Sony Handycam DCR SR32E

Advantages Excellent picture quality, portability, easy to use touch screen
Disadvantages Battery life, few supplied software editing features

...I find this camcorder to be far superior to my old DVD one. The hard drive means that it is much more compact, and reads and writes loads faster too - without the aggravation of DVD insertion and removal. I have also found it to be reliable - it captured some excellent video of my Christmas and New Year's Eve parties, which played back and transferred with perfect picture quality (although not as superior as HD quality of course). I even discovered that it had a nightlight facility (wasn't aware of that before I bought it) - so it could capture videos even in almost complete darkness (very handy for my brother's surprise party)! The touch screen interface was easy to use and overall I found this to be a fab little camcorder - everyone from a novice to an expert would enjoy exploring all the shooting modes, etc. Is there a... Read review

Advantages Small Size, Light Weight, Good Movie Quality, Easy to Use, automatic settings do a great job.
Disadvantages Still picture quality less than stellar, software adequate but not great.

...This is a very good camera from Sony which combines most of the features you really want in one small, compact package. The LCD screen is clear and the touch menus are easily navigated although manipulating the camera through software is much easier and I tend to do it this way to preserve the screen. The still picture quality is ok but not on a par with a camera deisgned for that purpose. The camera fits nicely into your hand and weighs very little so you won't mind holding it in your hand for long periods. Battery life is adequate at around 100-120 minutes, and the camera recharges simply but putting it on its base. Recording time is huge, thanks to the huge 30GB hard disk. The camera performs excellently on the on fully automatic settings, it's literally as simple as point and shoot. The only improvement would... Read review