Review on 🎥 Sony HDR-AX2000 Handycam Camcorder: A Review of Performance and Features (Discontinued by Manufacturer) by Chad Carter

Fair warning to anyone considering buying a Sony camcorder, particularly the HDR-AX2000. I don't know if this is part of the design of all Sony camcorders or just some, but I've had two Sony Handycams and one HDR AX2000 Pro Cam that have a rotary menu selection switch. The problem is that after a few months or maybe a year or two this wheel wears out and becomes unusable. The moment you activate the menu, the selection can move up and down like crazy, like you're spinning the wheel up and down without touching it. Or, as is the case with my HDR-AX2000, it doesn't move the selection until you touch it, but as soon as you start scrolling up or down it gets angry. Sometimes you get to your selection and it moves up or down a selection. You keep trying to make the right choice, but it always ends up being the wrong one. Sometimes you scroll up but the selection goes down. This renders this wheel completely useless and I have to use the buttons on top of the camera to navigate the menus. I googled and found many other users with the same problem, not only with this model but many other models. who have such a bike. Two Handycams had this problem after a few years. With the HDR-AX2000, this started shortly after purchase in October 2010 and broke after a few months. Since I had to use the camera for work and couldn't part with it for several weeks, I waited a while before making a warranty claim, so when I wanted to do it, it was more than a year after purchase. That. And then came my next disappointment at Sony. Being a professional camera, I was under the impression that the warranty was three years. But Sony, despite being a professional camera in every respect, has labeled it a "consumer" camcorder. What kind of consumer would spend $3,500 on a camera that's a lot heavier than a typical consumer camera? What kind of consumer needs two XLR inputs in one camera to record travel and family videos? What kind of consumer needs separate wheels for focus, zoom, and iris, as well as a bunch of other settings that only pros know what they mean? Even if you're rich and $3,500 isn't for you, would you even consider buying a camera with so many settings you don't know what they're for unless you're into videography? Would you consider buying a camera that is much larger and heavier than your average consumer camera? Since Sony labels this as a consumer camera, the guarantee is only valid for one year. ONE YEAR for $3,500 professional video camera. Absolutely outrageous. So now I have a camera that I paid a fortune for that has a design flaw that would cost me $500 to fix. I haven't used it in years because if you're familiar with this camera you know it's a hassle shooting video and trying to navigate menus with the buttons on top of the camera, which is why the jog wheel is on the bottom side . So I either sell it on eBay at a significant discount because the buyer would have to bring it to the store to fix the problem, or I spend $500 to fix it and then try to sell it for a higher one price to sell. another major design flaw. While this camera has very good picture quality, the built-in microphone sounds terrible. And I mean very, very terrible, not like the typical difference between an on-camera mic and an external mic, which is usually better. I've owned many camcorders, both consumer and professional, and I've never heard a camcorder sound so awful. I'm not a music lover who spends thousands of dollars on audio gear, but I have a very decent home theater that sounds great for everything I put in it, better than any other home theater I've ever heard. And to be honest, I'm happy with the sound of the built-in microphone in my other cameras, semi-pro Panasonic and professional Canon, especially the Canon XF-100. Of course with this camera you use the mono gun mic I have for most work situations, but sometimes you want surround sound when no people are talking, or maybe you have another camera that takes dialogue from a wireless lavalier mic records. With the HDR-AX2000, recording with the built-in mic is useless as its EQ curve is so muddled that it can be corrected a little at best, but it still sounds a lot worse than any other recording device. It's a $3,500 camera and microphone that should cost under $10, at least based on the sound quality. Sure, you can spend around $400 or more on an XLR stereo mic if you can afford it, but then you'll have to keep rigging it up and down to switch between a mono and stereo mic when it does should be easy. how to flip a switch on the audio panel like my Canon XF100 does. For this reason, when I needed to buy other cameras, I bought a Panasonic and two Canons. After my horrible experience with the HDR-AX2000, I will never buy another Sony camcorder again.