The Sony HDR-SR12 ($1,399 MSRP) is the company’s third generation AVCHD camcorder recording to hard disk drive (HDD). The SR12 features a new CMOS sensor and DSP touted by Sony to be the best yet, along with a huge 120GB capacity. It is joined by the HDR-SR11 ($1,199 MSRP), an identical camcorder with a smaller 60GB HDD. In previous iterations, all AVCHD camcorders have failed to live up to performance expectations, but 2008 seems to be the year it’s turning around. The Canon HF10 gave outstanding performance and sharpness. The Panasonic HDC-SD9, while not as good as the Canon, exceeded the performance of its predecessors. So how does the Sony HDR-SR12 hold up to the competition? In a word … strongly. This is undoubtedly the sensor/processor package to own if you’re a Sony fan. The low light performance is excellent – far superior in noise reduction to the Sony HDR-HC9, its HDV cousin, and comparable to the Canon HF10 in1080/60i. However, the overall sharpness does not match that of the Canon HF10 in bright light, and Canon’s inclusion of multiple frame rates (60i/24P/30P) makes it a tempting offering. The manual control packages are evenly matched. Sony wins on capacity, while Canon wins on portability. It’s a tough choice. Let’s explore.

The Sony HDR-SR12 is a solid, beefy charcoal-gray and black-bodied camcorder. Pick it up and you know it’s sturdy without the lighter-than-air feel of inexpensive Mini DV and DVD camcorders  or even expensive flash-only models such as the Canon Vixia HF10 . It weighs 20.4 ounces without the battery, 23.4 with and measures 3.37 x 3 x 5.5 (WHD, in inches). By comparison the HF10 with 16GB of on-board capacity weighs around 15 ounces but it holds only two hours of Full HD video versus nearly 15 for the Sony. Even with the extra weight it fits nicely in the palm of your hand once you adjust the Velcro wrist strap.

Chiseled from a solid block of ingenuity is the HDR-SR12’s right side. Sony went for practicality and sheer sexiness on the grip side. Toward the lens end, the Mic, Headphone, and HDMI ports are shielded by a sliding port cover door. No other camcorder is equipped with such a flashy and convenient enclosure system—this design is straight out of Q’s laboratory from any 007 movie. On the opposite end you’ll find the A/V and USB terminals, enclosed by a covert plastic plate that slides underneath the body of the camcorder. Sony has kicked some major behind so far with the HDR-SR12’s architecture.

Connecting the camcorder to a 50-inch plasma via HDMI I was quite pleased with the outdoor video taken in Manhattan. Colors really popped including brightly-painted tourist buses, speeding yellow taxis and the like. There was hardly any trace of noise in the blue skies or as I zoomed in on the architectural details of the nearby buildings. The SteadyShot optical image stabilization worked really well with barely a hint of “shakes” from my handheld pans. Some brightly blooming red azaleas looked extremely lifelike. Face Detection also worked well and the 5.1-channel surround sound was fun, especially with traffic coming up behind you. Besides the HDMI connection I also burned a DVD using Sony’s truly effortless One-Touch DVD Burn system and played the material back through a Panasonic BD30 Blu-ray player. There was a touch more noise than the direct HDMI connection (to be expected) but the overall results were quite good.