Camcorders > Sony Camcorders > 10 - 20x > Mini DV > 600 GBP to 750 GBP

Advantages: It's not a Sony
Disadvantages: I haven't got the money for a second one

First impressions was that it was better than I had hoped for! The styling, weight and general appearance was what I expected for £800 (bought November 2007 but I did have to shop around to find one at that price). All the reviews I read about the poor electronic stabilization were right! If you want to hand hold it be prepared for some pretty poor results. Anticipating this I invested in a decent tripod, jib and steadicam (from B Hague's) so I ...
...but thankfully there is a mic input so I use an external Rode stereo videomic which produces great results. The ability to plug in an external screen makes using the jib simple. When I read the spec and saw the 60 Gb HDD I thought I'd never use all that ... last weekend I was left with just 20 minutes of space left at full HD recording! The files are recorded in .TOD format which, as I understand is almost the same as mpeg2 but you have to use ... Read review

Advantages: NON
Disadvantages: Spent £350 for only 1 hour of footage

Completely useless and Samsung far less than helpful when things Go wrong as were PC world not interested in either replacing or repairing mine even though I was told it had a two year guaruntee! The camera lasted for one and a half hours of recording and now does not work at all. Could not even finalise the disc that was in it when it packed up lost valuable footage of baby daughter. Bought another off e-bay if only to finalise the disc but it ...
...at all! DO NOT BUY SAMSUNG VP-DC161 I have wasted over £350 to date and have now decided to write to the BBC Watchdog program as feel sure hundreds of people have bought this duff product from Samsung and it is high time they owned up to making a dud and provided replacement of refund. ... Read review

Advantages: Huge drive capacity, good quality images, ease of use and transfer of images
Disadvantages: Battery included only lasts for max. 2hrs

I brought this camcorder in June 2008. The camcorder itself is very easy to use and comes with all of the necessary leads to connect it to your television or your computer via USB. The battery that is included is very slim and fits nicely on the unit but the life of the battery can be very limited if you leave the unit on standby rather than turning it off. This is because the unit has a quick start feature which is excellent if you don't want to ...
...the battery lasts for about 2hrs of continous filming or playback. I would recommend that you buy a spare just in case. In terms of transferring photos to your computer, this is very easy if you have a PC as it comes bundled with the software. If you have a Mac like me, this is not a problem provided that you have the latest version of ilife 08 otherwise, you will have to transfer the files manually and then convert them. The quality of the pictures ... Read review

Advantages: Lightweight small ease of use
Disadvantages: limited features

I purchased this camera last week. Its very easy to use, it also has a switch for nightshot mode which allows one to capture whats going on in the dark. If you don't want to spend too much on a camera this is the one you should go for. Another feature i like is that you can drag and drop the mpeg movie files from the camera to your pc, the camera registers as an external hard drive. The camera is light weight so for day trips etc its perfect! Its ... Read review

Advantages: Easy to use, small and light, fantastic battery life, great video quality, optical zoom.
Disadvantages: Hopeless sound on recorded clips, barely audible on PC.

At first glance this Toshiba seems to be the ideal small pocket camcorder, it has many great functions including optical zoom. The first one I purchased suffered from an intermittent screen and low sound, this was replaced with no fuss and the second Camileo proved to be a lot more reliable, very good quality video recordings can be made and the controls are simple and well laid out for ease of operation. However the sound is extremely poor on ...
...than about six feet from camera will not be heard, even narration from the camera user is extremely low and poor quality, this is a great shame as the camera is superb otherwise, I have borrowed a third Camileo and find that the sound is completely hopeless on it too, seems this is a problem on this range. I would not advise buying one if you need decent audio, apart from that they work well. PS The form below states Remote Control adequate, there ... Read review