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Here is my quick review of the Sony HDR-XR520 AVCHD camera.

I own this camera for 3 weeks now. I took it with me to Ireland where I made the following first experiences:
++ great images in low light conditions (sharp, almost no grain or noise, bright and natural images - much better than the FX7)
+ image stabilizer / steady shot (with some training you can shoot steadycam- like sequences when driving or walking)
+ good auto settings/control for lighting and focus (auto focus could be quicker)
+ nice manual settings for sharpness and lighting with the help of the touch screen or a small wheel
+ while shooting video you can shoot 8 Megapixels photos (even with a flashlight)
+ in photo mode you can shoot 12 Megapixels photos (I think)
+ camera automatically takes photos of smiling persons (nice toy)
+ fully supported by Bogart SE
+ lightweight camera (perfect for travelling)
+ large display
+ viewfinder
+ sequences can be stored on built in hard disk drive or on Memory Sticks (expensive)
+ endless capacity on HD drive
+ built in GPS system (nice toy)
- GPS system requires from 1 second to 5 minutes until it finds the position on the map
- when the lighting condition alternates during one shot (when panning for example) you have to switch of the auto white balance or it may ruin your colors (my mistake)
- no usable protection for wind-noises with the built-in microphone (I will buy an external microphone)
- third party battery packs can not be removed without applying force

Test sample 1 (native AVCHD file)
http://www.weplay.de/downloads/cemetary.MTS

Test sample 2 (native AVCHD file)
http://www.weplay.de/downloads/flowers.MTS

Auto snapshot image taken automatically by the camera while shooting video:
http://www.weplay.de/downloads/autosnapshot.JPG

some more photos shot while "beeing" in video mode:
http://www.weplay.de/downloads/trees.JPG

http://www.weplay.de/downloads/cemetary1.JPG

http://www.weplay.de/downloads/cemetary.JPG

I could upload some in-car scenes (that I actually took while i was driving the car) to demonstrate the fine steadyshot feature, if someone is interested...

Hi Volker,
all sounds impressive.
The native MTS-Samples were made using a tripod or handheld?
Please upload some samples to demonstrate how effective the steadyshot is.
Many thanks for sharing

The "flowers.MTS" was shot with the help of a tripod and the "cemetary.MTS" was shot without a tripod (you can see that, if you look closely).
I will upload some more footage tonight. But I have to trim those clips first to save bandwidth.

Volker

Thank you for sharing your experience with the Sony, sounds like a very impressive cam for it’s size.

I have read some details of this cam on line, but what is not clear, well at least to me, is the recording capture. When recording to a flashcard, is the hard drive switched off, or does it record to both the HD and the card together.

As you may have seen in other posts, I like the idea of a cam with no moving parts, I think it is the future, however I am tempted to buy this cam for my more mobile type work, it sounds great for the impromptu snap shots.

Ian

Hans, here are some more shots in DIVX quality (exported by the Media Manager) to save bandwidth...

3 clips shot while I was driving the rental car (kids, don't do this at home, it is dangerous)
http://www.weplay.de/downloads/drive.avi
http://www.weplay.de/downloads/drive1.avi
http://www.weplay.de/downloads/drive2.avi

You have to know that the surface of the streets in Ireland were really bad most of the time. And I was driving rather quickly (you are allowed to drive 100 Km/h on most of the small roads, even if that is physically almost impossible) - so the camere did a good job to keep the images "steady", I think.

walking with the camera in my hands...
http://www.weplay.de/downloads/walk.avi

Ian,
as far as I know, when recording to the Memory Stick, the hard drive is switched off. I could not find a way to save the files to the card and to the hard dirve at the same time. But you can copy the files from the Memory Stick to the hard drive later to have a backup copy. That is fine for me.

I own this camera and you can record video to the hard drive and at the same time send the stills to the memory stick.