Please welcome this cool looking camera. It's from Sony, version HDR-XR520V, selling for about $1500, very suitable for you travelers because it has new added feature. So what's new? It's the built-in GPS mapping system!
What's more? The HDR-XR520V is a worthy addition to Sony’s camcorder family, because it has sharp video quality and a 240 GB hard disk drive, and lots and lots of professional features. This camcorder appeals to the advanced tourist crowd, rather than the budget filmmaker brigade, because of the design of external controls.
It’s the first camcorder to bring in GPS technology. As long as it can obtain a signal from a GPS satellite, it tracks and documents every video clip recorded. In a moving train, the accuracy of the GPS system is poor at times. The HDR-XR520V can record 1920×1080 High Definition video and store to a 240GB non-removable hard disk drive or Memory Stick Pro Duo Media, which sells separately.
It has 150x digital zoom with 12x optical zoom G Lens 5.5-60.0 mm focal distance with F1.8-3.4 aperture, 1/3.15″ ClearVid, 1/2.88″ Exmore R CMOS sensor with Exmore-R technology, and Exmore-R sensor. The new sensor as well as improved processing improves low light performance, reduces noise and offers a clearer picture than previous Sony models.
This camera has a power consumption of 4.4 watts and requires a 7.2 volt battery pack.
At full zoom, the LCD panel still lacks a great deal of physical information, but its accuracy is perfect. The Sony HDR-XR520V’s 3.2-inch wide LCD provided the nicest looking picture with its 921,600-pixel display. Not only does the HDR-XR520V offer the largest monitor on the market, but it’s also the only LCD with full touch-screen operation. The touch screen is responsive and can calibrate the sensitivity of your touch.
Users prefer the LCD to the viewfinder in most shooting environments, because it surpasses any other manufacturer’s monitoring capabilities. Its competitor, the Panasonic HDC-HS300 has a hybrid touch screen LCD, but the lower screen resolution and 2.7-inch size simply couldn’t handle adult-sized fingers. Canon Vixia HF S10 offers a 2.7-inch joystick-manned LCD.
Unfortunately, the Sony HDR-XR520V has limited manual controls compared to the Canon Vixia HF S10 and Panasonic HDC-HS300. It doesn’t even have independent shutter control. It has Exposure, Auto Exposure Shift, White Balance Shift and Focus control. You may adjust these with the Cam Control dial. The HDC-HS300 delivers aperture, gain and true 24p control while the HF S10 displays three different frame rates, Cine mode and Shutter Priority.
Menus are also accurate, though Sony needs to improve its layout. A new user can get lost easily in its confusing menus. It may take a while to grow accustomed to the HDR-XR520V’s menus, unlike its competitor, the Canon Vixia HF S10, that has a self-explanatory menu. The Panasonic HDC-HS300’s menus are also highly spontaneous and easy to access.
For the most part, AE Shift takes care of the unnecessary highlights in bright light, and since the HDR-XR520V’s low light performance is so impressive, there is no need to work with any exposure control in low light condition.
With multiple frame rates, gain control and Cine mode gamma shift, the Sony HDR-XR520V would easily exceed the Canon HF S10 As it stands, the HDR-XR520V is more of a top tourist cam rather than a budget film camcorder.
Screen icons also double in size for better touch screen accuracy and vision, and Easy mode is convenient for old folks and beginners. This Sony HDR-XR520V has Face Detection for Photo and Video modes and Smile Shutter solely for Photo mode. However, the Face Detection feature works well at a moderate distance, but is a challenge up close. You can set the Smile Shutter to the sensitivity of the detection, and in most scenes, it proves itself accurate.
The large 240GB hard drive bulks up on the right side of the camcorder, but it doesn’t make the camcorder too big, and it still fits in your hand comfortably. The camcorder has a traditional Sony hand strap that is adjustable and sturdy. It has two sections of ports here — a headphone jack and microphone jack. These jacks are behind a pop-out port cover near the back, and a port cover near the front slides open to reveal an AV-output, USB port, and an HDMI output.
You can record sound only in 5.1 Channel Surround or 2 Channel Stereo. The Canon Vixia HF S10 offers an onboard level control that you can adjust with a joystick, while the Panasonic HDC-HS300 allows you to monitor each individual mic and adjust levels on a 5.1 Channel Surround sound map. There’s nothing special about any built-in camcorder microphone, and you should have an external shotgun mic to provide higher-grade sound quality. The HDR-XR520V has an accessory shoe – Active Interface Shoe – on top for mounting mics and video lights but they are only compatible with Sony brand products. Buy it from a Sony store, or find a third party adapter.
The XR520V resembles a miniature HDR-SR12 without the mode dial. It’s impressive that Sony is able to produce a slimmer camcorder and still double the size of the internal hard disk drive. The button layout and design is also different on the HDR-XR520V. Instead of a mode dial to switch between still and video mode, the XR520V uses a small mode button. It also has an electronic viewfinder. The LCD cavity includes a number of buttons – power, playback, display, easy, and DVD burn. There are also two sliding switches – one turns GPS on/off and the other selects low light modes, namely standard, low lux, and NightShot.
This camcorder has the largest capacity available in the camcorder world, but an almost 30 hours of continuous recording time in the highest quality could be a little excessive. Most editing programs now support AVCHD, so it will not be a huge problem, but you may need a powerful computer with plenty of disk space capacity.
HDR-XR520V is easy to use and has a massive storage for good video quality but you should include at least another $300-400 for its accessories. The included battery is functional but you still should have an extra battery pack while traveling, and it is also proprietary.
As far as overall design and features are concerned, the HDR-XR520V is a very good choice.
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