Customer Reviews:
  Good Camera June 9, 2007
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
I bought this camera for a Mother's Day gift for my Mom. It takes great video, wonderful quality. My mom isnt what I would call tech savvy, and she uses the camera with ease. I've hooked it up so we could watch recorded video on the television, and it looks great there. I cannot comment on the video editing on the computer, becouse I've yet to get a firewire port for the computer. And that would be my only complaint, having to purchase a firewire and a plugin for the computer, but that would be the case with any Digital Video Camera, so I cannot fault Sony. All in all a good camera for the price.
DCR-HC48 June 8, 2007
its just amaizing, so easy to use and very light to handle. be sure to buy an iLink cable with it.
perfect choice.
 Good for taping, problem uploading May 13, 2007
17 out of 21 found this review helpful
The Sony Handycam was very easy to use and record. However, when we wanted to upload it to the computer, it turned out that the USB cord that came with it does not work with the program which comes with the Handycam (on a DVD). This we learned after "chatting" on line with Sony tech support twice for 20 minutes to no avail, and then talking to tech support for 40 minutes. The tech support guy (in India) was finally able to tell us about a Windows program which is compatible with the USB cord, but this is nowhere in the instruction booklet or any of the online materials.
Great camera for the price April 13, 2007
Pros: great price and compact. it powers up quickly and is ready for to catch that quick shot. Touch screen menu works great (see cons)
Cons: did not come with a mem card(but who would expect that). Touch screen works gets dirty and since it is also your lcd i found that i had to clean it often.
I have shot mainly outdoors and the video is great, indoors there is added noise, but what do you expect...its a $350 camera.
 Great Camera for the Price, beware accessory creep April 12, 2007
93 out of 93 found this review helpful
The DC-HC48 is a great camera very nicely sized and easy to use. I chose this version instead of the HC38 due to the support for stills and the improved CCD.
The picture quality in good light is great. I actually displayed it on my 60 inch TV and the picture was as good as normal television. I was very impressed with the picture. It was also nice how easy it was to switch aspect rations to either 16:9 (wide-screen) to 4:3 (standard). However as it got darker outside and the light got lower inside I notice much of the "color" from the picture began to fade and the picture became somewhat mono-tone. This seems to be a common complaint for cameras in this price range with low-light.
I took the camera into a dark room (I couldn't see a thing) I turned on the night mode and was very impressed. People and things showed up great in the pitch black. The IR light emitted by the camera was picked up nicely and acted like an flashlight that only the camera would pick up. The subject had to be 5-10 feet away and of course the image was best in the center. The effect was very much like Survivor's night shots, or the Blair Witch Project.
The camera has two modes of operation. Normal node , which allows you to custom set settings like set Focus, Exposure, White Balance, or Effects like Old Film etc or set the settings to Auto. And Easy mode, which lets you basically turn beeping on and off and leaves all settings set to Auto.
The issue I found is in Easy mode the Still Pictures did not work. Also you have to stop recording to switch between Easy and Normal mode. The still photos are a fine quality for considering its a 1 Mega-Pixel camera. I wouldn't recommend using this as your primary still photo camera though its nice to have the option.
The touch screen I found to be somewhat cumbersome since you have to scroll through looking for the choices that you want. So if you want to make a setting change quickly and if you are unfamiliar with the camera it might take a while to find. I also tend to shake the camera some when I use the touchscreen. A nice feature is that you can create your own custom activity list so settings you set frequently are more accessible then those you don't use.
Where I was most disappointed was with the accessories. The standard battery it ships with lasts 1.5 hours, which seems like a reasonable time considering a MiniDV tape only holds 60-90 minutes depending on your setting. But like all batteries the 1.5 is ideal conditions and not real world turning the camera on and off and playing with the features and zooming in and out etc. Additionally the Battery takes an 1 hour and 40 minutes to charge which is surprising. Unfortunately the battery is not the newer ActiForce batteries which charge in approximately 20 minutes (with the actiForce charger).
Also to take still photos you'll need to buy a separate Memory Stick Duo card. (Not a Memory Stick, Memory Stick Duo has a smaller form factor). The USB cable that ships with the camera lets you get the Still photos from the camera (attached to the dock) onto your computer. However it does NOT let you get the video. Instead you need a fire-wire cable which is not included. Sony sells this cable for around $40. Belkin makes that cable for around $12. The fire-wire (i.Link) cable only allows you to download video onto your computer (not the still photos). Again you must be attached to the docking station. If your traveling and wish to download to a computer you'll need to bring the docking station with you (it is pretty small but my be a hassle to bring with you). The docking station is one way to charge the camera or you can connect it to the wall with the supplied cables. Unfortunately there is only one power cable for the dock and the camera so if you plan to just bring the power cable you'll have to disconnect it from the docking station.
In short the camera is great just be aware you might be buying some more cables, batteries, chargers, memory sticks or other accessories that will end up affecting your total price of ownership. And that the Sony brand name versions of these accessories can be surprisingly pricey.
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