Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony DCRHC62E Mini DV Handycam With X25 Zoom

The must-have feature that clinched the buying decision for me was DV-In so I could record back to tape after editing. Very few budget camcorders have that. I edit using iMovie 2 on an old Mac PowerBook and this model works just fine, both in and out of the Mac's FireWire ports.

Time lapse recording is great; leave the Camcorder on a tripod and it will take one frame every 2 to 120 seconds and produce those time-lapse sequences you see on TV. Very cool.

My gripes are:
(1) the automatic light level setting seems dark to me when filming inside. Any backlighting at all can cause the foreground image to be quite dark. There is a backlighting compensation control, but you often don't realise you needed it until you view the footage later on.
(2) Also in mediocre light, the unit seems to try to refocus occasionally, resulting in sudden moments of fuzziness in the middle of a sequence. Not quite bad enough for me to feel I can claim it is faulty, but nevertheless irritating.

If you have a chance to try before you buy, do your testing indoors under artificial light. That's the weak spot.

Overall I'm pretty happy and am learning to live with and work around the couple of limitations.

First of all I have to start with a gripe. You get the camcorder and you are instructed to install the software and driver before registering the product via a USB cable. You follow the instruction and guess what? It won't connect. I telephoned Sony technical who were worse than useless. They had no idea what the problem was or how it can be solved. Whilst waiting for a return call from them (which I never got) I managed to solve the problem myself (more luck than judgement) if I am honest. I wish companies would write instructions that is crystal clear that a 2 year old would understand.

Anyway, on to my review of this camcorder now. As you expect with a Sony product the camcorder is stylish and comfortable in the hand. It does what it says on the box and does it well. The LCD display is clear and adjustable. There are a host of adjustments for those who seek perfection in their videos. For those like me who just want to point and shoot the Easy Handycam feature does this automatically.

My main reason for choosing this model is I like to edit my videos on the PC, make DVD`s to view and make a backup copy by copying it back to the camcorder DV tape. I then store it away for safety. To do this you need a camcorder that has DV in and out. This Sony has it and it works beautifully.

I started this review with a gripe but for the price this camcorder is well worth the money. You would be hard pressed to find a better camcorder than this Sony.

This is my third mini DV camcorder and my second Sony Handycam. I had considered moving to the direct to memory card or disk format but I personally like to edit the film on my PC (this is the fun bit for me!) and I like the quality end result that I get from the Mini DV format at the slight sacrifice of the convenience of the more "instant" media.

Mini DV is also cheap and reliable. Part of my selection criteria was to get a camcorder with "DV in" which gives me the added option of sending my edited film back to tape if I want to with minimal loss of quality, in addition to the facility to burn to disk. This camera has this facility, many of them, including my last Handycam, do not have this facility.

The "widescreen" option was a nice to have when I bought the camera but having used it I love it as it gives you an added dimension should you wish to use it.

This is a good looking and easy to use piece of kit. The picture quality is excellent and it is intuitive to use. Don't be put off by the X25 zoom. My last camera, also a Sony had a X40 zoom which was pretty useless unless the camera was on a tripod. The addition of the remote control, which again, you don't always get, is a nice bonus.

I would give this product five stars for my particular application which is filming family occassions and use on holidays.

I have had one of these for 8 months now. I bought it 3 days after the birth of my son. I figured that the expense at the time would be worth it in years to come. It's already worth it.

First of all, I chose Sony because I've been very impressed with their kit in the past. I have had laptops and digital cameras from them, and all have been fantastic. When researching camcorders, Sony seem to come up tops there too. It was their expertise that made professional movie cameras which the likes of George Lucas has used. And while you'd never expect anything physically in common with those machines, you have to hope that some of the company DNA filters down to the products that you and I will buy.

So the machine itself is amazingly compact for a camcorder that uses a tape. It sits well in your hand and the screen is bright and clear, even on the sunniest of days, but unlike many hard-drive or flash memory camcorders, this one gives you a viewfinder too, which has the added incentive in that it prolongs battery life by around 12-15 minutes.

The image quality is brilliant and looks excellent on our 50" plasma TV, so it'll look fine if you just look at it on a computer monitor. Sound quality is crisp and clear, but the mic struggles with quieter sounds sometimes, so I switched from 16bit sound to 12bit, and although the quality is technically inferior (I couldn't tell), the levels appear to have been boosted, so I leave it on that.

Switching from widescreen to standard 4:3 ratio is done with one button and is simple.

The still photos are stored on a memory stick and are acceptable quality for emailing, but I'd still keep your regular camera handy for big occasions. It is brilliant though that you can take a still shot WHILE filming video at the same time. It essentially grabs a frame of the movie and saves it to the memory card.

So why only 4 stars - well it's not really a fault specific to this camera as most are heading this way nowadays, but I wish manual focusing was achievable by a ring round the lens instead of buried in a menu somewhere. Like any modern camera (movie or still), the autofocus can get confused sometimes. The other day I was filming a squirrel through some branches, and although I could see the animal clearly, the camera was more interested in the branches. By the time you've navigated the menu to get to the manual focus, the subject will have gone. Also I'd like a hot-shoe adaptor so I can fix an external light or microphone, but that is rare on cameras of this price, so I'll forgive them that one.

All in all, very good.

Being some-one who likes to edit movies on a PC I was reluctant to move from tape to the newer hard-drive or flash-drive based camcorders. This and my prior experience of Sony devices led me to buy this miniDV camcorder.

After 4 months of ownership the verdict is very positive. I have found the unit very easy to use and handle despite it's small toy-like size. This latter point comes in really handy as it actually fits into my blazer pocket! The camera has an excellent lens with substantial zoom capablities that are best taken advantage of with a tripod (I bought one of those too). Furthermore, a remote control is included to allow some hands free control over the unit.

Battery life is also very good; you can get 2 hours of recording comfortably if you use the view-finder instead of the LCD screen. I wasn't too bothered about the software that was included because I already have some excellent movie editing software on my PC. The transfer to PC requires a firewire cable, which isn't included but can be bought quite cheaply on Amazon. I also use a firewire cable to connect the camcorder to my Sony Bravia LCD TV and find that playback is superb.

I concur with other reviewers that the camcorder isn't brilliant when light is poor, but it isn't a professional machine and you aren't paying for one either. Besides, I like to do most of my filming in good sunny weather.

I also took out an extended warranty as these things do occasionally malfunction, but so far so good. I highly recommend this camcorder.