This is a nice entry level HD camcorder. Don't expect great low-light filming or exceptional battery life. The battery last resonably well if you're not doing a lot of playback and stand-by time. It's a very small camcorder, so if you have large hands this may not be the model for you. My only gripe is that the internal hard drive is only 8GB. Of course you can buy more memory in the form of memory sticks, but they aren't cheap. Also, if you don't know your way around the computer and aren't able to handle the format issues with AVCHD and the HD file format in general, get an external disk style camcorder.
The video is impressive given how small (smaller than a softball) the camera is. It’s very sharp and vivid in color. It displays extremely well on either a HDTV or a Standard TV. There are options you can select in the menu to determine what device you're using to hook up your handycam. I wouldn't say that the video quality is 1080, but somewhere between that and 720. Regardless of that, the video is outstanding in the daylight. In the night, it performs well, but I was hoping for better quality and contrast. With the video, I did have everything in automatic settings. The anti-shake portion to me is bad. I've used many camcorders and cameras before, and from a scale to 1 to 5, I would honestly give it a 2 of 5. I would casual walk while recording and the video would shake, toss and turn in all directions. The zoom is excellent and provides high detail stills. I could read the ingredients of a coke bottle from across the room. Given that, the camera section is better than I hoped for. I’m always skeptical about a camcorder’s ability to take photos, but this feature has certainly impressed me. There’s also this slow motion video recorder feature that captures 3 real time seconds of video, but plays it back in a 12 second time frame. It’s a pretty neat feature. It has face recognition of up to 20 people and you can select either adults or children. I haven’t gotten through all the settings, but this handycam isn’t that difficult to operate. Though the battery life is pathetic, 1 hour and 30 minutes at its best. Your better off getting the larger one: Sony NP-FH70 which should give you a few more hours of recording. It’s retailed between $50-$75. If you want you can get one on ebay for less than $25, I did. The 8 gig internal memory will only give you somewhere around an hour at “HD FH,” the highest setting you can choose. I bought the MK2 memory stick pro duo 16GB on ebay for $45. That’s half the price, maybe more than what you’d pay out in town. Again, purchased on ebay. There’s no HDMI cable in the box nor a battery charger. The RCA, Composite cable, and USB is all I really need. It does take some time to upload movies to your computer. I have a macbook pro and I didn’t use the software and it works perfect. A 15 minute video takes 20-30 minutes to load. The navigation screen is good. It just needs to be just a hair more sensitive. There’s a gang of attachments you can buy online, like the wide angle lens, anti glare, UV protection and so on. Overall, the camera is four stars. If the anti shake was better, I’d would definitely give this thing five stars. Given the capabilities for its size, I was impressed, but not completely satisfied. Not worth the retail value of $550, but worth $330 on ebay bidding.Read full review
I love the small compact size and weight of this video recorder. At 10 oz. w/battery, my wife has no problems since it fits right in the palm of her hand. The camera has true HD definition so the recordings are so true to life. The only issue I had was the video camera has only 8gb internally. No problem , I went out and bought a 16gb memory stick to give me 4 more hours of recording time.I would have given this video camera an excellent rating if it wasn't for that.
This is a great camera for shooting in daylight outdoors. 10x zoom is plenty. shooting pictures is as good as your typical cellphone; not the best. touch screen works but is annoying if you have big fingers. At low level lighting the picture becomes a bit grainy. If the exmos ccd is an improvement over typical ccds then don't bother getting anything less. I wonder how much better the exmos-r is? this camera like any camera is battery hungry so get the biggest battery you could and?or get multiple infolithium batteries because you'll need them.
I did a lot of research before deciding, and after using the Handycam for a couple of months, I'm not disappointed. My use is strictly home movies, so it is a great fit. My only frustration is the smaller than expected size makes it awkward for me to use the thumb controls, but I have a large hand. I'd think most people would be pleased with that feature. Low light videos are just mediocre, but I have nothing to compare them to. Film editing is very simple. And I get more filming time out of the internal memory than I expected. Upgrading to a larger battery was my first accessory.
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