Ulead VideoStudio 10 (PC)
Customer Review: Very buggy
I purchased this and have tried it on 2 different PCs - it doesn’t work on either.

On an XP machine, I get an error message as soon as I start up my PC. I can then start up VS10, but it always crashes within 5 minutes.

On a Vista machine (only 2 months old, and not caused any other problems), all appears well. However, on closer inspection the volume doesn’t come through on any of my clips. Oh, and after about 10/15 minutes of use, the whole thing invariably crashes.

I would avoid this product. It’s a shame because from the brief glimpses I’ve had of it (before it crashes) it looks good. However, it’s too unstable to be usable.

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Sony DCR-HC27 Handycam Mini DV Camcorder
Add digital quality to all of your videos with the DCR-HC27, an easy-to-use and high-performance MiniDV camcorder! Ideal for your first camcorder or for family videos, the DCR-HC27 is equipped with a Carl Zeiss lens and an 800,000-pixel CCD sensor to capture all of those precious moments on video. It also comes with a 20x optical zoom, so you can film important events such as weddings or children?s shows, and has a 2.5? TFT touch screen, giving you complete control over your shot. Combining the advantages of spot focusing with a number of white balance modes, this camcorder adapts to any occasion. Simply select the automatic setting to get the best focus for your situation. The DCR-HC27 includes a NightShotPlus mode with a sensitivity of 0 lux, so you can film in the dark, and has a host of different AE programmes, 4 fade modes and special effects, so you can add a touch of style to your home videos. The DCR-HC27 also comes with a FireWire connection, allowing you to continue your digital video experience on your computer.
Used Price: ?200.00
Customer Review: Great Value For Money Easy To Use Camcorder
Very simple to use, does most things ‘out of the box’ with no need for much user input beyond switching it on, pointing & pressing the REC button (its in red for maximum ease of spotting!) There are the usual options to change things like effects for how pictures look etc but really this is for people who just want to video, with some simple menu options which are quick to learn. Its light, small & fits nicely into one hand. Its quite well made too. Couple of points to note: there is no editing software included (use Windows Media Centre or Photo Gallery) nor is there any cable to link your camcorder to your PC. Both these omissions are unusual & seem a bit cheap of SONY, for which I’ve deducted 1 star. You do get a short ‘how to shoot videos’ DVD which - once you ignore the childish & annoying cartoon ‘guide’ - is actually quite useful. (the lack of any bundled cassette is normal industry practise) Using a firewall cable I’ve found the video transfer to my PC (running Windows VISTA) painless & fairly quick. All in all a good buy which I purchased from Debenhams in Birmingham for just ?130 a couple of weeks ago.
Customer Review: fantastic
bought one of this,mostly because of it’s size and also the connectivity to the pc.arrived on time,very easy to operate.

The 2007-2012 Outlook for Digital Camcorders in Japan
Used Price: ?470.68

Flip F260W-UK Video Ultra Series Digital Camcorder - White (60 mins)
Fun for everyone. Simple fun video for everyone, the Flip Ultra lets you record video clips instantly at a moments notice. Ready to use out-of the-box, simply point and press record, its that easy. Everything Built In: Flip Ultra’s revolutionary software makes organising, editing and sharing video incredibly simple. Every Flip Ultra has all the software you need to edit and share your movies built directly in. Use the built in USB stick to transfer files to a PC easily, not need to carry separate cables. Share: Just plug in the USB arm on your Flip Ultra into a PC and email your videos to friends and family instantly - or publish them directly to YouTube, MySpace or your favourite sharing site. Included TV-Out lets you connect your Flip Ultra directly to the big screen to let you share your movies with those around you. Movie Mix: Making custom movies is easy with the Flip Ultra. Just pick a style, choose your favourite song and select the video clips your want to include. It Just Works: Simple and easy to use, no fussing around reading manuals or configuring settings, let the Flip Ultra manage everything for you. Superior low-light capability lets you take clips even in poor light conditions. Easy: Get started right away with the Flip Ultra. Simple one touch recording lets you start shooting video’s in an instant without a manual. Stylish robust design means you can take the Flip Ultra anywhere without worry. Package Contents - Flip Ultra Video Camera - 2 x AA Alkaline Batteries - Wrist Strap - Soft Case - TV-Out Cable - Quick Start Guide
List Price: ?99.99
Amazon Price: ?99.62
Customer Review: Great Pocket Video Camera
The Ultra Series Flip Video is perfect for recording up to one hour worth of video. It is perfect for families who want to share videos. I found that the sound quality is ok. The zoom is adequate but not great. And the picture quality is good for its price. The better the lighting you have, the better the quality of the video taken. It even looks good when watched on a TV screen. No sense lugging around a camcorder when you can carry this very light and small video camera that fits in your shirt pocket. Downloading the videos to a computer is simple and it keeps with some pre-loaded software, which makes it easy for you to edit, email, save, and make photos from the videos. The editing is very basic; it lets you trim some off the front and back of what you recorded. And it is set up to link right into You Tube. I was able to make a video just seconds after installing the batteries. The Ultra Series Flip Video has the ability to be mounted on a tripod as well as an action mount that can both be bought separately. But the 1-hour of video is all it can hold, which is more than enough for me. It does not have the ability to have the memory upgraded. Just to summarize this video camera is very light and easy to use. It is so easy to use that no instruction manual is necessary and I am not electronic savvy. It comes with all you need, including TV connector cable, carrying case, wrist strap and even the batteries. This is all you need to share video with your family at a low cost. (Amazon US US$100)
Customer Review: Okay - Not Quite as Trendy as it Seems
I do like this solid state camcorder but it’s neither exceptional value for money or versatile either. For kick off the quality of production is nothing exceltional, and by that I mean to compare with other similar priced products. To give some sort of idea what it is like, your mobile phone if it has the function for video would be similar if used on low res. That’s not to say it’s awful and clearly it’s designed as an easy cheap youtube device, just don’t expect too much. It’s also big. Given that it’s a solid state unit, it could be made a bit smaller, which would fit in with it’s go anywhere utility advertising. Having said that, a large part of this is down to using standard AA batteries which is convenient. They seem to last a good long time compared to other products like this. The zoom is digital which does limit quality. The recording angle is a wee bit narrow as well, so don’t expect any great indoor wide angle shots either. One thing that did bother me most of all is that there is no protective cover that closes over the clear plastic lens cover, meaning that any rough stuff, or grit in a pocket would cause a problem. There are many good points though. It’s well made, comes with it’s own flip out inbuilt USB A connection, so no extra wires, and I like the shape. Clean and simple. I guess in the end it would be exceptional value at 50 quid but at 100 it’s perhaps a bit steep.

Sony Vegas Movie Studio 8 (PC)
Customer Review: Worth persevering - unless you have a short fuse
Good stuff first:

The user interface is easy to pick up, and very intuitive. The range of tasks you can do is wide enough to satisfy most users, and the tutorials are clear without being over-burdened with detail.

Output quality is great.

Now the bad:

Unless you drive a graphics workstation, the lag on anything - and I mean even the slightest adjustment - will drive you crazy. I have 1Gb RAM, and 2GHz processor, and a 256Mb graphics card, and each time I move the cursor a few frames along the timeline the program stops to think for up to two minutes.

Next, the reason I bought a Sony product was to get around the stupid Sony format that the transferred files are in when you download them from the DV to the PC. You know, Video_TS etc.

This application doesn’t recognise these files!

So you still need to do that nonsense of saving the files without having finalised the disk, and them re-save them with a different file extension, ie save as .wma instead of .vob.

Why, you dumb-bells, did you not fix this, so I can use my SONY camcorder with the SONY software…

However, once I get over the angst of this latter issue, and once I get my new speed machine, this is the best sub-?50 editing suite, IMHO.

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Learn all about the world of digital home recording with the GR-D720E from JVC! This easy-to-use camcorder comes with a number of useful focusing modes and a wide range of programmes that will help you take your first steps as a bona fide film director! This family-friendly camcorder has an 800,000 pixel CCD sensor, so you can record whatever you like onto tape, and a powerful 28x optical zoom, allowing you to take close-ups as if you were in the front row of the theatre. You don’t have to miss a thing! Plus, the GR-D720E comes with a host of handy programmes, including automatically adjustable white balance and several special effects that will spice up your audiovisual creations! The GR-D720E also switches itself on automatically when you open its large 2.7″ 16:9 format screen. If you’re after a user-friendly camcorder that guarantees great results, then you don?t need to look any further! The GR-D720E has it all!
Used Price: ?100.99
Customer Review: Bad sound, you get what you pay for
The sound quality is really bad and you can’t connect an external microphone to it. Image quality not great either.
Customer Review: Good price for what you can do
I bought this camcorder while on holiday in Singapore, just for the 2007 Sepang Maylasian Grand Prix (Came home and two months later most camcorders were becoming cheaper, Amazon sell this cheaper than what I payed! DOH!) I have never owned a camcorder before but it has good quality and does the job. It does have a lot of camera shake but I’m working on this, sure there is a function somewhere. Works well with Windows movie maker so need to buy expensive software if already got it. It has good playback on the tv too but I felt that when downloaded on the computer the image was a bit naff but again I still need to play about with it. Good thing to have if you are starting to make movies. Good value, what else do you want?
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Ex-Pro Battery charger - Ultra Pro Travel Charger - Simple design including In-Car Adatper, European and UK Plug. Charges in an average of 2 hours ! Automatic Cut-Off on completion of charge, Charge indication lights. Works on 110-240v, Travel anywhere and use with ease ! 1 Year Warranty.
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Say goodbye to clutter with the DCR-SR32 from Sony! Equipped with a 30 GB hard drive, the DCR-SR32 lets you record over 20 hours of digital video in three different quality modes, while its 800,000-pixel CCD sensor, renowned Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar lens and 40x optical zoom make sure your recordings come out sharp and clear each and every time. The DCR-SR32 is really easy to use and has a 2.5? LCD screen, as well as 10 scene modes that adapt to any situation. You can even film in VGA resolution and save your creations directly to a Memory Stick Duo memory card, while its USB 2.0 connection transfers your films to your computer for easy editing. The high-performance and user-friendly DCR-SR32 lets you capture life?s best moments, without the clutter of tapes or DVDs!
Used Price: ?199.99
Customer Review: edit impossible
This camera seemed fine, pictures and film downloaded and viewed on my PC OK But I’ve tried three diferent video edit programs on 2 different PCs and all the programs have frozen after inserting a couple of clips from this camera. They don’t like it. Unfortunatley Sony Contact is down under high volume of communications at the moment, now I think about it they didn’t reply to a querry I made a year ago about something else. I’m not quite sure what to do about it.
Customer Review: MAC USER? AVOID! But great camera for PC users
I bought this camera a few days ago and I loved it. It’s size, it’s price, it’s features, it is a great entry level HDD camera. I was in love. I made some great videos on it. But then it came to getting the videos on to my Mac… I could move them over fine, but the mpeg2 format caused me problems. I paid for and downloaded the mpeg2 add on for quicktime and I could now view and edit the movies. But the quality is abysmal, the videos are horribly (re?)compressed and horizontal lines destroy every clip I ever made. Even when I burned a DVD containing the files, I found that it played back even worse and every fault, line, pixellation and frame issue seemed magnified. I tried a variety of solutions but nothing worked. Research has led to the same avenue every time. INCOMPATIBLE WITH MACS. I researched this before buying it but obviously not enough. I never imagined that I would have issues. I plugged the camera into my housemate’s PC and watched and edited the files and it all worked beautifully. The small print on the box says that the supplied software CD is windows only, but that didn’t bother me as I already had some nice video editing suites on my Macintosh and didn’t plan on using the supplied software. But what they failed to mention on the box is that the files are NOT MAC COMPATIBLE. A lovely camera with great features, I just wish I could use it. I would give this a 5 star rating if it wasn’t for the compatibility issues. It should be made clearer on the packaging.
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Ex-Pro Battery charger - Ultra Pro Travel Charger - Simple design including In-Car Adatper, European and UK Plug. Charges in an average of 2 hours ! Automatic Cut-Off on completion of charge, Charge indication lights. Works on 110-240v, Travel anywhere and use with ease ! 1 Year Warranty.
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50 Fast Digital Camera Techniques (50 Fast Techniques Series)
Customer Review: This is an excellent book!
This book by Gregory George is an excellent piece of writing!! It fully explained me everything about exposure,f-stop, shutter speed and lightning. I actually tried some of the techniques and my photos already are better and look professional. The author knows what he talks about. These techniques are simple but I would recommend you read first a general book on digital photography; “Complete Digital Photography” by Ben Long (ISBN 1584502312)is an excellent starter. I like the layout and the chapters are divided in a logical order. The things that I didn’t like: why are there only 4 pages of colourphotos in this book? Sometimes the author repeats himself. After some chapters, we know we have to check the histogram after taking a picture. We also know how great it is to take pics of children and bla, bla, bla. The opinion of the author on this is appreciated but not really necesary. Or maybe I’m just boring?! Anyway, buy this book and you will become a better photographer!

Customer Review: Digital photgraphy rather than digital processing
A lot of digital photography books that I’ve looked at tend to concentrate on post-editing rather than actual photographic techniques. All well & good but knowing how to take good pictures in the first place is a more common goal for most people rather than drastic post-editing using software like Photoshop. This book concentrates a lot more on the techniques of traditional photography but everything is of course geared towards the digital medium.

The first chapter encourages you to discover exactly what features your camera has & what it’s capable of. There’s even a specification form to fill in that will most likely have you digging out your camera’s manual & maybe even learning a few new things about your camera (As I did!).

The chapters include, Taking pictures, Using advanced features, Taking people pictures, “Scape” photography, Still life & art photography, Creative photography etc… The 50 techniques of the title are spread across these chapters & explain everything you could want to know about using your camera & taking pictures. The final chapter is entitled ‘moving up to digital SLR’. This demonstrates the benefits of moving up to a camera that has the option of additional lenses, Filters & other accessories.

The only down side to this book is that none of the pictures within it are in colour. Many of these images show pre & post edited versions but the lack of colour makes the changes less than obvious in most cases. Slightly disappointing however, All the pictures can be found on the CD that accompanies the book along with trial versions of some of the popular photo editing packages like Photoshop Elements.

Overall an excellent book that is a refreshing change to the usual digital photography books that tend to focus more on post-editing rather than photographic techniques.

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Compact, light and easy to use, the PowerShot A430 from Canon is the ideal camera for the whole family. With this superb compact, Canon has made digital photography available to everyone. Desinged to allow you to take magificent photos, the PowerShot A430 is equipped with a 4 million pixel sensor, allowing each shot taken to display a multitude of details, and adapted to large format photos. The 4x optical zoom effect will allow you to get closer to the action without compromising on quality! Also, its Ai-AF 9 point autofocus assures precision and speed, even on non-centered objects, always providing a clear image. The Super macro mode will allow you to photograph tiny objects in large format! The case for the A430 is compact, light and ergonomic, which makes it very comfortable to use. Its 1.8″ LCD screen (diagonal) will give you excellent visibility, and the night mode allows for better visibility in the evening. The 15 different modes will liberate you from any adjustment constraints, allow you to get excellent results regardless of the situation. The PowerShot A430 is the perfect way for anybody to get into digital photography.
Customer Review: Great camera especially for beginners
I bought this as a gift for my parents and they love it. I was looking for an entry level digital camera which is easier to operate not too many complex settings, etc etc and especially with a video output and all these with AA battery. Spot on. The quality is great as you would expect from Canon. It has nice little features like if you rotate the camera after taking a picture, the picture rotates on the screen! The only thing which I hate a bit is the time taken to save the picture on to the SD card. This may be due to the card I am using (which is a Sandisk 256MB). Other than that, it is a perfect camera with great features and neat looks. Go for it!
Customer Review: Fantastic camera
I was really really surprised by how good this camera is. I bought it as a replacemnt for the BENQ one I bought a few mths earlier which developed a fault. The pcitures are really good - had no blurry shots yet and the shutter delay is really short for a standard digital camera - about 1 second which is fine for taking photos of my fast moving toddler. The video clips you can record are as good as others I have tried and have different settings so you can take a large movie or a smaller one with better quality picture. There is sound playback on the camera as well as when you upload to pc. There are some great features such as portait mode, firework mode, night mode etc. and you can even take a picture keeping one chosen colour in or switch it for a different colour. The software supplied has some nice features - stitch assist helps you to take several pictures and blend them into one long panoramic picture. I am really pleased with this camera.
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Never miss a shot again! Fast, and built to last, SanDisk Standard CompactFlash Memory Cards will keep you clicking when the actions hot. Choose from 256MB, all the way up to a whopping 4GB of storage, and youll have plenty of room to store your world, safely and securely.
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Photoshop CS2 RAW: Using Adobe Camera Raw, Bridge, and Photoshop to Get the Most out of Your Digital Camera

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A High Performance 45X Speed SD card ideal for for pure, uninterrupted performance during photo shoots. Meets the single burst and sequential shooting needs of Intermediate/Professional photographers. Captures the perfect series of photos or a digital video shoot.
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List Price: ?13.99
Amazon Price: ?9.09
Used Price: ?5.43
Customer Review: VERY BASIC !
This book was a big let down for me giving me nothing more than the instruction book . Pictures in the book are very poor I would recomend saving your money or buying a ND Grad filter much more use !!
Customer Review: Bringing out the best
Having recently upgraded to an EOS 30D I wanted to get the best out of it, with this excellent book Charlotte has helped me really start to understand what my camera can do - a must have book.
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