I bought a Sony handycam DCR-PC101E 2 years ago in Malaysia and I’ve been using it quite often for family events and so on. What I like about it in the first place is that it’s small, although not too light, but provides a good grip, so you can hold it and shoot video using only one hand. The keys are within the reach of the fingers and the LCD display (with touch screen function) is wide enough to offer a good view. It can also be operated with a remote control, which is very useful. Besides a lot of features included like night vision, picture effects, digital effects, superimposing a still image saved in the memory stick on a moving picture that is recording, I find very useful the steady shot function, which compensates for an unsteady hand when not using a tripod. The quality of the video recorded on the mini DV tape is very good and the movies can be captured, edited and saved on a PC by connecting the handycam to the computer through a USB cable (included), an I.Link cable (not-included) or an S-video cable (not-included). For low quality pictures, the USB connection is sufficient but if you want to save your movies in a high-quality format on a DVD or back on the mini DV tape using the PC, then you need the I.link cable and an IEEE 1394 port in the computer (the new motherboards are already equipped with it). So there are a lot of possibilities of storing and editing movies using this camcorder. Also, a CD-ROM with drivers and other useful software is included. This handycam can be used for still pictures as well (that are stored on the memory stick), but this is just as an option, because in fact for good pictures I wouldn’t recommend it at all. First, because although it has 2 image sizes and 3 qualities available, the pictures are not good quality for printing, just for sharing by email or posting on Web. And also, it doesn’t have a flash. As for the price, I bought it for around 890 $ (2 years ago). Overall, I would recommend it, because I find it reliable, easy to use and with a lot of useful features.
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Jan 6th, 2005
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