Review: Sony's first hard disc camcorder

Originally published in GP magazine .

Written for GP magazine around 2006. This is the version I submitted - the published article may have been edited.

With the impending arrival of our twin girls I thought it time to update my video camera, to enable me to capture their life in detail from day one. My old Canon DV camcorder has started chewing tapes, which isn’t good when you have just captured a never-to-be-repeated moment. Also, as a gadget lover, I was sure something new must have come along recently.

Several new technologies have arrived. First is DVD-based camcorders. These usually take smaller than normal discs that will still fit into a DVD player. You record straight onto the DVD and can either watch it in the camcorder, put it in your computer or watch it through a DVD player on your TV. On the whole these seem very good and there are lots available. The downsides are that the discs can be expensive and getting the file on a computer to edit isn’t as simple as it could be. Also, the picture quality, while good, isn’t great, particularly with some of the cheaper cameras.

The latest must-have is high definition cameras that record in much higher resolution than standard cameras. While the picture quality is great, most of them still use tape and are very expensive.

I had been interested in camcorders that either record to a memory card or to a hard disc. One of our registrars has a Sanyo Xacti which is very compact and stylish. It takes memory cards up to 4GB and he likes it a lot, particularly for its portability. JVC have an Everio range which they keep updating; these have hard discs in them and get good reviews.

However, I decided upon Sony’s first hard disc camcorder, the DCR-SR90E. It comes with a 30GB hard disc, which is big enough to hold 444 minutes of video in high quality or over 1,000 in low. It has a great lens with 10x optical zoom, a widescreen LCD with touch screen controls, and can even take still pictures at 3 megapixels. Although Sony lists it for £850 on their website, I was able to find it from an internet retailer via Kelkoo for £680. It arrived next day by courier, several days before the birth of the twins.

It is a pleasure to use, even though it isn’t as small as some available. It comes on almost instantly and the controls are incredibly easy. Having installed the software, all you need to do to get the videos on your computer is connect the USB cable and let it do the rest.

You can keep numerous recordings on the camera and access them quickly, unlike with a tape, and it strikes me that it is the perfect camera to record consultations on. It will run off mains or an optional extra-long battery. It comes with a remote which you can use to start and stop recording each consultation. Its memory size means you can record several surgeries’ worth before having to worry about running out of space. You can spend as long as you want viewing the consultations before selecting your best from the touch screen to place in a running list and either burn them to DVD or copy to video. No more going backwards and forwards on a tape, changing tapes, finding out it has run out or not recorded. It is worth noting that although the on-board sound, recorded in Dolby Digital 5.1, is great, you can purchase a wireless Bluetooth microphone to put on your desk.

All in all a great camera, though I worry that next month a high definition one will come out and make me jealous.