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"Cassette loading mechanism breaks" on by j_led
Pros: Great camera before it BREAKS for no reason
Cons: Costs more to fix than to buy a new one
Summary: Be careful ... the HC36 and other low-end Sony models are susceptible to cassette loading mechanism problems. You don't need to drop it or anything, they are just poorly made. If this happens, best case you will need to whack the side to align the tape (no joke - search for "Sony re-insert cassette error" and read solutions in the chat rooms). Worst case your perfectly good camera will be useless because it will cost $250+ to fix. Outside of crapping out on us within 14 months it's a great camera, so enjoy it while you can!
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"SONY Handycam DCR HC36 is not the best cam but..." on by ghkaushik
Pros: Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar lens, 20X optical Zoom, Color perfection, Ease of use, Good video quality
Cons: Grainy low light performance, No Handycam Station, No cold shoe for additional attachment
Summary: I have used DCR-HC42 of my friend for a long time, it is 1 m.p. cam with a facility of wide screen hybrid lcd display, cold shoe & handycam station. It captures amazing quality of video. So this time when I decided to purchase a handycam I started to survey the market and to surf net to get a cam parallel with HC42's video quality in an affordable price. After gathering a lot of information regarding handycams and comparing each cam with other I confined my choice between HC46 & HC36. Now it was time to take the most vital decision, considering all pros & cons of both cams at last I casted my vote to HC36. Today I feel that I had made no mistake to choose a cam suitable for me.
I have compared the video of HC42 & HC36, obviously the clarity of HC42 is better but the color perfection of HC36 is better even in low light. Most of expert reviewers in different sites have said that HC36 produce a 'poor' video but I differ, the video quality in well lit place is really great and natural. In low light it is a little grainy in comparison with a cam of higher price - it is natural & always expected. The still image quality is quite good in well lit place, in low light place it is grainy & pale but if you print that image in 6"/4" size then the grains are hardly noticeable. I use Color Slow Shutter in low light place & I get a good performance. After that Adobe Photoshop helps me for final touch up and to get a professional quality picture. Mind it, the resolution is 640/480 and it is not a mega pixel cam so it is never be expected an image like of a costly still camera. The effective pixel (for both movie & still) of HC36 is 400000 which is sufficient for video but not for stills. The Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar lens with 20X optical Zoom is great. Back light is very effective in indoor shooting. Even in a complete dark place just turn on 'super night shot plus' and everything is visible. Most easy to operate even a child of 5yr can operate it. Using the USB connection all the images captured on memory stick is accessible at a time. Never use USB cable for transferring video and the bundled software for editing or making a DVD. Always use a firelink IEEE (Sony's iLink) cable to connect with your PC / Laptop for transferring video and use SONY Vegas or ULead Video Studio for editing or for making your DVD, using which I get an satisfactory result and when the DVD is viewed by a stand alone DVD player the quality of picture is really awesome. -
"Ditto to the editors" on by alrock
Pros: Small, easy to use
Cons: Hard to use menus, average quality pictures
Summary: Editors were right on. This camera is fine but nothing special. I do like the compact size and the ease of shooting video. The menus aren't intuitive on the touch screen. There are better options out there. Want mine?
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"Very good cam corder" on by im4ncsu
Pros: Good quality video
Cons: Not found any so far
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