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CNET editors' rating:
stars
Good
Detailed editors' rating - Average user rating: 3.0 stars out of 10 reviews
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Product summary
The good: Decent still images for a camcorder; built-in flash; top-loading cassette; zoom/focus ring on lens.
The bad: Poorly placed zoom and photo shutter controls; touch-screen navigation poorly implemented; LCD can't tilt backwards; MicroMV not widely supported.
The bottom line: An oddly designed, overpriced camcorder with one redeeming feature: it takes good stills.
Specifications: Video input type: Camcorder ; Optical sensor type: CCD ; Optical zoom: 10 x ; See full specs
Price range: $399.99 check prices
CNET editors' review
- Reviewed on: 11/11/2002
- Updated on: 11/19/2002
- Released on: 10/28/2002
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| We like the IP220's power/mode switch better than the traditional dial; it's easier to use without looking. | A manual focus/zoom ring on the lens is among this camcorder's perks, and the microphone is relatively well placed near the front of the camera. |
The camera meets a few of our criteria for good design, but not many. The cassette hatch opens from the top with no interference from the hand strap. But the battery loads on the bottom, so you can't swap it while the camera is mounted on a tripod. Unfortunately, the odd body shape results in some awkwardly and inflexibly placed controls. For example, the LCD flips up from the back of the camera rather than to the left. Although you can twist it and fold it back down against the body, it can't tilt the right way for those crane-your-neck skyscraper shots.
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 The stylus for the touch-screen LCD tucks neatly into the camcorder's hand strap. |
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The zoom toggle and photo-capture button, which sit precariously close to each other, lie just behind the place where your right index finger falls, so you'll spend a lot of time twisting your wrist slightly to reach the zoom. The twisting combined with the weight distribution--the bulk of it rests on your lower thumb joint--results in some irritating hand cramps. You may find it easiest to support the camera with both hands, which isn't much of a problem, since you'll need your left hand to operate the backlight setting, focus mode switch, fader button, and various night-shooting mode switches.
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| Long live the top-loading cassette hatch. | Much of the benefit of the touch screen is lost, thanks to Sony's awkward navigation scheme. |
You navigate all menus via the LCD touch screen, to mixed effect. On one hand, we really like being able to simply touch the screen to set a spot-metering point. But with the rest of the menus, you navigate the same way you would with a hardware control: instead of just pointing to the menu item of interest, you must touch the up and down arrows and the Execute "button" with your finger or the stylus. We'd prefer either a more intelligent touch screen or traditional control-based navigation to this.
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 You can adjust exposure for backlit subjects with a touch of a button. |
Though hardly feature-laden for its price tag, the IP220 provides all the essentials, as well as relatively high--for a camcorder--1.9-megapixel effective resolution for capturing stills. Video capture uses a more modest 1 megapixel. The 10X optical zoom covers a range of 52mm to 520mm (35mm equivalent) when shooting video and changes to a more useful 39mm-to-390mm range for capturing stills. A switch allows you to toggle the function of the lens ring between manual focus and zoom.
This camcorder concentrates more on the automatic than the manual. You can manually adjust exposure (sort of) by increasing or decreasing scene brightness via an exposure shift slider on the touch screen, and in still-capture mode, the IP220 surprised us with exposure bracketing. In addition to the spot-metering function we mentioned in the Design section, the camera has a spot-focus mode that operates similarly via the touch screen. As with Sony's other point-and-shoot camcorders, white-balance tuning is restricted to Indoor and Outdoor presets, automatic, and a Hold setting that locks the current color balance when activated.
On the other hand, when it comes to low-light-oriented features, this camera stands out. In addition to common low-light modes such as Color Slow Shutter and the infrared NightShot mode, there's Super NightShot, which optimizes the infrared footage it captures through exposure adjustments, as well as NightFraming, which allows you to focus and compose your scene in total darkness with the aid of the infrared emitter, then shoot a full-color still with the pop-up flash.
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| Included accessories. | Because Sony's MicroMV format hasn't yet garnered widespread support, you'll be seeing a lot of the bundled MovieShaker software. |
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 Input/output ports. |
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You should consider your shooting habits carefully before buying this model: the minimum video focal length of 52mm (35mm equivalent) provides an even narrower angle of view than the typical 10X zoom, which makes shooting buildings, landscapes, and events more difficult.
It also delivers a mixed bag for basic usability. Both the ring-based and switch-based zoom controls feel appropriately responsive. But the zoom ring is fairly narrow and close to the lens, and we found it awkward to rotate smoothly while keeping our fingers out of the picture. Similarly, the touch screen proves a little too sensitive for fine-tuning exposure. Simply touching the plus and minus buttons onscreen makes them slide all the way up and down the exposure scale too quickly.
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| The InfoLithium battery lasted about 1.5 hours under average shooting conditions. | You have to flip open the LCD to reach the Memory Stick's eject latch. |
Like numerous other cameras of its class, this Sony sports a stereo microphone positioned above the lens. The mike does a fine job capturing the videographer's cursing and commentary but is less suited for capturing the subject's conversation and tends to pick up lots of ambient noise.
 Still captures are pretty good for a camcorder (image shown at 100 percent). |
This camcorder thrives in daylight, where it delivers vibrant colors; indoors, images emerge washed-out. When we used automatic white balance, our images had a slight pinkish cast under tungsten lights and a green cast under fluorescents. Daylight shots are cool but not conspicuously so.
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| Video looks sharp in quarter-screen display and well exposed, although indoor shots (left) tend to look less saturated than outdoor ones (right). | |
Colors aside, the still captures are sharper and less noisy than those of most camcorders we see, though still not up to the quality of a dedicated 2-megapixel still camera. Video appears sharp at quarter-screen resolution and acceptable when blown up to full screen, with the usual degree of compression artifacts. The long lens naturally keeps wide-angle distortion to a minimum, and we didn't notice any distortion at the maximum zoom.
We're also quite pleased with the IP220's exposures, which appear even and accurate. The flash especially surprised us; it's neither harsh nor overly strong, so test photos came out well exposed with no hot spots (except, of course, for the backlight). The camcorder manages to capture a relatively broad range of highlight and shadow detail, too.
 Color Slow Shutter mode works well for shooting relatively motionless scenes in low light; when there's a lot of motion, it delivers a more surreal effect. |
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Sony DCR-IP220:
