Customer Ratings & Reviews

I purchased this camera at Best buy store, believing the SONY brand name and previous good reviews about similar Sony camcorders. There are several flaws to this product. Cons 1. Picture quality is very poor, Indoor and outdoor pictures in good light appear with a bluish tint all over. If you wear a white /gray cloth it appears bluish on video. Like wise the sunlight coming inside your house through window /blinds all appears light blue!! Even with good lighting the quality of images are very bad, lacks sharpness, This in comparison to my old Panasonic PV GS120 is not even close to true color. If you view the pictures on a TV screen it will definitely appear lacking the sharpness. If you are transferring the video to computer using the supplied software it appears very blurry and grainy. 2. There is no way you can charge the battery when camcorder is in use even if there is a spare battery because the battery charging is done hooking up the AC adapter to the camcorder! This seems really stupid. Sony could have made a battery slot on the AC adapter to do this. 3. There is no separate viewfinder. So if the LCD is broken- everything is gone. In bright light especially outdoor, it is hard to see anything on the LCD. 4. Audio quality does not seem to be that good but average. 5. I can not find the resolution of the camera for still shots, nothing is mentioned in the manual either. You can not shoot a still picture while recording the video, you have to capture it from the video shots already made. Yea the resolution does not matter in that case. 6. Battery life approximately less than an hour 7. The LED for lighting seems silly Pros 1. Small size, you can carry in pocket 2. Provision to use SDHC card instead of the "Sony's own" memory stick duo only. I have not used one yet though. 3. LCD is very clear and sharp (good resolution), and it responds well to the touch. 4. Video transfer is quick and easy once the basic Sony software is installed. There is no provision to properly edit the video on this very basic software. It captures video in JPEG-2 format, which may create problems if you are trying to edit in Windows moviemaker or similar soft ware. Conversion to wmv files takes several hours even for 1 GB video. I would use some other software to edit it though. 5. 80 GB storage space is great 6. The Sony software has a calendar /index view to see events on a chronological order, that looks great. Overall I am not satisfied with this camcorder. I will return it soon.

Bought this for my retired parents and the controls on the top that are worked with the fingers are difficult to reach (too far inside) as it's so small. The lens cap has to be removed manually each time and replaced the same way. There is no viewfinder for outdoor sunny times when the lcd doesn't show up. My parents exchanged it for something other than a sony, which disappointed me because our sony is awesome.

The camera is small. Very easy to use. Touch screen. It downloads to the computer very easy. Overall Its a very good camera. The overall weight and size makes it the camera to take on trips.

This is a good little camera for stuff like Youtube. It is easy to use and has a beautiful user interface, with its touch screen and logical layout. It uploads to my computer quickly and the software is very user friendly. My only concern is that the resolution is disappointing. This camera isn't good if you plan to do high quality video production. The resolution is way too grainy, even on the high res setting and in good lighting. My old Vhs camcorder had far superior quality over this Sony.

We recieved this camera as my 15 year gift at my company. For being free, it meets my expectations, but I would not purchase it willingly from the store. I would spend a little more and get and HD video camera. If you do not care about picture quality or are on a budget, it is a nice overall video camera. I must say that the metallic blue is beautiful. One problem is that it doesn't have a night mode.

this is my first camcorder and i was very surprised how easy it is to operate The picture quality was good I have no complaints

I did extensive research on personal camcorders and their abilities befor buying this product. I went to every electronics store out there handled them, browsed through the features, tested focus abilities and anything else i could do with the camcorders in store. Best Buy really had the best equipment and for the best price. The Sony Handycam 80gig is perfect. The recording time on high quality is around 1200minutes! Thats almost 24hrs. I bought this camera for our trip to hawaii that was 8 days and only used around 240 minutes! Every night I charged the Sony so there was no need for additional batteries. When we got home transferring the files were very easy and very sharable! The Sony Handycam is THE ONE.

This camera is great! Now I wonder why I didn't buy one sooner. It takes great videos. The best purchase I've made in awhile.

price is worth! it's very easy to use, i didn't have to read the manual, thats how easy it is..and the price worth every penny!, got the free shipping too! very economical esp for beginners! thanks best buy!

Camera is very handy and vertisal. It has nice picture quality and long battery life. Great camera for a beginner.

I bought this camcorder for my son for Christmas so he could video tape my new grandson. He loves it! It's lightweight and easy to use. I can't wait to see the videos :)

Great beginners camcorder. 60x zoom is a great feature. The only downfall that I have found with this camcorder is the picture function. Still photographs are very low resolution. Other than that the camcorder is great.

Sony is my overall go to company when it comes to electronics and they did not let me down with this camcorder. Complete user friendly, great value for the money and the latest in technology! Plus the fun blue color is an added bonus!!

handles nicely,picture looks like HD ,clear and crisp,record button takes a little getting use to in that position but ok,built in lens cap is nice but in bright sun screen is a little hard to see that it says lens cap is closed and took ahalf hour of action that was just black, "mabey my fault should have paid more attention"but love it so far

Purchased this camcorder after a returning a Panasonic for poor video quality. Menus are easy to navigate with the touch screen and the video is superior to the Panasonic

Great little camera...acessories are really expensive though. Battery could be a direct charge type but am really happy with this camera!

Was so impressed on how well it works and the great quality recording you get even on the lowest setting. I belive that this may be the best value in a camcorder. The harddrive with the card options provide more usable options then any other device I know!!!!!!

This camcorder is great it has every thing I was looking for in a camcorder.

I was interested in a Tripod as well. There was a Sony Accesories packet inside and saw one for $99. Couldn't figure out how to order it online so I ended up going on AMAZON.com for the same model as the this camera and found one $32.00 cheaper that came with a remote control! Awesome. I also got phenomenal customer service at the Best Buy in Stroudsburg, Pa. 18360! Thanks, Best Buy! Sue

As a video camera it works great, but I do wish the still shots were better quality. I do have a Sony HD Camera so pairing it with this video camera works great and both fit in the carrying case that was included with my bundle.