I purchased this camera on Monday, had fun with it for two days, and then returned it. Despite the fact that I can not afford it, I then closed my eyes and ordered the HDR-CX550V. I generally went from the bottom of the Sony customer class to the best in a single fell swoop.

Items I liked about the CX150:
* Fabulous high quality in adequate light. The video in 24 Mbps mode is stunning. Search YouTube for examples. Every single hair on my cat, dust particles in sunlight, it all shows up with lovely resolution. It is amazing. Virtually Blu-Ray high quality. You will not discover any consumer-class camcorder with far better quality.
* 25x zoom , when employed with a tripod, lets you get really close
* “macro” functions without any particular settings. Just place the lens an inch away and it will focus. Resolves fingerprints.
* Amazingly tiny. With no challenging drive or tape drive, the unit is frighteningly little. You can put it and all the cables + charger in a camera situation designed for a DSLR + telephoto
* PMB computer software works, has good fundamental editing. Utilised it to grab frames from films – almost don’t require the “nonetheless” function if 1990×1080 res is good enough.
* It will take a 32GB memory stick, even although the feature list says they only help 16.
* The touch screen is responsive
* “touch the object” spot concentrate, spot white balance is cool
* Give it the NP-FV70 battery and it will record for hours and hrs

Items I either did not like or features missing (by “missing” I understand that you have to pay more). Do not mistake the length of my ‘cons’ list as hating the tiny guy – it is a good camera for what it is developed to be.
* A bit pricey. I feel it is really worth about 0.00, not the 9.00 list
* No wide-angle. I wish Sony had made the lens go from slightly wide-angle to about 15x, rather of from normal to 25x.
* No external mic input
* No hot shoe – not even the Sony proprietary 1
* Zoom motor noise is really audible in quiet settings – do not anticipate to use this camera to record acoustic orchestral music in concert halls
* The “smooth slow-mo 240 fps” is NOT HD 1080i60 high quality. May well be OK at 720, but I located it disappointingly blurry. I’d enjoy to see it have the very same capability as the Casio EX-FX1 (not holding breath)
* Not enough buttons – also much reliance on the touch screen. I favor buttons to scrolling via menus. Sony could repair this by delivering much more than 6 “my menu” alternatives.
* Automobile concentrate operates excellent most of the time, but when it gets confused it is horrible. Combine that with no fast focus wheel and it is a recipe for loosing shots
* Picture mode is not readily available in 24 Mbps HD mode.
* The electronic stabilization does not operate. I’ve grown used to optical stabilization in my DSC-H50 and there is no going back.
* Quick of employing something like the Black Fast Straps Fasten-R2 screwed into the tripod shoe, there is no way to attach a neck strap. I nearly dropped it numerous times.
* The plastic housing is delicate to noise – any small touch whilst recording will display up as sound in the video.
* No windscreen for the mics. Combine that with no external mic capability and you won’t be ready to hear something in windy circumstances.
* No remote
* No “evening shot” infrared
* Reduced light functionality is what you would assume from a small lens size. All the electronics in the world can’t totally compensate for glass place.

Summary: if you want a fairly inexpensive, tiny camera for shooting Great high quality vids of vacations, the youngsters and the pets, this is an excellent selection. Want to do more, and you will need to have to pay much more for a far better unit. Just want to aid other men and women stay away from my experience of currently being a bit disappointed and having to trade up.

Where do I commence? I’m not sure. I did not know what to assume when I order this camera, but the minute I powered it up, I was astonished at the clarity. I mean correct out of the box, this point is practically set up for you to be successful with your project.

The camera has many adjustable settings, but numerous of them a buried inside of the menu method, which is accessible by way of it really is touchscreen.
Sony was even nice adequate to give you a fast menu area where you access the capabilities or settings that you might use far more frequently. I
wish there were much more than 1 screen of these as I typically have found myself needing far more quick buttons than this.

Even so, the genuine explanation I am so pleased with this camera is because you do not need to have to fool around with something to take excellent video.
The intelligent auto characteristic is activated by default and it fairly a lot has you covered, as the camera will rapidly detect scenes
and select the correct settings based on the environment. What this means is, if you are a point-and-shoot kind of person (like me),
this camera will not let you down.

And did I mention the picture high quality? It is amazing!!!!

The camera has four HD modes and 1 SD mode. They are FX,FH,HQ, LP (all for HD), and STD HQ for SD.
I have only attempted the diverse HD modes and I should say they are great, but I found that I often need to shoot longer videos, so
I am at the moment using FH mode, which makes it possible for me a bit a lot more recording. BTW, this camera has 16Gb internal flash memory, plus a
slot for an SD card or Sony’s memory stick duo.

And did I mention the picture top quality?

No matter which of the recording modes you decide on, the quality is definitely stellar!

Battery life is fairly great. You get a battery that you practically squeeze 2 hrs out of. What I like greatest is that the battery is
external, which means you can buy a greater capacity battery (Sony has at least 2 added batteries that will match).

What I liked about this camera:

1. Swift and easy to use
2. Superb picture quality irrespective of recording mode (1080i)
three. built in flash memory
4. adjustable microphone (recording is dolby digital 2 channel)
five. tiny and compact
6. zoom is smooth and steady
7. has touch concentrate
eight. has face recognition, like priority of one particular face in the picture
9. smile detection will take a photo if 1 of the faces smiles (and smile detection is adjustable)
10. shoots images even though filming
11. reasonably very good reduced light functionality (not wonderful, but the colours nevertheless looked like themselves)

What I did not like:

I waited a even though before writing the critique to see if I had an matter that I could complain about with this camera.
I do not have any complaints. It exceeded my expectations in each and every region. I read some complaints about not possessing 1080p….
what ever.


Video Formats:

For HD this camera produces MPEG4 H.264 AVC/AVCHD files (files have .m2ts extention when imported by PMB, .mts if you browse
the camera)
For SD I believe the format is MPEG2 (I have not shot considerably SD footage, but what I have was very excellent)

Make positive your laptop or computer is loaded with the correct codecs and you must have no troubles.

The camera came with Sony’s PMB computer software, which I use to download my footage to the laptop or computer. It makes it possible for you some manipulation
of the files and the ability to burn to DVD in AVCHD format, exactly where it can be played on a Blue-ray player. You can also burn
regular DVDs with PMB as effectively. However, I only use PMB to import from the camera. I have other software program to produce videos.

I would mention the image good quality shot with this camera again, but I believe I’ll close the review by saying that, this is an
superb camcorder and it was really worth every penny.

I paid, following shipping, 9.99. For that price tag, this camera is worth it. It lacks certain attributes you would discover on the much more expensive camcorders. There is no optical image stabilization, only regular-shot. No night shot, no external light, no remote… I can take about 2 hrs of video on the highest setting. Battery life is about the very same (two hrs). The sound seems quite decent, though, practically nothing to write house about. Video good quality is regular. Nothing remarkable. Images arent really as sharp as I’ve seen on greater-finish Sony’s. I viewed files on my 46″ Sony LCD and the video quality wasn’t what I hoped for. It looks greater on smaller screens. The videos have been presented in 1080p only when played back through the camcorder. For just typical shoppers who are searching to play video that fills up their T.V. screens, and do it on a budget, this would probably be a suitable selection. If video quality is a major promoting point for you, I don’t advocate camera. I guess what can you anticipate for 9.99?

!!!!!UPDATE!!!!!! 03/31/2010

Right after taking this camcorder outdoors on a lovely spring day, I should say, in environments with very good lighting (outside), the video good quality appears to be a lot greater. It definetly makes it really worth the value. You WILL require a tripod or some form of mounting device to keep the image stable. This thing is lite, as I’ve stated previously. There is no weight to counter any jiddering or wobble your arm/hands helps make when operating. I must say that I am general pleased with this product. I nonetheless stand by everything I said before the update.

!!!!!Crucial!!!!!

This camera suffers from a frequent problem that I believed was restricted to DSLR’s: Rolling Shutter. If you’re unfamiliar with this phenomena, it occurs when the camera pans from left to correct (or vice versa) in quick style. It causes the image to grow to be “slanted” as you pan. This can be avoided by not panning the camera so speedily. I also have observed it in other sorts of video cameras, so it appears to be more prevalent than I believed.