Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony HDR-SR12E HD Hard Disc Drive Handycam - 10MP

I already owned one HDR-SR12 and when the opportunity to buy a second HD camcorder came along I had no hesitation in going for the same model.
It is very easy to use, links perfectly with Final Cut an on my Mac setup and produces very high quality results in all sorts of lighting conditions.
Sound quality and reproduction is very good and the picture quality is first rate.
I have no problem with the touch screen interface - very similar to my iPhone - but would recommend the screen cover available as an optional extra to protect the screen from finger prints.
The battery life and recharge time is especially impressive compared to previous camcorders that I have owned and the camera is very robust in operation.
An excellent camera in its class and price bracket.

I have owned a number of Sony Camcorders Video 8, Hi 8 and DV. The picture and build quality has always been outstanding relative to the associated period. The latter of these was the TRV30E Digital tape camcorder, even on a 42" Pioneer Plasma TV the picture was good but I was looking for something even better.
After reading many reviews including those on Amazon sticking with Sony seemed the best option.
Although I have only rated the Sony HDR-SR12E at 4 stars, to me the most important factor is picture quality and this is definitely worth 5 stars. Under good lighting conditions the picture can look as good as and sometimes better than off air HD TV, colours are vibrant and pictures are very sharp. In dimmer conditions the picture can be a little grainy and the lens may hunt in full auto mode but change to manual settings and the situation can be greatly improved upon. The sound quality is also good and I have not been able to detect any of the back ground noise that you could get from tape drives.
What I personally don't like is the lack of a manual focus ring on the lens which all my previous Sony camcorders had. Yes there is a little knob under the lens which you can use for focusing as well as several other functions but it is fiddly and not as accurate or quick to use. The LCD display is ok for making manual settings and quite easy to use but outdoors on sunny days is virtually useless being difficult to view. I would have preferred manual buttons/switches as on previous camcorders as these are much easier to access and operate but I guess this is not so practical on these smaller units. Another grumble is the eye piece which is small and not comfortable to use. I much prefer using an eye piece to the LCD screen as it is much better to get steady shots and of course save on battery power. Incidentally the battery does not last particularly long so it may be worth purchasing a higher capacity one. The accessory shoe for video light or microphone is smaller than standard which is also annoying.
The still picture function is o.k. but doesn't meet expectations (10 megapixels being claimed), disappointing particularly since the Carl Zeiss lens is brilliant in video mode nevertheless perfectly good enough for casual snaps. The flash being so close to the lens gives the worst dose of red eye that I have ever seen from a camera!
Back to positives- Build quality is overall excellent the design of the covers over the AV power connections being particularly neat. Under the right conditions the fold out screen is very intuitive although soon gets covered in figure marks but the screen is still clear and sharp.
Software supplied is useful for getting the video into your computer for storage, the PMB picture /video viewer makes it very easy to organise and access your video clips and pictures. Check the web for updates once you have installed the software.
If you're going to edit your video there is a clip editor included but it's very basic and enables you to trim to a start and finish point on the clip and that's about it. You can if you wish export the clip back to the camcorder.
Note: If you do decide to edit your videos using a video editing programme you will need a very powerful computer especially if you use the maximum quality setting. I can just about edit short movies but rendering time is horrendous. Vista Ultimate 32 bit, 4Gb Ram, Quad CPU Q6700 @ 2.66GHz, NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra, 4x 500Gb Sata hard drives and Pinnacle studio 11 Ultimate.
To summarise although there are a few negatives or perhaps compromises to this Camcorder I still believe it to be an excellent bit of kit and I highly recommend it.

i bought this camera to film a friends wedding it was great not having to change tapes, and i bought a bigger battery which lasted all day. I also bought the sony vegas movie studio so that i could edit the wedding as a present for my friend, i have used premier elements before but thought i would use sonys product thinking it would run smoothly. I put the camera in the docking station and opened sony vegas i renamed some clips and imported clips into the media files and left some clips on the hard drive. i then thought i need to save the whole footage on a disc so that i didn't loose any. i used the one touch disc burn on the docking station,after doing this i looked back on the camera and all i can see is a symbol like a broken chain and clips that i didn't name have gone off the computer. I have looked through the manual and cannot find any info on this and seem to be left with only part of the wedding. I don't seem to be able to get any help on this as i'm not sure if i have lost the data or not. So although the camera has been great to use its no good if i don't have confidence at editing i feel that i can't use the camera again until i find out what has gone wrong. and i can't edit my friends wedding. There needs to be more back up support from sony.

these sony camcorder got flash when took a pictures. the video quality is very good I gave 4 stars. 80%, I think this quality it's enough for me.
thank you. I love the colour shining black. I will using this camcorder to record all my good memories.

I did quite a lot of research into this camera before buying it and I'm pleased that I did as its an absoloute belter! Image on a HD TV is as crisp s real life. I am so pleased with this and cannot recommend it highly enough to others.