| Sony HDR-TG1 4MP High Definition Handycam Camcorder with 10x Optical Super Steady Shot Zoom (4GB Memory Stick Included) | 
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Avg. Customer Rating:   (based on 4 reviews)
Sales Rank: 1535
Category: Photography
Publisher: Sony
Studio: Sony
Brand: Sony
Label: Sony
Media: Electronics
Floppy Disk Drive: None
Optical Zoom: 10
Display Size: 2.7
Maximum Focal Length: 32
Minimum Focal Length: 3.2
Shipping Weight (lbs): 8
Dimensions (in): 13 x 10 x 0.1
MPN: HDR-TG1
Model: HDR-TG1
UPC: 027242729810
EAN: 0027242729810
ASIN: B0017008HC
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Features:
| • | Features 1920 x 1080 full HD video resolution | | • | A slim, lightweight pure titanium camcorder body | | • | 4.0 megapixel still image capture; Face Detection technology for video and still images | | • | Includes a 2.7-inch Clear Photo LCD Plus display | | • | Comes with Super SteadyShot image stabilization, plus a Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar lens |
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Product Description
Sony's Handycam(R) camcorder, HDR-TG1, records Full HD 1920 x 1080 resolution video from a small, light, and slim body crafted from pure titanium that's tough enough for travel or everyday HD video shooting. The stylish model incorporates a Premium Hard Coating for superior resistance to even the smallest scratches. The HDR-TG1 records to convenient Memory Stick(R) PRO Duo media, and Sony's ClearVid CMOS Sensor (with Exmor derived technology) and BIONZ image processor provide spectacular video and stunning 4.0 MP still images. Additionally, Sony Face Detection technology automatically finds and enhances a face, to help capture faces beautifully. Dynamic Range Optimizer enhances exposure and Contrast Smooth Slow Record (240fps) with Audio Recording x.v.Color technology captures lifelike color Bionz Image Processor PictBridge Compatible Face Detection technology controls focus, exposure, and color for both video and still images, so faces are captured more clearly and skin tones look more natural Dual record capability lets you capture precious still shots while simultaneously shooting HD or Standard Definition video 1920 x 1080 Full HD video Resolution 10x Optical Zoom and 20x Digital Zoom 1/5 ClearVid CMOS sensor (with Exmor technology) 2360K Pixel Gross 2.7 wide touch panel Clear Photo LCD Plus Display 4.0 megapixel JPEG still image capture Video Formats - High Definition - MPEG4, AVC/H.264; Standard - MPEG2 Recording Time with supplied 4GB Memory Stick(R) PRO Duo (We recommend purchasing an optional 8GB Memory Card for optimal usage)
High Definition - FH = up to 25 min., HQ = up to 55 min. SP = up to 65 min., LP = up to 85 min.
Standard Definition - HQ = up to 55 min., SP = up to 80 min., LP = up to 160 min.
Connections on Handycam(R) A/V Remote Station - Analog A/V Outputs, Component Video Output, S-Video Output, Audio Connections on Handycam - USB 2.0,
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| Customer Reviews:
Great Video camera to take along, bad still pictures June 5, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I bought this a week ago, and the best thing about the HDR-TG1 is the size and shape, they fit in my front pocket and I can take it any where I go. The reason I bought this camera was for its size and portablity and HD and it perfectly matches my requirement al though I was thinking I could use this for all purposes including still images but the still images are not good.
Pros:
Size, and Shape
Great user interface both the front buttons as well as the on screen
Great Video footage but not as good as u see on HD TV broad casts
Great charging and connecting to the computer, u dont need to charge battery seperately hence its always ready to use
Cons:
Bad still images, horrible in low light condition
Sony should have supplied the HDMI cable, and the compnent cable they applied is too small, and I had to buy an extender switch to connect to my 65inches TV
The provided software is useless, its so difficult to even trim video, u can as well throw it away, al though there are not much choice for the AVCHD format. I tried convert the Video in mpeg but it does not play on quick time or Windows Media player, I think I may be missing a codec, but it has no way to save on standard codec, hence I cannot put videos on web as mpeg.
 Good portability June 3, 2008
6 out of 10 found this review helpful
Good portability, don't expect very bright high quality images since it's small lens.
Comparing to Sanyo Xacti HD1000 better in stabilizer, Sanyo is totaly un acceptable.
One little tip for people having problem with AVCHD Intall Media Player Classic ( google it to find it ) it's a 5.5 MB file then just change the file extension from .MTS to .mpg it worked on my Windows Media Player on Windows Vista.
But the play back was the best and not the actual quality was playedback by Windows Media Player. But it's good just to review what's been recorded, Sony Vegas 8.0 and Pinnacle editing softwares can recognize the format.
 Great HD video camera in your pocket. Beware of AVCHD limitations. May 28, 2008
44 out of 46 found this review helpful
I have this camera and a Canon HF10 so I'm going to lift some of the AVCHD-specific stuff from my HF10 review.
I bought the HF10 for it's super-fast focus when shooting my kids' sporting events. I bought the TG1 for it's superior portability. I'm happy to say both are awesome cameras. One big negative for the Sony camera is that 16gb of memory (Memory Stick Pro Duo Mark 2) costs 2.5 times as much for this camera as it does for the HF10 which uses SDHC. That's a complete rip off but no other HD video camera fits in your pocket like this one so that's the price you pay for portability. Battery life is another price you pay but I got every video I wanted, in great quality, from the beach this past weekend and had plenty of battery and memory to spare. If you're going to film long events this is not the camera for you. In still camera terminology think of it as pocket point-and-shoot and not an SLR.
This is a fantastic camera but people need to have more realistic expectations of what to expect from AVCHD. It is a highly compressed format so using this camera in low-light conditions is going to produce pretty "grainy" results. In good lighting AVCHD output from this camera can produce some really great looking results in HD but don't kid yourself into thinking you're going to get professional HDTV quality. This is a point-and-shoot.
This is a great camera if you use a Mac but you will probably find it very frustrating if you use a PC...
I use both Macs and PC and I have to tell you that you that PCs suck for AVCHD - you will waste a lot of time and pull your hair out. I'm sure PC video software vendors will address this eventually, but seriously folks if you want to do this the easy way get an Intel-based Mac (caveat: only Intel based machines using Leopard support AVCHD) and use either iMovie or Final Cut Express 4. Both of these programs (iMovie 08 and FCE4) just LOVE this camera (and Canon HF10 and hard disk-based Sony AVCHD as well) and they work like a charm. Video making has never been this easy. FCE4 lets you mix AVHCD, HDV and SD video on the same timeline and save in whatever format you want so it's worth the $200 if you want to do that or have more exacting control over your videos. It is basically a (lightly) stripped-down version of Apple's excellent professional video software (Final Cut Pro) and it is very good. For most home videos iMovie 08 (which comes in iLife 08) will be just fine. No, better than fine. You will LOVE how easy it is to create great movies with iMovie 08 and how easy it is to save them in a variety of formats and sizes and share them with friends and family. It is a piece of cake to edit movies in iMovie 08 and then put them on a Mac Web Gallery (at up to 960x540 which is higher than DVD quality) for family members to see or dump them out on a DVD (using iLife 08's iDVD) for your family members who are less tech savvy. You can even dump them out to 1080p Quicktime movies if you desire. I enjoy sticking movies of the kids on my wife's iPhone so she can show them to her friends.
I've had no problem transferring the movies directly from the camera but you do need to have the camera plugged into the AC to do it. You can avoid plugging the camera into your Mac to transfer the files by getting a memory stick reader. You can get a Transcend M5 reader here on Amazon for under $10 and it works great with the Memory Stick Duo Mark2 cards.
The video camera is just acting like a USB reader when you connect it to your Mac anyway - it is the file layouts that the software recognizes. When read in and converted to Apple Intermediate Codec at 1920x1080 they will balloon in size. If you want to store the raw video in a more compressed way you can simply copy the root directory of the card to another directory and copy it back again later. If you're working with AVCHD you need to buy the biggest hard drives you can afford. 60 minutes of video will use up something like 50Gb of storage on your Mac when converted to 1920x1080. If you just want great looking home video to show on your HDTV, but don't want to go broke on hard drives, Apple offers to import the movies at a slightly lower resolution (960x540) which takes up a LOT less space with very little drop in quality. I have been making home videos and showing them on an Apple TV at that resolution and they look stunning. The quality difference between that resolution and full HD isn't that big of a deal.
If you want to try to get truly professional-quality video you should avoid AVCHD cameras and stick to the HDV format concentrating on cameras with larger sensors. But this is great camera for HD home videos at a great price.
The user interface on this camera is better than the Canon HDF10 for reviewing your video but sucks for adjustments on the fly. Adjusting exposure manually is a pain in the butt and the UI for it obscures a lot of the picture. I wish they had added a dial or button set for adjust exposure and/or backlighting control on the camera. In bright light the screen gets washed out enough that it is hard to tell if your exposure is really that great or not but I did find a neat trick. In bright sunlight the screen is easier to see if you tilt it at an angle forward rather than trying to keep it straight up and down. This is where a viewfinder would really help. But these are minor nits because the camera does a good job at exposure control on its own.
Still photos absolutely suck on this camera. Get a proper still camera if you care about stills. This is true of all of the video cameras - don't count on them taking decent stills unless you want to use them at very low resolutions. They're going to be better than the camera on your mobile phone but that's not saying much :)
As I said earlier this is a very compact point-and-shoot camera that shoots HD video and for that it's excellent. The beautiful thing about this camera is that it fits comfortably in your pocket. No other HD video camera out yet (as of 28-May-2008) can make that claim. For that reason you'll probably take it with you more often and pull it out for a quick video here and there. To me that makes it worth the price of the expensive memory cards because your memories are priceless - especially of your kids growing up.
Pretty good video capability, compact & stylish May 15, 2008
23 out of 26 found this review helpful
Overall video capability of the TG1 is pretty good
The most appealing and useful feature is the ultra portability.
Also the startup time is very short. With the compact size, fast startup
time and easy to use design you will end up using this camera at many places/occasions and more often than the bulky ones.
Once you start recording video you'll be stunned by how pictures are wonderfully shown on its little LCD. The picture quality though not as good as professional 1080 videos but very good for the camera of this size. I had earlier tried Sony CX7. The quality is lot better than CX7.
Low light picture is horrible - very grainy and lot's of noise, worse than SD tape cameras. But this something you have accept with such a tiny camcorder.
Can you believe - there is no remote control. You have sit next to you TV browsing through and selecting your video and pictures unless you want to play all of them in the sequence they are and without fast forwarding.
All camcorders had remote control. I wonder why not TG1. Perhaps it's because of the compact size.
The good news is the TG1 overcomes something that many competitors, Sanyo included, are failing at. Image Stabilization (IS) is amazingly stunning and precise whether or not you are Zooming. As far as Auto Focus (AF) is concerned, the TG1 doesn't overkill but offers good performance particularly in Macro Mode which, like the IS, is astonishingly impressive.
Plus:
Very Compact and Stylish
Fast start up time , very easy to use
Good video
Good AF even in Low Light
Great IS
Minus:
Grainy pictures, noise in low light
No remote control
Poor Photo Mode
Needs Sony proprietary Software to edit video on your PC
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