Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days 4 new or used available from $609.50 Average customer review: |
Customer mini DV camcorder Reviews
So far I have found this to be a great Camcorders DV mini Digital. Here are a few of my observations so far.
Video Quality: The video quality this this takes is great. However, there must be sufficient lighting. In a dimly light room, for instance, the video accumulates a fair bit of grain. But by adding a few more lights, or taking it outside on a nice day, your videos will rival that of broadcast HDTV.
Sound: Like most all mini dv camcorders the sound is very average. And the only mic’s available are proprietary Sony mic’s. One must upgrade to the HC7 to get the real mic inputs.
Features: This Sony HDR-HC5 comes pretty packed. There are manual settings for exposure, focus, white balance, and a few others as well. And all of these, for better or worse, are adjusted through the touch screen interface that I personally love. Some of the buttons on the screen are small, so those with bigger fingers may have trouble navigating the camera.
Battery: I get about an hour of real recording time with the built in battery. It’s enough to get through a Mini-DV tape, but not much more.
Other: The “Smooth Slow Record” is garbage. Yes, it does record 3 seconds of video extremely slow. But the video quality makes YouTube look like HD… It is bad. The Night Shot is pretty cool and works just as described. The effect is only as good as the built in IR light, so you can see maybe 15′ in the dark. The touch focus feature is really cool. Just touch on the screen where you want the camera to focus, and it does it automatically.
Recording on Mini-DV tapes seems quite antiquated, but it does get the job done. It is a proven standard and pretty much any decent video editing program can handle it. The hard drive camcorders out there that record in AVC-HD do not currently enjoy as much compatibility as HDV, so that is why I when the tape based route.
Overall, this is a great High Definition Camcorder. It could use some “real” manual features, like a dedicated focus ring, but those kind of features seem to be reserved for cameras in the 4 digit area. The video quality is also great in the right conditions. Definitely recommended.
March 2nd, 2009 at 1:48 pm
[...] (mini DV camcorder) Sony HDR-HC5 4MP Mini DV High Definition … [...]