Name: Sony HDRCX12 High Definition Handycam Camcorder, 10.2 Megapixel, 12x Optical Zoom Lens, 150X Digital Zoom, 2.7" LCD Screen, Black
Brand: Sony
SKU: SOHDRCX12
Price: 899.99 USD
Availability: Discontinued
Rating: 5 (2 reviews)

Sony HDRCX12 High Definition Handycam Camcorder, 10.2 Megapixel, 12x Optical Zoom Lens, 150X Digital Zoom, 2.7" LCD Screen, Black

Sony HDRCX12 High-Def 10.2MP Camcorder, 2.7" LCD, Black

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Sony HDRCX12 High-Def 10.2MP Camcorder, ...

Top Rated Gear: Sony HDRCX12 High Definition Handycam Camcorder, 10.2 Megapixel, 12x Optical Zoom Lens, 150X Digital Zoom, 2.7" LCD Screen, Black Ergonomics: Palmheld, Internal Memory: 4GB, Model: HDR-CX12, Recording Media: Memory Stick

I purchased this camcorder to replace a failing SD Canon. I am still blown away by the amazing picture quality and color with the Sony. If you have an HDTV, this is a must!!

Exceeding My Expectations

The camera comes with everything you need to get started except for a very inexpensive mini HDMI to regular HDMI cable… hello! Who really uses a composite or component cable these days anyway! The supplied software is limited although useful. What’s nice is that one can produce a DVD encoded in the BlueRay format playable on the Playstation or a BlueRay player. The battery is sufficient, while not having the camera on standby all that often, for about 30min of recording. Bring another fully charged higher capacity battery. Sony provides one 4gig Memory Stick. I would advise acquiring at least an 8gig or better to take along. Editing DV or HDV video with Sony Vegas Pro 8 is wonderful, the software runs smoothly and is rock solid. Editing AVCHD is another question. Let’s say it’s not smooth editing. On a fully loaded P4 duo core machine editing is horrible, nevertheless it functions, and in time, lots of time it outputs an amazing HD video. Using two Xeon Quad Core CPU’s (total of eight cores) editing is smother along with reduced rendering times, although not at a comfortable level.

I took about 50 AVCHD video clips totaling about 30min. Using Vegas Pro 8 I trimmed some of the clips and added simple cross fades between them, nothing complex at all. Added opening text and a short credit scroll at the end. What turns out with AVCHD video the entire video needs to be rendered, even the unchanged sections or complete unchanged clips. With DV or HDV we can set Vegas to render only the areas of the video that were instructed to change. Example: rendering text, effects, crossfades or more. The system would slow down a bit to render the frames then speed ahead like the space shuttle in orbit until it reaches another effect or change. With AVCHD, one can take a file, bring it to the time line, do nothing, rename and render to the exact same format. Doing just that requires the entire clip to render. A 30 min clip could take hours.

Another issue that some might question especially when your video is on the timeline and you notice that the video proprieties is 1440x1080 instead of 1920x1080. If you want your files to be 1920x1080 make sure to set the camera to the highest bitrate or highest quality setting before recording.

Having no gain control is a big mistake, even on a consumer camera. I hate when a camera automatically provides high gain in dark scenes. Auto gain induces huge amounts of noise, looks horrible. Most if the time auto gain destroys the feeling of the scene. Having a switch to turn off auto gain or at least limit the db gain setting is a feature the camera really needs.

Memory is up to the user, the more the better especially when traveling. Having a backup device will come in handy.

Life of the supplied battery is limited to about 30min of actual recording. It could last a day if you’re only taking short clips and turning off the camera between clips. In total it should last more or less 30min, less in temperature extremes.

To top this off, for now, the camera produces remarkable HD Video. Recording to solid state media has many benefits, one being no moving parts. If used outdoor during the day or under good lighting image quality will be excellent.