Sony HDR-CX12 High Definition Memory Stick PRO Duo Handycam Camcorder With 12x Optical Zoom | 
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| Brand: Sony
Category: Photography
List Price: $899.99
Buy New: $710.00
You Save: $189.99 (21%)
New (18)
Avg. Customer Rating:  10 reviews
Media: Electronics
Floppy Disk Drive: None
Optical Zoom: 12
Display Size: 2.7
Maximum Focal Length: 58.8
Minimum Focal Length: 5.9
Shipping Weight (lbs): 8
Dimensions (in): 3.4 x 3 x 5.5
MPN: HDR-CX12
Model: CX12
UPC: 027242732438
EAN: 0027242732438
ASIN: B001BET2YY
Release Date: July 8, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | 1920 x 1080 Full High Definition video resolution; 10.2 megapixel still image capture | | • | Super SteadyShot optical image stabilization; Professional Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* lens | | • | Smile Shutter technology for still and dual capture; Face Detection technology for video and photo | | • | ClearVid CMOS sensor with Exmor-derived technology; BIONZ Image Processor | | • | 2.7-inch Clear Photo LCD Plus display; Dolby Digital 5.1 channel recording; Built-in zoom microphone |
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Product Description
The ultra-sleek, palm-sized HDR-CX12 Handycam camcorder is the world's first camcorder with face detection and Smile Shutter technology. Face detection automatically adjusts focus, exposure and color for the most natural results. With Smile Shutter, the HDR-CX12 can detect smiles and automatically capture still images, even while recording 1920 x 1080 full HD video. You will also enjoy 10.2 megapixel still image recording to ensure your memories are preserved in stunning detail. Additionally, the CX12's small size and light weight make it an ideal travel companion, perfect for recording that special moment, wherever you are. Video and still images are stored directly to Memory Stick PRO Duo media for easy transfer to your computer or other compatible devices.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
 Great camcorder! November 7, 2008
Just had it for a few weeks, and it is my first camcorder, so nothing to compare against. It delivers what promises.
Good image quality for video, and the smile shooter is great!
The software is on the down side: With a dual core HP laptop 1 gb ram and vista it took me about 2 hr to create a SD DVD from a HD movie of about 40 minutes... slowwwww and you have to download the files to the computer. Very easy to use, however.
Suggest additional battery and memory stick.
 AWESOME October 28, 2008
1 out of 5 found this review helpful
Well, if you always use the best, this should be your choice. Top model of the handycam world. Memory Stick PRO Duo instead of hard disk drive, 1920 x 1080 full HD video and 10.2 megapixel still image capture (which means you don't need a camera anymore). You won't believe the quality of the recordings when you watch them on 55 inch TV.
Plus, very handy and lightweight.
Strongly recommended...
great!! I love it!! October 21, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I got this digital HD camcorder because I prefer having SSD storage media(no moving parts)such as memory stick to store my video footage. I feel that memory stick and should be more robust and resistance to shakiness when I shoot the video.( I also own a PSP so the memory stick should be able to work too)
The features worked very well as advertised but there are some thing to take note, there are additional purchase to get full out of the device:
1. Get a new lithium battery. The supplied ones won't last for a full
day if you do lots of shooting.
2. Get a camcoder bag. Good bag protect your investment from scratch and
dust.
3. Get a protective plastic filter for your LCD display.
4. Get a UV filter for attachment in front of the cam. This is to
prevent scratches and dusts going into the lens when shooting.
5. Get a soft wiping cloth. To get rid of dust off your cam in the end
of day.
If you need a good camcorder with quick 'ON' time and good quality video, I highly recommended it. The only down side is the memory stick is a bit expensive and highest capacity in the market right now is 16Gig .
I love this camcorder October 7, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Well, i am an amateur when it comes to camcorders, so my review may NOT be very technical. I love this camcorder, this is my first HD camcorder and the picture quality is real amazing. I use this camcorder mostly to take home videos and for our trips. The camcorder is real sleek and fits nicely in your hand. I dropped SR12/SR11 just because of their weight and their bulky harddisk. One down side is that this camcorder uses just a memory stick, they are expensive, but they are reliable. i have been using memory sticks with my Sony digital camera as well and no issues until now. If they could provide one more slot for relatively inexpensive SD/SDHC cards it will be a killer camcorder. A nice feature is the smile shutter and it takes stills of your subject without you being aware. It is a nice feature and will bring smile to your face. The PMB software that comes along with the camcorder is good enough to transfer and view the HD videos in your laptop. However, for advanced editing, you should probably order a video editing software like Sony Vegas movie studio or vegas Pro as your budget and needs are. I have just ordered the Sony vegas movie studio platinum pro 9 and hoping it will be fun to edit the videos. The still picture quality is very good. I tried the night mode in dark, it works, but subjects will look like ghosts, so not using that one a lot. a good buy, will recommend it. Amazon ships it fast too.
Addictive but be aware of the work you will create using the clips! September 18, 2008
13 out of 13 found this review helpful
This isn't a review of the features and performance of the camera. I am not an expert at comparing it to others. This is a review of what you can do with the files that you create.
I got this camera and the 16gb memory duo card. So far so good. It stores between 2 and 5 times the life of a single battery in video.. hours and hours unless you pick the highest bit rate.
The challenges come after you get your files home.
1. Sony Vegas
Probably this is the best solution for workflow from this camera, but it is windows only. Moving right along ..
2. PS3
Happily you can either insert the card into your PS3 (or into a multi-card reader via USB - a recent one, not an old one, as high capacity memory sticks can't be read by older multi-card readers). The PS3 sees the clips, shows moving previews, and they look fantastic. You can also put them on a media server (such as MediaTomb mac/linux) and connect to it from the PS3. Not quite as nice, as the thumbnails lack preview, but workable.
3. Connecting the camera to your Mac via the included dock
This works fine and I'll sub-divide what you can do at this point:
3a. Using Final Cut Express (or Final Cut Pro).
Neither of these programs will deal directly with the MTS files (which are AVCHD and 5.1 ac3) without the full directory structure of the card present! so don't copy the MTS files off, and delete them if you want to use FCE! At any rate, use FCE to import the clips, they are decompressed and blown up to an apple format that uses heaps more space! you can't edit natively in AVCHD using FCE. It isn't clear to me that you can even edit natively in FC Pro. Note, FCE down-mixes to 2 channel stereo during import!
3b. Not using Final Cut Express - using other tools (linux users read this too)
You can't play these MTS files reliably using Quicktime or Quicktime Pro despite the claim that quicktime pro can play h264 video. You can't even use the Perian codecs (which are available free and based on the open source libraries used by ffmpeg). They claim h264 compatibility but unfortunately they do not read the sony h264 stream properly. You may see various problems: missed frames, half speed, crashing or lots of errors. It may be that a SD camera setting on this camera is more reliably usable, I got bored trying so many different things. This also means you can't use ffmpeg or mencoder under linux, despite their flexibility. The latest version as of time of this review just does not deal with all your clips. It might deal with some, reading and re-encoding if necessary to mpeg4 or whatever, but you WILL get frustrated. The same problems apply to mplayer, vlc, MPEG Streamclip, and so on, as they also depend on the same libraries.
Note: xportdev will demux MTS files and TMPGenc will decode the video correctly, you CAN use these two tools to create mpeg4 or whatever.
see http://www.sonyhdvinfo.com/forumdisplay.php?f=40 this forum for more info.
3c. Not using Final Cut Express - using VoltaicHD
VoltaicHD will convert the clips properly but there are no options to speak of. It creates much larger mov files that can be used in typical mac utilities, quicktime, etc.
3d. Using Toast Titanium
I believe this produce accepts AVCHD files. I haven't tested it, obviously you have to buy the product. It appears to be capable of writing DVDs or even bluray discs after the edit is done.
4. Uploading to vimeo (the HD version of youtube)
Vimeo does not accept MTS files, it tries to accept h264 video if packaged in an avi or whatever, but will not process them correctly. It accepts mpeg4, or re-encoded h264 as output by mencoder. It probably also accepts mov files from VoltaicHD and obviously you can get FCE to output a file that vimeo will take.
The problem I have with this is the chain of encoding and decoding:
image --> camera --> encoded to avchd --> decoded in voltaicHD or FCE --> re-encoded to mpeg4 or whatever --> uploaded to vimeo --> decoded --> re-encoded to their On2 codec --> played by flash.
As you can see this chain is ridiculous and the result will not look as good as the ideal, which is:
image --> camera --> encoded to avchd --> played
My conclusion is that your frustration level will vary according to what you want out of your clips. The camera offers very limited editing: you can chop a clip into two and delete any clip, so you can basically throw away bits you won't want to waste time on.
If you want to show them off on your HDTV via the PS3, without mixing them into a "movie" then everything is great. They look really good.. the interlacing is really not visible when the PS3 plays them, resolution is outstanding at least depending on how high a bit rate you pick.
If you want to burn DVDs then I expect Toast Titanium or FCE will be reasonable but there is some quality loss from the inevitable decode - reencode cycle.
If you want them on the web at vimeo, although the result is heaps better than youtube, it certainly isn't high definition. I believe the vimeo bit rate is limited to 2000 kbit, for example.
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