5 comments about Sony DCR-HC42 1MP MiniDV Digital Handycam Camcorder w/12x Optical.

1. Picture quality and other features are good as long as it works.If you are buying this make sure that you buy extended warranty.Mine died after one and half years,as per Sony cost of repairing it is more then buying a new one :).I paid $500 for this and it lasted only for 1 and half years even though I rarely used it.I see lot of people having issues with Sony handy cams recently.Do proper research before buying a handycam(google for issues others having with the model you are buying).If you buy this product.... don't forget to buy extended warranty otherwise a small issue might make this handycam useless.



2. Years ago, Sony stood for undisputed, unrivaled quality that could last for a life time. I have purchased a numbers of Sony products over the past few years all based on the faith.
   
   No more.
   
   One by one, that trust has eroded with the failing products. My VAIO can barely holds itself together in one piece, then the LCD display of my DCR-HC42 went blank, not to mentioned all the battery problems that Sony produced...
   
   Goodbye, Sony! the overpriced, under-quality gizmo brand! You have just lost a loyal customer and I am sure you will lose a lot more...



3. This Camera's display went completely bad after around 1.5 years of light use. DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT !!!!!! What's the use of it when there is no display on it. My 400$ got wasted. :-(



4. Don't buy any SONY products. SONY is not SONY anymore. Many of their products are crappy and not cutting edge. I bougt a SONY digital camera late last year. It broke within 6 months. I sent it to SONY service center and was told that it would cost more to fix it. I got my money back but bought a Nikon. I also bought this SONY camcorder DCR-HC42. I usually buy the extended warranty, but somehow I forgot to buy an extended warranty on this one. This one broke after 1 and a half years. I contacted SONY and was told that I have to pay $201 to fix it.
   I'm hearing problems with SONY products from too many people- TVs, camcorders, digital cameras, even alarm-clock radios. Don't buy SONY. SONY is spending too much money on Hollywood, not on technology development.



5. First 6 months were great after that it started getting intermittent 'reinsert cassette' errors. No info on how to solve this issue and it would always happen at the worst times spoiling your filming. Now it won't turn on at all. Most expensive paper weight.

1 comments about SONY DCRHC42E Digital MiniDV PAL Handycam(R) Camcorder.

1. this is the best for the indians.. r u listening guys go ahead & grab one...shripal

5 comments about Sony DCR-HC46 MiniDV 1MP Digital Handycam Camcorder with 12x Optical Zoom (Includes Handycam Station).

1. I have previously owned Sony and Panasonic camcorders. I bought this one beacuse of its small size. I am impressed with the quality of Video that this camcorder can make. I have made DVD's of my vidoe recordings and people who saw the video commented with a "Woh!!!"
   
   I am giving it 4 stars because it does not have a audio input. I wanted an audio input to record directly from a mic in case of a stage performance.



2. Sony DCR-HC46 MiniDV 1MP : Amazon delivered this product flawlessly. The camcorder is pretty good value ($399)and delivers very good images for the resolution which is, for me, fine despite the 3-4MPs around, and good sound (-comparable with an earlier Sony TRV 33 at double the price which lasted 4 years before failing). Build quality appears good, though much lighter than previous. The only quibble is that the eyepiece is small and only extendable; this is less comfortable than I expected and one has to peer into it... but liveable. This is Made in Japan, and not in China....Note that the battery size is different from TRV33 range models...Arrrgh!



3. My wife and I purchased this camera for the upcoming birth of our first child and have been nothing but pleased with it. Although not the most expensive camera on the market I have found it to be very sutiable for family engagments, indoor and outdoor events. Setup and easy of use has been a big plus (even my wife who is technologically inept has been able to jump right in and use it effectively). I did purchase an extra battery which was a smart move, battery life has been good, but hey you never know. I also purchased Sony's Movie Studio 7 to put my video's together and to music. The software and hardware has worked seemlessly so far. I recommend using the firewire connection for transfer between the camera and computer, it's very fast and effective. Overall we have been very happy with our purchase and look forward to capturing all our future memories.



4. you need a memory stick to transfer data to a mac
   everything else is great



5. I have owned Sony camcorders since 1988 and have always been very pleased with their performance until recently. I purchased the Sony DCR-HC46 miniDV less than two years ago. It worked beautifully at first. No problems whatsoever. However, after less than two years and ~20 hours of film footage, the image and sound would start to scramble after around 45 minutes into the one hour tape.
   
   I purchased a miniDV head cleaner from Best Buy to see if that might solve the problem, but the camcorder wasn't even able to run the tape. I then took it to Best Buy tech service twice to try to have it repaired, but just continued to run into the same problem regardless of purchasing new mini-DV tapes. It also started to develop a problem where the recording would look jerky when the camera was panned, regardless of how slowly.
   
   The problem got so bad with the image and sound scrambling towards the end of some of the tapes, that I would freeze the picture in places while recording to a DVD (creating some still pictures from what would otherwise be very scrambled film footage), so that I could salvage some of the recording without creating a DVD that would be very annoying to try to watch. I finally got frustrated with this camcorder after having more ruined film, so just gave it to my children to practice with while I try to find a high quality replacement camcorder to purchase.

5 comments about Canon Optura S1 2.2MP MiniDV Camcorder w/10x Optical Zoom.

1. I'm not a professional videographer. Still I might well be the pickiest man in the world when it comes to video quality. I'm the one who keeps noticing MPEG artifacts in TV transmissions all the time, because I've been doing my own DVDs for 5 years. In short, I can judge video quality at first sight.
   
   This said, you'll never see me with a big professional camera over my shoulder, because I don't film for a living in the first place and also because I already had many experiences where I had to leave my camcorder behind because it was too bulky to carry. And I'm not talking about big VHS cams, I'm referring to the "small" Hi-8 cameras from Sony: great image, excellent sound, yet too bulky to carry to many wild adventures or long trekkings.
   
   At this point in my life, I came to the conclusion that comfortableness proved to be more important than top-notch quality, especially for a backpacker like me who can't afford to choose between carrying a camcorder or two extra bottles of water. This mini DV camera the size of a digital still camera was worth a try.
   
   So this is the reason why I bought the Canon Optura S1 in the first place: the smaller available camcorder in the market in October 2005 ( FBI/CIA gadgets don't count here ;) and manufactured by my favorite still camera brand. So I bought it with all this in mind. As you will see (and I really knew this before purchasing, so I'm not complaining) such small size has its trade-offs limitations, and it's up to you to decide whether it's worth to buy it or not. What follows is my personal opinion on the camera.
   
   Pro's
   
   * Small as hell, that's my baby!!! Can fit in a still-photo case and attach to the belt.
   
   * Colors are *in-cre-di-bly* accurate. Now, this is a tough one when dealing with NTSC!! By far the best color-matching camcorder that I ever owned.
   
   * Excellent image quality in daylight, and I mean it.
   
   These 3 things said, the camera paid itself and that's enough to make me happy with my purchase. But for the sake of this review, let's move on:
   
   Could be improved's:
   
   * The device can act as a 2 Megapixel still camera as well, but do not expect "Canon quality" at all (and this has nothing to do with the 2 Mpx limitation). The still shots are maybe acceptable for the occasional user, probably could compete side by side with many generic brand 2 Mpx still cameras, but nowhere near a 2 Mpx Canon point&shot still cam.
   
   * There's an included light for night filming. This certainly isn't an halogen lamp, but for something that looks pretty much like a "led", it gives a decent ammount of light, useful to illuminate faces no farther than 1.5 meters (45 feet) and that's about it.
   
   * 10x Zoom: Actually, it's a miracle that such a small device can accommodate as much zoom as 10x. Sure, that's low compared to today's standards, but each of us knows the weight (importance) that assigns to this feature. My Hi-8 Sony TRV-66 has 20x and unless you put it on a tripod it's quite a challenge to obtain a steady frame at the full 20x. For the few occasions that you may be using the full zoom, 10x is fairly enough.
   
   Con's
   
   * Quality degradation is too noticeable when light gets dimmer. I'm not speaking about a dark room illuminated by a birthday candle, I'm referring to an average room at night illuminated by regular bulbs: The picture won't necessarily be dark, but the noise (video noise, for those who dominate the matter) is more noticeable than I would like.
   
   * The "wide" angle is too narrow. Again, a consequence of the small size and lens diameter. To capture an entire scenario in the frame I would have to walk a couple of meters back that otherwise wouldn't be necessary with other camcorders.
   
   * And this last one is really unforgivable: It doesn't include an option to stamp date/time in the frame during recording time. So you either do this during edition time in your PC (most people don't edit their videos BTW) or you have to keep saying e.g. "today is November 29th..." if you want your videos to keep some historical reference 10 years from now.
   
   Well, I tried to be fair enough in my review. As I said, I'm very happy with this purchase because it exceeded what I expected in some aspects, but I also added the not-so-good things for you to judge objectively if this is the right camera for you.
   Happy filming!



2. I don't usually purchase things sight unseen, but this camera was an exception. I had only my past experiences with Canon to go by, which I had been satisfied with.
   
   I wanted something compact, so the size is perfect for me. I like the widescreen mode. And the camera is fairly intuitive, although I've had to reference the manual on a couple occasions.
   
   The boxey shape reminded me of an elph still camera I purchased sometime back, so I naturally assumed it was encased in metal as well. Nope. Cheap plastic feel that I'm concerned I'll end up breaking.
   
   But my biggest gripe is the video quality when shot indoors. Even with the light on the picture is really grainy. I'm going to put it up against my old Sony Video8 camera as a test, but I swear the old camera took a brighter picture.
   
   We purchased this to take shots of our new baby girl. I've been really dissapointed with the indoor shooting since that's where new parents spend a great deal of time.



3. I purchased this through an online wholesale membership site for $399.99 plus tax and shipping (total $459.00) and couldn't be any happier.
   
   As soon as I had the battery charged up I started shooting in and out of the house. While there is remarkable difference between lit and dark background, the S1 did take good videos inside the house. I set the camera to SCN (screen mode) and chose NIGHT mode and it did the trick: less graininess compared to shooting in AUTO mode and video was bright. My PC has firewire and it picked up on the S1 right away as soon as it was plugged in.
   
   I didn't care too much for the bundled software on the driver disc but it worked pretty good as well. My wife and I have been looking for a quality camcorder at a non-exorbitant price tag and we found it all in the S1.
   
   Yes, there is a 10-SECOND DATE STAMP on the Optura S1. Set your camra mode to "P," press menu , press Display, choose lcd and tv....voila!
   
   One other drawback I found, by surprise, was that the S1 takes mini-SD, not the standard size. Oh well, I guess I'd have to fork out another $50 to upgrade the 16 MB that came with it to 1 GB.
   
   Now we can document our kids' growing years.



4. This camera produces excellent image quality for the price, it's very compact, and ergonomic. It's packed with features. If you are a mainstream user, it is more than adequate. There are those who will compare it to $1000-$2000 videocams and it will naturally fall short. But the fact is, it's reasonably priced, has sufficient features for most users, and can be taken anywhere because of its size. I would recommend getting an extra battery since you will only get 45 minutes - 1 hour energy if you use the LCD display and do a lot of zooming, etc. Speaking of zoom, some people think that a 10x optical zoom is less than ideal, but face it -- if you are trying to zoom much beyond that level, you are going to need a tripod. Overall, this is an excellent item, and delivers the quality I would expect from Canon.



5. I will not repeat all positive other reviewer have said about the camera's video quality. It is noticably better than 1/6" cameras I compared this camera with (JVC, Panasonic) in both dark an lighted conditions.
   
   However I have the same problem many other people had with other models of Canon camcorder - motor noise. Honestly, it is not very loud itself - about the same as in other cameras, but Optura's michrophones tend to record the engine noise much louder than other cameras. You can hear annoying high-pitch sound all the time during playing back. Using a graphic equalizer I figured out that the noise was aroung 8000 Hz, and theoretically it can be efficiently removed using software without harming voices too much. This approach won't work if you recoded a music concert though.
   
   BTW, a word of advice. If you have the same problem, switching the michrophone from A (automatic mode) to M somewhat helps to reduce the noise because in automatic mode the system increases the ambient noises including the motor noise when there is no other (louder) sound signal.
   
   So, in my oppinion, if picture quality prevails over the sound, or you don't mind spending time and fixing sound with all kinds of software - this is a very good camera for you.

No comments about DXG 565VK 5.0MP Ultra-Compact Digital Camcorder with 2.4-Inch LCD.

No comments about SVP HDDV-3001 12MP Max. 6-in-1 Multi-Functional Camcorder with Rare Huge Flip LCD! (2GB High Speed Memory Card Included).

No comments about Sony HandyCam Hybrid DCR-DVD610 Camcorder w/ 40x Optical Zoom PLUS 3pc Filter Kit - Extra Battery - 2GB PRODuo Memory Stick + MORE! DCRDVD610 BigVALUEInc Accessory Saver Bundle - Brand New USA!.

3 comments about Hitachi DZ-BD7HA BluRay 5.3MP DVD Hybrid High Definition Camcorder with 30GB Hard Drive & 10x Optical Zoom.

1. As a first in any product, you might expect flaws, but this one is fatally flawed.
   
   Video quality is poor. Very poor. I recommend looking elsewhere for much cheaper. This product is not worth your money.
   
   Look at Sony or Panasonic.



2. I was extremely excited to buy this camera as it held a lot of promise. I waited months for it to become available. My disappointment with its performance was immediate. Very poor image quality indoors, and almost impossible to operate in low light. I quickly returned the camera and will try others.



3. 1. The quality of the recording in anything other than bright daylight is abysmal and cannot be called high definition. It seems to have lines throughout the image, as if there was some kind of interference/static.
   2. The camera takes an eternity to focus on the desired object; a blurry image appears instead. That is especially true when the camera is turned on and when using the zoom.
   3. The manual says that by pressing the button "BLC" when filming someone indoors against bright light will fix the darkness problem, but it doesn't work (the person filmed is still completely dark, and the person's face can't even be seen).
   
   Overall, the camera does NOT seem to be functioning as a high definition - full HD - quality camera. My 1080i Sony Camcorder that was bought over one year ago has much better image quality.

No comments about SVP HDDV-3000 12MP Max. 6-in-1 Multi-Functional Camcorder with Rare Huge Flip LCD! (1GB High Speed SD Card & Tripod Included).

5 comments about Sony DCRTRV38 MiniDV 1Megapixel Camcorder with 3.5" LCD.

1. Same problem has been occurring with ALL Sony camcorders TRV19 through to TRV38.
   
   Sony will repair the problem free of charge.....
   
   http://www.sony.co.uk/view/ShowArticle.action?section=en_GB_Support&articlesection=3&article=1128075116465&site=odw_en_GB



2. I, too, experienced the dreaded blank screen on my TRV38 after only a year and a half of moderate use. I did some internet searching on the issue and discovered a site that mentioned Sony has acknowledged problems with the CCD chip in certain models built before 2004, the TRV38 being one of them and are offering to fix them for free, including shipping to and from a location of your choice. I then went made use of their excellent sony.com online chat support service and asked the moderator about the free repair deal. After a few troubleshooting questions, he acknowleded I appeared to qualify for the free repair service and provided me with the following site, http://esupport.sony.com/perl/news-item.pl?mdl=DCRTRV38&news_id=95. They appear to be making good on a known defect in their product and are to be commmended. Now, if only the local service centers would inform customers of this deal when they bring their cameras in for repair of this malady...naw, that's asking waaaaay too much!! By the way, aside from this problem, we've been very happy with this camera and actually bought a second one as a back up in case we had problems with the first one. With 2 kids, ages 2 1/2 and 4, to record precious moments of, it sure paid off in this case.



3. Was very pleased with the Sony TRV 38 until I got to about the middle of the 3rd tape. I had not used it in over 6 months and the next time I went to use it the recording screen and viewfinder was dark with a few gray streaks in it. It seems to play back o.k. On researching this problem I was staggered to find so many similar complaints. This is my first Sony (and it will be the last) I had a Panasonic for 8 years before this and it is still working. I have never abused this camera, never been to a beach with it, never used it in the rain etc. In fact it still looks like brand new!



4. I, too, am very, very disappointed in my Sony experience. I have always treated my cameras with care and respect. (I still use my 30 year old Canon A-1.)
   My DCR TRV38 was excellent until 2 months ago (and 7 months out of the 2 year warranty that I purchased...). I now cannot view anything recorded. I get a blue screen with icons. It acts like it is recording, and maybe it is, but I cannot view anything in playback. A Sony tech told me that this is different that the class action/ recall that Sony is offering on these units. But c'mon! 2 years on a $700 camera is just horrible.
   I also own a Sony W-1 digital camera. Lens mechanism stuck at 1+ years. Lots and lots of others reporting the same problem. Still under warranty, thank goodness, but I cannot trust it for a photo shoot, so I bought a Canon A540.
   My daughter owns a Sony P-41, not even 2 years. Guess what? Bad LCD once again. She cannot view or play back at all.
   I love digital photography, but to have a thousand dollars worth of equipment fail in four months is a crime. When I would read the postings and ranting of others, I never thought I would be one to have problems. I just thought that those with problems complain alot. But it's WAY too many, on every message board, everywhere. I am so sad and I feel like the victim of a crime.
   SO DON"T BUY ANY MORE SONY PRODUCTS!!!



5. The picture quality on the Sony DCRTRV38 is the best out of any of the 10 comparable cameras we tested... We bought one of them several years ago, and like it enough to buy a second. It's ability to capture sound is also superior to any other camera in its class (we film a lot of live theatre, and we have perfect sound even from the last row in a non-mic'd show). The only cons are that we've had to have 2 repairs over the last 5 years, and the bottom-loading is inconvenient when using a tripod.