Sony DCR-DVD905E

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Performance
The Sony Handycam DCR-DVD905 suffers from none of the sluggish performance that affected early generations of DVD camcorders. Start-up takes only a few seconds, and there's barely any delay between when you press Record and its beginning to capture video. Not only are stills saved quickly to Memory Stick Duo, but you can even grab stills without interrupting video capture.

The camcorder's automatic adjustments react very quickly. Panning from brightly lit to dimmer subjects, the DCR-DVD905 swiftly and accurately adjusts focus and exposure for the new shooting conditions. The only time that automatic focus doesn't work well is in complete darkness using the NightShot mode, where it has problems locking on distant objects. Manual focus is available, and the large LCD makes it a viable option, though the touch-screen controls are sluggish and unnatural compared to a traditional focus ring. Image stabilization is very effective through most of the zoom range, with slight shaking noticeable at only the full 10X zoom.

Spot exposure works very well for bringing out details in situations with dramatic lighting contrasts. With a bright sky background, for instance, we could touch the sky to bring out details in the clouds or adjust exposure to the landscape below.

The 3.5-inch wide-screen LCD is excellent in all respects; it's one of the nicest displays I've seen on a consumer camcorder. It's large enough to make spot focus and exposure useful, it offers solid detail, and it remains viewable even in bright sunlight. However, the LCD coating picked up noticeable fingerprints, and given the touch-screen interface, fingerprints are unavoidable. The color viewfinder offers decent detail, though its 4:3 aspect ratio makes for a small image when you're shooting in wide-screen 16:9 mode.

The 5.1-channel microphone does a great job of picking up both close and distant sounds. Stereo separation is very good for a built-in microphone, though front/back positioning was rarely discernable; as you'd expect, the front audio is emphasized. The optional Bluetooth microphone delivered excellent clarity, and its use of the center channel for recording makes the surround sound far more noticeable during playback. The built-in microphone's placement directly atop the camcorder gives good coverage to sounds both in front of and behind the DCR-DVD905 and alleviates the lack of a wind filter.

The supplied battery offers just 40 minutes of recording time under typical conditions. Though this is fairly short, you'll be stopping every 20 minutes to swap discs anyway, at which point you can swap in an optional extended-capacity battery, which can last as long as two hours.

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