Sony HDR-CX12 High Definition Memory Stick PRO Duo Handycam Camcorder With 12x Optical Zoom

We bought this for pictures and filming our new baby girl. It's been 6 months and I've been using it consistently. You'd be amazed at how much footage can fit on the memory card that comes with the camera. I was going to order an extra card but got busy and now I really don't think we need it. The pics are beautiful and the video is fantastic. The camera is so small and light it's barely noticeable when you carry it. This is a great buy.

This camcorder is well worth the money. It records HD to a memory stick pro / no additional media is required. (no additional moving parts such as a hard drive or mini DVD) The stabilization and zoom is fantastic and unlike most camcorders this model has the night shot feature which allow low light recording. (sony illuminated the night shot in most models) Do the research but I think you will find that this camcorder is highly recommended camcorder by users and reviewers, pretty simple to use and great quality.

MB Yacolt, WA

I'm upgrading from a Sony SD DV camera. Had to take all those old tapes and digitize them first.

This CX12 is made in Japan and fits my hand very well. The one gripe I had with the old DV camera was the cheap lens cap. The CX12 has a built-in one and is great to have.

iMovie '09 works great despite the note on the Apple website about tapeless Sony cameras and issues regarding having to delete SD content first. I bought this camera solely to shoot HD - duh.

The only complaint I have about this videocamera is the on/off switch sometimes turns on in my jacket accidentally.

The dock is okay and is NOT needed for charging, but is needed for video capture via USB.

Some items to think about when purchasing this videocamera:

-the 4GB MS is less than 30min of highest quality HD. The 8GB seems to make sense because that captures about an hour and the built-in battery last about 70 minutes.

-would recommend getting a small bag since it is so small.

-I also purchased the $40 Sony light for indoor shooting which I'm happy enough with as it's so small.

-may want to purchase an mini-HDMI to HDMI cable for instant viewing on your HDTV.

-the included remote seems nice and small.

-the power brick is nice and small as well.

Good video in HD or SD. Also, has nice still picture quality. I wish it had a headphone jack and a video line in, but I guess you can't have it all for $750.00. Video quality is not the best in low light, but I have seen video cameras that are much worse. HD video editing works well with "Sony movie studio 8 Platinum" and HD movies play pristinely on my PS3 via the pro duo memory card. Over all I am happy with this purchase and would recommend it to a friend.

I've been thinking about purchasing this camcorder for the past year. I have an older hi8 that i thought was sufficient. My kids are starting to get older, I have a 3 year old and 1 year old and wanted to record the memories in hi def. Finally decided to get it and WOW, what a great camera and picture quality. The camera is faily intuitive to use, small light weight, with great features. The picture quailty is absolutely fantastic in hi def. I receive FIOS HD channels and the picture quality is almost similar. It exceeded my expectations. The only downside is that a 16 gig card i purchased records about 1 1/2 hours of top HD quality, so I have to transfer it often and I could only fit half hour of hd on a 4.7gig DVD. but the upside is that I don't have to worry about hard drives failing. The other item to note is that in low light, you get grainy picture. the room has to be very well lit to get amazing picture quality, i get the best picture quality outside in bright sunlight, low light in HD is a disappointment.

Remember this camcorder records in AVCHD format which i believe is equivalent to 1080i, not 1080p. So you can burn it on a regurlar DVD burner with the enclosed software, but you can't play it back on the same DVD burner/player. You need a blue-ray player that is AVCHD compatible (I think all of them are these days) or on a sony playstation 3, which i plan to purchase because not only do you get a blue ray player, but also you will be able to surf the net with it and play games. If you don't own a blueray player or a dvd burner on your pc, expect to purchase both and should be factored in your costs. Blue ray burners are not available in the US but are in japan.
But overall I gave it 5 stars because it exceeded my expectation. I shouldn't have waited so long to purchase it.