I got this product and partially happy with it compared with my Sony TRV-340 digital8 camcorder.
Something I want to point out:
Features: I don't like the battery release button because it is at the bottom of the camcorder. When using it with tripod, it is very difficult to change the battery if tripod adapter is used unless the adapter is small or using FV-100 battery to avoid the problem.
Sound: It captures the sound quality very good and much powerful if zoom mic is enable.
Picture: It is good enough in standard video and quite good in 1080p capture. If viewing on the LCD panel, video quality is quite good for both formats. However, video quality looks too much brightness when viewing in computer or DVD player.
Manual low light mode (3LUX): It is a big surprise to me it works so well. Without any zoom in or out, I captured a clear video from the bed room using the light from the bathroom (light source 40W was about 6 feet way and pointed directly to the object behind the camcorder). But it is grainy if the zoom is used. It was also grainy if capturing a scene 15 feet away from the camcorder using light reflection, light source was about 10 feet behind the camcorder and pointed 90 degree angle. But I prefer to have it at 1.5-2 LUX.
Optical Zoom: 30x is so good and quiet.
Recording/Photo mode: Sometime it captures the photo while recording by itself in standard recording mode. It never happens in HD mode. It is weird but it is not hurting anything.(7/21/2011)
Auto focus: It is about ½ time slower compared to my digital8 in my opinion.
Auto Gain works automatically ONLY in playback mode when using LCD panel.
Overall I grade this camcorder(below $600) 4-4.5 stars at consumer level camcorder. If it has 3 CMOS sensor and 1.5 LUX, it is my 5 star camcorder($2000+). Sony HDR-XR160 High-Definition Handycam Camcorder (Black)
This is a great camcorder. Did a lot of research on the camcorders and this was the newer version of another great camcorder. Do not need a memory card as all info can be saved to the hard drive then transferred to your computer. Another great feature is it has a usb cord in the hand strap so you can easily connect to your computer to download or charge the battery.
This camera has very good zoom. I can see stuff through this camera that I cant see in real life with my own eyes. The picture quality is very good outdoors but indoors its a little grainy even on the highest quality recording. The camera captures audio very well and colors well too. The menu is very simple and easy to use and the software that comes with it is nice too. The hard drive is really helpful because you dont have to buy expensive memory cards. The battery life is about an hour and 40 min on the highest quality recording and the hard drive holds 16 hours on the highest quality. The camera is also very light and looks great. Only downside is that its kind of expensive and you might be able to find a camera with similar features thats maybe $100 less.
I haven't had it for too long, but I like the simplicity of the menu, great stabilization, and ability to take stills.
I haven't yet done much with the video files but I'm told that it's easy. The best thing is that even recording in HD, I can connect it to my standard TV and watch it. From what I've read that won't work if I make a HD DVD. What's amazing is I can even fit this camera in some large pants pockets.
I'm not a fan of Amazon's return system. They don't make it clear that if you return something (for instance because there's a loose piece in it) according to Amazon's policy, then you can't get the same thing in return. You only get a credit. If it was bought on sale, then you're out of luck when you only get a sale price credit.
I am very happy with this camera. We use it for typical family videotaping. The picture quality is excellent, and it works very well with iMovie. Imports into iMovie are very fast, at least 2X real time (i.e. import 10 minutes of video in 5 minutes or less) on my iMac. I am especially impressed with the image stabilization, as I am not a "steady handed" person. You would not know it with this camera, however.
I bought this camcorder after doing much research and am very pleased with it! We have used it to record sporting events at a great distance away. It zooms in beautifully (and quickly) and the sound quality is excellent due to the external mic. So far, we have used the camcorder principly during the day, so I cannot give a review of it in low lighting situations. However, I'm sure others have reviewed in that area. I also love the large internal memory of this camcorder. When the video is viewed on our Sony HD tv (which is very easy to do), the picture quality is as though you are watching the event live. It is utterly amazing! I simply cannot express how much we have enjoyed this camera!
This review isn't about a new purchase, I've had the hard drive camera for years, and was happy about everything about it. But I was really mad the other day when I took it to a concert (for the first time ever). The music was loud, like I was at a concert, but after a while the camera would shut off. I'd turn it on again but it would take about a minute or so to boot up again cause it kept stopping recording then writing info to the hard drive, then I'd have to repress the record button again but i've already missed about a minute of recording time while it was doing this. And it did this every several minutes or so. Next day I emailed sony and they said it wasn't a problem, these camcorders just do that when a protection circuit for the hard drive kicks in. It never did that before for me but this is the first time I had it around loud music. Boy was I mad, although in the end I bought a smartdisk camera from sony to replace this one cause I was so mad, supposedly they don't have this problem cause there's no moving parts (I actually emailed sony and asked them about it). The camera gave me good performance for years (which is why I bought another sony), it is just this one item I don't like about it, and that's one item i've never read about in sony's literature about this camera cause they don't tell you, but it happens. I wrote this review for a similar camera but this one is more like mine than that one so I deleted that review and wrote about this one (although they're both hard drive cameras so it won't make a difference, they still suffer from the same problem). - 3d - 1080p - High Definition - Camcorder'
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