Sony HDR-SR7E 60GB High Definition Camcorder
Sony HDR-SR7E 60GB High Definition Camcorder
The ultra-compact, stylishly-designed HDR-SR7 Handycam comes with ClearVid CMOS Sensor, x.v.Colour and a Carl Zeiss? Vario-Sonnar?T* lens. Also featuring 60GB HDD that allows you to record 1080i HD movie for up to 22 hours.
Customer Review: I didn’t think I would buy a SONY
I just bought the camcorder from Amazon for my honeymoon trip next august
and it’s so cool….I love it even though its expensive but worth it because it will
live longer with you due to its new technology … usually I am not satisfied with Sony products
because of its lack of features but I liked this one …
you should buy a big battery with this one if you want to have more free time
and what I did is bought a charger coz if you charge it in the camcorder
it will take all day but with the charger it will take 4 hours or less depending on the size
of the battery…also try to get the wide angel lens and the tele lens if you want to take
nice shots …
Upsides: small, elegant, manual focus, high quality still images, HD or SD recording modes, HDMI output ready for hd TVs
Downsides: price, batteries is 90 mins only, lack of mini HDMI cable, in HD recording mode you only
can see the clips in the camera, PC, and a blue-ray hd dvd players
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JVC GZ-MG36EK Everio Digital Media Camcorder 
Customer Review: The ruination of a potentially good product
This camera has all the attributes of a ‘rushed job’ product. I can’t believe JVC made any attempt to road test it before releasing it onto the market, otherwise they would have seen how terribly flawed it was. Mechanically it seems quite robust, is pretty easy to use, has the advantage of both 4:3 and 16:9 capability together with a vary useful ‘thumbnail’ index and the 30GB drive represents what would be a very large cardboard box of tapes . Agreed, the low-light performance is poor, even with the puny built-in movie light, and having to rely on the screen (there is no view-finder) to compose pictures in very bright sunlight becomes something of a challenge, but these points do not lose it four stars. It’s trying to enjoy the fruits of your videographic labours that is the problem. What does the damage is, first, the peculiar .mod file structure (a JVC unique?) and then the truly appalling Cyberlink software that comes with the camera. Even the simple transfer of files to the PC is not foolproof (loss of ’scenes’) and subsequent DVD production is both tedious and again innaccurate - i.e. I have frequently ‘lost’ anything up to 15 mins of data on a 90 minute composition. And seemingly no other video editing software can cope with that .mod file structure, so you’re stuck with what JVC have given you. No - sorry, JVC, but as it stands at the moment, this potentially great idea is a frustrating dud. Perhaps for the time being we will have to revert to the cardboard box of tapes. I am about to.
Customer Review: Ignore this at your peril!
You may be seduced, as I was, at low prices being offered for this item. DO NOT BUY IT!!! As other reviewers have pointed out, the low light image quality is very poor. The bundled software supplied (Cyberlink) is truly appalling. I have had the machine for over a month, tried it out and it worked OK - very small and light and easy to use. In fact the thing is a joy to use. But there it ends. I took mine on honeymoon, took 2 hours of video, only to find when I got it home that one of the files had corrupted (through no fault of mine) and messed up the hard disk. Took hours (literally) to eventually coax the thing to send the video files via USB, then when it finally decided to play ball the crappy Cyberlink software couldn’t write to disk. Nor could I use another programme, as the .mod files produced by the camera are not recognisable to most normal video editing software (and I tried renaming the files to mpeg, but that didn’t work). My advice would be to pay a litle more and buy Sony. JVC are not up to the mark, despite their clever advertising, and the supplied software is rubbish. You will end up tearing your hair out. Bottom line is that I regret not following my instincts to buy Sony. I will never buy another JVC product - ever. DO NOT BUY THIS CAMCORDER - IT IS A COMPLETE WASTE OF MONEY. Mine is going straight back to JVC.
Samsung VP-D371W/XEU MiniDV Camcorder With 34 Optical 1200 Digital Zoom 
Mini DV format.
Used Price: ?106.99
Customer Review: Low Quality Camcorder
I bought the Camcorder from Amazon because I previously had a Hi8 Samsung camcorder, which died. The functionalities of this DV version is very basic and it is made from cheap plastic. It feels like it is going to break anytime soon. I tried it for 10mins and sent it back and I bought the DCR-HC27 sony dv camcorder from Amazon which is excellent. You get what you pay for, u decide. And it did not come with firewire cable or editing software
Customer Review: Marvel camera
I had the good fortune to buy this camera yesterday and am absolutely amazed with it, the video quality is incredible, the zoom is fantastic, and the different modes are likewise. The one problem I have with it is it doesn’t have a PC cable.
The 2007-2012 Outlook for Digital Camcorders in Greater China 
Sony DCR-SR290 Hard Disc Drive Camcorder With 2.7” LCD Screen 
HDD HANDYCAM 40GB H/DR 1/3 CLEARVID 6.1 M/PXL STL REC NS
Amazon Price: ?510.00
Used Price: ?420.00
Customer Review: Excellent camera but only in daylight
When I read the review by Phil Latham below I couldn’t believe the coincidence, I am also replacing an old Sony TRV65 which has served me well for 10 years. I bought the Sony DCR-SR290 camcorder based on the specifications and the other reviews here but I am sorry to say that after owning it for less than 24 hours I have sent it back, due to absolutely dreadful performance in artificial light e.g. in the house with all the lights on, I am not referring just to low light. The only way to get a focussed picture is to leave the camcorder completely still pointing at something that isn’t moving. If you point at a moving target e.g. a person walking across the frame, or pan the camcorder horizontally or vertically at anything more than a snail’s pace there is just so much jitter and picture instability I could not believe my eyes. The problem isn’t noticeable on the LCD screen, it’s only when you plug the camcorder into a TV to monitor the shots live or to play-back a recording that it becomes obvious (my Grundig CRT TV is not at fault - I plugged-in my old Hi-8 TRV65 and the images from this in the same room and light levels are perfect - it’s no contest). Outside in natural light the SR290 is truly outstanding and the auto focus is very quick indeed. Thinking that there must be some sort of fault with it I got a demo of another identical unit in a Sony Centre shop, only to discover that this had the same problem. The salesman was also very surprised. In addition to the picture problem there is an issue with connecting to the PC via USB2. With the enclosed software installed, my PC will recognise the camcorder as a USB mass storage device, and I can browse the SR290’s internal drive and copy short video files across or use the Sony application software to do the same. But the camcorder does not recognise that it has successfully connected to the PC and will time-out and disconnect after a few minutes, meaning that it would not be possible to copy larger video files across which take more time. My PC is not at fault here, I experienced the same when trying it with my laptop. You must also not touch (or even breathe near) the camcorder when it is on the docking station as the gravity-reliant connection between the two items is very ’slight’. If you touch the camcorder even lightly this will interrupt the connection, this could possibly corrupt the drive if a file is transferring at the time. I am so disappointed as there is no other camcorder on the market with similar specifications at this price. If you only intend to use it in daylight then I would recommend it for it’s picture quality, image stabiliser, comfortable weight, handling and ease of use, though the docking station and USB issues could prove very frustrating. Try again Sony….
Customer Review: Sony have produced another brilliant product!
Last month I decided to buy a camcorder and in order to make my life easier I went for an HDD model to avoid the need of using tapes/discs. I do have to admit here that I am a big Sony fan! 
Hence, I didn’t have to spend too much time before I narrowed down my choices to 3-4 models. Important criteria for me included: 1) disk space, 2) good image quality and stabilisation and 3) functionality. Finally, it was down to the DCR-SR190 and DCR-SR290 models. One major difference between them was the type of image stabiliser (digital for the 190 and optical for the 290). And because the optical image stabiliser is better than the digital one (according to the experts!) meant that in the end I opted to invest a bit more money and go for the DCR-SR290. What a great decision I made! All the previous reviews on this camera posted on the site are spot-on when it comes to the positive points. Personally, I cannot see anything wrong with the camcorder at all! So easy to use, small, light, fantastic LCD screen with great touch-screen menus, plenty of intuitive menus and choices of formats and shooting modes etc. The videos are of excellent clarity and quality, even indoors and under low light conditions, and the night shot is really good, too. The image stabilisation is great and that is so useful when you zoom in a lot. As for the sound… now that is as amazing as the image quality! Surround sound you’re promised, surround sound you get! The microphone is really good and sensitive. When you play your videos with your home cinema speakers on you can appreciate how good it is! The battery seems to last for a good length of time - as promised by the manufacturer. I also bought a case, my suggestions is don’t go for the recommended case, it looks too big and my guess is one would end up carrying a big case for a small camera! I bought the LSC-VAC Compact Camcorder Soft Carrying Case and it fits nicely, I would definitely recommend it. Finally, the only fear I had before I bought the camera was whether the software that came with it would be good or not, one of the (few admittedly!) Sony weaknesses sometimes. The software is actually quite good, easy to edit videos and burn them to DVD (you can create menus, thumbnails etc and make some nice compilations…). The camera connected to my laptop (Windows XP) very easily, down-loading the videos is straight forward - I didn’t bother spending too much time reading the manual on this, it’s really easy to do. And speaking of the manual, the full pdf version is 132 pages, but don’t let that scare you! You really don’t need to read much of it, you get the hang of using the camera really quickly. Overall impression, just three words: well done Sony!!!
