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I bought this camcorder to video my new baby twins. I was looking for a cheap-ish used HD camcorder that works well indoors. The HDR-SR5E does the job nicely: it produces colourful and sharp images indoors even with quite dim lighting, and the image stabilisation seems to work well. The sound recording with the built-in mic is good and the camera operates silently (at least, I can't hear any noise, even when zooming): it reproduces life-like splashes from the bath, for example. Before I bought this I was a bit concerned that some reviewers on amazon complained about a problem with the hard drive clicking; I haven't found this. The camcorder feels great to hold and all the buttons are in just the right place. It seems sturdy and well made. Lots of small things, like the quality of the strap and the zoom rocker, make it pleasant to use. Most of the settings can only be accessed with a touch-screen menu system, this is not ideal but works better than I thought it would. The screen itself is bright and clear. Two handy features I didn't expect to use are spot focusing and spot metering: these let you indicate a point on the screen to focus or to fix the exposure from. This is ideal when there's a lot going on in a scene and you want to focus on a face. Also useful are zebra stripes that highlight overexposed regions. The camcorder records to hard disk rather than tape or flash memory cards. I hadn't realised what a bonus this is: it's quick and easy to transfer to computer, the camcorder starts almost instantly, and you can keep tons of important clips on the camera as a backup. Much better than tape or dvd. The included software is only for organising clips, not for making movies (it only lets you crop clips). In its favour, it is fast, easy to use, and it has a useful calendar view. But it doesn't seem to let you tag clips or create playlists. I don't plan to do much editing but I do want to create playlists so I'll need to buy some more software (unless I can find a free player/organiser). There are two versions of this camcorder, HDR-SR5 for North America which records in NTSC format and the HDR-SR5E for Europe which records in PAL format. If it matters to you, make sure you get the right version. This camcorder was released some time in 2007 I think, along with HDV and DVD versions as well as the higher-end HDR-SR7E and SR8E models. The 2008 versions are the HDR-SR10E, SR11E and SR12E. On ebay the HDR-SR5E seems to go for a lot less than these other Sony models, making it a real bargain used if you don't have oodles to spend and you're looking for a quality high definition camcorder that works well indoors.Read full review
This is an awesome camcorder with some really nice features. I've also used the better SR12E, and I have to say, they seem to have the same features, apart from the smaller hard drive. At first I couldn't get the video into Final Cut Express 4, but after reading up and trying a few things, it turned out I needed to upgrade to 4.0.1. After doing that I could transfer all the HD qualities to FCE. One tip is that the original battery only last about an hour. I've used the biggest battery with the SR12E and that lasted at least 3-4 hours. Other than that, I'm loving this camera. Hope you enjoy it too! :) Nick.
Full 1080P High definition recording to hard disk, no transferring tapes, just pop it on the docking station and transfer the files.
This is an excellent camcorder. The handycam is very easy to use. It has touch screen control. I'll enjoy using the handycam on my family's trip to Florida this year. Found no negative points.
I love it. Great quality, great battery, great design - amazing!!! It is 40 GB hard drive only but you can add produo memory card up to 16 GB so it is 56 GB !!!!
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