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I have always liked Sony products, both for their style and their functionality, although I was disappointed with recent camcorders inability to transfer content direct to a Mac so above all else I hope that Sony have fixed that with these great looking HD Camcorders.

The HDR-SR12 (120GB), HDR-SR11 (60GB) and HDR-SR10 (40GB) are all hard drive camcorders, while the HDR-UX20 and HDR-UX10 DVD models use media cards and DVD+R double-layer discs. All based on AVCHD technology and feature full 1920 x 1080 high-definition recording for outstanding clarity and detail, along with what looks like an excellent form factor.

All of them feature a new high-profile encoding system to optimize encoding efficiency. And, because they are based on the industry-standard MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 video codec, they are entering the market compatible with many third-party editing suites, which means they should work OK with the Mac!

No new camcorder or digital camera release is complete without some sort of new

technology and these all have face detection technology for both video and photos which can identify up to eight faces in the camcorder’s LCD frame, and automatically adjust focus, exposure, and color control.

For those of you that like to double up your camcorder as a digital camera then the SR 12 and 11 have a massive 10.2-megapixels.

The SR12, SR11, SR10, UX20 and UX10 models will all ship in March for about $1,400, $1,200, $1,000, $1,000 and $800, respectively. The HDR-HC9 camcorder will ship in February for about $1,100.

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