This camcorder has very poor sound recording quality. Sound is very muffled. Conversely, noise from handling the camera (the way a camcorder is usually used) is louder than the subject being recorded. I had it mounted on a tripod, but it still it picks up bump noises when turning the tripod or touching the cam. The Zoom is not smooth, but clicks so you hear all the clicks when zooming in/out to frame the scene, and the zoom apparently moves is tiny increments which show up as faint whirring motor sounds when zooming in and out. I contacted Minolta about the solution was to use an external microphone. So -- buy another piece of equipment and drag it around? No way! Something is wrong with the camera.