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Reviewed by
pozzi
, Casual
Price Paid
$159.00
at Fry's
Photography Experience
11-20 years
, People
Summary
Not a bad camcorder if you can find one.
Picture quality on ours is pretty good for something around 6-7 years old.
Being MiniDV the image quality is far better than most (current) cheap all digital units that sell for >$200-300.
the large screen is awesome...i've had people pier over my shoulder at events when in a crowd if i'm holding it up high, because they can see what's going on on the LCD.
only drawback is the streaking/blurriness for fast moving objects...kids running, auto racing, etc.
another drawback with the large screen is the design is a bit awkward; the body/screen portion can rotate independently from the lens/control side of the camera BUT it requires two hands and trying to keep the subject in frame while rotating the body/screen portion if you need to reposition or change angles is next to impossible.
this normally results in jumpy transitions or footage of people's feet or the sky if anyone not used to it, just grabs it (aka grandpa at Christmas).
also, the hand hold for the record side (right) could be a bit larger to fit a man's hands. you tend to cramp up on long filming (like a child's first b-day for instance).
there is no light, (or even a plug or hot-shoe for one) which is somewhat annoying. there is a "gamma" setting you can turn on that helps in lower light situations (basically normal lit indoors), but nothing that will allow you to really use it in dim or night settings.
so don't count on doing any night videos, unless there is enough ambient light.
the biggest annoyance is the stupid screw on lens hood...you pretty much have to remove it in most situations to get enough light in the lens, BUT it doesn't hook to anything and the lens cap doesn't fit on the body without it...forcing you to put it in your pocket or on the closest table, then reinstall it every time you want to put the lens cap back on. poor design.
because of the overall design of the camera it is hard to find a good way to set it down. the battery is on the bottom of the camera, and is very narrow, so it can tip easily and fall either onto the front (lens) or back (large )LCD, forcing you to lay it flat with either the lens or the LCD down...which always makes me nervous.
I normally just keep the camera bag close and put it back in there for the safest storage.
the camera does take 37mm screw on filters so that's nice if you want to ad a wide angle or telephoto adapter lens or other fun filters.
and the built in effects are actually useful (most of them anyway).
I use the fade in/out to black to smooth out transitions.
IIRC, it will do fade to white also...i'd have to double check.
there is a sepia tone setting that i've used a couple times.
it has some prebuilt holiday/occasion stamps that are not obnoxious.
also the inclusion of the Firewire IEEE port is a HUGE plus for video editing geeks like me...I can cue up all the scenes and only capture what I want using my computer.
overall we've been very happy with it...just wish it was a bit more compact for travel (inherent drawback to tape media) and had a light!
Strengths
* large LCD
* great picture quality
* firewire IEEEE connection for video editing!
* pivoting screen/body (but see cons also)
* small/minimalistic design for a MiniDV but not small in relation to most current HDD cameras.
* thread on lens ring
* good battery life & decent recharge time
* nice in camera effects
Weaknesses
* clumsy pivoting screen needs some getting used to
* poor lens cap/hood design!
* no light!
* MiniDV limited size - somewhat bulky
* awkward to set down w/o the chance of damage/tipping
* large screen is blurry for fast/action shots
* low light performance is near nonexistent
* small hand grip
Similar Products Used
JVC hand held Hi8 camcorders
Sony Mini DVD camcorders
newer HDD camcorders
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