all camcorders
Home » camera and photo » camcorders » all camcorders » sony dcrhc30 minidv digital handycam camcorder w 1
|
GADGET HAT
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Sony DCRHC30 MiniDV Digital Handycam Camcorder w 1 The following report compares gadgets using the SERCount Rating (base on the result count from the search engine). |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
POPULAR HAT - 2006-02-13 11:18:00 | © Copyright 2004 - www.hat.net () | sitemap | top |
Pros: Size (this camera is tiny compared to other camcorders in this price range), Memory Stick MPEG movie + still image recording (perfect for e-mails + websites, but not for prints), bright 2.5" touchscreen LCD, good automatic settings, excellent picture quality, Super NightShot (a MUST for single CCD cameras used in low-light settings), analog-to-digital pass-through (for recording from a VCR onto your PC using firewire), Carl Zeiss lens (hence the excellent picture quality.
Cons: Menu navigation and getting to manual controls is not intuitive and can be problematic while shooting. The optical zoom is small compared to other cameras in this class (10x vs. 20x).
It's low-light performance is mediocre, but compared to other camera's I've researched and tested, the HC30 outperforms them all with its Super NightShot.
And for anyone complaining about the poor still image quality, I will say that this camcorder, and its stills were not meant for prints, but for e-mails or the 'net. It's a given that if you want good photo quality, buy a regular digital camera--even the most ambitious of camcorders usually only come with a one megapixel sensor, which is not nearly enough for crisp photos. Don't worry, this camcorder is small enough that you can still carry around your digital camera and not be weighted down.
I'm new to the world of digital video, but I'm an avid digital photographer and I've got to say that with its feature set and ease of use, I can readily recommend this camera to people who want no-hassles with good quality. Given it's pros (good auto settings) and cons (buried manual controls) it's obvious that this is meant for consumers and not prosumers, but with its excellent image quality and decent low-light performance, I think that even prosumers should think of picking this up as a good backup camera.