Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21220 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Sony
• Model: DCRSR55E.CEH
• Released on: 2008-02-11
• Dimensions: .79 pounds

Manufacturer's Description

DCR-SR55 You're always making memories, why stop capturing them? The DCR-SR55 Handycam® camcorder is ready when you are, with a built-in 40GB Hard Disk Drive (HDD) for storage and up to 27 hours of recording time. A generous 2.7" Touch Panel LCD Monitor keeps all the controls at your fingertips, while a 25x Optical/2000x Digital Zoom keeps all the action up close and personal. And when it comes time to share your memories, it couldn't be easier than with the One Touch Disc Burn capability and the Memory Stick Duo media slot. The DCR-SR55 brings simplicity back to video sharing.

Recording Time Up to 27 hours of high quality Standard Definition recording on 40GB hard drive.

Hybrid Recording to Hard Disk Drive or Memory Stick Media Hybrid recording technology delivers a new level of flexibility for transferring your video footage and digital photos from the camcorder to compatible viewing devices. Record to the camcorder's internal hard disk drive, or choose instead to record to removable Memory Stick Duo media or Memory Stick PRO Duo media. You can even select from various dubbing functions to easily copy video or still images from the hard disk drive to Memory Stick media -- without using a PC. Images recorded or transferred to Memory Stick media can then be played directly on a PS3 or PC to share your memories with friends and family.

Professional Quality Carl Zeiss® Vario-Tessar® Lens Carl Zeiss® Vario-Tessar® lenses are designed specifically for compact camcorders, and utilize precision ground optics to maintain the sharpness and contrast found with larger lenses.

25X Optical / 2000X Digital Zoom The optical zoom helps to bring the action close up from far away. In addition the Digital Zoom Interpolation means that extreme digital zooming is clearer, with less distortion than previous types of digital zooms.

2.7" Wide (16:9) Touch Panel Clear Photo LCD Plus Display (123K Pixels) The 2.7" Wide LCD screen provides exceptional viewing clarity with improved resolution (123K pixels). The display rotates up to 270 degrees for multiple viewing angles, as well as provides sharp, detailed images for monitoring or playback. The widescreen format makes shooting in 16:9 mode and composing shots even easier.

Super SteadyShot A Sony-unique picture stabilisation technology in Handycam® camcorders, Cyber-shot digital cameras and the Digital SLR camera range. The method of detecting shaking (gyroscopic sensors) and the benefit (less blur) is the same all these products, but the technology works slightly differently in each.

Quick On Missing an important scene can be frustrating, especially if the reason is because your camcorder is turned off. With the Quick On feature, the touch of a single button places that camcorder in Sleep mode. Another push instantly wakes the camcorder, so you'll always be ready to capture special moments.

Face Index Face Index makes it easier than ever to find and play back the right video scene. Using Face Detection technology, Face Index indexes your video footage according to the faces detected in each scene. When it's time to play back video, simply search for what you want by selecting from among the detected faces displayed in the index.

Film Roll Index Like chapters in a book, Film Roll Index helps you easily find desired scenes in video footage. When using this feature, the camcorder previews the beginning of scenes and can create scene indexes set at specified display intervals (3, 6, or 12 seconds and 1 or 5 minutes).

One Touch Disc Burn Easily burn a DVD copy of your footage using the supplied software. Simply connect the camcorder to your PC via a USB cable and press the One Touch Disc Burn Button.

Easy Handycam® Button Using a camcorder can be intimidating for some people. With a press of the Easy Handycam® Button, most of the advanced features of the camcorder are "locked out," letting you focus only the buttons essential for recording.

Handycam® Station Supplied Handycam® station features means that your camcorder can always be charged and ready to go. Just pop the camcorder back onto its station and it will be charging up and connected to your PC or TV.

Box Contents

Customer Reviews

Excellent camcorder
Was after a new hard drive based camcorder to replace my existing Sony mini dv model. After doing some research, decided to get this model. Whilst mini dv models still offer the highest recording quality, I needed convenience, for which this Sony is perfect.

The camera is quite small, but fits the hand well and is very lightweight. At the highest recording quality, the 40gb hard drive holds over 9 hours of video footage. Video can also be recorded directly to memory stick duo. Controls are simple and intuitive, you can simply point and shoot using the easy recording mode. If you want to tweak settings, options are accessed via the 2.7in touchscreen.

Video quality is good for a camera of this class with the limiting factor being the small size of the CCD. However, this camera is all about convenience. Recorded video can be instantly accessed, with each piece of footage showing as a thumbnail. Video can also be easily transferred to a pc via usb. No drivers are required, the camera shows as a removable drive. Sony has wisely put a usb socket on the camera itself. Previous models forced you to use the docking station which required mains power. This means it is possible to shoot video and transfer to your laptop whilst out and about.

Another positive is Sony's decision to record in MPEG format, unlike some others that use their own format. MPEG is universal and can be used by virtually all video editing software, as well as playing back in windows media player without the need for additional codecs.

Overall, this camcorder is ideal for someone who needs good quality video that can be quickly accessed and easily transferred to a pc for editing.

An Excellent, Competitively-Priced DigiCam
Having bought a Sony digital camera 2 years ago, and been very impressed with it, we were looking for a compact digital camcorder with a hard drive that would serve as a family machine, and also work in the classroom. This machine is proving to be an excellent buy for the following reasons:

Amazon have it very competitively priced.

At only 14oz (400grams approx) it is amazingly light and compact

The 40 Gb Hard Drive allows over 20 hours of recording at standard quality (less at high quality).

The battery gives you 2 hours of recording capability between charges.

You do not have to mess around with DVDs in the camera - the hard drive is an ideal medium for recording, and it has Sony's Pro mem stick capability which gives it great functionality with other Sony products and/or card readers in your PC.

Full USB connectivity to your PC/Laptop - and SCART connectivity to the TV

This 55 model is a better buy, and worth the few extra pounds, than the 35 for a number of reasons: 10Gb more hard drive space; a docking station which allows recharge, DVD burn, via USB to your PC, and quick link to your TV for viewing; and a remote control for the cam - excellent and useful accessories; and finally, 1 Megapixel compared with 0.8 Mp on the 35.

The screen is clear, and the touch menu system is easy to use. It has a robust carrying strap, and just feels well-made - having said that a carry case is always a good investment for such a piece of kit!

I am no technical expert, but this is a great-priced and intuitive digicam, with lots of great features. Highly recommended.

My First Video Camera
Only had this video camera for a couple of days but so far I think it's brilliant. It's small, lightweight, very easy to setup and use and the quality of the video is excellent. Still images are also pretty good and the supplied software makes it easy to manage your video's and pictures. Having problems playing back the video on my PC after uploading from the camera's hard disk but think this is down to my PC being a few years old so I may need a new video card - hopfully not a new PC! I think this may be due to the video format being MPEG-2 so worth checking if your PC supports this format. The video's play back fine on my work laptop which is only a year or so old.