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Customer Reviews
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Amazon is obviously filled with fake reviews from either fanboys or competing company employes. I bought this camera, and even reviewed it, compared it to other cameras like the Kodak zi8 (search google for "letsfindjesus bloggie" to find videos of my review). The Sony is the best under $200 camcorder on the market. Its auto focus is quick, the colors are rich and accurate, and the mono mic actually sounds good. It has a built in usb plug (which is also used to charge) and pretty good face detection. The still camera (unlike the pocket cams) actually takes decent 5 megapixel photos. It has a playback speaker which is loud enough. The 5X optical zoom is smooth, and the digital zoom is well... a digital zoom. Bottom line, for the price the picture quality and build is mighty good.
Amazon is obviously filled with fake reviews from either fanboys or competing company employes. I bought this camera, and even reviewed it, compared it to other cameras like the Kodak zi8 (search google for "letsfindjesus bloggie" to find videos of my review). The Sony is the best under $200 camcorder on the market. Its auto focus is quick, the colors are rich and accurate, and the mono mic actually sounds good. It has a built in usb plug (which is also used to charge) and pretty good face detection. The still camera (unlike the pocket cams) actually takes decent 5 megapixel photos. It has a playback speaker which is loud enough. The 5X optical zoom is smooth, and the digital zoom is well... a digital zoom. Bottom line, for the price the picture quality and build is mighty good.
There is some negatives, I listed them below, none are deal breaking.. more of a wish list. The biggest feature missing for me is Steady Shot (image stabilization) on the 1080p and 720/60 frame modes. The Kodak zi8 has this, but it looks like crap on 1080p so I guess I would rather not have this feature if the hardware is too slow to process the steady shot. Which is why im guessing Sony didnt include this feature on the higher quality modes.
Pros:
-Very acceptable video quality
-Good sounding mic
-GREAT accurate colors
-5X optical zoom
-for once a decent still camera
-quick zoom
-SD memory card capable and Memory Stick Pro Duo
-Record and upload.. its in a format that just.. Works.
-Mac and PC friendly
Cons:
-Battery lasts a little over an hour (buy an extra!)
-Steady Shot is only on 720P (30 Frames/sec) and VGA
-lens cap instead of hardware lens open/close
-mic is mono (but its not bad)
-no manual focus
-low light (like all low cost camcorders) isnt the best, and the focus is slow/struggles in low light
Great everyday camera.
For those of you that think $200 will get you results of a $1500 video camera, you can forget that! For the price, this is an excellent camera. It's small, easy to use, starts up quickly, and takes great video. It does struggle in low light, but most cameras do. The picture looks great on my Sony 1080P TV.
A great feature the camera has is the ability to zoom while recording. Many point and shoot cameras do not allow.
As for it being 1080P. Of course it's not Blue Ray quality 1080P. But the resolution is there. It does have a sharper picture than the 720P Sony DSC-W290.
This camera is worth every penny. And this is coming from someone who installs home theaters for a living.
As for the review about the 1080P complaint. You need to learn that it's more marketing than anything. There is a difference between low cost 1080 sensors and expensive 1080 sensors. Yes it shoots great videos. No it's not as good as a high end $125,000 piece of equipment. And yes you will get better video if you spend $1500.
As for taking still images, it's your average camera phone quality. But that's what the DSLR is for.
For those of you that think $200 will get you results of a $1500 video camera, you can forget that! For the price, this is an excellent camera. It's small, easy to use, starts up quickly, and takes great video. It does struggle in low light, but most cameras do. The picture looks great on my Sony 1080P TV.
A great feature the camera has is the ability to zoom while recording. Many point and shoot cameras do not allow.
As for it being 1080P. Of course it's not Blue Ray quality 1080P. But the resolution is there. It does have a sharper picture than the 720P Sony DSC-W290.
This camera is worth every penny. And this is coming from someone who installs home theaters for a living.
As for the review about the 1080P complaint. You need to learn that it's more marketing than anything. There is a difference between low cost 1080 sensors and expensive 1080 sensors. Yes it shoots great videos. No it's not as good as a high end $125,000 piece of equipment. And yes you will get better video if you spend $1500.
As for taking still images, it's your average camera phone quality. But that's what the DSLR is for.
Great camera for non-techies.
I bought the CM5 after trying out a couple of other HD camcorders. I just wanted a basic, easy-to-use camcorder that films in 1080p and was easy to upload to YouTube, Facebook, etc. This camera met all those requirements. It is very easy to use, takes great quality video and uploading to YouTube was a snap with the included software. I've never been a BIG fan of Sony's imaging products because they use the Memory sticks but this camcorder will accept either the Memory sticks OR SD cards. It was easy to setup. The camera has software built-in (like the Flip does) but it also comes with a more feature filled version that you can install on your computer. It transfers and uploads easily. The only drawback is that it won't stand up on its own whereas, based on the location of the flip-out USB connection, you would "think" that it should. It has froze a couple of times but not while recording, only when trying to turn it off. I had to pop the battery out and back in and it worked fine again. Certainly not a deal-breaker for me. The mic is good also despite being a mono mic. The camera has an image stabilization feature but it is NOT available at 1080p. That being said, I did not encounter too much shaking (that wasn't my fault) when filming in 1080p. Nice things about this camera vs the Flip (as that is obviously what it's trying to compete with): it films in 1080p/30fps (no Flip does that), it has removable memory (SD or Memory sticks)so you can bring along extra memory, and it has a removable battery (so you can bring along an extra battery without having to recharge it). The view screen is a little hard to see unless it's angled right at you. Other than that, I really like the camera. If you are a non-techie that wants an easy to use camera that films in 1080p, you should get this camera.
I bought the CM5 after trying out a couple of other HD camcorders. I just wanted a basic, easy-to-use camcorder that films in 1080p and was easy to upload to YouTube, Facebook, etc. This camera met all those requirements. It is very easy to use, takes great quality video and uploading to YouTube was a snap with the included software. I've never been a BIG fan of Sony's imaging products because they use the Memory sticks but this camcorder will accept either the Memory sticks OR SD cards. It was easy to setup. The camera has software built-in (like the Flip does) but it also comes with a more feature filled version that you can install on your computer. It transfers and uploads easily. The only drawback is that it won't stand up on its own whereas, based on the location of the flip-out USB connection, you would "think" that it should. It has froze a couple of times but not while recording, only when trying to turn it off. I had to pop the battery out and back in and it worked fine again. Certainly not a deal-breaker for me. The mic is good also despite being a mono mic. The camera has an image stabilization feature but it is NOT available at 1080p. That being said, I did not encounter too much shaking (that wasn't my fault) when filming in 1080p. Nice things about this camera vs the Flip (as that is obviously what it's trying to compete with): it films in 1080p/30fps (no Flip does that), it has removable memory (SD or Memory sticks)so you can bring along extra memory, and it has a removable battery (so you can bring along an extra battery without having to recharge it). The view screen is a little hard to see unless it's angled right at you. Other than that, I really like the camera. If you are a non-techie that wants an easy to use camera that films in 1080p, you should get this camera.
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