Sharp Viewcam VL-PD3H

I have owned the Sharp vl-pd3h camcorder for about a year now, mainly used for family BBQ's and the odd day trip out. (havn't caught any UFO's yet !!)
First impressions of the camera are of a good quality product, fits nicely in the hand. The main off,camera,vcr control button has to be "pressed" then rotated to the position you want.
The menu of options is very comprehensive, if a bit confusing at first. As with most things, ...
...it "
Flip out the viewscreen, hit the record with thumb and your away. I've used the camera mostly on full auto mode (as most people will) but there are a range of manual overrides to correct certain lighting conditions, eg backlight compensation, and very bright conditions where the iris size can be reduced / or adjustable shutter speed can be selected. Camera shake is kept to a minimum, (when selected) by image stabalisation option.
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I have owned the Sharp vl-pd3h camcorder for about a year now, mainly used for family BBQ's and the odd day trip out. (havn't caught any UFO's yet !!)
First impressions of the camera are of a good quality product, fits nicely in the hand. The main off,camera,vcr control button has to be "pressed" then rotated to the position you want.
The menu of options is very comprehensive, if a bit confusing at first. As with most things, "if you dont use it enough you tend to loose it "
Flip out the viewscreen, hit the record with thumb and your away. I've used the camera mostly on full auto mode (as most people will) but there are a range of manual overrides to correct certain lighting conditions, eg backlight compensation, and very bright conditions where the iris size can be reduced / or adjustable shutter speed can be selected. Camera shake is kept to a minimum, (when selected) by image stabalisation option.

As always smooth movements are the key to good video. Transitions between scenes can be faded in or out, it also has a strobe mode for fast moving sujects. Image quality is superb in good light,and the stereo sound is fantastic, this will be picked up best with Nicam stereo equipment.
Low light performance is a bit poor, due to the lack of a night shot mode,if , like the Sony's with 'night shot ' this camera ,I think , would be faultless.
But, it does have an image gain up control to help things out a bit. You can also take still pics with this, but the resolution is not up to the standards of todays dedicated still cameras.

Inadvertant pressing of tape transport buttons can sometimes be a problem.
copying to vcr or pc (via firewire) is a breeze. I edited a couple of movies on the computer and got some very good results, and even better ... the option to put all your movies on CD or DVD once saved to the hard drive, providing you have the correct software.
Generally I just shove it all on a tape and let our filmed subjects get on with it, they seem to love it ..... warts an all !!.

Battery performance is good (but get a spare),
digital zooming to extremes will cause pixel probs, (obviously!!) , . This camera does a fine job, basicly all you need is a decent picture & decent sound. You can spend a whole lot more money for all the bells and whistles, but at the end of the day you're going to get the same result as this camera produces, a good all rounder.
 

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