Sony DCR-SR68 80GB Hard Disk Drive Handycam Camcorder (Blue)

I bought this with 3 basic needs, 1.I wanted something compact, 2. I wanted the capability to take pictures. 3. I wanted it to have a night vision light. You would think these 3 things would be easy to find in many cameras at a decent price range, but they were not! So how did this fair up? This camera is one of the most compact, even smaller than I expected. 2. It's picture taking ability I was least impressed with. It was pretty grainy. 3. The night vision light was pretty weak, but hey I expected that for such a small camera. The battery life with the standard battery was about avg. 4 hrs. As far as working the camera, it was VERY simple, figured it out in 5 minutes w/o reading instructions, needless to say, there are VERY few menu screens, touch screen is kinda nice, but would also liked to have the capability to tape w/the viewfinder closed. All in all, i'm pretty happy w/the purchase, just don't buy it if you want it to take good pictures, i've had phones that took clearer pictures.

I bought this at a store, not Amazon. I read good reviews about earlier models, and was a bit hesitant to buy this camera because a few people said the video quality was bad. I took the risk, but they were right. The video (and digital picture) quality are unacceptable. Even in decent lighting, the pictures are very dark and grainy, as if they were taken by an old webcam. Even at high quality, there was no improvement. Also, the autofocus was very poor and did not adjust to fast-moving subjects. Don't be fooled if you try it in a store; the LCD screen has great resolution (better than an iPod) but when you see the video on a computer screen (even when not blown to full size) or on a projection screen, the video quality is so bad. It looks average on a traditional TV. And the zoom mic also does not capture sound effectively. I was going to use this for business videography, but it would have been embarrassing to use this camcorder. I suspect similar camcorders (i.e. 1/6 CCD) may have similar inferior quality. The size, zoom quality, and touch screen might be nice features, but my Canon A570 digital camera from four years ago took better video.

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I purchased this camera at a 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 brokeneverything is gone.

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 Pants 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. I would use some other software to edit it though.

5. 80 GB storage space is great

6. The Sony software has a calendar to see events on a chronological order, that looks great if you are time conscious about the video

Overall I am not satisfied with this camcorder. I will return it soon.

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I'm disappointed in Sony's response to my camera's errors. I would expect a much better response.

"Buffer Overflow" problem, along with lost data. Hard drive errors.

I would not recommend anyone to purchase this camera.

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I had been looking for a second video camera, one with a sizeable internal hard drive to store a lot of footage. I was partial to Sony, having purchased many Sony products over the years that gave good service. I did my homework and checked out reviews and Tech websites. Finally I settled on this camcorder. When it arrived, I was excited to test it out. I took some footage of my garden, about one minute. Then I downloaded the clip into my computer. Gasp! It didn't look crisp and clear. It looked hazy and fuzzy. To compare, I took a comparable video with my other camcorder and downloaded it into my computer. Much different. Better! Crisper! Clearer! What I had been used to. The second camera, let me say, is also a Sony, but one that uses mini-video-tape. I compared the size of the files downloaded on my computer, each roughly one minute long. Whereas the file from the old Sony was about 276 MB's, the file from the new camcorder was about 75 MB's, about one-fourth the size, more compressed. No wonder!! I called Sony, and registered my complaint. No comment or suggestion on how to improve performance. I called Vanns, the vendor, to arrange a return. The only good thing about the transaction was the great service from Vanns. A prompt refund. No questions asked. Of course, I had to pay the return postage. I saw some very glowing reviews on this product before I bought it. The only thing I can say is these people probably had nothing to compare the quality of the video to. Otherwise, I can't imagine how anyone can think that this is a camcorder that delivers high-quality or even decent-quality videos.