Sony Handycam HDR-SR12

• Average user rating: 4.0 stars out of 13 reviews
• My rating: 0 stars

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• 10 stars

  SR12 Absolutely Rocks!

  by dhwlaw on April 9, 2008

  Pros: Small size, bright, clear screan, intuitive to use

  Cons: None so far

  Summary: This camcorder truly does everything well in a great form-factor. Solidly built and very intuitive to use. Ample storage for HD content. It's great.

  Summary: This camcorder truly does everything well in a great form-factor. Solidly built and very intuitive to use. Ample storage for HD content. It's great.

  3 out of 4 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 8 stars

  Awesome video - complicated software

  by ksmith51 on July 3, 2008

  Pros: Terrific HD and SD video; HDD media; Plentiful accessories

  Cons: Complicated software; manuals not intuitive

  Summary: I have finally become my father. I'm geezing. This is just a fabulous camcorder, but I'm way over my head trying to get my videos onto my PC ...

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  Summary: I have finally become my father. I'm geezing. This is just a fabulous camcorder, but I'm way over my head trying to get my videos onto my PC and then burning the correct format DVDs to share with friends/family. Reading the "quick start" guide plus the PDF-format owner's manual on the included CD... almost made my head explode. And I've had a camcorder of various media and many types of film and digital cam in my hands since they were so big you needed a friend to help carry the components. I feel like I've traded my soul to the devil to get the latest/greatest technology. Of course, now I'm getting the, "I told you so!!" from my wife. I guess I should've accepted the simplicity (although less perfect video compression) of the last-most-current media, recording directly to mini-DVDs in the camcorder. Yikes!

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  1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 9 stars

  My little friend

  by Yrtti on May 8, 2008

  Pros: Quite handy, lots of hard disk space, good looking, face regonizing is good when recording people

  Cons: Would prefer wider lens, shuts down in loud noises, focusing issues when filming animals etc

  Summary: I really like my camera, its neat, tiny and still makes this huge detailed video. It´s quite amazing, i think.
  
  face regonizion is good feature when filming people. With
  
  ...

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  Summary: I really like my camera, its neat, tiny and still makes this huge detailed video. It´s quite amazing, i think.
  
  face regonizion is good feature when filming people. With animals (i have two cats) it sometimes finds animals eyes and can focus, sometimes it gets confused
  
  lens is not wide enough, though it may be that i´m used to a wider lens with my Panasonic DMC-LX2K. Anyway i bought a wider lens for this. For a lens it´s too big and heavy and it´s still not that wide, only "normal-wide"...
  
  I´m a drummer and this camera shuts down in loud noises...it´s not a good feature either Would be nice to record our gigs and rehersals without tweaking the microphone with duct tape.
  
  120 gigs is a bit too much actually, you dont really need that much of a space with avchd. For example i have recorded 193 clips in three weeks and it still has half of it´s capacity left.
  
  But in a nutshell, it´s very good point and shoot type of camera with full automation etc. you don´t have to trouble yourself to get a decent picture out of it, it takes care it for you almost in any case. With it´s massive hard drive there´s no way you run out of storage space, buy the NP-FH100 and you can record forever

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  1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 8 stars

  Very Nice, this is my first camcorder so sort of a novice

  by Flightlevel470 on March 8, 2008

  Pros: Having HD and all around quality, 120 gig hard drive

  Cons: For the price I beleive Sony should incude the FH70 battery instead for the standard

  Summary: This is my first camcorder and I am really enjoying it. I found it very easy to operate without having to go to the instructions. The inteface is simple with ...

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  Summary: This is my first camcorder and I am really enjoying it. I found it very easy to operate without having to go to the instructions. The inteface is simple with a computer. I do wish that as I stated in the Cons that a longer life battery should be included in a high end piece of equipment such as this camcorder

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  2 out of 4 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 10 stars

  Excellent HD camcorder with plenty of storage (120GB)

  by user0007 on May 14, 2011

  Pros: excellent video quality, excellent macro mode from a tripod;
  remote control offers professional work from a light tripod;
  120GB hard disk, never have had any storage problem on vacation;
  excellent lens with no barrel distortion at all;
  good white balan

  Cons: The lens is starting from 40/37 mm and a wide lens is necessary to attach for achieving wide angle,
  however the tele range is excellent - movie mode 40mm - 480mm, still Image mode 37mm - 444mm (35mm equiv)
  Some of the white balance presets are having min

• 8 stars

  Nothing better for the money.

  by gspnam on July 25, 2010

  Pros: Great video quality, in good light.

  Cons: Incomprehensible compromises, poor low light performance and auto focus, and manual focus is no walk in the park. Paging through menus to change basic setting is a PITA, and slow.

  Summary: For the most part this camera performs well, but it suffers most of the same ridiculous compromises of every camera under $6K.
  
  In (not very) low light the auto focus ...

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  Summary: For the most part this camera performs well, but it suffers most of the same ridiculous compromises of every camera under $6K.
  
  In (not very) low light the auto focus will hunt, literally, for 30 minutes, focus for 5 or 10 seconds, then go back on the hunt. This feature can come in handy; you can be sure 90 minutes of irreplaceable unattended camera B-roll footage is completely useless, without wasting a bunch of time examining much of it.
  
  For general consumer shooting in good light there are no better cameras at or anywhere near this price point... for reasons I am unable to fathom.

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• 10 stars

  cant find nothing rong with it

  by SilkyBlackWolf on August 16, 2009

  Pros: everything its mad i recomented

  Cons: theres nothing i dont like

  Summary: Well i like it it does everything that i want.But i got 1 question.Hi there to everyone,i wonder if anyone can help me with a question,i ...

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  Summary: Well i like it it does everything that i want.But i got 1 question.Hi there to everyone,i wonder if anyone can help me with a question,i allready got this camera but im looking to buy another one for my brother inlaw,i found one in japan at a reasonbale price but this is what the seller is saying.Brand New Sony Handycam HDR-SR12 120GB High Definition Camcorder. *****ATTENTION*****This sony camcorder is from Japan, and so all text in the Owners Manual is in Japanese Text and also All Information showing on the LCD Screen Pannel Will also be in Japanese and NOT ENGLISH....Is this true???? isnt there any settings to change it to engleish???? can anyone find out??

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• 8 stars

  Almost perfect! Just don't try to record a concert...

  by insaneshayne on January 3, 2009

  Pros: Recording quality is awesome as is the ability to take a snapshot of something WHILE recording video. The still camera functionality is actually quite good. Audio quality is great in either 5:1 or 2 ch stereo.

  Cons: No audio level control. It gives you either "auto" or "low-level" but no ability to manually turn up or down levels.
  This unit CAN NOT RECORD IN AREAS WITH HIGH NOISE LEVELS. It will go into error state. There is no workaround or fix for this!

  Summary: Sony has made a great camera here. If you intend on traveling and recording along the way, this camera will be awesome because with the 120GB of storage you get ...

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  Summary: Sony has made a great camera here. If you intend on traveling and recording along the way, this camera will be awesome because with the 120GB of storage you get up to 15 hours of record time at the highest resolution.
  However, if you plan on recording something loud, like a rock concert or shuttle launch or something, forget it. The vibration from the low frequencies vibrate the unit's hard-drive and it freaks out. I had hoped the turning off the camera's "drop sensor" might override this, but sadly it does not. The only fix for this would be for Sony to put a solid state drive in it instead of the conventional "spinning platter" drive.
  The camera doesn't allow you to adjust the audio record levels however the auto mode works well for most of what you'll be recording. Since the camera can't record in high noise areas you won't have too much of a problem with distortion...
  Bottom line: If you're looking for a great handycam for shooting the sites, family or just walking around, it's great. If you're in a band (like me) and wanted to record your shows on a European Tour, save your money as you'll end up pretty angry at the end of your tour!

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• 9 stars

  It just cant get any better than the HDR-SR12

  by supra000 on December 27, 2008

  Pros: am not a fan of touch screens i find them very unpractical, but trust me this one is an exception, it is very simple & user friendly.
  all the buttons are perfectly set on the camcorder to match your fingers.

  Cons: the lack of wind filter can realy bother you sometimes.

  Summary: very easy to use, all the buttons are in there right place.
  am not a fan of touch screens because i find it very unpractical, and trust me the sony ...

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  Summary: very easy to use, all the buttons are in there right place.
  am not a fan of touch screens because i find it very unpractical, and trust me the sony SDR-SR12 is an exception.
  the image stabilaizar works great didnt have any problems there.
  the picture taking during recording is a nice trick, love it.
  importing images & videos to the PC was a piece a cake, the software was very easy to use.
  one thing bothered me was that the camera didnt have a wind filter which causes blurr image for a short period of time if you are recording outdoors in a windy weather, but i guess having all in one camcorder like this you cand simply ignor this default.

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• 8 stars

  Surely one of the best choice !

  by YYFILMS on August 18, 2008

  Pros: Nightvision, manual focus, 120GB

  Cons: small sight, useless 5.1, heavy with FH100 battery,

  Summary: The Sony HDR-SR 12 is surely, certainly the best choice you can make if you want to get a HD camcorder.
  
  The colors are very nice, not perfect, but impressing.
  
  ...

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  Summary: The Sony HDR-SR 12 is surely, certainly the best choice you can make if you want to get a HD camcorder.
  
  The colors are very nice, not perfect, but impressing.
  The nightvision is pretty cool, you don't really need flashlight.
  The 120 GB space hard drive is more than enought !
  The manual focus is enable here, pretty cool, but you need to practice a while.
  
  Note that you must have a battery more, you will be fastly out of battery and not very efficient. I advise you to get the NP-FH100 even if it is a bit heavy, you're lifetime will be the best and no worry about it, don't buy the FH70 kit...

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