 Entry Level Handycam |
| Review Date: March 25, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Matthew Hellstern, Dallas, TX |
First let's right the Amazon description, this is a 40X optical zoom camera, not 25X as seen on the product itself.
This is a fantastic camera to start out with, the simplicity of Mini DV tapes makes this a excellent value choice. DVD camcorders in this price range suffer from terrible battery life, and disk errors that can render your disks useless. The Mini DV tapes are tried and right.
I use an Apple computer at home and the camera connects to iMovie with no problems using the iLink port on the camera. All you need in most cases is a Firewire 6pin to 4pin cable, and you are excellent to go.
The video and audio quality are excellent, and the night vision is fun too. This is not a upper level camera so don't expect several bells and whistles, but it performs fantastic, and has the basic features most people will ever need. The battery life is honest, but that is expected, all camcorder companies want you to buy an extra battery, but at least Sony gives you several options.
With a full charge and a new tape, expect about an hour of record time. |
Fantastic camera at an awsome price
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| Review Date: March 30, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Ray Pringle, |
I have been renting a Sony DCR-HC21 from my college for a month or so now. I'm a photographer by trade but I really became interested with editing digital video so I looked around for a camcorder that was a bit above mid range. This is it, it has enough professional functions to make it just right for me. Ability to recored in 16:9 widescreen, touch screen LCD, ability to control exposure, manual and auto focus, 40x optical zoom, and at $234.99 it's an awesome buy.
The one Con I can reckon of is that the battery provided with the camera is very poor. Only lasts for 115 minutes, which seems nice but in comparison to the NPFH50 that lasts for 3 hours it's poor. Do yourself a favor and buy the NPFH50 Battery for $26 here on amazon.
The other thing that I can't fathom is that none of these minidv camcorders come with the firewire data cable. It seems like including an 8 dollar cable wouldn't be that hard, Sony afterall bundles the software needed to transfer the video to your PC.
All in all this is the best camcorder for the money, I chose this over the Canon ZR900 and I'm glad that I did. It's well build and has all the features that an amateur or professional would want. |
Brilliant quality for the $
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| Review Date: June 7, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Ric Corless, Asheville, NC USA |
| I tried to buy this camera from Amazon but their server was trashing on 6/6/08 so I dashed over to the local WalMart and picked up one. After spending the last 7 hours going over every feature and nuance, I wish I'd had this camera last week for videoing a fantastic rock band in Illinois... the spot metering feature would have provided me vastly better results than the ancient Sharp miniDV it replaced! One review of this camera is extremely biased by the buyer's ignorance of technology... firewire is the only way to go for transferring DV to computer, and this feature works flawlessly on this camera. I'm very pleased to have one, and not even sorry to have paid more at WalMart than Amazon's fantastic price! Image quality is brilliant! |
Nice Camera
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| Review Date: July 11, 2008 |
| Reviewer: S. Gedney, Lexington, KY |
We have had the camera for a month now, and have been extremely pleased with it so far.
a) the quality of the images are brilliant
b) the ease of use is brilliant
c) the compactness of the camera is brilliant
d) the battery life is brilliant.
e) the auto focus and auto exposure has been very excellent
e) The LCD panel is brilliant, and is still quite satisfactory in bright light.
The only negative is that the optical view finder is very poor, and too small to use. But, this really has not been an issue at all, since the LCD panel does not seem to be a drain on the battery, and has been usefully visible under all light conditions.
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Wonderful starter camera
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| Review Date: December 20, 2008 |
| Reviewer: CarmeliteHeart, |
| Although this is a camcorder that doesn't have many features (ie: no external mic input, no headphone input), it works like a charm for those who just want to take decent-quality videos for a fantastic price. The picture isn't all that fantastic, but it's a nice small camera that hasn't let me down yet. It's lightweight and simple to travel with. Even without an external mic input, it picks up sound very well. I use it often, even for a major project I am doing. Get yourself some video-editing software with this camera, a firewire (IEEE 1394 is what I use) to connect it to your computer (make sure your computer has a firewire port, as this camcorder doesn't use a USB cable for hook up), and you're excellent to go. The best part about this camcorder: Mine didn't require the manufacturer's annoying software that you have to install in order to use the camcorder with your computer!! I like that part. I can upload the videos straight into any software program that supports DV video uploading (like Windows Movie Maker). I have used this camcorder both with Windows XP and Vista. No problems either way. I highly recommend it! |
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November 30th, 2009 | 
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