Digital-Camcorder Reviews

While Sony equipment allows great interoperability between Sony laptops, cameras, and other Sony gear, it is by no means at all difficult to connect to other equipment...The reviewer below indicates that Firewire is a Sony only protocol. Hogwash! IEEE 1394 is a multiplatform I/O option that allows you to connect to any firewire card available. This allow high speed transfer of digital video to any computer platform that supports it (ubiquitous today; PC, MAC, LINUX).

Don't listen to the negative comments about interconnectivity. Sony gear also easily connects to USB devices. I can only conclude that the reviewer below had equipment that did not conform 100% to the standards for both USB 1.0 and IEEE 1394.

This is good equipment, and worthy of your dollar.

The first review of this item below, in addition to the mistake about the firewire standard, mentions a Flash Card. This camera uses neither a flash card or memory stick. Perhaps that review was for a different camera.

That said, this is a great little camera, works flawlessly with Final Cut Pro for video editing. Takes great video for the size. The camera is of couse no longer available as it was replaced by the TRV11. But if you come across one for the right price, go for it -- it's still very much up to date.

This is a very practical camcorder. Proves that Sony is the leading japanese mfr with an eye for innovation. Very intuitive controls, and the camcorder _almost_ worked without even having to read the manuals. The flash card, the hotwire - or whatever its called - are all extremely good - I could view my tapes on a VCR in a coiuple of minutes.
Only things I found somewhat weak - the camcorder was not that good in semi-dark indoor areas. And the plastic "covers" for the poer cord and hotwire - were not the easiest to snap on and off. These are minimal hindrances though - believe me, this camcorder takes excellent still pictures and videos and it is smaller than my (NEW cannon rebel camera) ..
The battery life seems to drop off with age. But since I use this at home (a lot) this is not usually a problem

A big issue to watch out for, is how Sony compatible your lifestyle is. I mean, is your laptop a Vaio. Is your PDA a clie. Is your camera a Sony. Because Sony makes it lovely and easy to integrate with other Sony equipment, but a miserable experience integrating with industry standard protocols like USB. My camcorder does not have a USB bus. Firewire is a sony specific protocol that is useless if you dont have a Sony laptop. So - watch out. ALso, I feel that compact flash (used by other equipment makers - Sony uses the memory stick) is faster but too proprietary for my liking.

This camcorder has many good control designs and it is excellent in recording DV footage. However the digital still photos onto SD cards function lacks any High-Res performance. Photos will seem spotty. If you want great digital pictures better buy a 3 mega pixel digital camera instead. The Cam's VCR play back directional pad, the zoom slider, record button, menu button & its switch ...all contribute to the cam's easy functionality. The cam I bought came right out of the box with 5 bad dead red/green pixels on its side LCD panel. I had to sent it to repairs within the week. Panasonic service at Elgin, IL took over a little over 3 months to get it repaired. Some what irratating...and poor service. The unit is repaired now and works properly. I highly recommed to get a service plan on it. Make sure it works right with in 90 days. Its a cool cam but sure wish it had a image motion stablizer.

This has to be the greatest item I have ever laid my hands on and thats saying alot since I'm a multimillionaire with everything that I want. There is not a better camera available in the world.

We bought this in a store where they had scores of camera plugged in and you could scan around with all of them. This one consistently had the most natural color and exposure... even better than some very expensive ones (of course you can't always say what adjustments have been goofed up on some of the display cameras) After using the camera for a week or so we find that that indoors the video is nearly on a par with broadcast quality. You would never suspect is was a home video. It's very clean and properly exposed. Low light performance is also very good if you employ the Magicpix digital effect.

Outdoors it is also quite good but, being a bit more challenging, you might be able to tell it's not the travel channel you're watching (but it's still very good)

Now here's the bad news.
The optical image stbilizer is OK but you do stil have to be very careful to get good video. It does not iron out the bigger shakes like the electronic ones do. So I am not so thrilled with the stabilizer.

Still pictures, if you care, are good 1M pics but nothing more. They are useful.

Surprise! The lens is mismarked and will not accept 43mm filters or auxiliary lenses. In fact it won't accept ANY filters because it is 50mm (not 49 and not 52) and therefore non-standard. So you can forget about getting a wide angle lens for it. This is a problem for us... No polarizer, no wide angle lense. So, at this point we are not sure we'll keep the camera.. even though we have been favorably impresed with the basic quality.

Just to correct previous reviewer: how to attach 43mm filter or add-on lens (from the manual):
"When you want to attach a Tele Conversion Lens (not supplied) or a Wide Conversion Lens (not supplied), be sure to first remove the lens Hood by turning it counterclockwise."
I removed lens Hoood, attached 43mm filter and putted Hood back.

PD-DV952 is a great camcorder. I tried it once, and the image quality was exellent. I suggest you buy this since it's really cheap considering the the fact that it's a 3CCD camcorder. Buy this and you won't regret it.

I recently did A LOT of research for a high-end camcorder.

This was the winner. After trying many 2 ccd products from Sony and Canon--both good, this camcorder just had more of the goods. Being a 3 ccd camcorder, the colors and sharpness are EXCEPTIONAL. You can film a professional documentary with this one.

The only problem with all the camcorders under $3k, you'll have problems filming in low light. The low-light features in the Panasonics, Sonys, and Canons is substandard, so don't believe the MARKETING that they can film at night in color--that war footage green low-light tints, etc aren't really pragmatic. Consider these cams for use only in good light conditions.

I took the Panasonic to Hawaii and worked flawlessly. Get the bigger Panasonic branded lithium-ion battery and you'll have more than enough juice for 3 days of regular filming thru the big lcd screen (which is better than competitors).

Controls are intuitive and easy to use as well. It may be a little bit more bulky than the 2 ccd Sony palmcorders (though of similar weight), but MARKEDLY smaller than the other 3 ccd competitors. If you're an enthusiast, then this cam offers the best in terms of price, features (3ccd!), and size.

Since all cams are not really pocketable (avoid the buggy Sony micro Dvs), don't only think in size.....you'll need a camera bag on vacations REGARDLESS of size (you'll need the spare battery, 2 filters, wide angle lens).....skimping on these goods will cut your filming experience when you get to your computer to edit--I learned this lesson the hard way--so don't skimp on these items........get a Lowe camera backpack which worked as a day pack and camera pack.

This is one exceptional camera that will give me many years of service!

Panasonic out did themselves by releasing two 3CCD camcorders below the $1000 price point (the other being the PV-GS200). No other consumer DV cam boasts 3CCDs, and the difference in image quality really shows. Getting a similar image quality from any other brand of DV cam requires spending at least $1500. The only reason I gave this camcorder 4 stars instead of 5 is because the battery life is far too short. Even with an extra battery, this camcorder beats out everything in the same price range from Canon, Sony, JVC, etc.

I payed for half of my camcorder which came to be about $450 with the extra batteries and wires you needed to get for the camera. I'm only 13 so $450 is a lot to spend for me but it was well worth it. I'll tell you what I wanted to know about a camera in a review before I bought one...
-the zoom is good, not as good as some of the other models in the store but it is also not as shaky.
-it has a zoom mic which allows you to shoot someone talking from far awa distances without them having to talk much louder then usual for the camera to pick up the sound.
-the pictures is what you pay for in a 3CCD camera. there is one chip for red, one for green, and one for blue. This makes the imagery OUTSTANDING.
-The camera is comfortable in my small hands and my dad's big hands... all you need to do is adjust the strap on it for it to fit our hand perfectly.
-i must be honest... the bad things about it is the battery life on the battery it comes with is only fourty five minutes but if you buy an extened battery it is 1 hour and 15 minutes and if you use both that adds up to about 2 hours of filming time.
-I also don't like that it doesn't come with a light but magic pix is sometimes helpful if you are shooting at a still object in the dark but it slows down the pixels so much that if you move it it could be very blurry, still, with a tripod it could be useful.
-i like the easy mini DV format. Some people are now saying that it's beyond in technology but realy... if you want to edit your tape then you have to get mini DV's... they're not hard to use and they are less expensive. You'll have to plan on shooting a perfect film with a DVD camcorder.
-the manuel tells you all of the things hiden inside of your camera like cinema mode, spotlight mode, sports mode, low-light mode so you can use he camera to it's full potential.
-overall i really was very happy with this camera and i am sure i am forgetting something but i hope my review was helpful to you.

This is the second Panasonic camcorder that I have bought in the last 4 years and my first MiniDV camcorder. I was trying to choose between the Sony DCR-HC20 and this model. Both retail for the same price and there were some reasons I chose this one over the Sony:
1. This camcorder has 24x zoom while the Sony has only a 10x zoom.
2. There were many reviews about the problems with the Sony's touch screen especially when viewing it outside in broad daylight.
3. I have read some reviews that the included software with the Sony is very difficult to use and install.
4. The Sony camcorder has no photoshot button or memory card, the Panasonic has both. The Panasonic photoshot allows you to capture low-res (640x480) digital still pictures with the touch of a button.
5. The viewfinder on the Sony is Black and White; the Panasonic has a color viewfinder.
6. The Sony has an included 1-hour battery. This model has a 3-hour battery included instead.

It was for these 6 reasons I went with the Panasonic instead of the Sony. After using the camcorder now for 2 weeks I have found out some drawbacks that I previously did not know about:
1. The included software for the Panasonic can only be used to edit STILL images NOT movie images. If you want to edit the movie images you have to buy additional software and a firewire cable. Also be careful if you have Windows 2000 because the optional Panasonic movie editing software is not compatible with Win2K.
2. The Panasonic has no in-camera movie editing capabilities. You can dub the movie to VHS tape but that is about it. You cannot copy a VHS or VHS-C to MiniDV by using this camera as you can with the Sony model. Also, the Sony camera is able to control most VCRs in order to make editing easier if you don't have a PC.
3. The supplied USB cable that comes with the Sony allows you to stream the movie onto a PC whereas the USB cable that comes with the Panasonic cannot do this. The Panasonic USB cable only allows you to copy the STILL images from the SD card or a STILL movie image, NOT the movie itself. With the Panasonic if I wanted to copy the movie to my PC and then burn a Video CD, for example, I would have to buy a firewire cable, and additional software. On the other hand, right out of the box the Sony can do this with the INCLUDED software and the included USB cable.
4. The supposed Panasonic 1.3 second "Quick Start" actually keeps the camera in "Standby" mode and uses quite a lot of battery power. I actually had this mode on for 4 hours and when I finally used the camera I was only able to shoot for 18 minutes before changing batteries. Be careful using this. In any case the camcorder comes on rather quickly without it.

Other than the 4 reasons mentioned above the Panasonic does have a lot of nice features such as the 24x zoom, the zoom mic, the MagicPix function, wind noise reduction and a Soft Skin Mode. I would say that overall I am pleased with the picture quality and sound of the movies I have made with this camera. For the price of this camcorder I would say it is well worth the money, provided you can live without the 4 things I have mentioned previously. If you are willing to spend an extra $100 you could buy decent Movie Editing software and a firewire cable, thus closing the gap on the two camcorders. Although, if you were going to spend another $100 anyway you could buy a Sony DCR-HC30 which has most of the features the HC20 lacks, such as digital still images and a color viewfinder; it still has a 10x zoom, but no camcorder is perfect, right?

This is the first camcorder I have bought in 10 yrs - my Sony 8mm finally died. I have had the camera about 1 month and have shot in various conditions and settings. Overall, I am extremely happy with my purchase, and have only a few nitpicky wishes. I don't intend for this to be a long expert review, just my impressions to help you shop. Some comments:

VALUE: This is a great buy for price/performance. I think I got more than I paid for. I love features but I'm not rich enough to pay for perfection. I had planned on the $400-$600 range based on reviews, hands-on at Sears, etc. Sony has the night-shot (which I really would have liked) but I didn't like the touch screen LCD. Canon 65/75/85 units did not seem as user-friendly to me.

Zoom: The 24x optical is SPECTACULAR. Turn the digital zoom off unless you are on a tripod and have very good full-spectrum lighting, then only 50x. Hard to hold still at 20x and above, even with stabilization. The variable speed zoom control is easy to use and easy to control the speed.

Sound: Built-in zoom mic picked up chirping of little birds over the sound of waves at the beach. Little to no motor noise. If you are shooting and talking, your voice is somewhat muddled. I'm sure an ext. mic would improve sound.

Picture: Colors seem very true to my non-expert eyes with default settings. Better (not just brighter) light makes better video. In imperfect outdoor light, colors not very saturated using auto WB. I will try some adjustments for clouds/fog or filtered sun. Auto WB mode is pretty good indoors, incandescent or flourescent. LED light is useful only within 4-5 ft depending on ambient light. There are 2 LED light modes, one with slower shutter and one with normal. LED can also be used with MagicPix, but I don't think it would help much. MagicPix is for very slow scenes in low light, although zooming or motion may produce interesting psychadelic effects.

Controls: The new model no longer has the menu wheel; a menu button is placed inside the viewfinder door. You use a 5-key directional pad (which doubles as the VCR control) to navigate menus. Simple enough, but defintely a 2-handed task now - you cannot hold still enough to change menu options while filming. There is no one-button toggle to show/hide the date in your recorded video. Other than that, controls are intuitive and relatively simple. Zoom control is great. During VCR playback, zoom button controls volume from the tiny (but adequate) speaker. When playback is paused, zoom button acts as a single-frame jog wheel (nice feature, but slow). VCR searching is too fast for my taste, but still usable. In recording mode, there is a handy "check" button to review the last 2-3 seconds of video.

Photos: 640x480 good only for e-mail or monitor, otherwise worthless to me except in an emergency. The included 8mb SD card holds roughly 45 pix in fine mode. You can snap a photo live or from already-recorded scenes.

Ease of use: My wife is technophobic, so if she can operate it, it passes the test. She shot a few minutes of video using all automatic options and seems comfortable with it. I can fiddle with options when I choose, or shoot in auto if I want. Most people will be fine operating 1-handed. I was most comfortable using 2 hands, right hand close to right shoulder to minimize bending wrist backward. Boot-up time is very fast, 3-4 seconds without using quick-start feature, <2 sec with.

Battery: Included charger charged the battery in 1 hr 15 minutes, which lasts for almost 1 hour of shooting video, plus playing with features, light, playback, etc. I will get another battery sometime, useful for vacation or long events.

I am an aesthetic person and i love beautiful things, so when i saw this, I bought it automatically on looks alone. Its functionality is great too but it all went wrong after 6 months. The flip out 2 inch screen started going blank when i pulled it out. Because of this it has soured my experience of the product hence only 3 stars. Has anyone ever had this problem and how, or how much did it cost you to fix it.

es una excelente camara de video, con una resolucion deslumbrante , facilidad para poder manejarla con solo una mano, y una calidad de construccion esplendida.
tambien hace soberbias tomas estaticas con su sd card .
Puede fimar con muy poca luz.....y en color!!!
La duracion de la bateria es razonable, pero mejor comprar otra aparte de la que viene con la maquina
Una segura eleccion, de las mejores mini dv del mercado.

This camcorder is an amazing piece of engeineering. The image quality is quite clear on the video as well as still pictures that are taken. The LCD screen is very clear, and the feature set is quite impressive. The menus could be a little more intuitive, but over time, you get used to their placements. Battery life tops out at around 90 minutes or so, so I do recommend getting an extended battery for it.

One more thing, according to the box, it works with Macintosh MacOS 9 only. However, it works perfectly fine on MacOS X 10.2. This camcorder is definitely worth the investment.

GOOD / PROS --
- Compact and small
- Good quality screen
- A neat gadget
- Plays and records sound clearly

BAD / CONS --
- Complicated
- Buttons are TOO small
- Hard to focus -- takes bad still pictures

The trouble with most combination devices is that they try to do too much, and thus end up doing lots of things poorly. With the D-Snap 50, Panasonic has avoided this all too common design flaw... mostly.

The D-Snap 50 is an excellent gadget for professionals on the go, combining a two megapixel video camera, a digital voice recorder, and an MP3 player all into a package smaller and lighter than a pack of cigarettes. The bundled software is complete (if unexceptional) and the controls are fairly intuitive - most people familiar with digital cameras should be able to master the basics in a few minutes of use.

Nonetheless, there are a few questions I'd like to ask the D-Snap engineering team. First, did you intend for me to amputate my right index finger in order to take a decent picture? Second, just how many songs, memos, pictures, and videos do you expect me to fit on a measly 8 megabyte memory card? Third, why so many different quality settings for images when only Superfine (or Fine and big) is even good enough for email? Finally, would Macintosh support have killed you?

Despite these grievances, this is a great buy for a select target audience, such as people considering the Palm Zire 71 that prefer to organize their thoughts using spoken words instead of text. With a little practice - and a 256 MB or 512 MB Secure Digital Card - the D-Snap's annoyances will quickly fade. Three-and-a-half stars now, four when the price comes down a little.

I really enjoy this product. I ordered it off the internet and i had read some reviews saying it was just ok... so i felt a little wary. However, this is the coolest product ever! All of the photos and video are good quality and the MP3 is really cool! I am so pumped to show all of my friends! It is a real attention getter and I love it! It is so tiny that you can take it ANYWHERE. SMALLER THAN MY CELL! Its a great product and i encourage anyone to buy! Im gonna go use it some more now! LOVE IT! 5

I got this camera for christmas and was very excited but in just a few days it broke. Its true that the picture quality is great but its not worth it. I tried this camera three times and it never lasted more than a week. eventually i decided to just give up. Theres only room for about 3 mp3s with a 128mb card. All in all its decent for a person who uses a camera a few times a year, but for the true enthusiast interested in mp3s and durability, I would say spring for the more expensive cameras.

I bought the Aiptek with mixed expectations. The video quality is not as nice as a $400 digital camera/camcorder, but I didn't expect it to be. Its a fun gadget for family movies and vacations. The low cost of ownership, and nice compact size is good for trips. The camera comes with a tripod, case, cables, strap, etc. Hard to believe its so cheap.



The digital camera is nice.



I am right now working on ripping some of my kids dvds to mpeg4, so that they can watch their videos on the plane/car via the 1.5" lcd.



I picked up a $40 512MB SD card for it also from another retailer.



User interface VERY easy. So much easier then our Digital (DV) camcorder.



All in All, for the price you can't beat it.

Great camera, easy to use, for those that have a mac G4 like myself go to www.videolan.org to get a free player for this format (asf), info came from apple.com/uk windows media player will not play it on da mac. For those that are trying to shoot music videos of their kids, get out the flood lights, and you will get a better picture indoors, or spend the big bucks and get a low lux cam, otherwise it works great outdoors, and indoor photos with a flash are fine, this is the next generation of "kodak disc camera" that was out in the 80s using negative film. Cheap small I will be more than happy to take this cam on my next trip. Buy it if you like small cool gadgets that document a moment in time, via video or pics. Don't buy it, if you haven't read up on digital cams. Visit your library and get an understanding of light, or go to school and study the "eyeball" same principle. Great little gadget with many options.

Ok, so I was walking in a Best Buy store and saw this cool toy. I picked it up, read the package, put it down, continued shopping, went back, read the package again and bought it. It has it's good and bad points.

Good points:
cheap ...; cool (small, pocket sized); expandable (has a compact flash card socket); photos can be set to 1.3, 2 or 3.1 megapixels; can connect via USB, hook up to your TV or if you use CF, just pull the chip and plug it into your CF reader.

Bad points:
It feels cheap, all plastic; 1t only has 16MB of memory built in, so you'll need to use that CF card (BTW, the CF card REPLACES the internal memory, not suplements it, so if you add a 16MB card, you still only have 16MB); no zoom (the book talks about 2x digital but I can't figure out how to activate it); NO FLASH (indoor pictures and videos are grainy and red tinted); pictures and video are easy to shoot, just open it up and press one button for stills or another for video; voice recording requires you to open it and select voice recording from a menu (guess they couldn't afford another button).

Misc:
It comes with all needed cables, a cheap tripod and they even throw in the batteries.
Files are stored as jpeg, avi and wav.
with just internal memory, figure 5-15 pictures, 2 to 4 minutes of video or 1 hour of audio. (256MB CF is now about $50.00, buy one).
I still think it's a neat toy, but next year's will be better.

I'm a sucker for cost-effective gadgets, and by those standards, this nifty little 4-in-1 camera is up there with the best of them. First and foremost, you get a 3.1 megapixel digital still camera for a third of the cost of most other products in that category. If it stopped right there, this would still be an amazing deal. However, you also get a palm-sized digital video camera, a digital voice recorder, a USB webcam, and a removable USB storage device. All for $$$ . Now that's a deal I just couldn't pass up.

However, approach this product with eyes wide open, and don't expect it to be the greatest performer in each of its distinct capabilities. For example, as a digital still camera it isn't very tolerant of low light situations. Adequately-lit photos come out fine, but indoor lighting or overcast outdoor shots tend to produce muddy, red-tinged tones. A built-in flash would have overcome this problem, but alas, there is none. So take your shots in well-lit areas and situations, and you'll be fine. Also, the fact that its native image format is lossy JPEG rather than a lossless format such as TIFF is of concern, but probably only to gearheads like me. Most casual digital auteurs won't really care. You can shoot and store roughly 60 digital photos at full quality (2048x1536, Fine Quality) on a 64Mb CompactFlash card (not included, purchased separately. On-board storage is 16Mb.)

Next, as a digital video camera: don't expect it to fulfill all of your home movie needs. At 10 frames-per-second and 320x240 video resolution, it's hardly broadcast quality. However, I find this limited quality just right for shooting, editing, and posting quickie, low-bandwidth web movies. The camera saves movies natively in .AVI format, so usually no conversion or extra steps are required to get your movies out of camera and on the web. As a Mac user, I prefer QuickTime to .AVI, but I found that conversion to .MOV format was quick and easy. You can shoot about 20 minutes of compressed video on a 64Mb CompactFlash card (not included, purchased separately -- internal storage is 16Mb only). The length of your videos is limited only by your available storage space and supply of batteries.

As a digital voice recorder, it features no Cue or Review buttons, so going back and forth over the day's notes can be a pain. The workaround is to keep your notes short; the camera creates a new audio file for each new note you record.

As a webcam, it works quite as most low-end USB webcams do. No real complaints in that department.

The 1.5-inch LCD screen does its job well enough. The fact that it's present at all in a product this low-end is a pleasant surprise. However, it does drain the two AA batteries rather quickly. You can sidestep this issue by using rechargeables, as I do.

PROS: Small, light, handy, packs an amazing amount of features and value for an unbelievably low price.

CONS: Picture quality suffers in low-light situations, no flash, digital video is web-quality only, digital voice recorder has no Cue/Review buttons.

BOTTOM LINE: This nifty litttle gadget is a jack-of-all-digital trades, but master of none. However, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts -- having one device that does all these things makes it a great little toy for the big boys in your family. It won't replace your main digital still camera or digital camcorder, but it makes a great backup unit to either, in situations that don't warrant lugging around the first team. Buy it -- you know you want it.

I love this little camera. It is fun and easy to use. to thee TV/Pc playback is not difficult at all but if you would like longer recording times then no but this is a graet present and i really have been enjoying it