First, the size of this camcorder is like the size of my palm. I can carry this all day long in my hand and I wouldn’t get tired. No more of those lugging a whole camera bag just to put your camcorder it. It even fits in my pocket if I need to put it away.
The zooming function is the best. Even the digital zoom looks like a Hi8 regular zoom. You’ll be amazed how clear the digital zoom looks.
If you have a widescreen TV, you can record in 16:9 mode, which will fill up your full screen. The picture is clear as it could be. If you set it with the correct speed when recording, I swear it will look like a DVD movie during playback using the S-video. It has the regular special effects and editing features that you’ll come to expect from Sony. The intelligent flash will pop-up when it reads that there is isn’t enough light. Also, there’s a separate accessory shoe for an external light/night shot light for extended, far distance night shot. Or, you can plug in a directional mic. But the latter is unnecessary since the audio is very good already. You can also add titles and fadings to make your movies look ’’professional’’.
This camcorder comes with a bonus because it also acts like a digital camera with VERY good quality pictures. What it does is it’ll save digital pictures onto a memory stick, which holds amout 8 to 15 photos depending on the quality you set it. You can buy a memory stick that has 64 MB for about $130 and i’ll save hundred of photos in high quality mode. If you are just printing out regular 4 X 6 or 5 X 7 photos, it will look as good as a real photo. However, if you are going to print out 8 X 10, the quality will not be as good as a regular megapixel digital camera like the Sony DSC-F505V, which is about $1000. Did I tell you that you can save 15 seconds of digital movies in your memory stick too? If you don’t like to fumble with USB cables, you can get a floppy/memory stick adapter for about $50 and you can instant download digital photos/movies from the memory stick to your computer.
The image stabilization is optical, not digital. If you do not know the difference, just know that optical is far superior than digital. Unless you have jittery hands, you will not notice any shakes even if you are shooting while you are walking at a good pace.
The battery will last about 2 hours. However, you can get a larger size battery that will last about 8 hours or so.
It also comes with a remote control and some softwares for you to manipulate your video in your PC. Try to shop around and do not pay retail. I’ve seen places that sell as low as $1200 plus shipping.
If you like take digital movies/pictures and likes to show off your latest toy, please get this.... If I have to do it all over again, I would buy this when it first came out, not several months after.