Tag : digital handycam, sony dcrpc100, camcorder

Company : Sony List Price : $1,899.99 Amazon Price : Used Price : Average customer review :

Features

• Picture stabilization
• 10x optical zoom, 120x digital zoom
• 2.5-inch LCD
• 0-lux NightShot infrared recording system
• Acts as an 1152 x 864 resolution digital still camera; 4 MB Memory Stick included

Product Description

The Sony DCR-PC100 was one of the first Mini DV digital camcorders available, and it’s still one of the best. Its tiny, lightweight chassis, exquisite Zeiss optics, and flexible, responsive controls make it a natural for shooting beautifully detailed digital video or snapping high-resolution still images. Best of all, the DCR-PC100 from Sony is now also a great bargain.

Customer reviews

Lie about 1 Mega Pixel photos
the Camcorder Box and Spec says it is good for 1 MegaPixel photos. It is a lie. The image quality is like magnifying a 640 x 480 to 1 Megapixel. The result is coarse pixelation of the photo… I called the Sony customer support and they told me, “if it looks good on the view finder, then Sony’s job is done.” What [a lie]. Sony, wake up and don’t tell lies!

nice but expensive
The Sony digital camcorder records excellant video images and sound, but most TV set fail to reproduce the image quality and conventional VHS recorders lose the video quality when copying. The still image quality is poor compared to stand alone 1 mega pixel cameras and cannot be used at the same time you are video taping.

Works well with a iMac and iMovie for editing, could not see doing it any other way for less. Some Sony home PCs also allow for editing using the same firewire interface with the Sony camcorder.

Recommendation: If you want super high qulaity video images and want the small size get this camcorder…But don’t get it because it has a still image capability, instead get a nice digital still camera for that function.

A side note: if you use a IR filter on this Sony and use the night shot mode you can view and record in infared. Cool for experimental video effects and can be done likewise with most digital cameras I am told.

It’s simply great.
I’ve been looking at DV cameras for a while now, and finally settled on the DCR-PC100. I couldn’t be happier about my decision. I’ve made some great movies with it, but I think the best example of the flexibility of this camera came when I went to a wedding last week. Every control on the camera is placed in such a manner that one handed operation of the camera is a snap, and I was able to get the ceremony on video, while easily switching over to capture some stills as well. I had a 64MB memory stick, so I had about 120 hi-res pictures by the end of the reception. It was a snap to dump all of the pictures to a CD and send them to the wedding party to print at their leisure(they were thrilled to have some wedding pictures that they could share with folks that quickly after the wedding). I’ve used the camera in a wide range of lighting conditions, from super bright sunny days to inside the Monterey Bay Aquarium to a lightning storm in Colorado, and all of the footage turns out great. The video images are super crisp and the colors are nothing short of fantastic. I can’t recommend the camera highly enough, and most people who check mine out while I’m using it want one of their own.

Problem with still pictures
I bought a DCR-PC100E in July 2000. Generally, I am satisfied with it, but I have a problem with making still pictures as follow: I make still pictures in the best quality (1152 x 768, Superfine). When I see the still pictures they are all made with the big sharpenning of edges. If I make a details of some object (faces etc) I can be satisfied for 60%. But if there are many small objects on the still pictures, I don’t be satisfied at all, because I see “Edges” on many small objects and the picture is very bad. The sharpenning of edges is a problem of software for DCR-PC100E. My question: Can I eliminate this sharpenning of edges ? Or Is there a FIRMWARE for this Camcoder to eliminate this sharpenning. I can make a sharpenning with some software after making a picture and I don’t understand why SONY incorporate a software with it. Thanks to help me.

it’s a good product - but….
It leaves you wanting more and also leaves you with the feeling that Sony isn’t fascinated with customer satisfaction.

We have all known for a while about Sony’s propensity towards proprietary formats such as memory sticks, the batteries, just about any accessory and so on and we understand that this is a price that comes with the product. It is a great product, but Sony has left me longing for several things that I’ll never be able to get..

Examples: It ships with a 4mb memory stick which holds a whopping 6 still images at full resolution (16-32MB should be the min they ship and they should phase out the 4MB sticks). The fact that they shipped an antiquated serial adaptor for memory sticks with the product seems like a slowly developing joke (why not ship with the USB Card reader?). It uses firewire as it’s main way of transmitting video - (ok if you are on a Mac) and then they suggest a $400 capture card when you can buy others with software for under $100. Sony being cheap on the memory sticks, battery and serial adaptor all make sense until you realize how hard they gouge you on these propriety formats - and then makes a bit grumpy. What makes you even more grumpy is that Sony just released the DCR PC 110 - which offers USB connectivity, and MPEG video compression down to the memory stick - the two things (excluding peripherals) that would have made this camera just about perfect.

With all of the negatives out of the system - this is a really great camcorder - compact, easy to use, picture and sound quality are beyond compare, night vision is great, it’s feature packed and full of surprises. Out of the box you can record like a pro for hours, the battery info, tape time remaining and a host of other features are just great - so for recording video you can not go wrong with this unit and if you are on a Mac or already have a firewire card - even better.

If not - look @ the Sony DCR PC 110 b/c I’m kinda steamed that I’m stuck with the 100 that has now been phased out..