Sony DCR-DVD505 DVD Handycam Camcorder

Sony's Handycam is among the pioneers of portable camcorders. Introduced shortly after the bulky VHS/Betamax camcorders of 1983, the Handycam took portability and ease-of-use to a new level. Since then, the Handycam has become one of the most recorded names in camcorders, allowing millions of people all over the world to record their own home videos, thus preserving memories and keeping them alive for years to come.

The DCR-DVD505 Handycam is one of the Sony's newest Handycams to hit the market. With the growing trend in the use of recordable DVDs to store movies, limitations of storage medium space are slowly disappearing. The DCR-DVD505 is Sony's latest Handycam model to use DVD media to store videos, following its predecessor the DCR-DVD405. In this review, we take a good look at the DCR-DVD505.

Features

The DCR-DVD505 is a very compact unit. Measuring a sleek 76 x 92 x 149 millimeters, it is somewhat longer than typical DVD camcorders. Its somewhat hefty 1 pound-6 ounce weight is still light enough to use comfortably in extended shooting sessions. The DCR-DVD505 comes only in a silver and gray package.

Now, on to the more important features. The DCR-DVD505, upon its introduction at the 2006 Consumer Electronics Expo caused quite a stir with its 1/3” ClearVID CMOS sensor, a high-end sensor used in Sony's HDR-HC3, one of Sony's expensive high-definition camcorders. More than the usual CCD, the ClearVID boasts of 1910K effective, stunningly detailed and clear pixels in both video and still recording modes. The DCR-DVD505 combines the ClearVID sensor with a professional-level Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T Lens. The lens features an advanced optical multi-layer coating that reduces glare and light flares and improves color contrast, allowing the DCR-DVD505 to record in full vivid brilliance with true-to-life color saturation and rendering clearly the slightest variations in subtle color tones. And, for shooting in low light or dark conditions, the DCR-DVD505 comes equipped with Sony's Super NightShot infrared system that allows you to capture natural-looking video in low light at distances of up to 20 feet. The ClearVID CMOS sensor, the Carl Zeiss lens, and Sony's Super NightShot all combined with a 10x optical and 120x digital zoom offers a high degree of flexibility to handle almost any shooting condition.

The DCR-DVD505 also features ultra-smooth slow recording. By bumping up the recording rate from 60 frames per second to 240 frames per second, the DCR-DVD505 can capture high-speed motion and slow it down by a factor of 4; for example, a 3-second snippet can be played back in 12 seconds. For keeping those slow shots steady, the DCR-DVD505 features Sony's Super SteadyShot picture stabilization system. This technology reduces the effects of shake and vibration without degrading video quality.

For audio, the DCR-DVD505 boasts of true Dolby Digital 5.1 channel recording with its built-in microphone. This allows true 5.1 channel playback on a Dolby 5.1 system, resulting in beautiful surround sound that completely recreates the experience of recording the videos.

The DCR-DVD505's DVD recording system delivers great definition comparable to higher-end MiniDV. Videos are encoded in MPEG-2 and recorded directly to DVD. Still images can be saved to DVD or a MemoryStick (the DCR-DVD505 features a MemoryStick slot). Playback of the finalized DVDs cannot be simpler: take out the DVD, pop it into a PC, DVD player, or game console with a DVD drive, and push play. Users have a choice of DVD media; the DCR-DVD505 accepts DVD-R, DVD-RW, and DVD+RW discs. Using DVD+RW eliminates the need for finalizing videos before playback. The DCR-DVD505 also can be used as an external DVD writer when connected to a PC, a very useful feature.

The LCD screen on the DCR-DVD505 is a large, 3.5-inch touch panel Sony SwivelScreen display. It offers excellent viewing clarity with improved resolution. The LCD display swivels up to 270 degrees to give the user multiple viewing angles during monitoring or playback. The widescreen format makes shooting and composing in the 16:9 ratio easier.

The DCR-DVD505 also features picture effects and fader effects. It comes with Picture Package software and uses the Sony InfoLithium Battery with the Sony AccuPower Meter System.

Pros and Cons

The DCR-DVD505 DVD Handycam is the current top-of-the-line model for DVD-based camcorder offerings from Sony. Unfortunately, we found many things about the DCR-DVD505 to disappoint.

The video sensor of the DCR-DVD505, the ClearVID CMOS sensor, was the subject of a lot of hype at the camcorder's introduction at the 2006 CES. After thorough testing of the DCR-DVD505, we realized that much of the hype was just that – hype. Sony claimed that the ClearVID sensor improved color reproduction and accuracy over previous DVD-based Handycams. While these claims were mostly substantiated, overall sharpness deteriorated severely. The DCR-DVD505

simply does not produce sharp videos. Videos come out with a soft fuzzy look. However, it still isn't clear what caused the decline in sharpness; the earlier DVD405 Handycam model used a CCD sensor rather than the ClearVID, and sharpness was not exactly perfect on that unit. A plus side of the unit is that, on our video recording tests, the DCR-DVD505 showed a good high resolution.

The DCR-DVD505's still features are pretty impressive. There are two preset qualities, fine and standard, and six different resolutions, starting from 640x480 to the maximum of 2304x1728. A very good feature of the DCR-DVD505 is the ability to save 3 megapixel stills (with a resolution of 2304x1296 for wide-screen and 2016x1512 for normal) simultaneously while recording videos. The DCR-DVD505 achieves high still resolutions through interpolation, which we believe is very accurate – the effective still resolution is actually about 2 megapixels in 4:3 mode, and about 1.5 megapixels in 16:9 mode. Thanks to the high still resolution, the DCR-DVD505 can produce stills that are extremely sharp. There is some blue noise to be seen in certain areas of stills, especially in red areas, but they are not noticeable to the casual looker. For both stills and videos, Sony's Super NightShot pleasantly delivered the goods, making low light captures look bright and clear with a minimum of digital image noise.

As far as audio is concerned, we were disappointed also by the fact that, despite having a Dolby 5.1 channel audio encoder built-in, the DCR-DVD505 cannot record accurate-sounding surround sound. This is due to the fact that there are only four microphones instead of the requisite five, and that these are physically positioned to close to each other to really render a good surround sound profile. It is possible to use an external microphone, but the attachment is proprietary, requiring the user to buy a special microphone from Sony.

On the physical and usability aspect, the DCR-DVD505 exhibits the standard Sony ease-of-use. There are few controls, but these are the most important functions. This can be a good thing for beginners, but scrolling through menus using the touch screen LCD can be frustrating, especially when searching for an option or setting that is buried under several menus. For a completely automatic mode, you can activate the Easy mode and the DCR-DVD505 takes care of everything for you: exposure, resolution, white balance, gain, etc.

The DCR-DVD505 is a bit large for a DVD-based camcorder, and somewhat heavy. We also find the placement of the DVD drive a bit inconvenient; in order to open the drive, one would have to swing the grip strap out of the way. We think Sony could have done better by placing the DVD drive on top of the unit.

Summary and Recommendations

Overall, the Sony DCR-DVD505 is a pretty good addition to the Handycam family. Because of its glaring imperfections, which we feel Sony could have scoped out and rectified before they went to market with the DCR-DVD505, we feel that it is too expensive for its price. For a Handycam that is marketed as a top-of-the-line model, the DCR-DVD505 certainly doesn't feel, work, or perform like a top-of-the-line model. The DCR-DVD505 is clearly aimed at the members of the point-and-shoot crowd or the weekend amateur crowd who don't mind spending big bucks on a Sony Handycam that can do a lot of things.

Features

Pros and Cons

Summary and Recommendations

Our Sponsors

More Video & Photography Gadgets