| I wanted to give this camera Five Stars because it is splendid, but there are hidden costs associated with this camera that I was dissapointed to find out about, so it is only getting 4 stars. Read on to learn more. The camera itself is fine. It takes clear pictures, and the image stabilization helps keep things steady. It is a little bigger than some of the other digital video cameras available, but easy enough to work with. I have taken this on vacation to Disneyland and the Southwestern U.S. and was happy I had it with me. The night shot feature makes it possible to film in darkness, which is a plus, although the picture comes out a bit green (but it's so awesome to be able to film in the dark, that everyone who has watched my night shots has been impressed and the green wasn't an issue). One of the main reasons I chose this camera was that it plays and records on both regular 8mm and digital video. It was easy to learn how to use this camera, and after reading the instruction manual a couple of times, I was using many of the features, such as night shot, fades, titles, etc. I found that the microphone picks up the sound of the air going by when I film while hanging out the window of a moving car. It's fairly loud. I bought a cheap (less than $10) UV lens cover at the advice of the sales girl, and have read about others who have done so as well. It seems like a good idea. This way, the $10 lens cover gets scratched, not the expensive camera lens. This does not appear to change the image quality. Problems: ~You will want to buy at least one extra battery, and Sony cameras ONLY use the Sony Info-Lithium batteries, which are horribly expensive. I bought the longest lasting one for (Money). It was so frustrating to see other brands of batteries that were less expensive but not compatible with Sony cameras. ~You have to charge the battery ON the camera (you plug the camera into the wall, and use the power coming into the camera to charge the battery), which means you can't film while charging the battery. The solution to this is to spend MORE MONEY and buy a battery charger. The one I purchased cost me (Money). I was happy that this charger came with a car adapter, so I can charge the battery while driving. ~The other problem I have read about but not experienced yet is for users of tripods. The video tape goes in the bottom, and if you have a tripod attached, you need to remove the tripod to get the video out. I haven't used a tripod yet but it will be a bit of a hassle if I decide to try one. I love this video camera and have no issues with perfomance or quality, but I was disappointed about the expensive batteries and the method of charging them. |
