Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony DCR-HC24E Handycam MiniDV Camcorder [20x Optical Zoom]

I was surprised at how easy it has become to use a camcorder. everything is on screen and makes for ease of use.

The picture quality is good even for stills and battery life, even for the small battery that comes with the machine. Using the manual controls is straightforward and gives very acceptable results.

The only crticism I would have is about image stability when using the zoom. Even then you can overcome this on playback by stopping the tape and getting a clear and stable image.

The HC24E is a fun camcorder but produces excellent results.

The supplied cable means that transferring images to tape, cd or dvd is simple and effective especially when using the remote commander.

I thought the machine would be good but I was surprised at how good.

Great camera for the money. Bought as a gift for my 12-year-old, it has proved easy to use and produced good footage. It has lots of features for the price and the touch screen controls are brill. It is small enough to take with you without being too fiddly to operate. Gave 5 stars as for the price is fab.

I have to say that I am absolutely delighted with this little camcorder.

The principle attraction was undoubtedly the inexpensive price tag, combined with the Sony brand, which imports expectations of quality and style. You are unlikely to be disappointed.

Functionality is super-extremely easy to navigate via the touch screen, with all of the facilities you would expect from a more expensive camcorder.

Longevity of the battery is also better than expected, and if you are a more demanding user, a simple remedy comes in the form of a larger capacity spare battery!

With respect to holding a steady shot on this tiny camera, practice is key. After time, results are more than acceptable, though undoubtedly, a larger and heavier camcorder naturally lends itself better to super-steady shots (of course tripods are an inexpensive remedy where required).

In essence a great camcorder, which is delightfully easy to use.

By way of an aside: those of you intending to transpose your video onto DVD via your PC-beware of the inherent complications, in particular loss of video integrity!

I was a bit weary about buying a Sony handycam because of previous model's reviews, however this model is real compact and feature packed.

Firstly this camera is Really small and light, although on this point I gave the camera 4 stars because of it's build quality, seems a little flimsey but I think this is to make the camera very light. Everything else is really neat, touch screen 2.7" , Carl Zeiss lens, 12x Zoom - Nightshot plus works terrificly, very simple interface and alot of the camera is pretty much self-explanitory. Also - Works fine with Mac, through iLink (IEEE 1394 Firewire) and iMovie. The camera is V. compact - personally would like the camera to be slightly larger.

4/5 Feature packed - All the features I need, however could be slightly better made.

After researching what camera to buy and looking in several retailers and on various websites (retailers and manufacturers) I decided that this camera would do what I wanted and in fact boasts better features than the newer model(s) that appear to have been marketed to replace it.

I haven't been disappointed: Camera itself is sony quality. Supplied software worked for me but its worth considering getting a firewire port and cable for transferring video if you don't already have them. Whilst the usb streaming works firewire makes transferring video alot easier and quicker.

Also consider getting Sony Vegas software to edit your footage. The supplied software is enough to get you going but is somewhat limiting depending on what you want to do with your footage.

So far I haven't been disappointed with the Camera and would recommend it as worthy of being put in your wishlist at least!