This is the camcorder you wish you could afford.

Author's Rating:

Pros: Excellent video, excellent nightvideo, very good still shots, overall sexiness, Carl Zeiss lens.

Cons: Battery life, inconvenient tape location, price.

The Bottom Line: 
Excellent video, very good still photo's, if you want some of the best you won't be dissapointed with the PC330, but the price is a bit steep.

Author's Review
There are a few pieces of electronics that you are most likely to do in-depth research on, write down what you want and also look very carefully at what you can afford, a camcorder is one of those electronics.

The problem is very few people can afford to buy exactly what they are looking for in a camcorder, they want great video, sexy looks (that include it being small in size), easy to use, versatile, takes great still photo's so they can only bring the camcorder, and can be transfered to the computer with ease. But unfortunently a camera with all these qualities runs into the $1000+ range.

Well the good news is, sony has now released the DCR-PC330 handycam mini DV digital camcorder, you can get it for under $1000, and you will be very happy with it. The bad new? You can get it for under $1000, so for the most part it is still out of most of our price ranges.

If you are teetering on putting out the money or are just curious read on and find out why I think this is one of the best camcorders I've ever had the pleasure to use.

Video Quality: A+
For a camcorder, video quality is the most thing that you should be looking for. Luckily it does a fantastic job of this. In looking at the video playback on the TV and the computer, the shots look very sharp, very clear, in fact I honestly can't see any distortions or obvious errors of any kind. The only thing that I noticed was that colors do look a littler more colorful than normal. I reviewed a camera before that did this, it might have been a sony, but I remember I compared it to the way the color showed up in the wizard of oz, more colorful than in real life, I think they used a tecnivision or something like that as the method of adding color, anyway the color effect isn't obvious and really doesn't add anything negative to the video you take.

Still Shots: A-
Ok so the weakest part of most digital camcorders is the still shots, most just are horrible, I know with my other camcorder the still shots are equivalent to maybe a 1 megapixel camera, but I think it would be better to say they equal most webcams. It was quite a shock to see the ones that the pc330 takes, they are 2.1 megapixel in quality and are almost as good as the Canon S200 digital camera. Very nice pictures that most people wouldn't have any problems blowing up to sizes as great as 8 x 10, for the nice shots, but you still will find some grainy ones in there. Now there are camcorders that take better quality stills but overall I was impressed by the still shots the PC330 takes.

One additional note is that the PC330 has a built in flash, rare in camcorders that helps for the image quality of still shots.

Ease of Use: A
The camera itself is vertical in nature, that means that it sits tall and thin in your hand, for me it was quite comfortable to use. Another feature that makes it easy to hold is a flip out pinky rest, you might think this is stupid but it really helps you steady the camera, lets your whole hand hold the camera instead of mostly just your thumb and palm.

The buttons are intelligently laid out for the most part, and are easy to read, the switch to change from camera to off to view film mode and then edit, are at the back of the camera and also have lights built in to make it easier to read.

The zoom is steady and not jerky as I've seen on some other cameras, you control the zoom in speed quite effectively.

Total weight of the camera is just under 7 ounces, hold up a coke can and it is just about half that weight. Now for me I'm used to using the old vhs cameras that you had to balance on your shoulder, that was a heavy camera, this is micro in weight but still there are some mini DV cameras that weigh less, but for me this weighs little enough.

The only reason I can't give it a A+ is its funky loading spot for the Mini DV tape, it is underneath the camera, often I'll use a tripod to tape my daughter playing but with the PC330 you have to remove the camera from the tripod and replace the tape then put it back on the tripod, pain in the butt for me.

Night Video:A
If there was one feature that sony really has perfected, it would be night shooting. Not only does the PC330 take great day video but for night you have not just one option but two! First you have the night vision option, that will give a green overall color to your video, the other option is the slower shutter speed, which works to expose more light over longer periods of time, but in my opinion that often will lead to streakish video and is only really suited for tripod work. The night vision mode you will be familiar with, you might have seen the paris video, or at least a picture of it? Well that was shot using a sony camcorder, so you get a greenish tint to the video but you can see everything clearly, except your eyes which will look sorta evil but thats the way it is :) Overall I think sony's night shooting capabilities is a generation over most of its competitors.

Battery: B
Maybe it is the higher quality video, or maybe it is a design flaw built into sony, but whatever it is I found the battery doesn't last that long, in fact the battery which is pretty good sized doesn't last as long as the much smaller and compact battery on my Sharp camcorder. The battery attaches to the left side of the camcorder, bottom right corner, this does make it easy to switch out batteries if you have an extra one and to be honest, you will need an extra one. On average a DV tape will run about 90 minutes on extended play, or about 60 minutes on normal record, on average this battery will last about 45-50 minutes. Ouch! I think my Sharp battery lasts about 70-80 minutes. Now the shocking thing is, this is about average for camcorder batteries. That's why I give a B rating, it is an average battery.

LCD Screen: A+
Now one reason I think the battery doesn't last long is the LCD screen. The PC330 has a touch sensitive LCD screen that lets you do all the menu options not by manuevering buttons next to the lcd screen but by actually touching the LCD screen itself. For me this is a really cool feature, makes manuevering the menu's easy as apple pie. The LCD screen flips out and is easy to see is almost every light, most camcorders have a real problem at night with the LCD screen but because the nightvision shows green you can still still the LCD screen at night.

There is a warning though, if you hate using the touch sensitive menu screens at the bank, or the supermarket or wherever, you might dislike the LCD screen on the PC330, I like it but some of you might not.

Sound: A-
The built in microphone on the PC330 is a very nice one, does a much better job than my Sharp, and it gets good voice recording is everything but very windy conditions. You can't hear the motor of the zoom or the normal functions of the camera like you can on some camcorders. The only thing that I don't like is that you can't adjust the volume level of the mike, there are a few you can do this and this is a nice little addition on those, most of you won't really realize the difference if you haven't used one of those cameras.

Lens: A+
Normally I don't include the lens as it's own category but the PC330 uses a Carl Zeiss lens which is pretty much the best money can buy, sony has a love affair with ol' Carl and uses his lens's on a lot of their cameras, which might be why sony often will take superior video/pictures.

Storage Media: A
The PC330 uses a standard Mini DV tape that will last you about 60 minutes on normal record setting or about 90 minutes on extend play record setting. The still photo's can be transfered to a standard sony memory stick which can make transfering to your computer much easier than doing the ol' USB cord to it.

Price: B+
Yes you can get it for about $990, but being more realistic you aren't going to find it retail for less than $1,100, maybe as high as $1,200. Online you can get it for about $1,000 to$1,100. For my money I would rather go with the Canon Optura 300, not quite as nice in some features but actually better still shots and some other nice features. That'll run you about $650 or so.

Conclusion
Hmm this is a really nice camera, use one for any length of time like I did and you will wish you had it, but then again the price is out of most of our ranges. The PC330 takes excellent video, pretty good still shots and is fun to use. I'll give it a very good rating but my next camcorder is probably going to be a Canon Optura series camera.