Sony DCRHC30 MiniDV Digital Handycam Camcorder

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Manufacturer: Sony
Price at amazon.com: Too Low To Display
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Used & new from $425.00

List price $599.99



Product Features:

• Sleek, compact MiniDV camcorder and digital still camera with 680,000-pixel CCD
• 10x optical zoom lens (digital zoom to 120x) with Super SteadyShot image stabilizer
• 2.5-inch rotating LCD and color viewfinder
• Low-light recording settings, Memory Stick Duo slot, and accessory shoe
• NP-FM50 InfoLithium Rechargeable Battery

Product Description:

680,000-pixel CCD * digital photo mode * photo resolution: 640 x 480 * MPEG Movie EX * compatible with Memory Stick Duo or Memory Stick PRO® Duo (8MB Memory Stick Duo supplied) * 2-1/2" color touch-panel viewscreen * color viewfinder * PCM stereo digital audio (12-bit or 16-bit) * variable-speed 10X Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar optical zoom lens (digital zoom to 120X) * Super SteadyShot * Super NightShot Plus * auto and manual focus * shutter speeds (1/4 1/4,000) * 6 AE modes * digital picture effects * i.LINK® jack * A/V input/output, including S-video * USB interface * M-JPEG video streaming to PC via USB (Microsoft® NetMeeting® required) * Accessory Shoe * microphone input * 2-1/2"W x 3-7/16"H x 4-7/16"D * weight: 0.94 lbs. with battery * warranty: 1 year parts, 90 days labor

Average Customer Rating:

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Comment: software (and its support) is poor Rating:
Cant figure out the software ("Picture Package") that comes with the camcorder.

The only way to get video from the camcorder through Firewire interface, seems to be to use the "Automatic Video Producer" feature of "Picture Package".

To do such a video capture, it forces you to choose a value for the options "Music settings" (for sound) and "Effect/Style" (for video). There is NO WAY not to choose a value for these options !! So whatever video you download has these stupid effects :( I managed to get rid of the "Music settings" by going to the installation folder and physically removing the .mp3 file it was using for the sound effects. But I cannot find a way to get rid of the video effects ..

Sony support was not helpful.

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Comment: Hard to figure out vidio transfer to computer Rating:
I am also Software engineer(5+) and have many years of building and fixing computer problems. But it was so hard for me to figure out how to transfer video to my computer. With this Picture Package software, it was impossible so I had to use other tools(luckly I had pinnacle software). It did not come with firewire so I wanted to use USB cable but it did not work. I had to install xp sp1(not mentioned in sony mannual) for this to recognize video transfer. Quality was bad so I bought firewire cable and card and it works fine now.

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Comment: Software that comes with it and support are terrible Rating:
I'm a software developer of 15+ years, build my own computers, and am a fairly serious amateur photographer, and I CANNOT figure out the Picture Package software that comes with the camera for transferring the video to my computer, a CD, or a DVD. I've spent probably 5-6 hours over 2 days. The Picture Package Auto Video program, which seems to be the only way to capture the video on your computer with Sony's software is using 99% of my 2.8 GHz Pentium 4 cpu when I click on anything in the screen. There is NO online support except a telephone number provided (not even an 800 number) for Pixela User Support.

All the reviews said the picture quality was amazing, and I find the camera itself reasonable to use. I love its size, and find the touch screen easy to use after looking up a couple key items. But if I can not transfer the video to the computer with the software and equipment Sony provides, something is VERY wrong.

I am well aware I can use other capture software, but as a big Sony fan, I am very disappointed.

Posted at November 11, 2003 07:59 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)