Rated 
Much better than I expected
-Very small size--this is smaller than my super zoom digital camera! -Easy to use, right out of the box. -Over 7 hours of video on highest setting. -Swivel screen makes taking angle shots easy.
-Need a large computer hard drive, a burner, or an external hard drive to keep videos. -Each time you pause recording, it starts a new video file.
Posted 1 year ago - This is my first camcorder purchase, and I did a lot of research before buying this camera. My understanding of the camcorder market was: MiniDV camcorders had better video quality, but they are phasing out tapes; high definition camcorders were the highest standard but very expensive (and constant improvements were making them obsolete as soon as you bought them); and hard drive camcorders were the compromise: no tapes, but (supposedly) lower quality video. I only had about $400 to spend, so I knew that a high definition camcorder was out. I decided to pass on the MiniDv and go for the hard drive, and this camcorder was highly reviewed. I haven't been disappointed. I don't know what the video from a MiniDV camcorder looks like, but I find it hard to believe that this hard drive camcorder is inferior. The video is clean, even with use of the zoom (although I recommend only using optical zoom, not digital). The camcorder does have a little trouble focusing sharply at the extreme end of the zoom, but I rarely need to zoom that far. There is a light on the front of the camcorder to illuminate low light situations, but it isn't very strong, so don't count on it working if you aren't right in front of your subject. I was worried that buying a cheaper hard drive camera would be a big compromise. I haven't found that to be the case at all. For a novice like me, who takes a lot of movies of my 7 month old daughter, it's perfect. Even my technically challenged parents figured it out right away. Overall, the weaknesses are minor, and the strengths are more than I expected for a sub-$400 camera.
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