Although it is slightly inconvenient to use tapes, at least you can buy several and keep shooting even if you don’t have time to download all the video. We quickly ended up filling up our hard drive with shots of the kids!
Overall the camera is easy to use and the battery lasts a good long time, unlike many camcorders in the same price range. This one makes it for a couple of hours and the cables are small enough to carry with you if you are shooting somewhere else, like in a school gym at your child’s firs school play. Of course you may need to battle another parent with a dead camcorder battery for the nearest outlet!
Another nice feature is that you can use it for taking still frame digital photos. Very handy when you are filming a cute moment with the baby and don’t want to stop and go looking for the other digital camera! You can just switch over and start snapping photos. I am glad to see that this is becoming more of a standard feature in digital cameras these days, because it is definitely beneficial to not have to carry two cameras when you go someplace and know that you will be wanting lots of photos and video.
It comes with its own fun software for downloading and making funky music videos. Not necessary, but very entertaining! You can use it to make your own funny videos complete with silly sound effects just like on funniest videos shows, or you can let the kids use it to edit their skateboarding videos! Nothing better than falling, crashing, glass breaking sound effects. Of course if you’ve got karaoke singers in the house they can star in their very own superfly music video.
Additionally, the steady cam feature helps keep the picture from wobbling around too much. The night vision is a lot of fun when shooting without light, and is great for making your own “Blair Witch” style documentary, or you know for regular camping videos too!
It isn’t the perfect camera, though. It is very difficult to zoom evenly while shooting because the steady zoom is located in an awkward place, on the view screen. The roller zoom is a bit unstable, although it was located in a better position than the steady zoom. Also, the weight is a little bit awkward to carry compared to some lighter weight cameras out there, so for longer shoots you probably will want a tripod or other form of support.
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: Sony Handycam DCR-TV280, handycam, digital camcorder, camcorder, home videos, making home videos, camcorder, digital camera, cameras
