Sony Handycam DCR HC37E

Author's product rating:   

Ease of use	Excellent
Recording quality	Excellent
Picture quality	Excellent
Sound quality	Excellent
Value for money	Excellent

Advantages:	Great camera, great zoom, many features, and good to use
Disadvantages:	No USB cable, Nightshot is not great, USB SLOT where the LCD panel goes .  Touchscreen mishap a bit

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I got this camcorder from a online shop, and I was surprised how tiny it was. When you get the camera, you dont get a USB cable. Thankfully I had I spare, and you get a AV cable, and the the main charger. There is no firewire cable but you can get those cheap. There is no tapes included, so make sure you buy some before-hand. Anyway enough of that and we get on with the review.

I think this is a amazing camera, it fits nicely on your hand and you got your adjustable hand strap which you can tighten to make sure it don't fall off your hand. So on the front you have a microphone, and a IR sensor which means it will film in pitch-black. You have your lens and what is good there is no external lens cap which can damage the lens. Where the lens is, there's a small switch to the left called lens cover, and open and close. So you need a click of the switch to open or close the lens, really convent. The zoom is 40X optical zoom, and 2000 digital zoom. Then we move on to the LCD monitor, which has a record button, and W/T zoom control, really easy to use. Everything is touch screen which is good as there is less buttons. Where the LCD panel is, you have another speaker, reset button. Easy Mode, Display/Batt Into and your backlight. Unlike some camcorder, which have a flap/trap door to show USB, Firewire, AV, but on the the DCR-HC37E, the USB slot is where the LCD panel is,. Not good if you want to protect the panel from dust. Then on the back you have another record button. Also on the back, the supplied battery NP-FH30which is good, but you need to carry a spare as the supplied battery doesn't last the whole tape(that's if the lcd panel is open) There's a colour viewfinder which is good but I find when you are recording, loads of the features are on the LCD panel so the viewfinder may not be for you. There's a wheel at the back, right of the viewfinder. To turn the camera on, press the green button of top of the wheel and turn left. To go to edit/[playback, press the green button and go left again. Then to go back to camera mode, press the green button and go left. To turn it off, press the green button and turn right. Also at the back, under the record button, you have a flap for the A/V out. Firewire and to charge the camera is underneath the battery. On top you have your Nightshot plus function which is good if your filming in a dark area. Where you have your knob/wheel, near that is another zoom button which is the main zoom function.
Then we move to the side where you got your hand-strap. You have a button called Open/Eject, this is to open the MiniDV cassette department. But There's a safer way of opening it., by pressing the Open/Eject and the zoom function at the back,. It will save time and is safer then if you tried and opened the Open Cassette. You have to press Open/Eject, but using that as I found it can damage the apartment.

Underneath the camera is tripod screw-in. and this is the place to put a accessory shoe adaptor.

So now we going to look at the features. turn the camera on. and click fn, Page 1

Spot Focus, for focusing on a specific area. Focus. Spot meter, same as Spot Focus (Note this fuction will not work with NightShot) Disp Guide, this you click to let you know what settings you have the camera set at. Menu to find the picture effects. On The Scene Selection by pressing fn, you have Twilight, Sunrise, Landscape, Portrait, Spot Light, Sport, Snow and Beach.

Recording effects

Negative Art, Sepia, B&W (Black and White) Solarize, Pastel, and Mosaic.

The nightshot works well, but it you are a pitch black room, it seems to lag but records well. Overall the camera is nice, easy to use.
If you're in a black area, you might have to buy the IR light to work well for filming in the pitch black. I tested this, and notice, the IR sensor isnt strong enough.

You have Wide Sel, 4.3. or 16:9

On LCD/VF set you got wide Display either from letterbox or squeeze.

To go in a feature on menu, press EXEC, which will highlight ie LCD B.L, to change it, press EXEC again, then use the up and down arrows to change anything. To go back to the menu, press EXEC, then press RET(return)

Another disadvantage, as ran out of space, is the software provided doesn't work with main PC who doesn't have a Firewire connection, so you have to use Windows Movie Maker

Handy accessories you need

NP-FH100 which will give you over 10 hours recording time.

IR light HVL-IRM, I plan to get this, but haven't been able to. Improves nightshot as I saw some videos :)