Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony DCRPC5 MiniDV Camcorder with 4MB Memory Stick for Digital Stills

I have owned a lot of camcorders. VHS, 8mm, Hi8, 3chip. . .I love this one! It actually fits my pocket! It takes good video for a single chip camera. It has a great lens, Super Steady Shot, and has a great battery. {especially if you use the view finder} It fits my big hand better than many larger camcorders. The DCR-PS11 takes a much better digital still, but is a little larger ie. a little less convenient to carry. The DCR-PS5 is to carry. The 640x480 stills look great on my computer's screen and make great slide shows the 10x lens lets you shoot over the crowd and get great closeups. I have other camera's for high quality stills. A camera in your pocket is much more useful then the one at home or in your car's trunk!

I just got mine and I love it. BUT, this camera is not for everyone. This amazingly tiny camera actually does fit in the palm of your hand and is surprisingly easy to use. The index function allws you to automatically jump to any scene on the tape using tiny thumbnail icons. (it's like jumping to scenes on your dvd) However, because the images are recorded as MPEG files, they are treated as such, seperate files. This makes loading footage into your computer and editing a dream, but, when playing back the tape on your TV, there is about a one second pause between each clip and I must admit, it's pretty annoying. I believe the best camera is whatever you will actually use. You will definately use this one, but if you intend on shooting video, dubbing to vhs and whatching, you may be unhappy with the results. If you want an amazing tool which can capture images to be manipulated in your computer, this is the camera for you.

I bought this camera because of its size. It is a great camera to lug around. However the telephoto/wideangle button is clumsy at best. The one second hesitation on the playback mode is very distracting and annoying. I do not think the quality of the recording is as good as my old dcr-9.