Sony Handycam DCR HC14E

With any Sony camcorder you get the quality Carl Zeiss Lens, which has been rated one of the top lenses within the business of camcorder and also digital cameras.

Price Ranges from £200 to £350, shop around, and see if companies will price match each other, to get the best deal.

Spec:
· MiniDV recording
· Carl Zeiss lens
· 1/6" 800k pixel CCD
· 2.5" LCD monitor with touch panel ...
...Playback

Usability, Sony camcorders now have a touch screen, which illuminates most of the camcorder buttons, it is easier if you use your little finger to navigate through the menus. You can adjust the time and date settings, add in digital filmsettings, fading from one scene to another, and make it more enjoyable to watch your final film. The recording buttons and zoom buttons are within easy access of you thumb or index finger, ... more

With any Sony camcorder you get the quality Carl Zeiss Lens, which has been rated one of the top lenses within the business of camcorder and also digital cameras.

Price Ranges from £200 to £350, shop around, and see if companies will price match each other, to get the best deal.

Spec:
· MiniDV recording
· Carl Zeiss lens
· 1/6" 800k pixel CCD
· 2.5" LCD monitor with touch panel control
· NightShot
· SteadyShot
· M-Battery series
· i.LINK (DV OUT)
· USB connectivity
· 10 x optical zoom (640 x Digital)
In this review I will be going over:

Usability
Weight
Recording and Playback

Usability, Sony camcorders now have a touch screen, which illuminates most of the camcorder buttons, it is easier if you use your little finger to navigate through the menus. You can adjust the time and date settings, add in digital filmsettings, fading from one scene to another, and make it more enjoyable to watch your final film. The recording buttons and zoom buttons are within easy access of you thumb or index finger, the zoom button it touch sensitive, it uses a mini DV tape to record, which is a digital tape and can hold 60mins SP ad 90min LP of recordings. This can be played through you TV by the use of the cables supplied. The DV, I-Link output allows connectivity to a PC via Fire wire connection, cable not included. Not all PCs have this connection, but it allows your mini DV tape contents to be transferred to a PC for editing. The USB connection is used to transfer digital still pictures that you can take, but these are of low quality, and I recommend purchasing a separate digital camera. The remote control is reallly only used to play back your films once you are back in the comfort of your own sofa, be carefull not to loose it down the back of the sofa thou.

Weight, with any camcorder it needs a tape and Li-on rechargeable battery to work, with the standard battery the weight is average around 520 g, the strap provides a comfortable holding position. Some camcorders on the marker are slightly lighter, but you pay the price for that privilege.
The DCR HC14E is very light compared with camcorders of a few years back. You can up grade the battery to run almost double the standard running time.

Recording and Playback, making sure your Mini DV tape it inserted into the camera, via the bottom the camcorder, and that you are not going to record over you baby’s first steps, you use the switch located by your right thumb, to slide it to recording. Pushing the red record button will record your movie, pushing the recording button again will stop recording, you can zoom in and out of the optical zoom with the zoom button, but be careful, its touch sensitive. The digital zoom will lower your quality of recording, and I don’t recommend on using it. Optical magnifies the image and maximises quality. The camera will use all of the optical before using any of the digital zoom. If you find you have low lighting or you can’t get the camera steady, NightShot and steady shot can rectory those. They are accessible via the menu.

To playback your recordings slide the switch to playback, and using the touch screen 2.5 inch LCD screen you can access the Play, Stop, Pause, fast forward and rewind buttons.

Overall I found the camera easy to use, although the touch screen got a bit of getting used to. Learning where everything was in the menu.

the insturction manual was ok, but you may find it easy to have a play around with the different features.

Shop around for the best price, and be careful when buying over the Internet, over carriage costs and returns. And the format of the camera. NTSC in the States, and PAL in the UK.

 

...less