Customer Rating:  
Summary: Amazing camcorder. So far feel it's easier to handle than miniDV.
Comment: Freaking impressive quality in low/inside, absolutely splendid outside. Quiet, incredibly small -- could fit in your pocket if you wanted. Fast turn on. Pluses over miniDV: no more buying tape. You can skip to different segments fast, low machine noise so less interference with the shot you're getting. Yes, on vacation it might get difficult.....but lots of people bring their computers along and this one has SD or Memory Stick media to help too (although please make sure it can capture video). Would give it perfect 5.0 stars if cheaper, but not sure. Not sure why or how much GPS helps. But, amazon has such low prices, GPS model was only $20 more than the version without GPS so got the GPS one. Had a Canon Vixia HV30 before....amazing too and outside about equal but Canon is about 80% as good inside/low light as this Sony.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great small Camcorder
Comment: This is an upgrade from my HDR-HC3. It is small and easy to carry around. I have had it for a week. It takes very sharp/clear video. It is an excellent upgrade from HDR-HC3. No more MiniDV tapes. I will need more HD for backup. Photo is very good. But I won't give up my digital camera. Too bad it does not come with mini HDMI cable. Included battery will give 1 day of use. There are 4 different settings for HD shooting, manual was not too clear to explain the difference among them.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Just wanted to confirm that this DOES work on a Mac
Comment: This camera has received a lot of really good reviews, but I almost didn't buy it because of the guy here who said it won't work with a Mac or iMovie. I just received mine today, so I haven't played around with it too much yet. But the first thing I did was record a short clip and then plugged it into my Mac to see if it works. It works perfectly fine, with nothing to install or anything. I have an iMac that was bought in 2009, running Snow Leopard, and iMovie 09. With iMovie opened when I plugged the camera into the usb, it automatically recognized it without me doing anything. I simply selected the clips I wanted to import and clicked the button. Works perfectly
Customer Rating:
Summary: Doesn't work on a Mac
Comment: The picture quality is great but it's useless because the camera doesn't connect to iMovie on a Mac OS X 10.5. It doesn't connect to Movie Maker on a Windows XP computer either. The only way to get video off is through the proprietary Sony software, which only comes for Windows; there is no version for Macs. Once you've exported the video from the camera into the Sony application, you have to export it out as mpg or wmv file before you can use it in iMovie/Movie Maker. A real flaw.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Nice camera - easy to use too!
Comment: I played with this camera in a local store along with the Canon Vixia lines. I decided to go with this one for the following reasons:
- Does SD video, the Canon only can do HD, may not be used alot but if you are not ready to start with HD because you do not have a fast PC it creates a path to get to HD.
- Steady shot and fast focus work very well, you will want to stick to the optical zoom, I found the 177x digital zoom adds a lot of noise to the video.
- It includes software to burn your videos to disc, the Canon cameras do not.
-Small size, I just drop it into my camera bag, It is smaller than a can of soda. I have DSLR lenses that are smaller size than this camera.
-Many options, such as video format, exposure, wide-tele lens, zoom mic., but is also easy to use on the basic settings and takes very good video on the basic settings.
- Very good low light video and many manual settings.
-32gb built-in memory, can store 4hrs of the best video for blue-ray! or use to 13 hrs of dvd quality!
Cons:
-Expensive, considering there are cameras in the $300-400 range that have similar features, this one performs much better.
-GPS - while neat, could be left off as I do not see a lot of benefit, and also uses battery faster, still kinda of neat.
-Expensive batteries - you can expect to pay about $70 US to get another battery, but they last about 2 hrs of continuous use.
-No optical viewfinder, this would be a nice addition especially in very bright sunlight, but the built-in screen is still very bright.
I would recommend this camera from the quality video and easy to use features, it should last many years providing both excellent video and also great still photos. You should also be aware this either requires a fast PC with DVD or blue-ray burner, or Sony makes a burner station that this camera plugs into that will burn discs directly, no pc needed. I don't think many people would be unsatisfied with this camera.
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