Rating: 
Summary: Awesome sophistication
Review: Excellent camera for the amateur as well as for the pro. Easy to use for my older son and even for....ME. Lots of perks, nice fading effects, and 4 slow motion speeds, as well as many interesting and new features. A keeper for many years of enjoyment.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Features, When They Work
Review: First off, while I don't have much experience with camcorders, I found this relatively easy to get started on. The zoom, night vision, menu, and VCR functions are intuitive, so anyone with a little patience will get rolling fast. The video looks great to this newbie when piped through a TV, too.But....it doesn't work as advertised. One of the major reasons I bought a camcorder was to upload video to a PC, burn it as a VCD, and send video of my kid to far-off family members. So I plug in the USB cable, start uploading, everything looks great...but no audio's coming through. I figure I've goofed up the USB driver installation, which is pretty complicated, so I back out and reinstall. No dice. I check online forums and Sony's troubleshooting website, both of which recommend I change my audio driver in the provided software from the Sony driver to standard USB audio. Still nothing. I read more forums and find this is a pretty common complaint, and Sony tech support apparently blows people off when they bring it up. The most reliable solution? Upgrading to Firewire. So that's what I'm doing. Another 35 bucks. Hey, I know Firewire's generally better for A/V anyway, but I just want this thing to work the way Sony told me it would. Bottom line: You're probably interested in this model because it's cheaper than Mini-DV. I'd recommend this if you're already using Firewire or don't plan on uploading video to a PC. Otherwise, think twice, because you'll spend extra cash adding Firewire to your PC--cash that you could have used to get Mini-DV in the first place.
Rating:
Summary: Great Features, When They Work
Review: First off, while I don't have much experience with camcorders, I found this relatively easy to get started on. The zoom, night vision, menu, and VCR functions are intuitive, so anyone with a little patience will get rolling fast. The video looks great to this newbie when piped through a TV, too. But....it doesn't work as advertised. One of the major reasons I bought a camcorder was to upload video to a PC, burn it as a VCD, and send video of my kid to far-off family members. So I plug in the USB cable, start uploading, everything looks great...but no audio's coming through. I figure I've goofed up the USB driver installation, which is pretty complicated, so I back out and reinstall. No dice. I check online forums and Sony's troubleshooting website, both of which recommend I change my audio driver in the provided software from the Sony driver to standard USB audio. Still nothing. I read more forums and find this is a pretty common complaint, and Sony tech support apparently blows people off when they bring it up. The most reliable solution? Upgrading to Firewire. So that's what I'm doing. Another 35 bucks. Hey, I know Firewire's generally better for A/V anyway, but I just want this thing to work the way Sony told me it would. Bottom line: You're probably interested in this model because it's cheaper than Mini-DV. I'd recommend this if you're already using Firewire or don't plan on uploading video to a PC. Otherwise, think twice, because you'll spend extra cash adding Firewire to your PC--cash that you could have used to get Mini-DV in the first place.
Rating: 
Summary: NOT HAPPY
Review: FOR THE LIFE OF ME I COULD NOT FIGGER OUT HOWTA UZE THIS CAMRA!I SPENT MY ENTIRE WEEKS VACATION TRYIN TO GETTA VIDEO OF OUR CABIN IN THE WOODS BUT NUTTHIN DOIN! I COULDNT EVEN FIGGER OUT WHERE TO TURN THE DANG THING ON! IT DONT COME LOADED WIT FILM SOTHAT IS ANOTHER BAD THING I DONT LIKE ABOUT IT, I THINK YOU SSHOULD GET THE THING READDY TO FILM FOR THE MONEY YOU PAY!I AM GOIN BACK TO MY TRUSTY SUPER 8!
Rating:
Summary: For the money
Review: For the money you can't buy a better camera
Rating: 
Summary: its good but not worth...bucks
Review: good for bigginers for home use
not good for digital pictures(spc'ly at night)
not good quality mpeg files and consume lot of memory(10 min pic requires 350mb of ur hard disk)
bit bulky
provided software is hard to use on low configuratio PC it is very slow
but still I n-joyed it and prefer it if u can get a good deal(as i got)
dont spend money for memory stick of more then 16 mb becs picture quality is very low(u never gonna develop it)
its better to keep the picture on tape instead of taking them on CD
-------- AFTER 6 MONTHS --------------------
I m really n'joying this small pice of electronic, It looks like soy stuffed hell lot of feature in this small(I wont use word compact) camera I m still finding new feturs every time I go throgh the user mannual!! :)
I didnt faced ne problem discribed by other reviwers in this section my amera works perfect when ever I switch betweeen major light or temprature area!!
Rating: 
Summary: Nice Camera but no better than a lower priced Sony
Review: I bought this camera instead of the DCTRV250 becasue is had memory stick options for stills and also MPG recording on memory stick and also the 700 zoom. All 3 options that I mentionabove I felt would be worth the extra $...but I was wrong. The still are poor quality, the MPG's have very poor resolution and when you use a zoom this strong, when you actually do zoom with any distance of over 100 to 200 feet, the picture loses more than 50% of its quality. Its too bad becasue I was very excited... but save your $$ until they can improve these 3 features.
Rating:
Summary: Nice Camera, Good Luck Uploading to PC
Review: I bought this product 3 months ago. I used it once and it worked beautifully. After I was finished taping, I put the camcorder in my carrying case. The second time I went to use it, I noticed that the zoom button was missing. I don't know how or when it popped off but considering I didn't even know it was gone until I went to use the machine should tell you how poorly this machine is manufactured. I called Sony and they told me I had to take the camcorder in for service. I just got called today and was told that Sony will fix the camcorder for $160. I'm still in shock! $160 for a replacement of a button that probably costs 5 cents to make? For that price I'd be better off just taking a piece of plastic and Supergluing is to the zoom slot! The zoom works fine if you put a pen in the hole and move it back and forth. All I need is a lousy piece of plastic to pop on it to make it accessible for use. I tried calling Sony for an address to write to for complaints because I didn't think it would be fair to take my frustrations out on the phone representative. Unfortunately, the phone rep just aggravated me further and told me that he's not allowed to give me an address to write to. Now how stupid is that? Needless to say, I've bought my last Sony product ever! I did have a similar problem with my Toshiba television. After alot of use, the remote control stopped working. I called them to buy a replacement remote from them and not only did Toshiba replace my remote, they gave it to me for free! Now that's customer service!!!
Rating:
Summary: Sony's customer service is horrible!!!
Review: I bought this product 3 months ago. I used it once and it worked beautifully. After I was finished taping, I put the camcorder in my carrying case. The second time I went to use it, I noticed that the zoom button was missing. I don't know how or when it popped off but considering I didn't even know it was gone until I went to use the machine should tell you how poorly this machine is manufactured. I called Sony and they told me I had to take the camcorder in for service. I just got called today and was told that Sony will fix the camcorder for $160. I'm still in shock! $160 for a replacement of a button that probably costs 5 cents to make? For that price I'd be better off just taking a piece of plastic and Supergluing is to the zoom slot! The zoom works fine if you put a pen in the hole and move it back and forth. All I need is a lousy piece of plastic to pop on it to make it accessible for use. I tried calling Sony for an address to write to for complaints because I didn't think it would be fair to take my frustrations out on the phone representative. Unfortunately, the phone rep just aggravated me further and told me that he's not allowed to give me an address to write to. Now how stupid is that? Needless to say, I've bought my last Sony product ever! I did have a similar problem with my Toshiba television. After alot of use, the remote control stopped working. I called them to buy a replacement remote from them and not only did Toshiba replace my remote, they gave it to me for free! Now that's customer service!!!
Rating:
Summary: The buzzing noise isn't a problem
Review: I don't have much to add over what has been said in the other reviews posted. I'm very pleased with the quality and performance of this camera. I just used it to create by first home movie on a DVD (using the Pinnacle Studio DV version 8 software). The whole process was great. The one thing I was worried about was the buzzing that some other reviewers have noted. It does buzz during recording but it doesn't pick up on the recorded tape so far as I can tell. The convert to digital function is great for old analog tapes. This camera will convert those tapes to digital so you can burn dvd's using programs like Pinnacle Studio. Consumer Reports rated it as a best buy and Sony's reliability was the best of any camcorder company according to CR by a good margin. Great camera.
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