Sony Handycam DCR SR72E

...you want these then the Sony website is all you need, this review is about my own personal experiences with the camcorder. Telling you one or two things you might not have known!

I have owned this camera for over 6 months now and used it in many situations. I hope to help you make a decision on if you want to buy it or not. I will write about a point, and then do a summery of what i was saying, just incase i ramble on a bit!
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...hope this review helped, I know it wasn't full of facts and figures but all of these can be seen on the Sony website, my review was about personal experience with the camera, not whats down on paper! Please be kind when rating this review, and i hope it helped!  ... more

PLEASE NOTE: this review isn't full of facts and figures about the camcorder, if you want these then the Sony website is all you need, this review is about my own personal experiences with the camcorder. Telling you one or two things you might not have known!

I have owned this camera for over 6 months now and used it in many situations. I hope to help you make a decision on if you want to buy it or not. I will write about a point, and then do a summery of what i was saying, just incase i ramble on a bit!

First thing i will talk about is the size. Please take note of the measurements of this camcorder. it is alot smaller than it looks in the pictures and i was almost shocked when i first saw it. Some might think thats a good thing but its also light. A light camcorder leads to shaky footage because its not as stable as a heavier model.

** To summarize, The camera is really small and really light, which has its good and bad points **

sticking with the looks and esthetics of the camcorder. One major flaw i found whilst using this out and about is the LCD screen. it gives a great view, and it is touch screen which is use full. It shows a great range of vivid colors and is plenty bright enough for most situations, But because it is touch screen you will constantly find a fingerprint in the way when you try to see something. It gets quite annoying having to wipe it every 5 minutes, and it gets alot worse in the sun too.

** To sum up, the touch screen LCD is great, but it gatherers fingerprints easily **

One quick final point on the outside of the camcorder before we move on to the features etc. All the buttons are in a great place and feel easy to use, there is record buttons at 2 different places on the camcorder and all the other buttons where you expect them to be!

** features **

Basic features include record mode, with three different quality settings and a picture mode. The recording mode is what this camcorder will mainly be used for, and on HQ (high quality) you cant fault the image. The only way you will get a better image is to buy a semi pro camcorder for £750 onwards. The picture mode isn't too good to be honest, and i think i have used it only once or twice. Most camera phones can produce a higher quality image than this camcorder, but after all its a camcorder not a camera, so this shouldn't really matter.

** To recap, The image quality is top notch, vivid colors and sounds, photo mode isn't quite as good **

Auto focus and Auto exposure, if you only read one bit of my review please read this bit!!! The auto focus and Auto exposure are naff! The auto focus is slow and really does take a good 5 to 10 seconds to 'lock on' to a target, I tried using this camcorder for motor sport events (rally) and in auto focus it just could not handle it. There is a manual focus which i have ended up using all the time now. The same goes with the auto exposure, for some reason it over exposes everything, and you have to go to manual exposure to correct this in most situations!

** To recap, Naff auto exposure and auto focus, but manual override can sort all this out **

You will be glad to know we have got past all the main problems with the camcorder, and i can list off a couple of good points.

The sound quality is better than any camcorder i have come across that uses just an internal mic!

There is settings to change the white balance which is rare on a camcorder of this price, you can choose a scene selection too, for instance 'sun set' 'snow' or 'sports' which tweak some settings for the optimal image,

Playback through the TV is a great feature, using either the touch screen or the remote to crawl through files! you can even set up playlists to watch back in the order you choose!

The optical zoom hold up well! I have bought an extra set of after market 30mm lenses for mine, but the lens it has is good enough for 99% of situations!

I hope this review helped, I know it wasn't full of facts and figures but all of these can be seen on the Sony website, my review was about personal experience with the camera, not whats down on paper! Please be kind when rating this review, and i hope it helped! 

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