Questions about the Sony SR11E

[tobygunnee]

Hi, I have just bought the sony HDR-SR11e after extensive research online and in magazines. Generally I am very happy with the picture quality but one thing I've noticed though it that the autofocus is a little bit unstable. What i mean by this is that when I was filming my dog indoors the image would keep going very slightly blurred for a split second. Now I'm very much a novice so is this user error, or that I was indoors (was fairly light though), that the camera struggled to adapt to my dogs movement (I was only about 2 feet away from my dog) or a problem with the camera?
Also I have bought this camcorder to record my wedding in March. Eventually I want to edit the footage to make a DVD. I want to cut out all the bits I don't want, and to make the DVD with a proper title screen with sub menus. Is this possible with the software supplied with the camcorder? I won't have chance to play with the software for a while to figure this out for myself so if someone can answer this me in the meantime I'd be very grateful.
Many thanks, Toby

[A n d r e w]

Originally Posted by tobygunnee

one thing I've noticed though it that the autofocus is a little bit unstable. What i mean by this is that when I was filming my dog indoors the image would keep going very slightly blurred for a split second. Now I'm very much a novice so is this user error, or that I was indoors (was fairly light though), that the camera struggled to adapt to my dogs movement (I was only about 2 feet away from my dog) or a problem with the camera?

This is pretty standard for auto focus on consumer-level camcorders. There has been some criticism of the Sony SR11 & SR12 for this, but in fact most sub-£1000 camcorders will wander a little every now and then, more so indoors in poor lighting. There's always manual focus as an alternative, though this requires considerable dexterity when videoing moving objects.

Andrew.

[chrishull3]

Originally Posted by tobygunnee

Hi, I have just bought the sony HDR-SR11e after extensive research online and in magazines. Generally I am very happy with the picture quality but one thing I've noticed though it that the autofocus is a little bit unstable. What i mean by this is that when I was filming my dog indoors the image would keep going very slightly blurred for a split second. Now I'm very much a novice so is this user error, or that I was indoors (was fairly light though), that the camera struggled to adapt to my dogs movement (I was only about 2 feet away from my dog) or a problem with the camera?
Also I have bought this camcorder to record my wedding in March. Eventually I want to edit the footage to make a DVD. I want to cut out all the bits I don't want, and to make the DVD with a proper title screen with sub menus. Is this possible with the software supplied with the camcorder? I won't have chance to play with the software for a while to figure this out for myself so if someone can answer this me in the meantime I'd be very grateful.
Many thanks, Toby

Indoors it is best to put the cam on manual focus and set ie lock the focus to about 20/30 ft on wide angle if you need to get in closer move in yourself this stops the cam ever going out of focus,this can happen in low light for a brief moment at times on auto,if you are in a situation where it is not possible to get in closer but need to zoom steady camcorder use with a tripod or monopod with only slow steady panning is a must.

[tobygunnee]

Hi,
Many thanks for the replies, they've been a great help. It's good to know I don't have a faulty camera :-) I'll try the manual focus.
Any info on the part about the software?
Cheers, Toby

[chrishull3]

Originally Posted by tobygunnee

Hi,
Many thanks for the replies, they've been a great help. It's good to know I don't have a faulty camera :-) I'll try the manual focus.
Any info on the part about the software?
Cheers, Toby

Independant software is best but you will need a powerful pc to edit your footage,i have a powerful one but still convert my film to hdv to aviod the avchd editing hassle and then make avchd and blu ray discs from the hdv tapes.There are various ways to go but there is more overal hassle with avchd editing..

[tobygunnee]

Originally Posted by chrishull3

Independant software is best but you will need a powerful pc to edit your footage,i have a powerful one but still convert my film to hdv to aviod the avchd editing hassle and then make avchd and blu ray discs from the hdv tapes.There are various ways to go but there is more overal hassle with avchd editing..

What's hdv? How expensive are the indendent softwares you are referring to? Any recommendations?
Cheers, Toby

[chrishull3]

Originally Posted by tobygunnee

What's hdv? How expensive are the indendent softwares you are referring to? Any recommendations?
Cheers, Toby

HDV is hd tape rather than mini dv tape but unless you have a hdv cam to convert your avchd footage to it is not worth thinking about,pinnacle ultimate will convert to hdv or edit avchd if your pc is up to it,but i have not managed to to render a full dv menu disc be it dvd avchd or bd as it always crashes but it will render un menued discs fine for me.

[tobygunnee]

Originally Posted by chrishull3

HDV is hd tape rather than mini dv tape but unless you have a hdv cam to convert your avchd footage to it is not worth thinking about,pinnacle ultimate will convert to hdv or edit avchd if your pc is up to it,but i have not managed to to render a full dv menu disc be it dvd avchd or bd as it always crashes but it will render un menued discs fine for me.

Don't have HDV cam so that's out of the question then. Thanks for your help :-)