To buy or not to buy.

I waited almost five years before upgrading my first generation Sony digital 8-mm camcorder to a Sony hard drive camcorder. I looked really hard at the JVC Everio hard drive video cameras, but the reviews I read were less than spectacular.

The Sony DCR SR-100 appeared to be very solid first generation hard drive video camera. First of all, the video quality is exceptional, even indoors and in low light. The unit fits comfortably in your hand. The zoom and start/stop buttons are easily worked with the index finger and thumb.

This unit is not as small as the smallest mini-DV camcorders, but it is about half of the size of my old 8mm. I believe they could have made the unit smaller by eliminating the viewfinder. The camera features an “easy” mode that my wife enjoys and makes navigating the menus much simpler for basic recording.

The video and still files are stored on a built-in 30-gigabyte hard drive in mpeg2 format. The video and still photo files are stored in separate folders. The camera can be plugged into a computer via a USB 2.0 port. Files can be copied to the computer’s hard drive automatically or manually using the drag and drop technique. Video files can be played directly from the camera or the computer using Windows Media Player or any other player that plays mpeg2 files.

Each time you press start and stop record button, a new file is created. Unwanted clips can be easily eliminated. When the video clips are played from the camera, they are shown continuously in the order that they were recorded. If you play them from the computer, you have to play each file individually. The included software is sub-par in my opinion. I am currently looking for software that will easily manipulate and edit the dozens of mpeg2 files that I have created. I would like to be able to combine several mpeg files into one file. As of yet I have not figured out how to do that.

If you want to burn your video clips directly to DVD, without much editing, the process is simple. Install the included software on a computer with a DVD burner, connect the camera with a USB cable, and press the DVD BURN button on the camera. That’s it.

The 3.0 mega-pixel still shot is more than adequate for screen viewing and printing 4x6 photos. The stills it produces are better than most other video cameras. The still photo feature is more of a convenience than a necessity.

This camera a very nice first entry for Sony. My guess is that this camera will be outdated within another year or so as future models will become cheaper, smaller, have more features and will include high-definition recording capability. For me, I could not wait any longer as my kids refused to stop growing long enough for a full featured camera to be introduced.

Key features:

30-Gig hard drive store over 7 hours of DVD quality video.
Records in native widescreen 16:9 mode or standard 4:3.
Built-in Dolby 5.1 surround sound that really works.
Wide touchscreen makes menu navigation simple.
Nightshot and super nightshot for low-light shooting.
“Easy” operation mode.
3.0 Megapixel still shots.
Carl Zeiss lens.

All-in-all I am very satisfied with this camera. I’m sure that readers of this article 6-months from now will think I was crazy for spending $930 as an early adopter of hard drive video technology. But right now I have no regrets.