Customer Reviews:
  Good buy!! October 9, 2007
1 out of 5 found this review helpful
We purchased this camcorder a couple of weeks ago. even though I did not use it much yet I love it so far.
Small size, good video quality.
Pics are 1pix, ok quality.
Cool little camera August 31, 2007
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
We have only had this for 4 or 5 weeks, but we really like it. I was a bit skeptical about not having a 'real' light, but so far, I find that:
1) it works pretty well in very low-light conditions
2) the Super Night Shot Plus worked acceptably during 'no-light' situations, though the picture is kind of jerky and colors are okay at best.
I LOVE the spot focus and spot exposure modes the latter is great for shooting in backlight or otherwise dim-subject conditions. Again, I thought that using the touchscreen would be awkward, but it works just fine, and for these modes, is very good (though I think that a manual focus hardware button/switch would still be better, but this is the next best thing).
good:
It comes on quickly.
It has a widescreen.
Very light and ergonomical
Great battery life and very accurate meter
Touchscreen customization - put the items you want to access on the first screen rather than having to scroll through them
bad:
viewfinder shuts off when you open the screen
no firewire port on the camera (only on dock)
memory stick instead of one of the non-proprietary chips.
I am glad we bought this, after a fairly exhaustive search.
 Nice Camera August 31, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I havent noticed many of the problems others had experianced with this camcorder. We are on our third tape now and no motor noise or anything. The zoom is great I havent read the manual yet so havent used any of the features. I like it and think its good value for money. It can be found for less else where thou...
Excellant camcorder, very good clarity August 23, 2007
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
Pros-
-Very good clarity
-No issues with the function of the camera till now.
-Good zoom capability
-touch sensing panel
Cons
-Need to buy seperate i394 cable(not included) for video transfer to pc
 Good video, but clunky interface. August 23, 2007
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
To save time, this will be quick facts; I've had the cam about 3 weeks. These are my preferences, you may have different thoughts about what is important. Overall, yeah, it is a Sony, but you can tell they are not putting a lot of effort into the design. I got this version (minidv) because I still feel tape is more reliable than a hard drive or dvd (lots of people have lost videos on those media).
Pros:
-Good sound and video
-Optical zoom
-Good low-light video
-Decent still images
-Good screen size for people with limited vision
Cons:
-BIGGEST COMPLAINT: changing modes for video/stills is a pain in the butt. You have to change the video mode (with a little round wheel knob) AND use a different button. Maybe this is a requirement driven by two different storage media, but it gets really irritating. It does seem that Sony should be able to have the still image button be independant and 'steal' images on the fly, even when you are recording to the dv tape. Instead, here is the procedure:
----you are recording video
----youi must STOP video recording with the video button
----you rotate the mode wheel to the still setting (stops your video)
----snap your image (button on top of cam)
----rotate the mode wheel two or three times to get back to video mode
----press button on back of camera to record video again
You actually end up doing this a lot, as you see images you want as a still while you are taping. Sure, you can do a digital grab later, if you have time. Point is that it would be much better if you simply could use the still button in any mode.
-If you have medium to large hands, it is awkward to get to the buttons while filming
-noisy in dv mode; high-pitched whine
-Sony proprietary memory stick duo; would prefer microsd or sd
-Accompanying computer software not as useful as Canon's; for example, Canon will download images and automatically create date-based folders
-Handycam station is a piece of junk. Wish the camera just had a simple USB interface. Cam doesn't like to stay on the station.
-Would prefer usb over firewire. firewire may be faster, but usb is more universal
SUMMARY: I needed a larger screen and wanted the tape, so this is where I landed. The cam takes good images and video, but just be prepared for really awkward interace both in use and in off-loading. Sony, I'm a little disappointed in this.
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