My first impressions of this small camcorder are very good. The size is perfect as it fits in your purse so it is available at all times. How many times have you thought I wish I had my camera. The battery last about one and a half hours,it is a infolithium battery, which means that you can see how much time you have left on it. Plus it will hold and retain its charge over time. The record time on sp is about 85 minutes. This camcorder will accept up to a 16 gig memory card. And, you can purchase additional batteries with longer record time. The number of the batteries range between np-fh50 to np-fh100. The touch screen is simple and easy to use. It is powered up when the lcd screen is opened. The controls all have a good placement.The zoom is great works quietly and quickly. The sound is also very good(I could hear every bite the cat ate,the screech of the rocking chair and even the tv which was turned low.)No it is not hd but the picture is very good. This camcorder has a quality build and a Carl Zeiss lens. Because of the features, you would expect this small beauty to be more expensive. So in the end you get quite a lot of bang for your buck.I wanted to add that with a 8 gig card you get an additionl 174 minutes(nearly 3 hrs. additional record time.The npfh50 battery gives you 3 hrs of additional charge. When this two items are added you have nearly 4 and a half hours of record time. Also, the camcorder allows you to choose to record on the internal memory or the memory stick. Plus Amazon has the best prices on the battery and memory card.
I love the SX40's compact size, the feather lightness, the intuitive simplicity of filming, and the clarity of the movies on our TV screen. I do not love the short battery life and long recharge time.
I was also troubled by camera's filetype and the bundled Picture Motion Browser software. Other reviewers have made similar complaints, so I was ready for the glitch but still frustrated. The problem here is that the MPEG-2 files the camera creates have special DVD encoding. They require a top of the line computer system if you want to view them and edit them, even with the included software.
I'm running Windows XP Service Pack 3. My film files appeared in the Picture Motion Browser as a white screen with a grey "broken" icon. I had to download DirectX9 from Microsoft, and also download the most up-to-date graphics card driver, in order to view my files through Picture Motion Browser. I had no luck at all viewing the files in Windows Media Player. You can pay Microsoft for a download of the correct decoder for Windows Media Player, however:Everything worked fine on my husband's newer Windows Vista system -no tweaking required.
Buy Sony DCR-SX40 Palm-Sized camcorder with 60X Optical Zoom (Silver) Now
Tried for the first time at a school concert where I sat at the back of the auditorium as I do not want to disturb others as I might be fussing with the unit. With the 60x optical, it came out very well. Even managed to zoom into the individual face. Picked up the music played clearly without any problems. The battery that came with the unit has maximum of abt 1 and half hours. Not enough for most and would need to buy a higher capacity battery. Would need additional memory as 4Gb would not be enough at least for me.The unit is so small, it fits onto your palm nicely. Probably too small for those with big hands!! When watched taped movies using my analog TV, it is much clearer than the old tape camcorders. Still pictures taken was just as good, obviously without the results as a still camera.
No conversion issues/problems. The software that came with the unit simply provides the managing of the taped contents to your hard drive with ease.
No frills, great simple camcorder that takes good movies without the worry of messing with controls, settings etc.
Read Best Reviews of Sony DCR-SX40 Palm-Sized camcorder with 60X Optical Zoom (Silver) Here
Hopefully this "review" will be helpful to other Mac users, as it took me several hours to figure this one out. I thought I could just drag and drop the files from the camera to my Mac. While you can do this, there will be no audio on the files.Here is the fix:
Import the files directly from the camera using iMovie. Once imported, the files will be .mov and you can do what you want with them. That's it!
(Note: I was using Mac OSX 10.5.6 and iMovie 7.1.4).
P.S. As of 5/27/09, the photo showing the "silver" version of this item is incorrect. Chose one of the other colors to see what it really looks like.
Want Sony DCR-SX40 Palm-Sized camcorder with 60X Optical Zoom (Silver) Discount?
Pros:When I opened the box I was delighted to find that it is so small and light (with battery). The zoom is too good. Got some great pictures outsides but insides best results require manual adjustment of the exposure. Like the fact that there is HD. Sound recording is also amazing. It was recording both distant and nearby rumbles. The image stabilization helps a lot.Now the Cons: Battery life of 1 hour... When traveling I will for sure need an extra battery. The other downside is that although this has photo and video function, the photo function is too poor. Any ordinary camera will do a better job. I have also read reviews of some 'other' camcorders where people complained about photo functions. This is my first camcorder so I don't know if there are good ones that takes both picture and video. You cannot rely on this camcorder for pictures. If you owned this MAKE SURE you carry a camera for important ceremonies/pictures. The other option is to take still pictures from video. But I have not tried that so cannot comment on that.
I will be using it for home videos so it is a very good buy for $300.
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