usability, image quality, battery, size

price

80% of the reviews on Amazon.com give this product a positive rating.

When AVCHD first arrived, it was hard to recommend the format to anyone but incurable gadget lovers. Even though it is now more widely compatible with editing software, AVCHD's inferior image quality to HDV precludes it from being the right choice for...

Great handling and ergonomics ; Lots of good features and connectivity ; HD clips are excellent in good light

Manual control can be fiddly ; Mic suffers from wind noise ; CMOS creates lower light issues ; Expensive

Despite some niggles, the SR8's HD quality, capacity and ease of use will undoubtedly entice newbies away from digital tape

The Sony HDR-SR8E delivers an impressively sharp picture, with natural colours, plus its night mode bathes everything in an eerie green light perfect for that ‘slasher’ movie feel. Sound quality is, however, merely adequate.

The pioneering ‘Face Index’ utilises Sony’s Face Detection Technology to make it easy to search ‘people pictures’ within a scene of continuously shot footage. The HDR-SR8E will automatically identify scenes containing faces and will produce thumbnail...

The Sony HDR-SR8E delivers an impressively sharp picture, with natural colours, plus its night mode bathes everything in an eerie green light perfect for that ‘slasher' movie feel. Sound quality is, however, merely adequate.

Great handling and ergonomics, Lots of good features and connectivity, HD clips are excellent in good light

Manual control can be fiddly, Mic suffers from wind noise, CMOS creates lower light issues, Expensive

Despite some niggles, the SR8's HD quality, capacity and ease of use will undoubtedly entice newbies away from digital tape

100GB hard drive, attractive & comfortable design, vibrant picture quality, excellent stills mode

Price, AVCHD format incompatible with most DVD players

Plenty of output and input options ; Easy to hold steady ; Sharp and vivid video

but you'll need an HD TV and Blu-ray/PS3 to truly get the best ; Manual settings require diving through touchscreen menus ; Mini-HDMI cable not included -- screams of penny pinching

Compared to the tape and mini-DVD based high-def camcorders Sony launched earlier this year, there are only a few minor detail improvements. But we feel that the addition of a high capacity hard-disk to the existing combination of high-def recording,...