Sony DCR-DVD403 3MP DVD Handycam Camcorder w/10x Optical Zoom
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List Price: $1,099.99
Features
• 1/6-inch CCD imager with 3.3-megapixel resolution
• Compatible with DVD-R/-RW/+RW formats
• 10x optical zoom with digital image stabilization
• 2.7-inch, 16:9 aspect ratio LCD
• Dolby digital 5.1 audio recording |
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Sony DCR-DVD403 3MP DVD Handycam Camcorder w/10x Optical Zoom Customer Reviews
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Love and hate it
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I've owned this camera for about 18 months now. I wanted a camera that could shoot both decent video and stills, and would do mpeg2 encoding to save me the work of converting DV-AVI files to mpeg2 myself. This camera largely met those goals but has lots of annoyances too.
1. The lens cover. If you read the reviews here you'll be well aware that the lens cover on this camera is very prone to failure. In my case the lens cover will not close. There was no apparent reason for the sudden failure; I have always taken good care of the camera and only use it lightly.
2. The PC software is truly appalling. Forget about doing anything useful with it. I use it in its first couple of steps just to get it to extract the individual mpeg2 files out of the DVD VOB files it creates, and then manually rename each one with the date and time, then I copy them out of the temp directory and quit the app. It's way more tedious than it need be just to do this, and useless beyond this basic task (and it crashes and/or hangs frequently so often requires several attempts).
3. If you use non-Sony media the camera complains, and you cannot access the non-Sony media on your PC until it is finalized. This is pure evil manufacturer lock-in BS; I don't believe there is any technical reason for this as non-Sony media support multi-session writes.
4. The still camera works great in good light but not in low light. The pictures are more reminiscent of CMOS sensors than a CCD.
5. It's a Sony. That means don't expect any of these issues to be fixed or even acknowledged. Once Sony have your money you're dirt.
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Sony DCR-DVD403 3MP DVD Handycam Camcorder w/10x Optical Zoom digital cameras, camcorders for sale