Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony DCR-PC330 Mini-DV Digital Camcorder [Mini-DV 10xOptical]

Although this is a palmcorder, it is a little bulky and can be a bit difficult to hold, but thats the pay off for being crammed full of gadgets.
The picture quality is excellent, far better than I expected, I would say better than VHSC or 8mm analogue.
I thought the night vision would be a bit of a gimmick, but, it is actually very good. It works in complete darkness using an onboard infra red light to illuminate the scene. Fantastic for night time animal watching, just like Bill Oddie's animal shows.
The optical zoom is excellent and if you need a bit more then, by using the touch screen display, you can change to the 120X digital zoom, using this you can zoom in on a face at a distance of about 400 metres, but you really need to be using a tripod because of the camera shake at that magnification.
Battery life with supplied battery is about 1 hour, I bought the NP-QM71D from Amazon, this lasts over 3 hours but is quite large. Make sure you buy a genuine Sony info-lithium version of the battery, I tried a generic non Sony version and it wouldn't work at all. You have to charge the battery on the camera using the supplied charger, so I also bought the AC-VQ50 charger from Amazon, this charges the battery off camera and can also power the camera or charge a second battery attached to it. It's also very quick and tells you how long to full charge and what the battery life is in hours and minutes.
The Pinnacle 8 editing software is very easy to use, with good effects, but it takes 2-4 hours to record your finished movie to CD or DVD. You need a DVD recorder if you want to really appreciate the quality of the recording from this camera.
There is a USB cable (photos) but no Firewire cable, which is essential for transferring movies to you PC. Luckily most firewire cards are supplied with a cable.
My only complaint would be that Sony provides a miserly 16Mb memory stick for taking photos (again excellent quality although there is a bit of shutter delay)and they do not supply a video tape at all.
Overall build quality appears excellent and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this camera. If you want top quality digital video and very good photos and can afford the price, you won't be disappointed.

Now before I say this, you get exactly the things advertised when you buy this camcorder. You have, however, just parted with more than a thousand of your hard-earned pounds (even at Amazon's price) and it stings a little to find: No case, no carry strap, NOT EVEN ONE miniDV tape, no firewire cable, a battery which only lasts 60 mins and (and bear in mind here that this is a 3.3 MP camera) a 16 (yep sixteen) Mb Memory stick - not a lot of use!
Grumble over.
This is a magnificant machine - stunning clarity, well balanced, detailed stills and all the usually top end refinements. The night shot is the best i've seen and the holographic focussing works well.
It's a pleasure to use and amazon's service is every bit as good on electric goods as it is for DVDs and Books

Well title sums it up really.... the picture quality is very clear and crisp. When i playback something using the s-video cable the picture quality is actually clearer looking on my TV than the actual TV channels are. The cam also picks up colours very well and they look realistic.
This camcorder is bad in poor lighting (for one of this price anyway), it has a grainy effect when its quite dark. For filming indoors in the daytime its fine though. The nightshot is a cool feature, you can shoot in total darkness like you see on some TV programs, where it has a green tint and makes your eyes look freaky (they kind of glow).
Oh and the battery life aint so bad... i actually found it cheaper on other sites than what amazon are selling it for (got it for £900) but in the high street stores they all had it for £1300+.

From the moment you open the box this Sony oozes quality.Although small it feels sufficiently weighty and the controls all seem to have been positioned especially for your own hand. 3 megapixel ccd means excellent quality for both movies and stills,you can sell your stills camera and put the money towards this beauty.Every feature you could want is here but most important are, true widescreen,superb nightshots and plenty of manual controls for the enthusiast.Just buy it!

The first thing about the Sony DCR-PC330 is whether you are comfortable with the upright type of camcorder,personally I prefer the standard bulky type. Sony make superb cams. they always feel solid and expensive which they invariably are. This one is no exception. The main factors going for this model are mainly the exceptional still resolution of 3M pixels the highest yet in a Camcorder. Combining this with the battery power of the DCR-PC330 you could get more pictures than your PC memory can hold. However the benefits are immediately negated by the miserly 16mb memory stick and the FM 330 battery that comes as standard. The battery which is attached at the side will last enough for hundreds of stills but fire up your video and, whoops bring out the spare, add a larger capacity and now you will find the DCR-PC330 more unbalanced and awkward to hold. Ok the spec generally is very good except perhaps in low light, this really is poor for a camcorder costing over £1000!
While the 3 million pixel stills feature is great the poor low light pick up does it no justice. Suggest you shop around for a reasonable Sony digital stills camera that takes the FM battery,find a good deal on the DCR-TRV60 or 80, that way you have a cracking camcorder and a mega pixels stills camera that handles poor light with batteries you can use in both.