the inability to hook up any external lens to the camcorder like you used to be able to do in the days of analogue.

1.3.2010

Having done a lot of research before buying this and noting both general and specific comments regarding digital camcorders, I purchased this shortly before a trip to Viet Nam and started using it without reference to the manual. The cashback of £60 helped, but I would have purchased in any case.Out of the box this is very easy to use without use of the manual. However reading the manual or simply checking each function on the easy to use screens will enable you to capture and share great memories.Even though I specifically wanted HD quality, I did not use HD recording because of the amount of memory used and the difficulties in editing unless you have good processing speed and memory.On my return I find the SD recording to be of great quality,

26.1.2010

Today I took the CX105ES out for a test drive to my local park, Ducks Swans water fountains ect ect, the day was quite sunny and after returning I watched the footage back on my Samsung 8000 Led TV via HDMI connection and I was blown away by the stunning quality, picture was very vivid which I like about Sony, after a while I realized I had left the camcorder on the Default sp mode, and had not been shooting in FH quaility, even on the sp mode it is stunning. £351.90 plus a £60 cashback from Sony, this is a no brainer.

24.9.2009

Pros:Light and easy to carry around.Picture quality in good light is excellent.Software supplied is reasonably good for managing images but editing is very limited.Slow motion feature is fun but picture quality in this mode is poor.Still photos are very good considering the relatively low megapixel rate.Cons:So light that it is difficult to keep steady. This is not helped by the lack of a separate view finder. Best to use a small tripod or monopod to hold the camera.Low light quality not great but acceptable.

5.8.2009

I bought the recomended LCS-X10 case for this camera and its far too big. This camera is tiny and I guess you could use the LCS-X10 for the camera, cables and PSU, but it would still be too big and you'd have the mains plug in the bag able to damage the camera. I wanted a case that was as small as possible and the 'Sony LCS-CSJ Soft Carry Case For Cybershot' case does the job. Its a nice tight fit, the case it pretty tough and there is a pocket to take a spare battery and memory card if you want. Just the job

9.9.2009

I selected this HD camcorder after days of looking at reviews of others with a similar spec. and price, and am very pleased with my purchase.It's very easy to use, as my 8 year old grand-daughter found out, and the results are outstanding.The only negative side is the price of the Sony memory sticks, but if you shop around you'll find they are coming down in price, but beware of counterfeits

Sony HDR-CX105E (HDRCX105E) - Reviews

Info

Analysis

Detail