Sony proudly boasts that the DCR-IP5 MicroMV Handycam ($1,100 street) is the world's smallest and lightest digital video camcorder. At 1.9 by 4.0 by 3.1 inches (HWD) and a scant 13.2 ounces including battery and tape, it certainly is tiny. But it carries some big-camera specs, including a Zeiss 10X optical zoom lens, an electronic image stabilizer, stereo microphones, an iLink (IEEE 1394) interface, a variety of special effects, and a near-broadcast-quality 500-line resolution. To accommodate its small size, however, Sony made some engineering compromises, such as developing a new, ultraminiature DV tape format that no one else uses and may present compatibility problems.

The silver and grey MicroMV Handycam looks like a miniature camcorder, and although small and light, it's too thick to fit into the proverbial shirt pocket. The 10X optical zoom lens has movable internal elements and does not protrude while shooting. But you must pull out the eye-level electronic viewfinder 0.9 inches during use. The camcorder's other viewing option is the articulated 2.5-inch LCD viewfinder, which rotates 270 degrees, and is sharp, generally bright, and includes a very fast refresh rate and backlight capability for viewing in low light. The LCD automatically activates when pulled into position, turning off the eye-level viewfinder. Both viewfinders display all settings and information, including remaining battery life and the number of recording minutes left. Battery life was an acceptable 87 minutes, according to DigitalBenchmarks' tests. Additional batteries sell for $100 each.

The camcorder's few controls are well marked, but small, scattered, and somewhat inconvenient to access. They are close enough that you can operate the camera with one hand. Although the zoom lever is tiny—the size and shape of a small pill—it is remarkably easy to use, especially when controlling the zoom speed. Located in front of the zoom button are a rocker-switch Record button and a shutter button for taking still photos. When you press the shutter button, the image is captured and frozen in the viewfinder with a progress bar consisting of six disappearing red circles. Because this model does not accommodate Sony Memory Sticks, still shots are saved on MicroMV tapes as NTSC scans, not true VGA-resolution JPEGs.

The MicroMV Handycam captures images on a tiny 0.17-inch CCD, which has a total density of 680,000 pixels. Because its electronic image stabilizer keeps an image focused on the fixed CCD surface as it moves about, the CCD's effective resolution is only 350,000 pixels. It supports normal (3:2) or wide screen (16:9) shooting modes, compensates for backlighting, and features a variety of special effects and program modes, such as fades, low lux, beach and ski, old movie, trail, and more.

The MicroMV Handycam has the usual exposure compensation and white-balance options, but it lacks manual control over f-stops and shutter speeds. Image quality is good, with bright colors and decent detail in highlights and shadows.

Each $15 MicroMV cassette is about one-third the size of a standard MiniDV cassette and can record up to 1 hour of MPEG2 video. An embedded 64KB memory chip stores reference thumbnails that aid still-image and clip searching. Currently you cannot play MicroMV cassettes in any devices other than the Handycam. And MPEG2 only works with Sony's MovieShaker video-editing software, which ships with the camera.

The MicroMV Handycam also comes with a wireless remote, one battery, a recharger, one MicroMV tape, and a FireWire cable. If you're willing to spend another $400, the Sony DCR-IP7BT Handycam offers the ability to save VGA image stills to Sony Memory Sticks, plus a Bluetooth interface that lets you upload videos and stills to the Web wirelessly, as well as browse the Web and download text messages.

The MicroMV Handycam is a fabulous techno toy, and its tiny size means that you can take it everywhere. Just don't expect Hollywood-quality videos or award-winning stills.