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Sony DCR-IP5
Reviewed by
Rob McGee
on 09/23/2002
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See all products in the Sony DCR-IP series See all Sony products

As shown: $1,399.99 See manufacturer site for availability

Add to my list Product summary

The good: Very small and portable; relatively high coolness factor.

The bad: Incompatible with most video-editing software; pricey first-generation model; some controls awkward to operate.

The bottom line: For portability in a camcorder, you can't top the IP5, but its MPEG-2 footage won't meet every videographer's needs.

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CNET editors' review

  • CNET editors' rating: 3.5 stars Very good
    Detailed editors' rating
      Design : 8.0
      Features : 7.0
      Performance : 7.0
      Image quality : 8.0
      Overall score: 7.5 (3.5 stars)
  • Reviewed by:
    Rob McGee
  • Reviewed on: 09/23/2002
  • Updated on: 10/15/2002
  • Released on: 03/01/2002
Sony's DCR-IP5 is remarkably tiny--thanks to Sony's new MicroMV format, which uses cassettes about one-third the size of standard MiniDV tapes. However, MicroMV also uses a different data-compression scheme than MiniDV, which may spell trouble if you already have DV-editing software. Unless you're an early adopter, weigh the cost of going Micro. MiniDV cameras--and cassettes--are more affordable, better supported, and almost as portable. If you still want to give the new format a try, compare the IP5 with its higher-priced cousin, the IP7BT, which adds a Memory Stick for still-photo storage as well as a wireless Bluetooth modem for Internet access right from the camcorder.

This little five-way controller lets you navigate the LCD menu; we wish there were a separate Select button.

Weighing just 13 ounces with battery and media loaded, the DCR-IP5 qualifies as shirt-pocketable--a designation that sometimes applies to digital still cameras but rarely to camcorders.

The five-way control button close to the 2.5-inch LCD on the other side of the camera was easier to use as we navigated menus, but we found ourselves wishing for a separate Select button.
Built-in memory on each of the tiny MicroMV cassettes stores a thumbnail index of your video clips.Included accessories.

The camera offers plenty of shooting features through the LCD menus, including picture effects, presets for shooting different types of scenes, 24-step exposure compensation, and manual focus. Built-in memory on each MicroMV cassette gives you a convenient way to locate previously recorded footage when the camera is in VCR mode; a still frame from the beginning of each recorded segment is displayed in an index of thumbnails.
Small buttons require a deft touch.MicroMV cassettes are tinier than MiniDV.




Input/output ports.
This camera's extreme portability comes at a price. There's not a lot of free real estate, which means that the physical controls are shrunken and consolidated, and that can be bad news for fumble-fingered users. Our biggest beef was with the tiny wide/telephoto toggle that zooms the 10X Carl Zeiss lens; manipulating it requires a deft touch and a certain amount of practice.

Video quality matches that of midrange consumer MiniDV cameras.


As we said, MicroMV differs from MiniDV at the level of the digital data stream itself, not just in physical dimensions. While MiniDV footage uses compression within each frame, MicroMV adds the frame-to-frame compression of MPEG-2, the same compression scheme used for DVD and digital satellite broadcasts. To the user, this translates into a theoretical drop in quality when compared to MiniDV, with the likeliest problem being motion artifacts, pixelated footage that occurs if your subject is moving too fast, if there are a lot of sudden color changes, and so forth. That said, we didn't notice any such problems; video quality was on a par with that of midrange consumer MiniDV cameras.

Low-light shots in normal (left) and low-light (right) modes.

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As shown: $1,399.99 See manufacturer site for availability
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Sony DCR-IP5

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