I got oneof these for a weekend in Edinburg, and was pleased with it. For a first time basic camcorder its perfect, small, light and easy to use.
The overall feel is ok ,a bit plasticy compared to other brands, but it does cost less, and still feels solid enough to be reliable and take ... Read review
Camcorder - Optical Zoom: 10 - Digital Zoom: 700x - Weight: 0.5 kg - Flash memory: SD Memory Card - Supported Media Type: Mini DV - Viewfinder: without Viewfinder
Advantages: Size, weight, ease of use, screen Disadvantages: very basic, plasticy feel ,battery life
I got oneof these for a weekend in Edinburg, and was pleased with it. For a first time basic camcorder its perfect, small, light and easy to use.
The overall feel is ok ,a bit plasticy compared to other brands, but it does cost less, and still feels solid enough to be reliable and take a couple of knocks. The design looks similar to a few others out there, but with one difference, the lense section and the tape section are joined ... ...with comfort. As the screen rotates 270degrees too you can get in some pretty strange postions. One handy one is if you are walking and filming, you can hold the camera arounf waist height and still have the lense pointing fowards and be able to see the screen, Go on try it, with your hand down there the grip needs to be vertical, most camcoders would be pointing at the floor.
The Screen is very good, with this new Continuous Grain ... more
I got oneof these for a weekend in Edinburg, and was pleased with it. For a first time basic camcorder its perfect, small, light and easy to use.
The overall feel is ok ,a bit plasticy compared to other brands, but it does cost less, and still feels solid enough to be reliable and take a couple of knocks. The design looks similar to a few others out there, but with one difference, the lense section and the tape section are joined with 225degree hinge. This allows for some odd shooting angles with comfort. As the screen rotates 270degrees too you can get in some pretty strange postions. One handy one is if you are walking and filming, you can hold the camera arounf waist height and still have the lense pointing fowards and be able to see the screen, Go on try it, with your hand down there the grip needs to be vertical, most camcoders would be pointing at the floor.
The Screen is very good, with this new Continuous Grain Silicone, not sure what the means but it gives a nice clear, bright image that is easy to see even in very strong light.
The overall recording quality is good, well it is a DV. The lens is 10x optical, dont bother with the digital. The picture can lack a bit of contrast and the sound is a bit tinny, the 1 O'clock salute doesnt have much punch even through my hifi, but its clear enough and there is not much wind noise. In low light the picture suffers from alot of noise, and it struggles to pic anything up. even with indoor or dusk mode on. The menu system here is simple, but it can be hard to select items as the 5 way pad is hard to press in without selecting a direction too. Nothing fancy here, date/time, screen brightness, sampling rate. Some effect modes, sepia, B&W etc, a fader and shooting modes. The fireworks made the castle look good.
Playback is simple, move the switch over and the 5 way navigation pad is everything. Up for play, down for stop, left and right are cue and review.
The camera includes a Li-Ion battery that will last for a day without much shooting, about 1hr with the screen on, it does hide away very nicely under the screen area.
The supplied AV Lead gives composite video and stereo sound, but it uses a none standard connector so dont lose it! There are also an S-video output for better image quality and a DV terminal, output only.
There is no remote control in the box but one can be bought for it, i dont know what this is like.
The manual is simple and clear, well laid out and easy to read.
For a first time camcorder for a good price this is worth a look, average overall but good value. Nice and easy to use and compact, very good value for money
Advantages: Tiny, standard features, good quality, and cheap. Disadvantages: Inadequate battery life, and the doom of the 'DEW' error!
...In such a tiny gadget Sharp manage to fit a whole lot of camera. Albeit not the best digital videocamera on the market, but definitely one of the best in this price range. The Viewcam Z features tight, responsive focus, a clear screen and a comfy grip. The size means that it will literally fit in the palm of the average adult's hand when you're olding it, giving you easy access to all the vital buttons. It also swivels, oh yes- so you can be holding ... ...can be a problem. When Sharp were building these machines they neglected the fact that metal expands in heat, and placed a circuit designed for detecting moisture way too close together. This means that in some cameras, heat will cause the two contacts of the damp sensor to touch inadvertadly. This means the camera succumbs to the paralysing and most-annoying 'DEW' error (go ahead, google it).
This happened to me several times before I looked it ...
Furbystein 12.06.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Sharp Viewcam VL-Z1H
I bought this camcorder in early 2004, so I've been using it for about 3 years now.
The decision to but this model was based on price - we paid about £249 for it, which at the time was very good for the spec.
The display is probably the best I've ever seen on a digital camera of any kind. You can see it, even in bright sunshine. I only wish my laptop PC was as good!
The controls are very simple to use. I handed the camera over to a friend so that ... ...decent job, even though he'd never even seen the camera before.
Basic controls consist of Record/Pause and zoom. The zoom control works really well - it's very precise, and with only a little practice, you can zoom quite slowly - there's nothing worse than watching movies with rapid panning and zooming.
The display twists around so that you can record yourself. Rather cunningly, as you turn it over past 90 degrees, the display orientation flips ...
dryice 19.05.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Sharp Viewcam VL-Z1H
Advantages: Easy to use, good value Disadvantages: No case
I've had a VL-Z1H for a month and can't fault it. At the price I paid (£249 from toys r us) it represents incredible value.
At first I thought the twist feature might be another useless gimmick but its very useful and allows comfortable fiming at any angle.
The camera is small enough to be carried in the palm of the hand all day. I've not tried filming using the view finder as the flip out screen can be seen bright sunlight with or without the ... ...card to transfer video to your PC but at £12 including cable from ebuyer this isn't a problem, the camera is instantly identified by XP when connected. The manual is weak in this area and barely mentions linking to a PC.
The camera has a 10X optical zoom, 500X digital zoom (of little use), fade, various effects (sepia B&W etc), gain up, several program modes, manual setting of white balance - iris - gain and long play, all controlled via the LCD ...
mechanoid 08.04.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Sharp Viewcam VL-Z1H
Advantages: price, size, ease of use, picture quality Disadvantages: not many features, no built in memory
...What attracted me to the Sharp VL-Z1H was the price. It is one of the cheapest Mini DV camcorders on the market yet still boasts a fairly high spec.
The camcorder is extremely easy to use. You will be shooting in just a couple of minutes. It really is child's play to record and playback.
I was very impressed with the quality of recorded footage - the fact the camcorder is Mini DV format obviously helps this. The quality is easily as good as other ... ...There are some very useful features like digital image stabiliser, backlight compensator (for shooting into the sun) and gain adjustment for shooting in poor light (although the camcorder isn't great in poor light even with the gain fetaure in use). You can also add dubbing and commentary after you have recorded footage.
The 10x optical zoom is impressive. Although the 500x digital zoom is a little unnecessary - once you get beyond about 40 - 50x ...
paulthewlis 23.03.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Sharp Viewcam VL-Z1H
Ease of use
Recording quality
Picture quality
Sound quality
Value for money
Quick review of Sharp Viewcam VL-Z1H
I paid quite a bit of money for this camcorder and have only been able to use it a few times because the DEW light comes on and the camcorder then shuts down. I cannot view any of my videos nor can I record. Very disappointing. When it first came out people I knew were fascinated by it, but now all they hear me doing is cursing it. ...
FrostedLotus 06.07.2008
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Sharp Viewcam VL-Z1H
With digital technology, less means more. And there can be no finer demonstration of this than the Sharp ViewCam range, more compact, more advanced and more user-friendly than ever including superlative picture quality and quick and easy PC connection. PRODUCT FEATURES: Compact & Lightweight Digital Viewcam Z; Digital Viewcam with Free-Angle Swivel Grip and 2.5" LCD (CG Silicon); Free-Angle Swivel Grip (225°); 2.5" High Transmissive Advanced System LCD Monitor (CG Silicon); Clip-in Battery Fits Neatly Inside Camera's Body; 800K CCD Pixels; 500x Digital Zoom (10x Optical Zoom); Black & White Viewfinder; i.LINKTM Digital Terminal; Monaural Sound Microphone.
