- Average user rating: 3.0 stars out of 61 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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4.5 stars
"Perfect travel camcorder, beats anything on the market even today"
Pros: EXCELLENT low-light performance, fantastic color, picture, great battery life, fast and easy to use
Cons: Bottom-loading DV, no wind screen for mic
Summary: I have used this little beauty on three storm-chasing expeditions to document storms. This camera does a phenomenal job of capturing anything I throw at it, including night-time lightning. It is small, lasts forever on the extended battery and has been an essential part of my travel kit for the past four years. Sony's newest compact offerings are cheaply made junk compared to this. For storm-chasing, DV is the best way to go. It offers unlimited recording capability. DVDs need to go through a finishing process before ejecting, this can cause a storm-chaser to miss opportunities at capturing once-in-a-lifetime shots. The DV tapes take less than ten seconds to replace. You can also archive DV tapes, you cannot do that with HD camcorders as easily. HD camcorders are also more susceptible to shock, and in a storm situation, that is untenable. For a standard-def camcorder, this still tops my list. I have been looking for something that might be better, and after three years of looking, have come up empty.
