Sony HDR-SR11 10.2-MP 60GB HD

I have purchased both camcorders (I admit via BestBuy since returns are a breeze) to compare quality for about a week, and I must say Sony wins hands down. I was actually hoping the Canon will be the winner since I own the Canon 40D dSLR and wanted to stay within brand, but I've made my choice and purchased the SR11 from Amazon. For the record, I was using iMac 3.06GHz intel proc with iMovie/QuickTimePro - none of the cameras offer any software for the Mac, but that did not seem a problem: Sony won me over in the following areas: 1. Autofocus: Sony seemed more responsive. I have a 2yr old, which can't seem to stay put for more than a second and the Sony seemed to obtain better focus on him. Canon sometimes took over 2seconds to obtain focus outdoors at about 5x zoom. 2. white balance: For some reason the Canon did not look natural to me. The colours were off, with my son's pale skin looking greenish indoors at low light. 3. LCD + viewfinder. The Canon does not have a viewfi... Read more

I bought this camcorder back in May 2008 to capture my son's milestones and events. I wanted to buy a HDD camera so I did not have to worry about tape and tape storage. At the time, I figured Sony had the best available HD HDD camcorder. PROS: - HD quality movie is good. - Battery life is good (1.5 hours) - Slow Motion Capture is a plus plus - good for capturing action scenes - Night Vision is a plus - Camcorder was Small and had a nice profile - No need for Tape - Data transfer via USB - Easy to use - Touch screen functionality CONS: - Taking Camera still-shots was slow. Need steady hands and/or use of tripod - AVCHD does not play on your Windows Media Player - Need to buy Video Editing software - bought Vegas Pro. - Camcorder is small but does not fit in your pocket - still need to buy a bag for it Overall the camcorder is good - the movies I took with it are excellent. the 60 GB HDD is big, you can store several hours of movie clips in it that you can play at ... Read more

Camcorder is very good. Be ready to spent time in order to be familiar with all features of it. It is not easy for amateurs. But Sony has excellent technical support which uses tall free number. Very weak software. Probably Sony thinks you will buy additional software or use some free software which already exists in your computer.

This HD video camera got excellent picture quality at full HD, even at night mode. In super night mode it will lag, but it did pretty good anyway. There where almost no light at all, just a moon and a porch light about 100 feet away. The only complaint with this camera and the reason for only 4 stars, is when I tried to tape the Nascar race I went to (Brickyard), the camera would shut down while recording. I'm guessing the sound from the cars going by max out the camera with motion and sound. Other than this, I like this camera and it would get 5 stars.

I was shopping around at other places, but after reading reviews about the businesses offering this camcorder, most of the cheaper places seemed to be scams or places that earn their money pressuring you to buy accessories, etc. The picture quality is phenomenal, even indoors and in low light. There is some graininess at the edges, but subjects always look great. The built-in mic records in 5.1 surround, and while I haven't really tried to listen to each channel it does pick up a surprising amount. All ports are protected by hard plastic covers that slide or flip open, as opposed to rubber stoppers, which at least gives a sense of a better build quality than most. Some ado has been made of the control dial, which is the metal knob located just below the lens, it's visible in the product picture; it's OK, but can only be assigned one function at a time, either focus, white balance, or exposure, and if you want to change the function, you have to go through several presses o... Read more