Camcorder Reviews

JVC continues to turn out products that are defective and they do not stand behind them. I bought my daughter a camcorder for her graduation and she is unable to use it because the camera displays an E03 lockdown mode message which disables the camera. Apparently the only way to fix this problem is to bring it to a dealer and pay for the repair. I also understand that it can be a reoccuring problem. There is a class action suit pending. Spend your hard earned money on a better product.

I bought this camera (my third camcorder), because of the name. As I found out the name isn't every thing. I had it 2 weeks, and in that time I had to call JVC (their online service never returned my e-mail) twice. The first time I could fix it myself waiting 45 min. The seconc time (after having this camera only 2 weeks)I was told to take it in for repairs, so I sent it back. Save your time buy something else.

I have three camcorders that alternate depending on the event I want to cover. This one is really the one I like the most. First it has excellent resolution that should be expected out of camera of this cost range. My freinds were dazzled once we showed the playback on TV, people asked if it was digital. The battery life is also excellent and so is the quality and rate of charging..takes 1 hour for full charge..and 30 minutes charge gives 2-3 hours of recording. This is quite good for me. The inbuilt light source is good for night shots as well. Really liked it overall.

The camera has been in and out of sharp's authorized repair center, and has cost a total $100 to repair. It still does not work and we have to buy a new camcorder, it won't be a sharp.
Save your money and buy quality, customer service is terrible.
They don't care if you are satisfied or not

I purchased this camera close to 2 years ago. I thought I was going to love it. It was easy to use and had numerous special effects. That was before the first breakdown, less than 3 months after purchase. Since then , it has been in and out of the shop for a total of 4 times. Under the Sharp warranty, they kept the camcorder an average of 2 months each time. I have missed having many family events put on tape because of this camera. My advice, DON"T BUY IT. If you do, however, an extended warranty is a neccesity with this camera.

We were very excited to open our new Sharp View Cam and begin taking videos of our children. The battery that came with the camera would never last more than 20-30 minutes. We love the ease of recording and ease of use, but the battery just needs to be re-engineered. Unfortunately now, we tend to focus more on still pictures because of this problem. It seems the battery is always dead when we are trying to capture the special moment.

Very slow to focus! Compared to older models it is very shakey as well. It does not hold a candle to last years trv250 model, so check your stores as I found last years model at a great price.

This model is NOT backward compatible with old analogue Hi8 tapes. So, if you have some old footage from your old analogue camcorder that you want to dump into the computer, this is NOT the camera for you. I was told by the store that it would play them, but it doesn't. And Sony also agreed that it does not. That feature is not available until the 460. <br /> <br /> I can't comment on the record side of this camera, because I never even tested that. I tested its ability to play old tape first, and it does not, so back it goes.

i love my new sony handycam it has nite vision and it has the usb cabel hookups and the a/v hookups even though they dont make a remote for it i dont care bout that i love this camera and i use it for skateboarding ....they also showed on the news that this and another model was the top two to own.. i love to make dvds outta of it

I purchased this unit because I liked the features and the price was reasonable. It comes with a light that fits in the hot shoe, and a remote control. It has both digital and analog inputs/outputs, and USB & firewire interfaces. However, my experience has not been good. Thirty days after my purchase, I used it for the second time. I noticed a dead spot in the video. I contacted Panasonic Customer Service and they instructed me to send it to the Service Center for repair. Well, as of 4/3/02 they have had it for three weeks and they are still waiting for a part. Worse yet, they said that they are consolidating the Factory Service Centers and it will be 7-10 weeks before a technician is assigned to repair the unit. In my view that is ridiculous. They will not replace the unit. Panasonic seems to be completely comfortable with this absurd repair time. I WOULD STAY AWAY FROM THIS UNIT, and any other Panasonic product unless you can get the retailer to extend their return policy to 60-90 days -in writing.

I bought this camera because it earned Editors' Awards from ... extremely reliable on their reviews. Considering that comparable models from other makers...were priced well above [$], the sub-[$]price was also a significant plus.
I've owned this since March and it has delivered fully in every aspect. Very small yet not too small, it is very light and portable. It shoots great pictures, and contrary to other reviewers here, I haven't had any trouble at all using it in conjunction with my Windows XP PC for editing using Pinnacle Studio 7. Not one problem. In fact, I did some really heavy duty stuff with the PC and the camera delivered with aplomb.
For anyone with average/moderate video needs, I think this camera would be perfect. Highly recommended.

I was going on vacation and decided to get a videocam/still camera to record the festivities. After reading reviews from many different sites (epinion, various computer and video mag sites) I decided on the PVDV701. I have used it numerous times for still shots and video without a single glitch. The monitor is bright, the menu system easy to use, and the video quality is great. I have read some complaints about drivers and repairs. Maybe I've been lucky, but I also did things to prevent myself from getting in the same situation. I bought a 3rd party extended warranty which covers everything, including replacement of the unit, which anyone should do anyway for a 800 dollar investment. Also, I have experienced the same problem with the Windows XP drivers, but in foresight, I bought the Pyro Digital Video 1394DV card/software package at the same time. It included a firewire care and software for 69 dollars which is more than worth the investment. I get my video via Firewire and still shots via SD card and USB. Using USB to pull down video cannot be fast or good quality (this is just my opinion, considering the slow rate of USB data transfer). My videos come down at full speed, no dropped frames and highest quality audio that the camera will allow.
I've been to the Panasonic site and the have updated all but one of the drivers to XP compatability, which I have updated and have had no problems with them.
For the price and the features I think I got the best value for the money.

i have recieved my camera it does not work at all they stated that it was still wrapped in its plastic and even though it was it had been used enough to have the paint on the buttons wore off the battery is so used up it will not take a charge or the recharger does not work and the adapter does not work`this camera is junk and now i cannot get ahold of anybody to return it to!!!!!

Took nice pictures and I was very happy with it until the cassette door started to not work properly and other things started acting up. It is now 14 months old and off warranty and needs to have the cassette housing assembly replaced at a price not worth considering. We were told this was not caused by neglect or improper usage.

I bought mine at another store several years ago. I have only recently had any problems with it and that is the batteries. They do not charge anymore because of age and use, but other than that, this camera has not had any problems. I have never had trouble with the door. I love the effects. As soon as I can find a replacement battery, I will be back to videoing. I have taped a moving train, cats runing around and even a funeral on this baby. It is a great camera for as old as it is.

I purchased this model in March 2002 and in May 2003 - it just quit working! I thought the battery had run out - recharged it -nothing! Bought a new battery - still nothing. All it'll do now is make a click noise when you switch to camera or vcr. Cant even get my tape out of the damn thing now! Call Panasonic - what a joke! They wanted $149.00 for a diagnostic test and $102.00 service charge - I only paid about $300 for it new. I'll never buy another panasonic again - the service was terrible and they are not helpful AT ALL! Good luck if you buy one - get the extended warranty! They should sell them for $50.00 and just make them disposable!

I purchased one of these last year and although I can't complain about the quality of the picture, the service from Panasonic leaves a whole lot to be desired.

My camcorder was accidently bumped about 8 months after I purchased it which caused the deck assembly and loading assembly to become unworkable. Even though the fault was mine, Panasonic doesn't seem to want you to have their products repaired, they would rather you buy another one, as the repair technician stated to me. The parts cost more than the camcorder did new.

Needless to say I will never buy another Panasonic product again and neither will my friends and family.

I baught this camera around october and it is now august, and for some odd reason a couple weeks ago, it broke. i have no idea why, i wasn't being rough with it or anything, i'm sure i didn't bang it.

for one, the loading part would'nt work but my dad somehow managed to shove the tape in (i have no clue how because he can't do it anymore) and when he did it wouldn't record, play, or anything else!

other than the fact that, its a nice camera.

Let me start by stating that I have nothing personal against Monster Cable. While they do make some nice cables, in some cases they offer no real benefit over inexpensive alternatives. The best example is digital cables. Anyone familiar with IEEE 1394 (otherwise known as I-Link or Firewire) should know that there is built-in error correction that can deal with any small amount of noise introduced into the digital stream. Since this corrects any minor errors, there is NO difference in quality between an adequate digital cable and an outstanding one.

Do yourself a favor and purchase an inexpensive Firewire cable for as little as ... instead of wasting your money on the ... version. Out of respect for ...I am not going to tell you where to purchase, but any resourceful shopper should be able to find them using the search engines.

Now analog cables.....that's a whole different story :-)

This product is over priced. These cables cost $10 at the high-end and "Monster Cable" has no business building these stupid cables. Save yourself a lot of money and buy a standard Fire-Wire cable.

A couple of years ago, video editing was a problem. It requiered big, expensive equipment, which were very difficult to use and, believe me, they didn't offer spectacular results! But now, with the IEEE-1394 cable, a new technology is born. Now, video editing is as easy as 1-2-3! You just connect one simple, light, but spectacular cable, from your camcorder to you home PC. And presto! With the simple help of a video editing program you can transfer dazzling images from your video camera to your PC! And after you edit your video, you can simply download it back to your camcorder! Like I said before, it's as easy as 1-2-3!

I bought this camcorder less than a year ago and once again it is not working. This is the second time that something has broken on it. It is not worth the money, buy a Sony.

ok, this is one of the cheapest camcorders ive seen and it is great. i got it yesterday and i already know how to work it, its so easy and im 12 if you want an awesome, very good camcorder at a good price get this!

I recently purchased this camcorder. I was not that familiar with how to use a camcorder. I spent time learning how to use this camcorder by going over the manual page by page. I had no problems with the picture,viewing, recording or setting the features to my specification. I get a good picture on the the LCD, VSH-C and the viewfinder. I have found it to be a great camcorder with multiple features that I had not seen on other models in the price range($230+).

If anyone is thinking about purchasing a camcorder, I highly recommend the Panasonic PVL353 or higher model. You will enjoy this camcorder.

I tried to pair the card in this package with the new Maxtor 5000DV. The Pinnacle card toasts the Maxtor drive every time. Maxtor customer service can replicate my error and has been very helpful. Pinnacle customer service has been sarcastic, irresponsible, and completely unhelpful.

The Pinnacle software only offers minor improvements over my existing software, so I'm out [$$$] and have a worthless Pinnacle package sitting in the closet.

Don't buy from Pinnacle until they get their customer service reps up to snuff!

I bought this software over a year ago to edit video from my Sony Digital 8 camera.

Installation:
It took me close to 3 months to setup because of issues between Windows ME and the included FireWire card. I actually had to hack the Microsoft drivers .INF file to get the card to work properly on my system.

User Interface
The software is amazing easy to use. The user interface is very intuitive.

To capture, hookup your Digital camcorder to the Firewire card with the included cable. You just say you want to record and up to 15 minutes of video is transfered at a time. This is due to a limit in the size of AVI files.

The system is capable of automatically sensing scene breaks, so when it captures, it automatically organizes scenes.

For editing, it just have to arrange the scenes. You can also shorten the scenes through again a very good UI.

The software has 3 voice tracks. You can easily add music from MP3s or CDs to your video. You can also do voiceovers ( I haven't tried this yet ).

If you are making DVDs, you can add chapters and menus. The UI for doing this is pretty good as well.

You can also add stills. I've made many videos which are combination of video and stills pictues from a digital camera

The software comes with many transitions. You can do fads and other cool effects.

You can output your movie to DVD, S-VCD, VCD, RealNetworks, Microsoft Media Player Format, or MPEG ( No Quicktime support ).

Now the bad: The software has been very unreliable, at times, I lost hours of work. Anyone who looks at the message boards will see that the user base of this software is generally unhappy. I seem to finally have a patch that has made the software reasonable reliable. I can honestly say that I love the software but have never been so frustrated with the qauality of a piece of software before. When it works its really good, but it doesn't always work.

Because of the unreliability of the software, I would not recommend it to a computer novice.

I had already ordered Pinnacle Studio DV from Dell when I started reading all of the horrible reviews. I bought the program after seeing some DVDs that my boss made of his son's football games & he said he had no problems. When it arrived I decided to try it and hope for the best & I'm glad I did. I captured about 90 minutes of video that I had shot using a Sony TRV-350. The capture process when very smoothly. Editing confused me at first (I didn't want to read the manual) but I caught on quickly and edited the video down to about 30 minutes of scenes that I wanted to burn to DVD. The rendering process did take a while: 30 to 45 minutes but when it was done my dvd drive spit out a completed dvd with the titles and transitions that I added and it looked great when I played it in by DVD player. I had no problems at all during the entire process including installation. I did follow Pinnacle's recommendations and bought a separate hard drive for capturing and I made sure no other applications were running in XP. I am very pleased with the product. I do have a new system: Dell 4600, 2.6ghz P4, 512 RAM, 40 GB internal, 80GB Western Digital firewire external hardrive (I used the card that came with Pinnacle for the firewire connection as the Dell 4600 didn' have one - the Pinnacle card comes with two connections one of which you must use for your digital camcorder). I am very pleased with this product.

I received this tripod as a birthday present. I set it up and used it to take one family photo. My daughter then walked by, slightly bumping one leg of the tripod. I was quite surprised to look at the tripod and find the leg badly bent. Tried to straighten the leg and it snapped right off. "Sturdy steel leg construction" the package says. HA! Straight into the garbage it went after being out of it's package less than 10 minutes. I'll get a different brand next time.

Just a bit confuse by this company product's description. Does NEW mean the package opened and have scratch on it? Although it is works, I totally lost my joy. Anyway, it maybe an "exceptional" case, but I won't buy from this company again.

I love this tripod. I own 2 other much larger tripods but this is the one I take everywhere. Setting up this tripod is very quick - just pull each leg and twist to lock. Taking it down is even faster - twist each leg to unlock and then pound the tripod against the ground to collapse all 3 legs at the same time.

However, make sure you can live with the following limitations before getting this tripod:
1. The extended height is either 10.5" or 40". Any other height in between is very difficult to setup and not as secure.
2. The maximum height of 40" is quite low. There will be times that you wished you brought along a regular tripod.
3. It has only a 2-way head. It can only pan and tilt forward/backward. It cannot rotate clockwise/counterclockwise.
4. The build quality and tolerance are not top notch. When you pan, the head rotates slightly clockwise then counterclockwise. Camcorder and digital photographer using panning or stitch panoramic mode will find this objectionable. For my particular tripod, I have to remember to setup the tripod leg with the Ambico logo to my right in order for my pictures to line up with the true horizon.
5. It looks flimsy (but to be expected for this type of tripod). The plastic head probably will not survive a direct drop to the concrete pavement.