I've had the HDR-UX20 for about 2 weeks now and have used it to record my sons football games and daughters volleyball games. I record the games to an 8GB duo pro memory stick at SP HQ quality and have been satisfied with the results. When I get home I insert the memory stick into a Sony VRD-MC5 DVD recorder, push record and copy the video to DVD. The mini DVD's only record about 20 mins of HQ video so I use full size DVD's on the MC5.I like the versatility of being able to record in HD, and recording on the internal memory, memory stick, or DVD. I had my last video camera for 7 years, so I wanted something that gave me maximum flexibility in recording media, and wanted to be able to record in HD and SD.
The unit is built well and is fairly intuitive. I read the reviews which said the touch screen is too small, however I find it easy to use and it works well for me. Everything I've used so far works as advertised.
I would highly recommend this handycam.
It's very flexible. The ability to record to 8GB internal or a 8GB flash card ("Memory Stick Pro Duo") is excellent. No moving parts, so the battery lasts forever (or at least a good long time).
Picture quality great in good lighting.
You can record to the memory or card, and then use the camera to burn to a mini-DVD only those clips you want -even at your mother-in-law's house (in the same format as you recorded).
You can record everything in HD, transfer the files to a PC, and then burn them to a full size DVD in either HD (in AVHCD format to play on a BluRay player) or SD (standard definition to play on a normal DVD player).
The not perfect:
Low light performance gets grainy pretty quickly. It works fine -just not a wonderful picture.
The video editing software that comes with the camera is very basic, too. No ability to create transitions between scenes or any other expected niceties of a movie-making package. I'm using an old copy of SONIC DigitalMedia Plus to make DVD's from the files -works great for SD recording (the folks I sent DVD's to don't have BluRay).
The touch screen is a little small -you get used to it.
All in all -great product -would buy it again.I bought this product because of the previous 5 star reviews from customers, but when I started to actually use the product, I was disappointed. I have a ps3 and a 1080p tv, so I wanted to start capturing my kids on HD. I was able to use the camera right away thanks to a quick start mode..really handy since I wanted to start practicing right away.
The camcorder's menus are relatively easy to figure out once you push enough buttons...however I don't like using the touch screen on such a small screen. I have size 7 fingers, and I can't imagine trying to hit the right button without frustration if they were any larger.
The Dolby 5.1 sound produced by this camera was wonderful! I couldn't believe it was just a regular camera mic and not a professional add-on.
The video quality however, left much to be desired...mostly in indoor shots, which is where I intend to do a lot of shooting. I have a well-lit house, lots of windows... and when it's extremely sunny inside, the shots were fine. However, when it was cloudy, and the indoor lighting was just normal, I saw noticeable noise on the playback, even on the highest setting. It looked worse than standard definition tapes from technology 15 years ago. I didn't feel spending $599 on a camera that could not produce at least an acceptable indoor light performance was justifiable. Amazon was great, and since I kept all the packaging and the camera in like-new condition, I sent it back and got a full refund, minus 7 bucks for shipping.
If you're looking for better indoor performance, after doing some more research, I'd suggest the Canon Vixia HFS100, or the HF100.
Edited to Add: I recently purchased the Canon VIXIA HF200 HD Flash Memory Camcorder with 15x Optical Zoom since it fit better in my budget than the HFS100, and the quality of overall performance is so much better than the Sony UX20. Very happy with the low-light performance...amazing difference. Don't waste your money on the UX20.This camera looks great to me. So far the video quality is excellent, and practically indistinguishable from what you'd expect from a DVD-quality movie. I have not tried it on a Blueray, though. It is very important to use the options menu, especially white balance, exposure control, etc. Using a fully automated mode rendered unnatural skin color and somewhat washed out picture, at least in my hands. Also in very low light the quality is not great but I assume there is not much to be done (to be sure, the quality is great with average indoor lighting).This is a great camera! The battery life is excellent. The video is very clear. And the sound is the best I have ever heard in a camera...and we have a miniDV, and Canon flash based camcorder. I would highly recommend this camera to others!
It is easy to import into your computer. I haven't tried to edit the content yet..but was able to easily get it into my machine.
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