Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)This is one of the best camcorders in the market today and I would definitely recommend it to anyone planning to buy a Mini-DV camcorder
Positive factors:
- Very small and easy to hold with one hand. Can be easily attached even to a mini-tripod with ease.
- Excellent widescreen video and hi-fi audio. Your videos finally get that "Hollywood" feel when you shoot movies in 16:9 ratio (widescreen format). Even if you don't have a widescreen TV currently, you will very soon have one as more and more people are buying them. So its better to buy this camcorder and shoot in 16:9 format to enjoy your movies later in widescreen format.
- Includes widescreen rotatable LCD so what you see is what you get when you shoot in 16:9 ratio (widescreen format)
- Good battery life. One extra battery is enough. You can easily manage a day's worth of shooting with two batteries before recharging them again
- Includes docking station making it easier to connect to computer or TV. If you have a good computer with a firewire port, please buy a firewire cable to connect the camcorder to your computer. You can download your movie in excellent clarity in .avi format and edit it as required
- Make sure to change the audio setting to 16 bit (instead of the default 12 bit) for very good hi-fi audio
- Touchscreen menu system is great. You don't have to search for any buttons as they are all available in the touchscreen menu itself.
- 12X optical zoom is more than sufficient for ordinary home videos. Anything more produces more "shaking" and would necessiate the use of a tripod. When you shoot without a tripod, 12X is the best zoom you can achieve without worrying about shaky videos
- 1 MP widescreen still photo. You can use this feature if you forgot to bring your digital camera. The photo clarity is not good so please don't expect great shots. Since the photo is in 16:9 format, you can take panoramic photos and cover more people in group shots
- Nightshot: Cool feature that records using infrared light. Useful for shooting at night as you can record a video even in 100% darkness
- Color widescreen viewfinder - Very useful when you are running down on batteries and need to use the viewfinder. The color widescreen viewfinder gives an excellent picture and is as good as the LCD in clarity
Negative factors:
- Outdoor videos especially in bright sunlight are overexposed. So please adjust the white balance when shooting outdoors. Add the white-balance menu to your shortcuts so that you can easily access it and return to default once you start shooting indoors
- Sensitive microphone may pick up button clicks (best to turn off the button click "beep" sound).
Notes:
- Use a fresh cassette after recording 2 or 3 times on the same cassette. The head tends to get dirty if you re-record on the same cassette more than 3 times
- You can edit movies in Windowx XP using Windows Movie Maker, but beware it does not support 16:9 ratio video. Hence your videos look ugly as you shot them in 16:9 but Movie Maker converted it to 4:3. Invest in Pinnacle Software version 9 or 10 for better movie editing capabilities. Pinnacle is the only software, I am aware of, that preserves teh 16:9 ratio. Even Roxio could not allow 16:9 format.
- You can also invest in wide-angle lens as it gives excellent coverage
Click Here to see more reviews about: Sony DCR-HC46 MiniDV 1MP Digital Handycam Camcorder with 12x Optical Zoom (Includes Handycam Station)
DCR-HC46 MiniDV Handycam Camcorder
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