[1 of 1 customers found this review helpful]

Sony DCR-SR200 Digital Camcorder Review

I would recommend this product to anyone

"The hard drive can hold several hours of video and is very easy to use. I did not want Mini-DVD due to their short recording times and high price. And, while Mini-DVD cassettes have the potential for higher quality video recording, it is the older technology on its way out and its not as easy to use. I see memory card camcorders as the wave of the future, and, within a few years, memory cards will have the capacities to take over the market... but I didn't want to wait a few years.



The recording quality of this camcorder is great! Most consumer digital camcorders use a 1/6' (or similar) CCD sensor, but at the higher end you'll find either larger 1/3' sensors or camcorders that use 3 seperate sensors. These larger sensors deliver better results in low light with much less 'noise' in the final picture.



The lens quality on this camcorder is also very good. While some may complain that the zoom is a mere 10x when some camcorders are getting over 30x, consider this: if you want more zoom, you're going to need a bigger lens. Small camcorders with large zooms have small sensors which impacts the camcorder's picture quality and low light ability. A camcorder with a large sensor and a 30x zoom would not be compact enough for most people and would cost much more. 10x is plenty with the type of recording I want to do, besides, I wouldn't be able to hold 30x still without the assistance of a tripod.



Strong flash if you plan to take still pics.



The only thing i didn't like is when you Get around any loud noise and all you have is video with a distorted soundtrack and crackling. Sony says there is no audio limiter built in to prevent this. I think they should have addressed this issue."