Another nice sony camera

Author's Rating:

Pros: Sony quality, good video, small size

Cons: $200 more than other very nice sony models.

The Bottom Line: 
Nice camera but out of my target price range

Author's Review
This is a very nice digital camcorder. Its got all the do-dads, and gee wiz stuff. But when looking for a camcorder the one reason you should be looking in my opinion is how good a video does its shoot. DISCLAIMER I didn't buy this camera. I looked at it when I was shopping around for a camera. I can only tell you the things I liked about it and the things that I didn't and the reason I did not buy this camera.

I liked the size it about the same size as the other sony cameras in this new line for 2004 and weighs a little more than the lesser priced sony's but it's much smaller than last year's line.

I like the fact it has 520 lines of resolution and the fact that it has a Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar lens. I like the MiniDV format and I like the easy of operation. But Here's what I didn't like or more accurately why I didn't decide on this camera over the DCR-HC20. It's $200 dollars more. I know it has more options and the resolution is a little better but nothing stood out for me personally why I should pay another $200 bucks.

The Screen is the exact same size 2.5 inches. The format is the same. The zoom is the same analog and digital. The line in and line out are the same. Its has USB and i.LINK (Firewire or IEEE 1394 same thing). Its battery life is the same with the standard battery. And as far as I could tell (remember I didn't buy this and take it home) but the video looked about the same to me and that's why I buying the camera. It has some nice features like email-sized video but I can do that myself after I edit the footage.

Hopefully some other people will review this camera and make a case for it. Like I said it’s a nice camera. I think its will shoot very very good video, but for me 200 bucks is 200 bucks and I can get a very nice video editing software suite and a spare battery and some MiniDV tapes, a bag and the Sony DCR-HC20 model for the same price as just buying the DCR-HC40 model. Again I'm an amateur with a limited pocketbook so maybe this camera is out of my league. Someone write a case for this camera and what you liked about it over the other sony models.