Sony has chosen not to build any flash memory only standard definition camcorders, opting instead for the hybrid approach. The SR65 and SR85 combine a 40Gb and respectively 60GB hard-drive with the ability to use, you've guessed it, strictly Sony's very own Memory Stick flash cards. That could be enough to turn many consumers away, simply because they already own other brands of flash cards. The $500 and $550 prices are steep, and although Sony has packed this camcorder with snazzy features, none are actually useful, certainly not the two-bit photo mode nor the lack of optical image stabilization or support for external audio. The only difference between the two models is the larger HDD for the SR85.



The 1/6-inch 1 megapixel 4:3 Exmor CMOS sensor outputs interlaced standard definition video using MPEG2 compression at 9Mbps. This is almost three times less bandwidth than MiniDV, which is an advantage when it comes to recording stamina, but does not bode well for quality. Fourteen hours of footage can be saved to the on-board 60 GB HDD, and 115 minutes to an 8 GB flash card (only Sony's proprietary Memory Stick cards can be used).



Being an also-ran SD camcorder with a small sensor and aggressive compression, the SR85's image quality is what you'd expect it to be: often pleasant, with Sony colors, but lacking detail and resolution. And don't even whisper 'low-light' around it, because noise easily overpowers its video once light levels drop.



Capable of a 41 - 1189mm 35mm equivalent field of view, the 25x zoom lens is very long on the telephoto end, but a 41 mm wide-angle is poor, although similar to that of most consumer camcorders. Maximum aperture range is f1.8 to f3.2. The lens is not optically stabilized. When it comes to seeing you're shooting, the SR85's 2.7” LCD, with its 211,000 pixel resolution, is plain average. Normal at this price point, but certainly not a plus. Not having a viewfinder, however, is a big minus.



An Easy mode, when initiated, locks up most camera buttons, essentially rendering it idiot-proof. A full manual mode is of course not available, so neither are aperture, shutter speed and gain settings. Only white balance exposure shift can be operated manually. Manual focus is a matter of luck, thanks to Sony's touch control scheme. This major annoyance involves the tapping of on-screen buttons during shooting, with veritable image earthquakes being introduced in your videos.



The camera benefits from two interesting playback modes. 'Face Index' attempts to index footage according to the faces that it identifies. 'Film Roll' creates previews of a video file, displaying the content in a time-line at user-selected intervals.



Photos be captured to Sony's Memory Stick cards, at a maximum resolution of 1 megapixels. For the price, this is not a satisfying photo resolution, and the related features are entirely missing.



The SR85's is also devoid of audio features. The 2 channel Dolby Digital on-board microphone has a zoom function, which targets distant sounds when fully zoomed in visually, and picks up increasing levels of surround sound as you zoom out. A hot accessory shoe can provide power to an external video light (only Sony lights fit), but the mic jack that would have fit an external microphone is not available. Neither is a headphone jack.



The ports available on the SR65 are HDMI, AV out, S-video out, and USB 2.0.