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| Date Reviewed: 07/19/2005 |
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Strengths: Small & lightweight, battery remaining time disp., great pic & sound, swivel LCD screen that folds into camera, NO dangling lens cap to annoy.
Weaknesses: LCD a bit small, (but so is the whole camera), rec/pause button is easy to accidentally hit.
Summary: LOVE it!!! We've bought a new camcorder each time one of our kids was born, this being our 3rd & definitely our favorite. (camcorder, that is) This is the keeper, & I'll stay with Sony when I do have to shop for a new one. It's amazingly small. It fits easily in my purse or diaper bag, so no more "wish I had the camera" moments. Pic/sound quality is great--played back on the unit, Computer, or TV. Hubby loves firewire connectivity. I was worried it'd be fragile, with the touchscreen & built-in lens cover being "new" features, but it seems quite sturdy. "End Search" feature finds end of last recording, so you can go back to review and not worry about it. Screen shows time left on tape as well as time left on battery. I think the battery life is very good, and it recharges quickly. Haven't needed a 2nd. battery, but nice to know they come in different sizes, and even longest life isn't very heavy. Nightshot allowed me to tape my baby sleeping in complete darkness...I even used it to walk into the room so I could see where I was going without turning on a light & waking him. Amazing.
 97% of People (33/34) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 04/28/2005 |
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Strengths: It is very sleek and the picture qualily is good
Weaknesses: None
Summary: This will be a good one beginners who does not care about B/W view finder and digital pass through. The picture and sound quality is great. The battery that came with this is very small and not good enough. Need to buy a battery for more recording time.
93% of People (41/44) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 06/08/2005 |
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Strengths: Relatively easy to use
Weaknesses: Wide and Tight buttons are hard to press while filming
Summary: Overall a nice middle of the road camera. Most of the interface is relatively easy. Don't like the difficulty with the wide and tight zoom buttons while taping and trying to get the shot steady.
89% of People (8/9) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 05/26/2005 |
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Strengths: light weight, compact, lcd screen menu, great sound and picture, great customer service support
Weaknesses: manual closing lens cover, too many steps to get the fade-in, fade out button to operate - otherwise it's a great camera.
Summary: I love the Sony DCR-HC21 because of it size, weight and ease of use. I like the lcd screen menu (and do not have a problem with finger prints as some have mentioned but must use with clean fingers)
The only 2 problems I've found so far is: 1.) the fact that you have to open and close the lens manually which is hard to remember sometimes which could result in damage. 2.) The fade in and out feature, which I find handy to separate scenes when dubbing, requires too many steps to use. A better idea would have been to have a button to choose from on the side of the camcorder after intitially choosing the type of fading you wanted. The fader feature could have replaced the "easy" button which is on the side of the camcorder and is used for preset "easy" usage features.
The camcorder is very easy to use and is somewhat affordable and one of the smallest I've found. I have to also comment on the fact that customer service is a breeze to contact and was very helpful when I had a question.
88% of People (30/34) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 07/25/2005 |
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Strengths: 20X optical magnification, very light, touchpad easy to use.
Weaknesses: Low battery capacity.
Summary: Easy to use. A lot of things can be done using the touchpad. 20X optical magnification is great--you can take a good look at the moon, especially when it is full moon and it was great. Very light.
A major shortcoming is the very low capacity of the battery--it came with a P30. You almost have to immediately buy a spare battery and I recommend a P70 or P71. I ordered a generic P70 at about $20. Not bad.
Another shortcoming is the buzzing noise when recording which is the same as a HC 20 I bought last last year. At that time I thought that it was a defect so I called tech support who told me it was normal--so it is a normal shortcoming. I do not remember hearing it in a Hi8 Sony camcorder I had quite a few years ago.
86% of People (6/7) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 03/30/2005 |
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Strengths: small size, easy to use, good picture and sound quality
Weaknesses: touchscreen
Summary: Overall this is a good buy. only problem that I faced till now is touch screen. Usage of touch screen menu leaves finger spots on screen.
81% of People (17/21) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 04/14/2005 |
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Strengths: quality and ease of use
Weaknesses: battery life and finger prints
Summary: Great picture quality with the option for backlighting, easy cam, and nightvision. Import to computer quality is poor unless you import through different software. Windows Movie Maker for example. Fire wire highly suggested.
Finger prints on the touch screen, battery life is short, I would purchase a battery and dry your hands before touching the screen.
71% of People (10/14) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 06/15/2005 |
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Strengths: small size, great zoom
Weaknesses: battery
Summary: great small camera for people that already have a digital camera and don't need it to take still shots.
very light, small , excellent zoom, touchscreen as any sony has. black and white view finder
67% of People (6/9) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 06/08/2005 |
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Strengths: NA
Weaknesses: NA
Summary: I just got the new Sony Handycam DCR-HC21 MiniDV Digital Camcorder about one month. For the first month, I used a lot. So I am feeling the camcorder is very easy to use, small size, easy to handle and I got very clear pictures, whatever at day or night. I like the price of this product. I give this product a rate, highly recommended-one of the best.
67% of People (4/6) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 12/20/2005 |
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Strengths: Small...Easy to use....Simple operation
Weaknesses: For it's price...NONE
Summary: For the price of this Camcorder this is probably the best buy. It has very high resolution compared to models in it's same price range...IE Canon ZR300.
Touch screen is fantastic...(to avoid fingerprints just press it with you nail) and contrary to the ealier review the data transfter rate and resolution are great...but you want to use the firewire do maintain the digital quality.
I love it!
67% of People (2/3) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 03/27/2005 |
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 The camera is very easy to use for recording and p ... Strengths: A nice small, lightweight and comfortable camera.
Weaknesses: Black and white viewfinder; touch-screen controls; slow transfer speed; short battery life...
Summary: The camera is very easy to use for recording and playback. It's small and easy to carry. But the battery life is too short. And I'm not so comfortable with the black and white viewfinder. Plus, you have to touch the screen to operate which will leave the LCD fingerprinted. Also, When you transfer the images to your computer, the speed is too slow and the quality is terrible.
63% of People (20/32) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 12/22/2005 |
- eolson22
- Member Since:
Dec 2005
View Member's:
Reviews
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Very nice toy, but doesn't work with Mac
Strengths: Easiest to use video camera I can imagine
Weaknesses: All video is reversed left-to-right when downloading via Firewire
Summary: We bought this Handycam after seeing a Handycam in the Apple store. It was easy to learn to use - in fact we only had a day before going on vacation - and has good zoom features and the ability to record "still" photos, that is, it freezes a frame of video for many seconds.
However, upon returning home from vacation, and buying another cable, I was unable to get video onto my Titanium Powerbook G4. All of the video is reversed left to right. So, in the end, this camera is of dubious value.
Back at the Apple store, they declined to demonstrate the camera again.
40% of People (2/5) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 02/04/2007 |
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 Sony Handycam DCR HC21 Strengths: Small size, ease of use, price
Weaknesses: Audio, lack of controls on body, low-light operation
Summary: For the money (I paid approximately $350 about a year ago), this is a pretty good, basic camcorder for the point-and-shoot crowd. The picture quality in bright indoor light and outdoors is clear, with very good color saturation and little noise. But when the light indoors is weak, the image quality degrades a lot, with a lot of graininess. A cool feature is the Nightshot Plus (IR) feature, which allows you to shoot in total darkness. It's not perfect (only a 10-foot range, records things in a green cast, and the recorded video looks like someone was shining a flashlight at the subjects) but it's cool to be able to sit on a beach while fishing in pitch black darkness and still be able to prove that you really did catch and release that big one! One big problem I have with this camcorder, and one that might push me away from one like it should I be in the market again soon, is the audio quality. This camcorder records at 16-bit, which is CD quality, but the unit's small size and the placement of the microphone tends to result in the recording of the tape mechanism and the zoom motor. A lot of the things I have recorded in quiet settings are ruined by a pronounced, and highly distracting, buzzing sound. The biggest problem, however, is the LCD touchscreen. All of the major controls (menu settings, VCR playback, FF, and REW) must be accessed on the touchscreen. There are no major controls on the body of the unit. Why is this a problem? LCD screens break, as mine did this morning when a toddler pulled the camcorder off a table onto the floor. Even though the LCD screen was closed, it still cracked. And now I am unable to do much of anything other than record. I can use the remote to play, FF, and REW video, and I can watch what I shot in the unit's very small, b&w viewfinder, but there is no way for me to access the menu. If I need to change the time or date, or turn the IR light on (it is currently off), I can't. I am stuck. To get it fixed, since it's not a warrantied repair, would cost me $211 plus tax and shipping to Sony. It hardly seems worth it, since I paid so little for it in the first place. I guess I'm kind of stuck. So, if you don't mind your CD quality audio being compromised by the recorded buzz of your camcorder's tape mechanism, and you are confident that you will never break your touchscreen, this might be a good entry-level, basic camcorder for you. For the baby's birthday and the annual family camping trip, this basic camcorder would certainly fit the bill. Just be careful with it!
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