Vista 64bit Compatible

Excellent camcorder, though heavy on the batteries.

This camcorder is windows vista 64bit compatible, it appears as a usb drive letter. Software that comes with it is also 64bit compatible. I was going to purchase the Sony HDR-SR5E , but sony do not support vista 64bit.

Does not include minisd card or HDMI cable (mini hdmi to hdmi)

Neat piece of kit

I bought this item specifically because of it's size - and also i hadn't bought a gadget in a while!!! My last purchase was a Canon DSLR and I love it - however it is bigger than my old compact. So as we were going on holiday and I am the one that has to carry the cameras (you know what it's like guys!), I wanted a smaller camcorder than our old bulky JVC DV camcorder.

I toyed with a the idea of a small DV camcorder, but the simplicity of the GZ-MG330H and my experience with JVC to date made the decision easy. Although this is around £100 more expensive than the DV equivalent, it is lighter and quicker to use. This is the equivalent of a point and shoot digital camera, with no settings for white balance, no fill light, no special features. But it's great...

We have just taken it on a weeks holiday and are really pleased with the results. It adjusts to bright sun and shade quickly, and the mic is pretty good too. Wind cut was useful as we were holidaying in England.

Being Hard Disk based means that you cannot overwrite footage. You can be viewing something and then need to quickly switch to record without having to find the end of the recorded footage, so you don't"tape" over it... This is also great as it meant I could let my little boy play without too much concern.

Transferring files to our home PC is simple - the included software is easy to use and each take is transferred as a small digital movie file.

If I had one complaint it would be the file format - if it could save as standard MPEG, MOV or AVI you could transfer to any PC anywhere..

If had two complaints it would be that JVC don't make it clear that the remote and dock are not compatible.

Features

The following features are included only in Model MD235: audio dubbing, date search, remote sensor, wireless controller, zero set memory.

Really excellent with some minor faults

Finally took the plunge and bought this having looked at similar models from Sony and Panasonic. This is an early review as I've only had the camera for a week. So far found it to be really excellent with a few minor areas that could be improved.

Pros

Great build quality as you'd expect from Canon.
Very small and light - easily fitted into my coat pocket and sits nicely in the hand
Great zoom lens, very quick autofocus, very quick start up, even from power off mode.
Quality of images are unbelievable, especially if camera is hooked up directly to HD screen
Easy to take still shots, has built in flash and v.quick autofocus.
I downloaded data from SD card directly into my MacBook Pro using USB lead. Download was very straightforward into IMovie '08. (see cons below). Best to leave it to download and do something else as downloads appear to be in real time - circa 50 mins for 5gb of data.

Cons

Not fantastic is low light
Would have prefered a wider angle lens
When downloading into IMovie 08 a warning message came up recommending that the data be converted to a lower resolution than full HD. It said that the file size would be significantly smaller without a noticeable loss of image quality. Seems pointless recording in HD in the first place! Further investigation required.
Image processor is CMOS which doesn't appear to handle moving images as well as CCD. As a consequence image gets slightly blurred with quick panning shots - I try to avoid these anyway so probably not a big issue.
Software discs are PC only so forget them if you are a Mac User - just use IMovie '08. Just out of interest loaded the bundled software onto Bootcamp partition (Winodws XP) and found it to be really clunky - glad to be using a Mac!

Generally really excellent and highly recommended.

Absolutely brilliant!

I bought a Canon camcorder only 6 months ago and never really got on with it as it was not really small enough to fit in a pocket and only recorded for 30 minutes onto mini dvds so I decided to get this tiny Panasonic and it is FANTASTIC! I took it to Sri Lanka on my holiday and with an 8gb SDHC memory stick I recorded for over 4 hours. It is so light and small that you can take it anywhere, it is up and running in seconds, and by the end of the holiday everyone in the group was taking the model number and wanting to get one too. It was smaller than most people's digital still camera. The quality is great and with the digital zoom going up to 700x with a steady hand I could shoot fruit bats that the others could not even see at the top of a tree in the next field! You will definitely not regret buying one.

Garbage

God alone knows what everyone sees in this. Records no better than the movie function on a decent digital camera, and the software with it is problematic as well. Yes, it does convert .mov to Windows, but only to view - you can't save it to .mpg, so you can't edit in any software that comes with a PC. You'll also not be able to see thumbnails of the video, and if you change the file name so that you can remember what the video is the camera won't see it, so you can't play it back via an HD TV (which is surely the point of an HD camcorder).
There's a video editor that comes on the CD, but it refuses to accept the Serial Number that's on the box, so I can't even install it!
If you're the sort of person who loves faffing around with conversion software in an attempt to get this into a format you can actually use, then you'll have a ball. If you've got a life & you just wanted a camera you could take half decent shots with & view on DVD/PC in no time, avoid this like the plague.

what you would expect from Sony

Brought this camcorder last week and have only used it a few times so i cant give a more detailed review but my findings so far are fantastic.
After unpacking i charged the battery and after a few hrs it was ready to use.
Turn it on and your ready to go !
I then loaded the software onto my PC and then uploaded the film i had recorded.
Played it back and the footage was fantastic, the sound was out of this world, i even had to turn the sound off when i thought a bird was singing outside my window but it was actually on the footage i had shot, it was so clear and precise.
Not to sure about the software it comes with as it might have some compatibility problems but then it might just have been my laptop misbehaving, will keep an eye on that one.
when i played the footage back through windows media i had no problems at all.
But the software does look good and your footage is logged onto a calender so you could go to the specific date you shot the film and find it easy.
As i said at the start i have only had it a week so still have some playing around to do and features to use but so far all is well.
As for the camera itself its smaller than i thought and quite light and fits into the palm of your hand well with all functions easy to reach.
Defiantly worth the money and a great saving on amazon compared to some high street shops.

very good

this camera i think is a very good camcorder.
first thing its from sony so you know it will be good and then theres a huge 60gb hdd in it.
this is a very good camcorder if you like to record a lot of long videos,but the quality of the video isnt that great.
overall 8/10

Pro Cam for under £100? YES! REALLY!?

I never knew that Camcorders can be so much fun to mess around with, I have been filming, and annoying family members, and hope to take it on holiday to egypt in two weeks time.

Perfect Price, and Perfect Quality.
Just what I was looking for!

Good, basic camera

This is a good, basic camera for the price. The picture quality is not superb, but it is not bad as well. The 34x zoom is powerful and does it's job well. You will have to buy a firewire cable for it. I made the mistake of buying it from Jessops for £14. I later realized that one could buy it on Amazon for somewhere around £5.

It is a basic camera. For now the Sony DCR-HC27 is on special for £124 with Amazon and friends that have bought it say that it is excellent. Sony is a leading Japanese brand while Samsung is a Korean brand and not really at the top of the electronics market. I I had to buy a camcorder again I would go for the Sony.

Mac users beware. Not really MPEG.

Be careful. The file type is .afs ... so if you're using a Mac you need to get a separate file converter (they seem to be about $25) before you can use the videos from this camera in iMovie. All the blurb and packaging says MPEG - which would infer you can use the files directly in iMovie projects - but that isn't the case. Frankly, I think the product is misrepresented. (And by the way, the first camera I ordered was dead on arrival ... so had to wait for a replacement. Not so great an experience overall).

pocket sized go anywhere 2 cameras in one !

I was pleasently surprised by the xacti, it has been with me on travels now and coped very well, it takes a great pic and very good video, tip though turn off the image stabilizer it takes away clarity and i try to pan round steadily. very good zoom and with a 4 gig card in it it will take a whole trips worth of vid's and pic's. spare batteries essential but luckily surprisingly cheap to buy as are the cards.only slight dislike is the weak flash ( hense 4 not 5 out of 5) but with minimal photo editing you can overcome any dark photo's so it's forgivable .Ive had a few digi cameras now and this is the best and most practical of the lot, i would recomend you buy one just remember it is a hybrid not one thing or the other so there will be a small comprimise( for the perfectionist's out there )

Superb waterproof camcorder

I had a look out for a waterproof camcorder for ages. I do a lot of river kayaking and sea kayaking and need a compact waterproof camcorder/camera for that. This one is just the deal, I can film and take photos and the quality is pretty good. I use Adobe Premium Pro to edit the movies and even when I increase the size to 720x576 it still holds up nice. Watching the clips on the telly looks fine too.

Good one at this price range

This is definitly a good buy at a price of £200. Though you can get a HD camera with a bit higher price, definitly you will miss the SONY brand and the quality that comes with it. The Picture quality at bright light is awesome.

Pros;
good picture quality
Handy and cute
good Zoom

Cons:
No inbuilt memory for photo's.
Message you get when you use a non-sony dvd's
ofcourse not a single blank dvd that comes along with the package!!

Overall, I should say, its a good buy.

~Mothish Babu~

Great idea, execution left wanting

The concept, styling, weight, size and battery life are fantastic, but there are aspects of this product that leave you flat.

This type of camcorder is the way of the future for all of us who want quick family holiday snaps and especially, videos. Tiny size, incredibly low weight, long battery life allow you to literally put it in your top pocket and when necessary, take it out and start shooting in a few seconds.

The SHQ video would be great if I could view it on anything but the TV. Check that your PC's video card has codecs and is up to the task of rendering HD H264 MPEG4 video in real-time before you set off! My work PC was almost up to the task and I can say the quality looked good, even though the video hiccupped.

The 7.1MP camera produces good pics, but the video, which is its prime function has a few issues. First and foremost is the autofocus. It is incredibly slow to auto-focus. It has a face-tracker function, but the model for this must have been a short-sighted hedgehog, because even in good light it takes way too long to focus. Then there's the auto-focus motor noise which, while low in level, is audible in quiet surroundings. I find it unforgiveable to compromise great electronics with el-cheapo mechanics. On the issue of mechanics, the power and SD slot cover are flimsy, and just waiting to be broken.

The camcorder's performance is not wonderful in low light (e.g an incandescant bulb at night), but I guess I expected this, and so I wasn't disappointed by it's performance; in fact, I was a little surprised it did so well. I haven't tried the still-flash yet, but it looks a little dinky.

Overall, this is a potentially fantastic product, provided Sanyo get their act together on the focusing issue. Would I buy it again? Hmmmm, maybe I'd wait for the next model, but then I'd be missing all those shots of the kids that I would never bother taking with my"grown-up", kilo-plus, house-brick-sized, digi-camcorder.

Amazing Quality

The camcorder itself is amazing in quality and great for editing, if you do that kind of a thing. Now all I need is a High Definition TV.

Having taken still pictures on the camcorder too, the quality is really really good.

The 60GB hard drive is ample unless you need hours and hours of footage, (I think it's limit is 15 hours on 60GB). It may be an idea to get a separate SD card to separate the still images from the video footage on the harddrive or worth getting in case your hard drive becomes full before you've had the chance to transfer it onto your home computer.

The 10x optical zoom could have been better and although the 700x digital is a brilliant gimmick to impress the friends and family, you'll obviously lose a lot of quality when zooming into far away objects.

The only downside for me so far is that there is no Apple Mac software, althouh you can import it into iMovie / Final Cut Pro, if you want some decent software to do the editing on a Apple Mac, you'll have to go out and buy the software separately.

I'm most certain you'll be impressed with the quality, in fact I'm using the camcorder a lot more than I used to simply cos it's brilliant quality and easy to use. Enjoy..

Oh it's definitely worth paying the extra from the Panasonic model below this one to get the 60GB hard drive.


Irfan