Looking at the high competition levels that exist in the market Sony has moved into manufacturing budgetal camcorders which cost less than $600.  The camcorders are generally divided into two categories: one which is compact but less powerful and the other which is larger but a well equipped version. The Sony HDR CX-100 is the first model produced by the company on the budget trail. The most important question that comes into the mind is what quantity of a sacrifice in video quality and usability are you willing to make for size and price?

With its 2.3×2.4×4.5-inches measurement and 11.7 ounces weight (including Memory Stick Duo and battery), the CX100 is quite exceptionally compact especially in its class. The reduction has not only been done in its size, but in price as well and it comfortably fits in your purse or your jacket pocket.

It’s very ergonomic, being curved on the right side and square on the left side. The lens housing is very simple; it’s a 30mm threaded lens with a manual lens cover. It’s a Zeiss lens, identical to lenses found on previous HDR series camcorders. Optical width (35mm equivalent) is 42mm wide zoomed in to 497mm, so the camcorder isn’t quite wide enough for action sports or close-in work, but is plenty wide for the average user. . It can be called a tiny mini camcorder; nevertheless, it includes a host of features that lacks in other models like 10x zoom lens with the ability to capture 2mp stills. It has good looks with clean lines and the combination of a solid heft plus textured matte and glossy plastics to keep the look from seeming cheap. The Sony HDR-CX 100 is available in three brilliant shades like basic black, traditional silver and bright red.

Exposure is controlled via menu touch screen, as is shutter speed, although the camera does not offer full manual control. The CX100 older sibling the CX12 seems quite comfortable to use, but with its relatively flat top, you need to use your both hands to shoot as you have to hold the camcorder from one hand and use the other one to click the shutter. It is equipped with the usual set of buttons in the body inside the LCD, with Home, zoom, and record buttons on the LCD bezel. You will find beneath the LCD panel is a one-touch Disc Burn button to burn card contents straight to a DVD via the USB connector, next to the disc burn is a Play button for playback modes

Though the touch-sensitive screen for the main part is adequately responsive, the menus are structured in such a fashion that it’s virtually impossible to recollect where to find some of the settings. Listed under the home menu you can select from three basic capture modes like movie, photograph, and Smooth Slow Record ( as an example, to record golfing swings ) –though the mode switch permits you to select between film and photograph.

You also have a tab for image viewing options and manage media .

The manage media features allows the user to decide whether he wishes to record to the internal 8GB  memory or to a card, you can also select for options like Steady-Shot stabilization, choosing high def or standard def, face detection and Grin Shutter, and Output settings ( as an example, Television type and HDMI resolution ).

When you select picture settings from the home menu and standard vs high def somewhere else on the Home menu, you select film quality in the Options menu. Offering the best quality at 16 megabyte per second mode, you can record 7 min of video per gb storage i.e. around fifty five minutes in the internal memory. If you move to 9-megabit-per-second mode that increases to about ten minutes per gb.

This handy cam has face detection, smile shutter and scene modes. Face Detection technology and Smile Shutter technology, capturing smiles and faces is easier than ever. Smile Shutter captures a smile the moment it happens and takes still photos when your subject smiles, even when shooting video.  This model does not feature Night-Shot infrared mode which has always been the customer’s favorite.

The most exciting thing about this camcorder is that it brings the award winning Exmor ™ imager to the consumer world. Exmor is the heart of the professional EX-series camcorders, which have become standards in the broadcast world, which means more clean image, less noise in low-light, and a smoother image overall.

The Sony HDR-CX100 is ideally good for those who give an importance to the size of the camcorder. There are other larger older models from Sony and other makers whose costs have dropped seriously but are larger in size. For practical reason if you need to make comparisons with Sony HDR-CX100 you can compare to Cannon Vixia HF100 before making any commitment.

Similar Posts

• June 1, 2009 -- Cannon Vixia HF S100 Camcorder Review (1)
• July 5, 2010 -- About Us (0)
• October 19, 2009 -- Review Of Lexmark Platinum Pro 905 Printer (1)