Sum ‘n’ substance:

Thumbs up: User-friendly interface makes it easy to operate; light in weight; 60x zoom lens; compact design.

Thumbs down: Images are not sharp; purple fringing of object matter.

Inside the trunk: Digital Zoom 2000 x; Optical Sensor Size :1/8inch; Type of Optical Sensor :Advanced HAD CCD; Min Illumination: 6 lux; NTSC Analog Video Format; MPEG-2 Digital Video Format; Min Shutter Speed: 1/4 sec; Camcorder Effective Still Resolution: 0.68 megapixels; 8 GB Flash – Integrated Memory; Media Type Flash card; 60 x Optical Zoom; Carl Zeiss Zoom lens; in built lens shield; Manual and Automatic Focus Adjustment; Face detection , Touch-screen control , USB 2.0 compatibility , Dolby Digital AC-3 (2 channel) recording Type 2.7 inch LCD Color display having TFT active matrix. Connector Type: 1 x Composite video/audio output , 1 x USB , 1 x S-Video output; Viewfinder: Display Form Factor Rotating; Display Format 123,000 pixels; battery: Sony NP-FH30 Lithium ion rechargeable battery; weighs 10 ounces.

The whiz-kid speaks:

Razzle-dazzle: The DCR-SX41 is a flash-memory-integrated standard-def handy-cam. It’s main features being, its compact size, an internal memory of 8GB as well as a memory stick slot for expansion, 60x mega-zoom lens. The SX41 is not very attractive to look at, it has a rectangular shape and somewhat resembles a scale model of a metro. Although there are no shapes to choose from, there are a couple of colours, blue, silver and red. The size of the entire cam is no more than an average beer can.

The controls on the SX41 are pretty standard; there is the start/stop button right at the back and up top you have an easy to use zoom rocker. On the left hand side, there is a Mode button for toggling between shooting stills or movies.

The hand strap is not all that comfortable; it would have been if, it was slightly lower. To the right side, where the strap is joined to the back of the body is a flip-down opening that covers a DC input for power and the AV jack.

The battery sticks out from the rear end and just below it, is the Memory Stick Pro Duo card slot and power input. On flipping out the 2.7 inch touch-screen display, are five buttons in the body, for power; turning the display on and off displaying info; recording direct-to-DVD using Sony’s VRD-P1 DVDirect DVD burner which costs about $149; for simple point-and-shoot recording there is also an Easy button that locks down the cam few advanced features; and to correct exposure of backlit subjects there’s a Backlight option. Also in the cavity, are the Mini-USB port and the covered Memory Stick Pro Duo card slot.

The remaining controls are covered by the menu system on the touch-screen. The Menu grants you access to shooting options that are context-sensitive while the Home mode permits you access to all other options.

Inside dope:
The DCR-SX41 was designed for user-friendly recording and doesn’t pack a lot of extra shooting features.

When set to Auto, the SX41 adjusts the focus, white balance, and even scene selection automatically, to give the best picture it can. But if you want to do things yourself then, there are scene options and the white balance can also be adjusted. There also is a focus and exposure controller. What you cannot do is control the amount of zoom with the screen, making it difficult to use if the cam is supported on to a tripod.

The SX41 also has an ‘Instant-On’ option that gets the fires up the cam to record very fast simply by opening the LCD, although this feature is common it functions smoothly. The auto-focus is very responsive too. The battery life for the power pack, which is included, is an estimated 100 minutes of continuous operation; expect the minutes to drop if frequent switching between on and off is done, actively operating the zoom functions and the touch screen or reviewing through clips and images. According to Sony, extended life batteries of up to 13 hours of continuous shooting are also available.

The overall performance of the SX41 was average. The video quality lacked sharpness. The clips also displayed a sizeable amount of noise that includes a very obvious purple-fringing around object matters. But, I will say that the video colors very vivid and the white balance was decent. Then again, the camcorder was really bad at capturing still shots.

Nitty-gritty: This camcorder has Sony’s same ol’interface and also has the much familiar location of buttons. It is priced somewhere around $269.99 – $499.95. If you want to capture your videos no matter what and have a tight budget, then the DCR-SX41 might be the way to go.

Similar Posts

• September 25, 2009 -- Review Of The Sony STR-DN1000 (0)
• September 21, 2009 -- Reviw Of The Microsoft Zune HD MP3 Player (0)
• September 12, 2009 -- Review Of The Sony Bravia KDL-52W5100 Television (2)