By D. C. Bevan

Bought this camera five weeks ago whilst on holiday, have recorded both HD ans SD. The HD is mindblowing when hooked upp to a 1080HD TV. You would honestly think it was recorded by a pro.


Also bought Sony Vegas Platinum editing studio. This does thet you edit the AVCHD format and burn it to standard DVD’s in SD format whilst keeping the original HD content for future burns to Blu Ray when cost comes down or showing on a HD TV via the Camcorder its self.To summarise, an amazing camera at a great price.

By D. Turner (Telford, UK)

I replaced my old tape camcorder for this and immediately it struck me - no more would I need a mountain of tapes that are a pain to copy for editing and then don’t have the courage to tape over and re-use. Forget hoping that the tape wouldn’t run out at the critical part in the wedding or fiddling with an tape insert and a biro to try and keep some semblance or order to the holiday films. OK enough about my bad habits and old woes.This camcorder is glorious, I play the footage back through a 720p projector and its crisp ,sharp and mind blowingly detailed. The sound is clear and with the added bluetooth wireless mic that I bought afterwards allows the recorded sound to really follow the action.
The unit fits comfortably in hand, the build quality is sturdy and the weight makes for a steady shot without feeling like you’re carrying a lead bar.
The fold out screen is bright and very highly detailed. Indoor low light performance sucks - that was until I bought another add on - the light attachment - now its great.
Best of all - is the ‘easy’ button which handles all the settings and I haven’t felt the need to change it yet.

The price is a serious investment and the add ons are steep as well (I do recommend the light and extended battery) but if you have any HD equipment or are planning to upgrade why would you want to watch your once only memories on anything less? As for the format - don’t worry so much about editing - Sony Vegas Platinum 8 (<£50) is fine DO worry about your PC processing power though.

I love this bit of kit.

• Read More About Sony Handycam HDR-SR8

Comments(0) | Add Comments |