Sony Handycam DCR-SR300 (40GB)

• Average user rating: 3.0 stars out of 10 reviews
• My rating: 0 stars

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• 6 stars

  Good camera, but maybe not right for Mac users

  by t8bloom on April 21, 2007

  Pros: Image sensor quality, lots of internal storage

  Cons: MPEG2 compression compatibility, no mic jack

  Summary: The DCR-SR300 camera has a lot of benefits, but a few drawbacks that I didn't expect. I purchased this camera because of three main features:
  
  1) The 40 GB
  
  ...

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  Summary: The DCR-SR300 camera has a lot of benefits, but a few drawbacks that I didn't expect. I purchased this camera because of three main features:
  
  1) The 40 GB internal hard disk, and the presumed ease of editing that would come along with it.
  2) The native 16:9 standard definition sensor and high image quality.
  3) Good low-light performance.
  
  The camera itself is perfectly easy to use, and required no more than 10 minutes or so to find all the settings and adjust them the way I wanted them. It's surprisingly small and lightweight, and totally silent in operation. Ergonomically it's easy to hold and record, although the zoom button is very touchy. The zoom has two modes: slow, and very fast. If you're ok with really fast zooms, this will not bother you, but I find it difficult to produce the very gentle level of force necessary to make it go slowly. A more analog control would have been better, but this is tolerable; plus, you can work around it by using the always-slow zoom controls next to the LCD display.
  
  The picture quality is quite good, and I love the native wide-screen sensor. The low light performance is about what I expected, although in Nightshot mode, it sometimes loses autofocus and wanders around for a while trying to find the subject. This is an all automated use camera -- it does have some manual controls, but they are buried away under the touch screen menu, so aren't much value in real time. The camera does use interlaced images, of which I am no fan. Although for anything in the consumer price range, this seems to be on par.
  
  One feature Sony touts on this camera is their "smooth slow recording" which takes 3 seconds of video, and stretches it to 12 seconds for a slow effect. It does record slow and smooth, but what they don't tell you is that it degrades the picture quality while it does it. It's still an interesting feature that has its uses, but it does not perform at full quality. For most purposes, I expect slow motion is better done in post production to maintain image quality.
  
  Audio quality is good for the person using the camera to narrate, but the mic is unidirectional, and there is no jack to add an external (non Sony proprietary) microphone. The microphone points up from the top of the camera, so it picks up a lot of ambient noise, and not a lot of the subject. A simple mic input jack would make all the difference here, but unfortunately there is none. Again, in its price range, I don't think this is so unusual or bad, just less than what I hoped for.
  
  The internal hard disk is really quite cool. Even set to the highest quality mode, it holds something like 10 hours of data -- way more than I would ever need for a single project. Moving the files to a computer is no trouble at all: just plug the camera into the included dock, attach USB cable from the dock to your computer. The camera shows up just like any other hard disk. But once you have the files transferred is where the pain starts for Mac users.
  
  The DCR-SR300 uses MPEG2 compression (I learned in the course of troubleshooting), which is not natively supported on Mac OSX. Apple is kind enough to sell an MPEG2 decoder on their website for $20 which allows you to see the video, but unfortunately not hear the audio as well. I dug around the net and found a decent and free tool to help with this called Streamclip, and it seems to be the only workaround for this problem. Streamclip allows you to convert the MPEG2 files into an MPEG4 file that iMovie can understand, as well as deinterlace, etc. It's not a terrible solution -- it's actually pretty good, but it's far from the ease of use that I was hoping for.
  
  Overall I'm happy with the camera -- particularly the image quality, but was displeased with the difficulty converting the file format to something the Mac would understand. The Sony manual was no help whatsoever here, but luckily there was a solution that ended up being acceptable.

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  6 out of 6 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 5 stars

  Not for the road warrior.

  by AMCooper63 on June 25, 2007

  Pros: Very fast video transfer.

  Cons: No aux input, no view finder, requires base to download.

  Summary: The camera seems to work well but it hangs at least once every outing. I find that the only way to regain control is to pull the battery. Not even ...

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  Summary: The camera seems to work well but it hangs at least once every outing. I find that the only way to regain control is to pull the battery. Not even the mechanical power switch will turn it off to reboot the thing. I have a lot of interlacing visible in my videos. Very disappointing. The only way to charge or download from the camcorder is with the base. Just one more thing to have to carry. Video transfer lives up to its claim of about ten to one. Meaning that an hour of video transfer to my PC in about 6 minutes.

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  5 out of 5 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 6 stars

  Like-able camera. I'm glad I purchased it.

  by mikeandleslie on July 7, 2007

  Pros: Easy to use touch screen. Good Internal Mic. External Wireless Mic capable.

  Cons: Zoom button is too close to the snap-a-photo button. The touch screen options are confusing at first to navigate. The PDF Handbook is lacking answers. I wish it came with a printed Handbook.

  Summary: I like this camera. I am happy I now own it. I would do it again. However, I wish it came with a printed Handbook. The PDF down-loadable Handbook is ...

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  Summary: I like this camera. I am happy I now own it. I would do it again. However, I wish it came with a printed Handbook. The PDF down-loadable Handbook is all you have access to. The PDF Handbook lacks answering many how-to questions. It does not answer, in layman's terms, how to do many things. There needs to be a source of information on "how to do" things. I deliberately only considered a hard-drive camera, but this means I need the accompanying Handicam Station to download or connect to a computer. However the Station needs 110 electricity. Any computer you connect to via this Station must have the camera software preinstalled to download video. What this tells me is that this is not the camera for taking into the outback. A camera with removable media would be much better for remote filming. I need too much other stuff (Handicam Station, Software disk, electrical source, and a computer) to deal with the camera's full internal hard-drive. The infrared night capabilities seem limited by how much "other" light is available. The literature says the night capabilities should be good to 20 feet. I found it is good for about 10 feet. To protect the lens from scratches, smudges, and dust, I felt the need to purchase and attach a UV filter. I wish it had a view finder. Now, with all this negative stuff, how do I impress you with how I like the camera and am truly happy I purchased it? I purchased Sony's Wireless Mic as we will be filming training sessions from across the room and field. The combination of wireless mic and camera seem flawless. I hope Sony supports this camera for many years to come. I.e. What if in the future I need to replace the Station or accompanying wires? I connected it via the included cables to my TV. That worked just fine.

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  3 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 8 stars

  Great Camera

  by af847 on June 5, 2007

  Pros: Great video quality

  Cons: Touch screen has limitations

  Summary: I wanted to get away from DV tapes and have finally found the ticket. I had tried other models from other manufacturers and returned them due to poor video quality. ...

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  Summary: I wanted to get away from DV tapes and have finally found the ticket. I had tried other models from other manufacturers and returned them due to poor video quality. This camera's video quality is markedly better. Not wild about the touch screen menu and having problems with the Macro view. The computer USB2 interface is a dream. Still pics are pretty good, but not up to par with those from my digital still camera. Still, after shopping for a long time I'm glad I got this camera.

  Updated
  I researched this thing and finally bought it about 6 months ago. I really wanted to like it! But after comparing all my footage with that shot by my 5 year old Sharp Viewcam, I find the image quality lacking. It's blurrier. No way around it. I wish I would have held out for the HD version! I do have to say the interface and HDD functionality are great though.

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  1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 7 stars

  Best widescreen HDD camcorder for now

  by aarato on April 29, 2007

  Pros: Easy to use, Native wide screen support, Take photos while shooting a video

  Cons: Disappointing low light performance

  Summary: I have waited for a camera with a hard drive that can would record in native MPEG2 and would provide decent low-light performance as this seems to be the Achilles ...

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  Summary: I have waited for a camera with a hard drive that can would record in native MPEG2 and would provide decent low-light performance as this seems to be the Achilles heel of all cameras. Now delivers on all my expectation excep low light performance.
  
  I can notice noise levels at normal room lightning, however the noise does not increase significantly even after going to a fairly dark room so that is definitely a plus.
  
  The camera is very well constructed and I love the USB HDD connectivity. You can use the hard drive just as another USB drive on your computer. The previous reviewer had problems palying back the MPEG2 file, but I had NO PROBLEM whatsoever playing it directly from the camcorder's disk.
  I have a DVD burner maybe that came with the codec already who knows? Overall I like this camera.

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  1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 9 stars

  Great first HD Camera

  by tfrcoach1 on March 24, 2007

  Pros: Easy to use, easy LCD directions, light with eveyrthing in fingertip reach. The video picture quality is very clear, as is the still picture quality

  Cons: Software was a bit confusing, but I am not a pro at this. Can get a little grainy with low light.

  Summary: We are thrilled we made this our first HD camera. The DCR-SR 300 is easy to use, with all the controls at your fingertips. I cannot give a technical review ...

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  Summary: We are thrilled we made this our first HD camera. The DCR-SR 300 is easy to use, with all the controls at your fingertips. I cannot give a technical review as I am not a pro. I can say this, for a first time user, this was a very easy camera to use, and understand. We are very pleased with the quality of the video, though the night shot wasn't what we had hoped as far as color. Another very important item for us, is that the SONY people are very helpful.

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  1 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 3 stars

  Dissapointing after warrenty runs out

  by dtolli on August 23, 2008

  Pros: Good quality images, easy to use

  Cons: Edges sometimes have color spill

  Summary: Camera was good for one year. Screen was a bit touchy. One month after the warrenty was over, screen started scrolling and eventually went to black. $400 to fix. Not ...

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  Summary: Camera was good for one year. Screen was a bit touchy. One month after the warrenty was over, screen started scrolling and eventually went to black. $400 to fix. Not good.

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• 5 stars

  Not very happy

  by oskarny on March 9, 2008

  Pros: easy to use

  Cons: no firewire

  Summary: Unable to use with Final Cut.*
  Not compatible with my mac.
  No firewire
  Good for amateurs

  Summary: Unable to use with Final Cut.*
  Not compatible with my mac.
  No firewire
  Good for amateurs

• 9 stars

  Great for the family use!

  by Spastic Newman on October 10, 2007

  Pros: The picture is wonderful, The sound is great, the zoom is terrific!

  Cons: Battery life.

  Summary: This is a camera that is strictly for family usage. If you are looking for a camcorder for comercial use then you might want to look at one of the ...

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  Summary: This is a camera that is strictly for family usage. If you are looking for a camcorder for comercial use then you might want to look at one of the higher end camcorders. As for this one you are in the right place. This camcorder has it all. I have had this for 1 month so far and it is everything that I want.

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• 7 stars

  Overall pretty impressive however- why the heck does everyone have such low optical zoom?

  by dgeryol on September 25, 2007

  Pros: easy to use, good picture prints and good video, very handy with hard drive

  Cons: Microphone, software for burning and zoom.

  Summary: Overall I love it. i intend to get a wireless microphone and maybe a zoom mic. I made a little foam windscreen for the built in mic also. The zoom ...

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  Summary: Overall I love it. i intend to get a wireless microphone and maybe a zoom mic. I made a little foam windscreen for the built in mic also. The zoom is small but it does well throughout the range. My BIG issue is the software for burning. they should give you a way to edit the video together. I record a soccer game and tend to start and stop when play stops. I would like to edit one full game together. I sure would like some tips.

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