Sony Handycam DCR-SR85 review

The Sony Handycam DCR-SR85, which is available for around £350, has a great deal to offer. It's very easy to use, goes from off to recording in seconds, is small enough to throw in a bag, and its 60GB hard drive delivers anywhere from 14 to 41 hours of recording time, depending on the quality settings. It also records video to Memory Stick Pro Duo cards, making it a 'hybrid' camcorder.

But even at the SR85's highest-quality settings, the camcorder's standard-definition, MPEG-2 video is, well, still standard definition. Although the video quality is better than its less-competent sibling, the DCR-SR45E, and commensurate with its class, it's not as good as excellent though expensive HD models, such as the Canon HG10.

Design
At only 360g with battery and 76mm high by 76mm wide by 112mm deep, the silver-and-black SR85 is compact and lightweight. Sony improved the body design over its predecessor's, the DCR-SR82. Instead of separate mode and record controls, the power/movie/still dial for the SR85 sits naturally under your thumb, while the dead-centre record button lets you start fast without much thought.

Above it are power and activity lights topped by a Quick On button that takes the camcorder quickly in and out of a standby mode. On top sit the camera shutter button for taking stills (though you'll probably get better pictures from newer mobile phones) and the rocker switch for the Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar 25x zoom lens. The switch operates smoothly as does the zoom, allowing for stutter-free close-ups. But since it lacks optical image stabilisation, those extreme close-ups will require a tripod.

Features
At the front above the lens sits a stereo zoom microphone -- it attenuates with the lens to better capture the audio coming from the subject -- that performed much better than expected. Just behind it is an accessory shoe for Sony lights and microphones. Under the lens is a switch to open and close the built-in lens cover. There are no mic or headphone jacks, which would be welcome, but manufacturers tend to jettison them for budget models.

What you will find under a sliding door on the right side is a mini-USB port and an AV-out designed for use with the included cable. A Handycam docking station is part of the package, too, featuring the same connections and a DC-in for charging. Another sliding door on top hides a Memory Stick Pro Duo card slot, while a flip-down door below the main control dial hides the jack for the power cable. All the cover-ups make for a clean appearance.

Also, hidden in plain sight off on the inside of the grip is the switch for the camcorder's Nightshot Plus infrared light, which lets you capture creepy night-vision video of people sleeping or whatever else you choose to shoot in complete darkness.

Performance
You access all menus through the 69mm (2.7-inch) wide-aspect touch-panel LCD. Despite the use of tiny onscreen icons to navigate settings, the screen was very responsive and accurate to tapping. There are two menu systems: a Home menu to get to all feature settings and an Options menu to get directly to the available functions for video and still images, such as focus, white balance and recording modes.

It might take a while to remember when and how to use the menus, but the screen is so responsive that flying through the menus to find what you need goes fairly fast. There's also a set of four buttons lining the left LCD bezel that come in handy when recording overhead or at a low angle: home, zoom in, zoom out and start/stop recording.

The SR85's video quality is tolerable for full-screen playback on small-to-medium-size TVs and computer monitors, and noise is within a reasonable level for its class. But video looks soft, lacking detail and clarity and tends to look washed out. Quickly panning the camcorder -- say, to capture a quick pass on a football pitch -- turns the picture blocky, and moving while recording creates enough jerkiness to give you a headache when watching the playback.

On the upside, other aspects of the camcorder's performance are better, like its responsive autofocus, decent white balance and quickly adjusting autoexposure. And the quality is better than the SR45, probably because of the larger 1-megapixel CCD sensor (the SR45 is only 680,000 pixels). If you share video on the Web, don't mind losing detail to capture the moment or still live in a low-resolution world, the SR85 should do the trick.

Conclusion
Overall, the Sony Handycam DCR-SR85 is a good camcorder. The 60GB of storage means you can take it on holiday without worrying about running out of space. Plus, you can save video and stills to Memory Stick Pro Duo cards up to 8GB. The compact, lightweight build is great for grab-and-go videos. It's easy to operate, too, thanks in part to a responsive, 69mm (2.7-inch) touchscreen LCD. But with HD camcorders coming within striking distance of the SR85's price tag, the quality of its standard definition video output is a definite drawback.

Edited by Marian Smith