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• Good to camcorder to learn with

• June 15, 2011
• By: Rob

This was my first camcorder I bought, purchased 6 months ago. Below are the pros and cons which I have found thus far. Note: I have some previous experience with DSLRs for photography only. Also, I do not often use the photo feature of this camcorder so I won't review these features. Pros: - Sharp, clear shots under good lighting conditions. - Easy to use interface. - Basic options shown clearly, making it easy for beginners. - Light camcorder. - "Touch point" focus is a nice option and works well under most conditions. - Optical stabilization works well at damping most small movements. - Great stereo sound. - LCD screen can be seen easily under most light conditions once the brightness has been changed accordingly. - Great zoom capabilities. - The 1-hr battery life is good for most purposes. I bought an extra for day-long events. Cons: - The widest view angle is quite narrow and cannot easily fit an indoor scene into the frame (I had to purchase a $200 wide angle adapter, a poor work-around). - Auto focus struggles under low light conditions. It sometimes won't adjust properly even in good lighting conditions. - Manual focus is too hard to change (small knob or through the touch screen). - The auto focus will sometimes focus on specs of dust when zoomed out to the widest view angle (yes, it can focus this close, possibly making it decent for macro videography). - Mediocre low light performance. The camera tries to compensate too much at times for the low light conditions, making the shots very grainy. - Like many in-camera microphones, the microphones are very sensitive to wind buffet. - Using this camcorder outdoors in the cold (-15C) caused issues with the mechanical lens cover. At first it would not fully open, then later lost all function while stuck half open. Brought it back for repairs and have not had a chance to test it in the cold. At the cold temperature I also experienced memory card errors, but that may have been from the Transcend SD card I was using. For consumer/beginner purposes, this camera will be a good fit. If you know more about how to use camera features found on DSLR cameras, you may want to look into a camcorder with a wider variety of manual controls. Keep in mind that the narrow field of view will be an issue for most indoor uses (zoom is not everything, make sure you can get a wide view angle as well!!). My next camcorder will likely be a DSLR with video capabilities for the greater range of manual controls and wide variety of lens options. Unless you really want simplicity, a large zoom capability, and auto-focus for video, then I suggest looking into a DSLR as well. There is much more room for growth.

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