- Average user rating: 3.5 stars out of 48 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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69 out of 70 people found this review helpful
4.5 stars
"The perfect family video camera. Easy to use, high quality video and stills."
Pros: Vdeo/still image quality, ease of use
Cons: Wind noise, price
Summary: I am not a professional videographer. We have owned a Canon Hi-8 ES2000 for 10 years and it served us well until it died this year. We needed a replacement for our family videos.
I knew I wanted a hybrid camera that could do good video and average stills so I didn't have to take two cameras on vacation. Our digital camera is a Canon Digital Rebel and that certainly excels in the still image quality department, but not in the portability category. I looked at getting an affordable DV camcorder for $500 and then adding a nice 5 MP small still for another $300, but that still left me with 2 cameras to carry around.
I started looking at the crop of DVD camcorders earlier this year and the reviews scared me off. Reports of poor image quality and an overall poor bang for the buck lead me to miniDV instead.
That lead me to the Canon Optura 500 and the Sony DCR-PC350, two high end hybrid models. I went with the Canon because of brand loyalty. I used the Canon for 13 days and returned it. The low light performance was lacking and the controls were difficult for anyone to manipulate. I was going to get the Sony to try out but always put it off for some reason.
Our vacation to Mexico was quickly approaching so I logged on to check the PC350 prices and stumbled onto the DCR-DVD403 reviews and that piqued my miniDVD interest anew. Seemed like everything I needed so I bought it and brought it to Cancun for the family vacation. We filmed and snapped pics of everything, everywhere.
Sorry for the long intro, but I thought some background would help base the review properly. We are a family that really enjoys watching our videos for the memories, with little criticism of video quality. That is important only in so far as it should be transparent.
So, what did we think? This is a great camera for us. Video quality is very good. From our casual review, better than the Hi-8 and just as good as the Optura 500. The colors are rich, exposure is fine, focus is fast and accurate. The 16:9 is very nice. I rate it a 10 of 10 for us. It is transparent.
The zoom is a little unpredictable at times. Fast zooms are the norm until you get used to the zoom toggle's sensitivity.
The stills are very good. Shutter speed seems to be too slow to capture any motion at all, but for still objects, the images are great. As good as my old Kodak DC280 2MP still digital. I would rate it a 6 of 10 for stills when compared to my Digital Rebel. Most of the 6 is for convenience, but any image quality differences would be nearly impossible to detect at 4x6. Actually, the digital enhancement Sony applies in camera makes the images look better out of the Sony than out of the Digital Rebel. At least that's what my wife thought.
The only complaint so far is the wind noise. The beach with a 15 knot breeze sounded like a hurricane. At the pool one night with a light 5-8 knot breeze, the sound was dominated by wind noise. Hopefully Sony will fix this. In the mean time, I am going to put a small piece of foam over the mic to see if that cures the problem. Certainly not a show stopper, but something to be aware of.
Low light performance was very good; much, much better than the Optura 500. At the pool at night, we could see the kids swimming in the lit pool. At the beach at night, the night shot mode was good enough to capture us swinging in our hammocks in almost no light at all. Inside the house at night, the video looked bright and clear with no noise. Perfect for us.
Ease of use. This is where this camera beats everything else, hands down. We used DVD-RW's which held 30 minutes of video. No issues there at all. Just remember that stills eat up video time. We kept 10 DVD-RW's in the bag (2 per min DVD case). That was enough for the whole week for us. After we filled up a DVD, we finalized it and watched it in the kid's portable DVD player. To our pleasant surprise, the stills played at the end as well. By far, this is for us. I will transfer the miniDVD's to DVD later on and reuse the DVD-RW's. Hard to imagine a simpler way to do things.
As far as running the camera, it is as simple as it needs to be. My 2 daughters, 6 and 9, were both running it in video and still mode without issues. My wife, who is the defacto standard for measuring ease of use, had it all up and working fabulously without trouble. I have yet to open the manual. This thing is easy to use and requires no special effort to take great videos and stills.
Can't think of anything else to add except this is the perfect camera for us. The Optura 500 was nice, but not perfect. This camera was made for my family.
- 11 replies to this review
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I got the DCR-DVD403 two days before going overseas last Summer. Didn't bring the software with me and this created a scare for me because the local computers cold not read/write my mini-disks! But this went away when I got home and used the software that Sony provides. This is by far the best camcorder on the market. But I wonder if the new Sony DCR-SR100 can be any better? D
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Begginning with the background info to the end the review was well written and extremely informative. Kudos for a job well done
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You mentioned that you got 30 minutes on a DVD-RW ... does that mean you recorded in medium quality mode instead of the high quality mode? The reviews say you get 18 minutes in the high quality mode.
There will be times when 18 minutes a DVD won't be enough for me and I am VERY curious what kind of quality I'll get if I drop back to medium or low quality modes. Anyone have experience with these that they can share?
Also, does the sound quality drop when you go to the lower quality modes?
BTW, my wife and I read this review together and we LOVED the "de facto standard" comment. That's us too.
Great review. Cheers! -
That review you wrote is amazing, thanks a lot for writing a review worth posting!
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That review you wrote is amazing, thanks a lot for writing a review worth posting!
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That review you wrote is amazing, thanks a lot for writing a review worth posting!
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Looking for camcorded to take on cruise vacation and this review let me know that I have finally found the one I was seeking. Thanks KJ
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Great review!
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Personal experience easy to relate.
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Loved the review. The intro is true for our family too.
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Unable to decide between Panasonic GS250 and Sony DVD 403. This review pinpoints all the right reasons for choosing the 403
Where to buy
Sony Handycam DCR-DVD403:
$699.99
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Amazon.com Marketplace
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$699.99 | Yes |
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