Sony HDR-CX12 High Definition Memory Stick PRO Duo Handycam Camcorder With 12x Optical Zoom
by Sony
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Our Price: $1,999.00 Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $425.00 (click here) Category: Digital Camera See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Sony HDR-CX12 High Definition Memory Stick PRO Duo Handycam Camcorder With 12x Optical Zoom
Customer Review: Great Video!!
Summary: 4 Stars
Great video and easy to use the camera.
Charging base hooks up to power and computer so can't charge the battery seperately unless you buy the extra charging plugin module.
Customer Review: Great. When can I use it?
Summary: 3 Stars
I was so happy when I got the CX12. It was beautiful, the video was beautiful, and the camera was incredibly easy to use. I started taking video and buying hard drives to hold it all...
The problem came afterward. The camcorder records to a file format called .m2ts, which is an "mpeg-2 transfer stream". What this means to you and I: barely anything in the world supports it (except Sony products). The same way that you can only buy Sony flash memory cards for the camcorder. And even the software that supports it does so poorly. This was my experience:
1. Picture motion browser. The included software that came with the device. This software fairly reliably recognizes the camcorder is plugged in (plus). Unfortunately, if the clip is bigger than 2GB (equivalent to 16 minutes of HD video), the software will split it automatically. And this isn't an exact split - you are missing a few seconds. Imagine my surprise when one of my gigs that I recorded was missing 5 seconds in the climax of a song. Thankfully, I hadn't deleted the files from the camera yet, so I went back and manually split the video during a pause. Lately, though, my band has been doing improv's that last ~15-20 minutes as we write new material. I can't break these up, and thus get fragments of songs on my computer.
Worse than this, though, is the incredibly tedious process of splitting a video every 10 minutes. Every time I upload video I have to go through and spend 20 minutes of work formatting the video for the SOFTWARE THAT WAS BUILT FOR IT.
2. Sony Vegas Pro. I called Sony customer support and asked them if there was a way around the 16 minute barrier. They said I would have to get another video editing program. They recommended the Vegas line of programs, which comes with M2TS support (most video editing programs don't. you see where this is heading?). These programs cost between $50-$600, which depends on the amount of bugs you want fixed and features you'd like. I figured I would go with a free trial version of Vegas Pro, and skip all of the hassles.
Before saying where I am now, I would like to note that I am a computer engineer, have done extensive technical support, and always have dealt with my own computer problems. I am an experienced PC user. Here we go:
I'm sitting here after 3 hours of frustration, and Vegas won't recognize my camcorder. It is there, It has video, and *Windows* knows it is, but this $600 piece of Sony software (designed by the same company) cannot recognize it.
I've had this camera for about a year, and I have yet to make anything out of all the video I've recorded with it. This is a beautiful, sleek, sexy camcorder with a ton of power for the size. I just wonder when I'll get some use out of it.
Just, before you get this, ask yourself if you want to deal with the Sony deathtrap.
Customer Review: Fair Camera
Summary: 3 Stars
I use this camera for profesional use I will make my review on that point of view.
On the good side:
-The picture quality is great.
-The sound quality is also great.
-It has a wheel for manual handling (focus, exposition, etc..) .
-It has slow-motion camera option :).
-It is light and portable.
On the bad side:
-It doesn't haves a viewfinder which sometimes is very useful (even more in sunny days).
-It doesn't haves an independent connection for audio connection (it only has for the sony microphones but is only an entrance for sony accesories).
-Eventhought it has a wheel for manual adjusment it doesn't shows the exposition (f stops/time) which might be useful when you're using the camera for profesional use.
-Sometimes the format of the camera (AVCHD) can be a headache, you need good cpu characteristics to handle that.
The still option camera is fair, it looks fine if you don't use the actual size of the image and still see good at a good size of image.
Excuse me if my english is not so good since it is not my first language.