Customer Reviews:
  BEYOND WHAT I EXPECTED... July 13, 2007
21 out of 21 found this review helpful
I picked up the Sony DCR-HC48 Handycam just three days before heading out for a southern California vacation (had to replace my Panasonic from 2002 because it just wasn't cutting it anymore).
I was expecting about the same picture quality I was used to with my old Panasonic DV-103, boy was I wrong. After returning home from a week in the sun and editing the footage with Premiere Elements 3.0 and burning the finished product to DVD I was astonished. I have never seen such detail in a home movie in my life. The colors were so vibrant I thought maybe I had hit a time warp and ended up back in Hollywood. Truly an amazing camera. Even the paltry sized battery that was included with the unit lasted a fairly reasonable amount of time.
As a general warning to those in the market for a new camcorder I'll include the follwing side note:
My friend, who was with me in Cali, was also shooting with a Sony camcorder. However the unit he was using was the Sony DCR-SR62 HDD Handycam. After attempting to edit the footage on his PC and burning a DVD, the scenes were of poor quality...very shakey with tracers trailing every movement in the frame.
This is (from what I understand) because of the MPEG 2 files HDD (and DVD) camcorders use. Apparantly these files are useless to edit with because of the degradation involved in encoding and transfering MPEG 2s on a PC.
Too bad...wish someone had told my friend that before the trip.
For now anyone who is intresting in editing their video footage on a PC should stick with MiniDV camcorders. I highly recommend the Sony DCR-HC48 Handycam as a quality consumer level camcorder with a decent price tag (especially online).
Neccasary Accessories:
- bigger battery (I recommend the Sony NPFH70 H Series)
- carrying case
- The Sony VF-30CPKXS 30mm Polarizing Filter Kit with protective lens cover (this may seem like an excessive accessory for some but when shooting at Santa Monica Beach I got a tremendous amount of sea breeze on the lens, which had me stopping at the local Office Depot for a lens cleaning kit. A bit frustrating considering I'd owned the camera for less than a week).
 Great Camera-Worth Every EXTRA Dime July 12, 2007
I bought this camera after a lot of research and I have sold electronics for over 6 years (TV's, Cameras, Camcorders, and Laptops). Sony has always been a market leader when it comes to camcorders. They have invented almost every format we use today. Needless to say this camera is the best you can get without going to an HD Camcorder. Many people ask why pay for this camera over the HC38 or others. It's the lens and the final result. The HC38 and lower models only produce a final picture of about 350,000 pixels. The HC48 for a $100 or less difference has over 600,000 pixels. That's almost double the picture quality. You be the judge if it's worth it to you, yet to me it is!!! Also, on a personal preference get a polarized lens filter for your camcorder, is protects your lens and improves your picture quality by cutting out sunlight issues and other picture effecting causes. Happy Shopping. :-)
 Does not support USB streaming to transfer data/ does not include ilink or firewire July 5, 2007
4 out of 10 found this review helpful
This comes with two calbles
USB- but this camcorder does not support USB streaming so you can tranfer from camcorder to computer using it ( sony support confirmed)
AV- which generally laptop/desktop will not have ports for..
so better shop around a product which has easy to transfer interface.. or be ready to spend another 30$ for ilink wire...
Terrible Design June 29, 2007
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
The camera has ok video quality, but cannot be used with direct fire wire input without the dock. If your using it to directly record to a computer or other device do not buy this because it needs to be in the dock to share the video output with a computer. This makes this camera absolutely useless when its on a tripod because it cannot be connected to the dock as well.
Great for amateur videographers and first time buyers June 12, 2007
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
Plus *****
Compact
Good picture and sound
nightshot mode
25x zoom
powers on quickly
price
Plus/ Minus ***
Touch screen interface
mini DV!!!
Looks
dock with connection ports
Minus *
Wind noise
Manual lens shutter
no video recording possible on memorystick
viewfinder blanks when lcd is open
steadyshot doesnot seem to work at high zooms
poor 1 mp still pictures on memory stick, worse than webcams and cellphones!
Short battery life
Accesories Not supplied! (I am not complaining) but you need to buy a
Firewire cable, tapes, memory stick, video editing software, carrybag, PC with a big hard drive..... and lots of spare time to copy, edit and create dvds of your movies
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