Sony DCR-SR100E (30GB)

Features
Like JVC's Everio models, the Sony Handycam DCR-SR100 records directly to a hard drive. Its 30GB drive can store as much as 440 minutes of high-quality video, 1,250 minutes of low-quality video, or 10,000 3-megapixel still images. You can play the video directly on a TV via the bundled composite cable or copy the files to your PC; the camcorder mounts as a hard drive via a USB 2.0 connection. Like DVD camcorders, hard drive camcorders record using MPEG-2, and Sony saves the files as media-player-readable MPG files; your system--Mac or PC--may require a codec update in order to play or edit them, however.

	Minimal buttons here.

For the DCR-SR100, Sony couples its 3-megapixel HAD CCD with one of the better Zeiss T* lenses. It uses 2 megapixels to capture video before downsampling to 720 x 480 (16:9) or 640 x 480 (4:3), and snaps 3-megapixel still photos in both 16:9 and 4:3 aspect ratios.

You'll find the typical array of Sony premium-priced features in the DCR-SR100, such as Super SteadyShot hybrid image stabilization, NightShot and Super NightShot infrared modes, and a four-channel microphone for Dolby 5.1 Surround audio recording. With an optional mic, you can capture center-channel sound. The hotshoe can also accept a flash/video light, to replace the SR100's built-in lamp.

Despite these upmarket capabilities, however, the Sony Handycam DCR-SR100 is more suited to the point-and-shoot crowd than to the prosumer set--those more likely to push the Easy button than to dive into the menu system for a handful of scene modes or fingertip-dexterity-dependent exposure adjustment, spot focus, and spot metering.

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