- Average user rating: 3.0 stars out of 15 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
-
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful
2.5 stars
"Great Camera, but unsupported video format"
Pros: Excellent picture quality, compact size, good features
Cons: microMV format is totally unsupported, very Expensive, Sony customer service is extreemly poor
Summary: I bought this cammera thinking it would work with my Mac but it was not supported at all. This cammera uses the propritary Sony digital format called MicroMV, which is only supported with Sony's shotty Movie Shaker software. Otherwise there is no other software that I'm aware of that can pull down the video to your PC. I even own a Sony Vaio (PCG-SRX77) with the built in iLink on the Vaio and to my shock my Vaio did not recgonize the camera!! This is very poor in my opinion that Sony's own products can't even work with each other.
In addition if you want to burn the video to DVD you have to convert the video from the MicroMV format to DV or Mpeg2, which could take hours depending on the speed of your PC. I've heard rumors that Sony is phasing the MicroMV out, good luck finding any kind of support after the phase out. Sony Customer Support is one of the worst by far, their Customer Consultants don't know anything that's not on their screens and some can barely read.
It actually takes very sharp and crisp video the size is very small I can put it in my back pocket and be ok. But with all that great footage its hard to get off the camera and into my PC.
The MemoryStick Duo can support both video and stills. The video on the MemoryStick is average even at highest resolution. It would be ok for web stuff. Still quaily is also very average. This camera uses the MicroMV tapes that are sort of hard to find at your retail stores.
Bottom line this camcorder takes outstanding video, extreemly small form factor, and is pretty easy to use. But the MicroMV format is a pain in the ass to use and is unspported by anyone, not even Sony.
- 2 replies to this review
-
It is possible to transfer video to a G4 Mac running 10.4.x. It is not easy to find out how to do this. SONY whose products I like stinks for support of MAC.
To transfer download Apple ACVideoCap from the Apple 'developer site - it is part of '/sdk/#firewireX' The older DVHSCap no longer works. Once you have the ACVideoCap.app your MAC will see the DCR-IP1 and you can save to the folder of your choice. You then need to download the freeware file MPEG Streamclip to convert the files to QT and away you go.
Hope this helps and my thanks to Squared 5 for the tech support with MPEG Streamclip.
The camera could badly use a stylus - nobodies finger nails are that tiny. -
I bought my camera, kind of on a whim, almost a year ago. I was also VERY disappointed in the bundled software that came with the camera, so I turned to the Internet for an answer to my dilema. Pinnacle Systems Studio V.9.1 and higher support the MicroMV format, just like MiniDV.
