Buy Cheap Sony HDR-CX550V 64GB High Definition Handycam Camcorder From Here Now!
Capture stunning 1920 x 1080 high-definition video and 12 Megapixel still images with the HDR-CX550V, which employs an "Exmor R" CMOS sensor for superior low-light performance and 64GB of embedded flash memory. Optical SteadyShot image stabilization with Active Mode and 3-way Shake Canceling enables you to capture remarkably smooth video from wide angle to full telephoto shooting.
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Technical Details
- 1920x1080 Full HD Recording w/12MP still image- 64GB1 embedded Flash memory
- 1/2.88" 6MP back-illuminated "Exmor R" CMOS sensor
- Optical SteadyShot image stabilization w/ Active Mode
- Wide Angle G-Lens (26.3mm) with 10x Optical zoom
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By Hermann K. Siegl (LINCOLN, NE USA)
The camera works great. The only time I saw the blue dot is when I was shooting into the sun. Not a problem for me. I wish there was a slighly larger viewfnder for outdoor shooting. The LCD touch screen has great detail and the menus are easy to use. I was confused by the +delete symbol in lower right hand screen. I was deleting the good videos instead of the ones I wantd to delete. Finaly I had to navigate through a couple of menus to delete video segments.
The camere did lock up (get confused) when I was switching between viewfinder and LCD screen. I had to power down and decide to use the LCD screen or the viewfinder.
64 Gig of memory is nice. I may not ever purchase a memory stick. The best part of the camera is the wide angle and low light performance.
I looked long and hard at the Canon HF S20 and Panasonic HDC-TM700K cameas. I needed wide angle and I was not sure I wanted to do 1080P 60.
By Flyfischr
This camcorder is very user friendly. It is very easy and intuitative, both my wife and I were able to use it right away. The touch screen is easy to use, as is the camera. I did think the battery life could have been better, I will probley end up buying the extend life battery for extended recording time. Overall this camera is a great buy
By Joel C. Doyle (Little Rock, AR USA)
This camera is really awesome! No tapes to worry about. Great battery life. Fantastic resolution and image quality. It's no RED camera, but it'll do all your entry-level amateur film work. Slap a 35mm adapter on it and you're a filmaker.
I have trouble filling up the 64gb of embedded memory.
The only drawback is that most programs don't know what the @#$% AVCHD format is and will not recognize the meta-tags of the files. Even Adobe CS5 products which claim to be AVCHD compliant out-of-the-box can't recognize the meta-data. Premiere can, but not After Effects or even Bridge which is supposed to be the file browser! Also, AVCHD formats perform poorly in editors. Skippy and jumpy unless you do a ram preview. Get lots of RAM!
None of these drawbacks are really the camera's fault. I think AVCHD is a great format. Just want software companies to catch up.
Buy this!!!
By
I purchased the very first consumer HD video camcorder that Sony introduced back in 2005, the HC1. It was a beautiful well-built camcorder that I never thought I would end up parting with.
The problem with the original HC1 camcorder was that it was tape based and it didn't reproduce great images in low light situations.
I do a lot of video work for trade shows throughout the year. My job is to go out and videotape vendors and their products. I often work under low-light conditions and I do all my editing on a Macbook Pro. The editing process has always been somewhat tedious due to the fact that I had to transfer all the tape footage to the Mac in real time. Tape an hour of footage -- expect an
hour to transfer it.
I really needed to upgrade my camcorder to one that was better in low light and would transfer faster to my Mac.
For the past two years I was hesitant to upgrade to a newer camcorder. There were horror stories about how AVCHD camcorders interacted with Macs. Still, every time I had to transfer footage from my tape based camcorder I found myself cursing under my breathe. I felt it was time to take the risk and upgrade to AVCHD.
All in all, I think the upgrade was a good choice.
Compared to the Sony HC1 the CX550V feels like a toy. It's certainly smaller and extremely more lightweight than its predecessor. However, the tradeoff is that it feels like a plastic toy.
The one thing you immediately admire about this camcorder is the beautiful 3.5 LCD screen which is vivid and vibrant. It's a real treat being able to watch your live recording on this gorgeous screen that holds up well in bright light conditions.
The menu system, however, is not the most intuitive to understand. You really have to dig through layers of menus to find things. As with everything else, the more I used the menu the easier it became to find everything. Just was never especially keen of touch menu screens. It gathers fingerprints rather quickly. A dial and button would have been a better choice.
This camcorder has built-in 64GB flash memory as well as the ability to take SVCHD and Sony memory cards which really expands upon the amount of storage options you have here.
The overall quality of HD recording you get from this camera is excellent. You get well detailed video reproduction with vibrant, natural colors. Image stabilization works exceedingly well. In low-light this camcorder really exceeds its predecessor, the HC1. There is far less noise introduced into the picture and much more detail to be seen. It's really astounding to see the quality of video this camcorder reproduces which rivals that of broadcast. Although I was disappointed that companies are still not incorporating 3CCD chips into camcorders at this price range the gap seems to be closing between consumer and prosumer camcorders as far as the quality of video is concerned. I can see how well consumer HD camcorder technology has evolved in the past 5 years.
The wide angle video lens on this camcorder is a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, I love the fact that I have the ability to capture a wider range of video. The downside is Sony switching from its gold standard Carl Zeiss to its G lens. Hard to say how much the video quality is effected though I have read reviews by more discerning critics who say video quality is somewhat compromised by the change. Compared to my 5-year-old HC1 I find the video quality to be superior here, though one has to question if its the lens or the overall evolution of the technology itself. I will say that I'm not particularly happy about Sony dumbing down to 10x optical zoom in a flagship camcorder like this.
The battery that comes with this camcorder will not get you more than an hour of footage. I purchased the NPFV70 battery instead of going with the larger NPFV100 which adds too much bulk and weight to the camera. I did notice that there is quite a heavy drain on the battery. I believe I only got under 4 hours of LCD viewed recording with the NPFV70. Also, found that unless the battery is totally recharged you will get a false reading on battery power remaining time. The camcorder went from indicating 2 hours to 10 minutes in mere moments. Have not had enough time to see if this a consistent problem with battery indication feature or perhaps the fact I did not have time to totally recharge the battery. I will say that I read on a discussion forum of another Sony CX550V owner having the same battery indication issues. As I noted, I think the NPFV100 is just too heavy and bulky. Buy two NPFV70 batteries for long days of recording just to be safe.
The camcorder does include a 12 megapixel still camera which I totally have no use for since I usually carry around a DSLR on my other shoulder. Another feature I don't necessarily personally find useful is the built-in GPS. However, for those that take a lot of footage and forget the finer details of where it was taken, I can see how this feature might remotely be useful. Oh, and speaking of shoulder, this camcorder lacks the inclusion of a shoulder strap (and perhaps even the necessary brackets to accommodate one), making you rely on the hand strap instead.
As far as working with a Mac....
I own a Macbook Pro 2.8 GHz Duo core 4GB Ram.
Using iMovie '09 I plugged the CX550V into the USB port. iMovie immediately recognized it. Brought up all the segments I shot with checkboxes beneath them to indicate which ones I wanted to transfer over. Fortunately, all the clips were full-length. I heard other camcorders split everything up into 1-2 minute segments. Fortunately, if I took 10 minutes of footage, that was the length of the clip being transferred.
My hopes were that the overall transfer time of AVCHD would be faster than TAPE. In reality, it could have been, if not for the fact that iMovie takes the AVCHD footage and then converts it into its own Apple Codec. This takes additional time. Overall, I would say that AVCHD to iMovie is faster than real-time tape, however on my Macbook only marginally. I expect once I move up to an i7 Macbook Pro the transfer speed will be even faster.
The point I am making here is that this camcorder does play very nice with Macs. Even on my Duo Core Macbook which is now considered outdated technology, there was no sense of extreme resource hogging during the transfer.
You will lose 5.1 sound with the Mac transfer as from what I understand, iMove '09 does not support it. I also understand that any footage taken with image stabilization may cause conflicts with video processing. For that reason I have chosen not to use image stabilization whenever I want to work with iMovie.
Overall, I am extremely happy with the Sony CX550V. Compared to their first HC1 camcorder one can certainly say they don't build these things like they used to. However, one must admire that 5 years since, Sony has been able to manufacturer lighter and smaller consumer camcorders with improved video and low light performance.
By Future Retro (Seattle, WA)
Out of the top 3 camcorders right now, the Panasonic TM700k, Canon HF S21 and the CX550v, I painfully had to settle on this one. The real bummer is the lack of any progressive recording modes and the severe limit in manual controls. The following was how I decided to buy this based on Camcorderinfo's tests
I have a Mac and could only afford Final Cut Express so the TM700k and it's 60p record mode was out, which was easily my first choice. This however has excellent Mac compatibility with both iMovie and FCE. As for the Canon, it has the ultimate flexibility in recording modes, ranging from 1080/60i to native 24p. I would have loved the Canon for my snowboard videos as the 30p mode would no doubt be handy, unfortunately the Canon S21 has the worst stabilization out of any top consumer camcorders right now, and as most of my footage would be handheld, I was glad the Sony's optical Steadyshot is hands down the best camcorder stabilizer in the consumer class.
All the other top consumer camcorders have better manual controls, the ones on this one are dreadful. Coming from DSLR's I'm used to having control over the picture but this only lets you choose one setting at once. The closest I've been able to come to any sort of manual control is to set the shutter speed or iris, and then set the AE shift, which is close to the control I'm used to on DSLR's.
I do love the wide angle lens, the great range of affordable handycam accessories, like batteries and remote tripods, but the lack of progressive recording really made buying this a painful choice.
Also, some words on lens hoods:
I haven't had this long enough to write a full review, but it's definitely 4 stars so far. I just wanted to share a few words about lens hoods and the wide angle lens.
Most conventional hoods will cause severe vignetting, this frustrated me to no end and I eventually found 2 solutions. Both by using a 37-49mm step ring and two different 49mm "wide angle" screw on lens hoods purchased from ebay, one plastic petal shaped and one metal conical shaped. The metal conical shaped definitely worked the best as having to align the plastic petal shaped hood was very difficult with the step ring, the metal conical shaped hood is simply screw on and go, plug and play simplicity. Most importantly, when using a 49mm sep ring and wide angle lens hood, there is no visible vignetting.
However, if I were to go back, I would absolutely choose a 37-52mm adapter instead of 37-49mm. The 49mm step ring is cutting it too close, and when using a 49mm screw on lens hood along with a 49mm UV filter, the vignetting appears again, just ever so slightly, I know it wouldn't be there if using 52mm accessories instead.
I chose the 49mm adapter because I didn't want to block access to the manual control ring, but the outer rim of the lens barrel seems to be a perfect 52mm diameter so a 37-52mm lens hood would match the CX/XR550v perfectly and not block access to the control ring at all.
I've already invested quite a bit of money on 49mm accessories, so unfortunately I cannot switch to the 52mm solution, but please don't make the 49mm mistake like I did
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Buy Sony HDR-CX550V 64GB High Definition Handycam Camcorder Now
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