Sony Handycam DCR-DVD405

Pros: Good video, good interface

Cons: Sound quality!

Summary: Buyers beware: Sony has forced us into a Catch-22.

If you don't use an external microphone and instead rely on the internal microphone, you can HEAR the DVD spinning on your recording--it's quite annoying and distracting.

If you then want to remedy this problem by getting external microphones, you'll find that this camera ONLY allows you to use external mikes that fit into its "Active Interface Shoe," which gives you access to (I guess) ONLY Sony's special, proprietary mikes (which I can't find in stores anyway). Plus, Sony apparently does not make an adapter to let us convert our regular stereo-jack mikes to the Active Interface Shoe.

The result? Bad audio or selling back this camera. I used to like Sony, but this forced proprietary stuff really makes me angry.