Have fun with your Handycam!

Author's Rating:

Pros: affordable, good quality picture, night vision, battery charges quickly

Cons: short battery life, zooming out angle not wide enough

The Bottom Line: 
Overall, this is an excellent, high quality, affordable camera. The cons are not that serious and have not affected my use of it in any major way.

Author's Review
I have had this camera for about four months now and I have really enjoyed my time with it. It's an excellent choice for families or single people who can't afford more but still want a small, "handy" camcorder to capture memories on tape.

Pros:
1. Nightshot. Using infrared, the camera allows you to see in complete darkness. It works really well. I have taken it on several camping trips and have been very pleased with the results. It's a neat thing to impress your friends with, as well.
2. Easy to work using the numerous control buttons. I really like the way that Sony makes this camera user friendly by allowing you to control almost everything with a button of its own, but without covering the entire camera with bulky buttons. Under the flip out screen are buttons for turning on and off the display, adjusting the exposure, choosing a title, displaying or hiding both the date and time (separate buttons for each) and counter reset. There are also buttons for dubbing and a menu button under which are the functions for changing the title, language, date, time, etc. It's very easy to use and quite straight forward.
When in player mode, the FF, RW, Play, Stop and Pause buttons are on the top of the camera in easy reach.
The bright light is turned on by a button that is also on the top of the camera.
3. Fold out viewing color screen. Use this screen for actual filming so you don't need to keep your eye glued to the viewfinder, or to watch your video later. There are speakers as well, so you can watch and listen. Playback is also available just in the viewfinder if you close the screen, but you lose the sound and color.
4. Small battery on the back of the camera. The battery charges quickly (but doesn't last long - see Con #3) with a wall plug charger. You can film while plugged into the wall avoiding the problem of the battery dying but this does limit mobility (obviously). The cords are pretty long (maybe 8-10 feet), but still you are tethered.
5. Plays back video with sound directly from camera. The sound quality is great for such a small camera.
6. Easy dubbing onto a large size video tape. All you need to do is connect the camera to the VCR with the cable provided press play on the camera and record on the VCR. You can also play back only to the VCR and use the controls on the camera to control what is seen on the VCR.
7. Provides some stability for shaky shots. Not perfect, but does improve it.

Cons:
1. Zooming out could be a lot wider. This is frustrating because sometimes you have to back up to catch the entire scene.
2. Zoom control is loud and picked up by the mic unless you move it really gently. Zoom is controlled by a button that you slide to the left for zooming out and to the right for zooming in. If you zoom and then quickly take your finger off of the button, a little click is heard on the tape.
3. The battery only lasts about 2 hours before you need to charge it again. Charging doesn't take long though.
4. Color screen almost impossible to see in the sunlight (same problem with the color screen on the Sony Ericsson T68i cell phone - see my review on that). In sunny situations, you can use the viewfinder.
5. Record button too easy to push. I have accidentally recorded many times by pressing the button by accident. You can avoid this by putting the camera in the off position, but that is not always convenient.