Sony Handycam DCR VX2000

Author's product rating:   

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

Advantages:	Packed full of features, stylish, great quality
Disadvantages:	Battery life a bit limited, slight big !

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I keep meaning to write a review of my fantastic Sony DCR VX2000. I got as a very generous joint birthday and Christmas. My mum got it for me and she spent just under £2000 pounds on it which was a bit steep. But we did need a
new camera as our old Toshiba was getting on a bit. It is my camera but i am 'SUPPOSE' do lend it to my mum/brother/dad when they want it. Fat chance! I can't put it down for long enough. I have had it for about 3 months now and i am absolutely delighted with it. It's the best present (and object) that i have ever owned. Well done mum! I am still a bit nervous of dropping it
though. This is because my mum basically said that it i damaged it, she would never speak to me again!

Specifications:
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Uses Mini DV as its recording format. It uses NTSC for the recording system.

TRIPLE CCD- very impressive as most of the cheaper cameras only have single
CCD let alone double and triple CCD. Very Impressive.

Optical zoom of 12x. Useful for all those close-up shots that you may wish to
take. And far away shots, also!

Digital Zoom is 48x

Lens focus length- a good range from 6-72mm

Fabulously crystal clear 2.5in LCD Display. It also comes with a Colour viewfinder.

Audio format- 12/16 Bit PCM Stereo/Audio/ Dub

Solid 360,000 pixels.

Image Stabilizer

Still Shot Capability

Multimedia Card

2 Lux

Has a maximum Still Image Size of 640 x 840

It also has various connections: in/out Video, in/out Audio. For an added bonus a DV Terminal.

Dimensions: Weight- 3.06lb, 13.5 inch, 5.75 inch, 4.63 inch.

Battery Life- 1.25 hrs.

Impressions:
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Picture Quality- This is brilliant. The beautifully clear LCD screen helps the effect. On the top picture quality there is 530 lines of horizontal
resloution. Even on the lower settings the picture still looks great. When you look at the pictures on the screen after you have taken them, they look really good. But when you transfer them onto them onto your computer they look sensational. The definition of them is just so nice. The same goes for the video shots that you take.

Pictures in Modes- You switch the mode to photo mode and away you go! It's very easy to use and the pictures are great- 640 x 480 resolution. There is also PROGRESSIVE MODE which when selected, gives you better quality pictures.

Memory Stick- I thought i would just give this a brief menu. When you buy the camcorder, you are provided with a 4mb memoryStick which is absolutely tiny! How small do these things want to get? Amazing! You can invest in larger capacity memorySticks.

Zoom- the zoom is excellent. It is very steady and lets you take your time when zooming, for maximum precision. The zoom reaches 48x which isn't that impressive but it's still ok. With other cameras and camcorders that i have
used and owned in the past, as the zoom goes higher, the quality of the picture diminishes. This ISN'T the case for this one.

LCD screen- As i have already said, the screen is a colour LCD 200K pikel 2.5 precision scrren. The screen is very easy to view both in the dark and in bright sunlight. This has not been the case for other cameras that i have had. For example when i was in Egypt last year, i was using my little Toshiba and i took pictures and filmed the temples at night. I then downloaded it
onto my computer and the pics/video clips were awful! I was so disappointed and i couldn't go back and do it again. The camera came to Belgium with me a few weeks ago and i have loads of great pictures.

Lens- I have found the 58mm 7-element lens to be superb. There is absolutely
no image distortion which usually happens when the lens is large. It is aspherical and works well in dim lighting and direct sunlight.

Connections- When downloading your pictures onto your computer, you can use your firewire port(if you have one) or you can use the provided MemoryStick.

Sound- The sound is always really acute and crisp. There are two modes- 16 bit and 12 bit. 12 Bit mode is the one that you want if you want to use the audio dubbing facility. The sound is stored in the PCM digital stereo. You
can also add music and sounds into the background.

Battery- I have found the battery to be very good. It handles this complex and professional camcorder very well. It will last just under an hour, or a bit longer if you are lucky. I am terrible- i turn the it all off for every second that i'm not using it, to preserve the battery. It is a standard
InfoLithium battery and you can buy larger capacity batteries if you need
more time on the camera. This is quite advisable because the hour does tick
away very quickly. You can watch the minutes tick away on the screen.

Image Stabilizer- this is useful. This camcorder uses a Super SteadyShot optical image stabilizer. This is the more expensive kind which cheaper models don't use.

There are various other specifications such as special effects etc. I can't write about them because i don't understand how they work. I am learning something new about my camcorde every day!

Overall View
..................

This is a really fantastic digital camera/camcorder, you will love it once
you get over the large price! My mum bought this camcorder because some of
her friends who are professional photographists, strongly recommended it to
her. It is rather a lavish purchase but maybe for a christas present etc. It
will last you a long time as its so reliable. It's packed full of features
but it's still easy to use. So if you don't know much/any about camcorders(like me!) you will have no problem with it and you will pick it up
very easily. It is quite big but not really very bulky. The style is very swish which makes up for that.
Go on, treat yourself and enjoy!

THANKS SO MUCH FOR READING, PAUL.