Just bought this camera from Circuit City about two weeks ago. The first camera I had to return the next day because the image on the LCD was stuck upside down. The camera powers up pretty fast and you can begin recording in just a couple seconds. I love the fact that you can browse through the video and play anything on the fly. I would have thought at this price point it would take better still shots (only 1mp)but that wasnt really the reason I bought it anyway. Low light is ok.. it's no better or worse then my JVC Mini DV. I like the Sony 'night shot' feature. It allows you to take video in total darkness with a built in infrared mode. Do yourself a favor though and purchase an extended battery. The one that comes with it is pretty worthless at only a 1 hour rated life. I purchased the extended 9 hour battery and can realistically get about 4-5 hours without having to charge. The touchscreen is a little different but you get used to it quick. Kinda wish it had a viewfinder but that's on the next model up.
br /
br /Mainly I purchased this because I was sick of dealing with tapes... I have a whole box of VHS and Mini DV tapes that I now have to take the time and convert to usable formats on my PC. The beauty of this camera is that all that goes away and the video is going to be in it's purest form for this level of camera. It doesnt take hollywood level video but at least you are removing one step out of the equation when having to re-render it. The software that comes with it is pretty worthless. about the only thing I liked was it has the ability to archive any changes from the camera whether video or photo and auto back it up with one click.
br /
br /Don't buy the SR-40 or SR-60 you will be disapointed with the features vs. price. If you are looking to upgrade from tape go with this one the SR-80 becasue it is the best value over the two lower models. If you can afford it (i couldnt) Get the SR-100 becasue it has the better camera (3mp) and a viewfinder.
br /
br /Compare the reviews of Sony vs JVC before you buy a HD Camera!!

This camcorder does capture good video. But the main drawback is that it records in MPEG2 format (DVD quality). Initially its nice and easy to capture video and watch it on your computer by downloading the files using the USB 2.0 connection. It gives you instant gratification. But after capturing 4 or 5 hours of video, you will notice that your videos aren't so great as you expect it to be. Its not the fault with your camcorder. Its because all of us shoot extra footage, unwanted scenes, shakes, etc which we want to edit. You may want to add a title or two, add transitions, add backgroud music, combine your photos with the video, etc. Basically you may want to edit your footage. Its here when you find the major drawback of this camcorder. The MPEG2 quality video is not good for editing. The video quality is so compressed that you won't have sufficient bandwidth to edit the video.
br /
br /MPEG2 is a LOSSY compression technique used to compress large video files into smaller files that can be fit into a 4 GB or 8 GB DVD. Since the camcorder compresses the video and then writes to the hard disk, the source file that you download to your computer is already compressed and has lost much of its data during the compression. If you edit this already compressed file, you lose more data during the process thus resulting in poorer video quality.
br /
br /When you edit these videos, add some transitions or special effects, increase/decrease brigthness or noise, etc, the newly edited video loses further clarity and thus makes your video look ugly and pixelated.
br /
br /In summary please don't buy this camcorder if you are serious about your videos and would like to edit them. But if you are not bothered about editing and want to watch your unedited footage forever, then go for it.
br /
br /That said, if you still think you want to go for this camcorder, please read the review on its other features:
br /
br /1. Super NightShot Infrared System: Not a useful feature. Its amazining to initially see how this camcorder is able to "see" using infrared light. But the moment you shoot your subject using infrared light, you never want to shoot again as they will appear like devils when shot using this infrared light. Remember infrared footage appears almost black-and-white and not color. And the subject's eyes really look like devil.
br /
br /2. 2.5-inch wide SwivelScreen LCD display with touch panel capabilities: Sony convenietly "forgot" to mention that this screen is NOT widescreen. Most of the camcorders now-a-days come with widescreen LCD. Its a good feature if you always want to shoot in widescreen. In fact I would suggest you to shoot in widescreen only as all future TVs and current LCD/Plasma TVs are widescreen. You can future proof your video by shooting widescreen. This camcorder DOES support widescreen video but the LCD is NOT widescreen. So when you shoot widescreen, you see black bands on the top and bottom.
br /
br /3. Digital still photos: Please don't rely on this feature. The best photos from this camcorder as as good as the worst photos from any popular digital camera. Technology has still not matured to the point where a camcorder can shoot as good as a digital camera and vice versa.
br /
br /4. 20x optical/120x digital zoom: Optical zoom is very good. You can handle upto 10X optical zoom without a tripod. Any more zoom requires the use of a tripod. I was able to zoom in and read a car tag from the top of Sears tower, Chicago. I love the zoom feature in this camcorder. Don't use the digital zoom feature. Turn it off. As mentioned above, MPEG2 compression already makes the video bad in quality. The digital zoom further makes it worst.
br /
br /5. Professional-quality Carl Zeiss lens: Yes its good. The image quality is truly great. No doubt about it.
br /
br /6. Super SteadyShot picture stabilization system: Good enough to avoid small vibrations caused when going on a ship for example. But not good enough for the shakes encountered when walking with the camcorder. Don't expect to get great footage in such conditions. For great footage, you must still rely on a steady hand or a tripod.
br /
br /7. On-screen zoom and record buttons: Not an useful feature. The camcorder tends to shake more when you use these zoom buttons on the LCD because the LCD is always projecting outside when shooting video. Hence you shake the camcorder more when you touch the LCD than when you touch the camcorder's body.
br /
br /8. USB 2.0 interface: Good interface. Fast enough to download 30 GB in 1.5 hours. Firewire interface would have been great. But USB 2.0 is also good enough
br /
br /9. Image Mixer Software: Very useless software. The free Picasa software from Google is far better in organizning your videos and pictures than the software that comes with this camera. Forget about this software.
br /
br /10. InfoLithium battery with AccuPower meter system: Great battery life. I could shoot for upto 1 hour 20 minutes with one battery. Remember we always don't shoot continously in everyday life. We turn the camcorder on and off repeatedly when shooting. This battery last for 1 hour 20 minutes during normal shooting as explained above. If you shoot continously you may get longer battery life.
br /
br /11. NOTE: This camcorder does NOT have an Active Interface shoe. Other Sony camcorders do have this feature. This allows you to add other Sony accessories, for example, extra flood light. If you are not planning to add any accessory, then don't worry about the absence of this feature.
br /
br /12. DVDDirect compatibility: This feature allows you to directly burn your video and photos to DVD. I don't think this is a very useful feature. Its always better to download to computer, and burn only the good files and photos to DVD instead of burning all of them.
br /
br /Overall summary. Buy this camcorder only if you are not serious about editing the videos. Its a good buy for point-and-shoot-and-view pleasure only. In my opinion, a mini-DV camcorder (DCRHC42 for example) is still a better bet than a DVD or hard drive based model. The only inconvenience in a mini-DV model is that you have to be a bit techy to download video to computer. If you are ok with that, the mini-DV still provides good value for money as its far cheaper than DVD or hard-drive models.

I agree with the previous reviewer. The low light performance of this camera is pretty bad. Deeps reds are more like deep pinks...but other colors are quite natural, though a bit flat.
br /It is a nice camera otherwise: very compact, HDD makes a world of differenc in ease of use. Handgrip takes some getty used to.
br /Stills are useless. No built-in flash makes situation even worse.
br /Would have liked to have component video out so that we can get widescreen output diretly from the camcorder to TV.
br /I may end up trading this for the big-brother DCR-SR100....

This camera is working out great for me. I love that I can play back movies instantly. The microphone works very well. Better then I expected in fact. I would agree that shooting in low light is not great, but it is adequate. It is also annoying that the image is shot in 16:9, but the LCD is 4:3. When I playback on my 16:9 TV I find that there are things in the shot I didn't see on the viewfinder. That's good actually, because the image on the TV is better than what I thought I was going to get.
br /
br /Overall I am very happy with this camcorder and would certainly recomend it.

This Handycam is Great for only one reason - the 60gb hard disk. It means never having to worry about tapes or DVD etc. It's small and light.
br /
br /I returned a Sony DVD handycam which malfunctioned within the first 30 days of receiving it and bought the SR80 instead.
br /
br /I'll focus on the negatives:
br /
br /a) VERY POOR low light performance. Shooting indoors is a pain. For example - you try to shoot a dance floor in a night club - forget - this camera can't deliver. I am about to purchase the light attachment hoping to alleviate this problem. The only way to get halfway decent low light shots it to shoot in a party mode where the image loses all sharpness.
br /
br /b) The original lens that comes with this camera ahs a very narrow focus - it's like you have tunnel vision. I bought this in time for my daughter's 6th birthday party and the results were terrible. It was impossible to get a decent shot unless I was at least 10 ft away from the subject - and I am talking about trying to get more than one person in the frame. I bought the wide angle lens for about $40 and this has made a lot of difference. The lens however is not sharp when you have zoomed out to the max. I also found that I cannot use the camera in most conditions without the wide angle lens. Why Sony would sell a camera with such a poor lens is beyond me.
br /
br /c) Sound is OK. It's supposed to be Dolby Surround. It provides only mono sound with the Bluetooth remote sound attachment.
br /
br /d) Super night shot is useless beyond a few feet. Trying to shoot our Christmas tree was a nightmare. The wide angle lens also blocks the infrared light that is supposed to light up what ever.
br /
br /e) 1 mp Digital stills: Why do they even have the option? Results are terrible. There a cell phones which shoot better pictures?
br /
br /Pros:
br /
br /1) Image stabilization is excellent.
br /2) I already mentioned the benefit of having the large hard disk.
br /3) Good battery life.
br /4) Nice wide LCD makes it easy to operate even for people with big hands.
br /5) Easy to navigate interface.
br /6) Hot shoe for external attachments like additional light and Bluetooth microphone device is necessary.
br /7) Day light shots are great.
br /

Pros:
br /
br /very easy menu system
br /lots of recording time
br /small and light
br /day light video quality
br /no more tapes
br /
br /Cons:
br /low light video quality
br /software (I would like it to include better video editing software)
br /
br /There you have it, overall a very good camcorder except for low light conditions. The biggest plus for me is that this will hopefully last a while. I have had miniDV tape based camcorders and they never last more than a couple of years. I bought it at Rainbowtronics.com and got a great price. They do try to sell you a warranty which I did buy ($[...] for 4 years - haggle with them, it started at $[...]), but I got a great price of $[...] without shipping. I do recommend this product.
br /

Some of the reviewers comments about stills and low light video conditions may be true, but I haven't experienced them yet. I mostly use it to record my children's soccer and football games (which usually take place during daylight hours). The optical zoom is enough for these high school sports and under these conditions, the picture quality is very good.
br /
br /The included software is pretty worthless though. If you want to do anything with the video (except burn directly to DVD), you will need some other software.
br /
br /I am very pleased with the DCR-SR80 and would buy it again.

I got it for $678 in Amazon and being one of the 1st customer to use and review the product since its lunched by the manufacturer in Sept 21st 2006, I found this Wonderful product- excellent for both Indoor and outdoor recording. No hassles converting Analog to digital on your PC.. one step DVD burning made my life easier. - Highly recommended for home use.. the price is worth its value..
br /
br /Strengths..
br /1. Direct MPEG2 Format Recording.
br /2. Dolby Digital Audio Recording
br /3. Professional quality Product at affordable price
br /4. Light weight.
br /5. Harddrive Shock proof technology - Hopefully it will work as described

So it's right before Christmas, 2006. I had an old Sony DCR-HC30, and it ran on DV tapes. It only worked for a year before the LCD screen died, which became a known issue. I was very disappointed and tried to resolve the issue through Sony, as they set up a way to get repairs through their website, but it has been over a month now, and still no reply from them. In other words, nice product, worked on my Mac using iMovie, but very short-lived. I liked the Night Shot Plus for early morning wildlife movies (I live in Montana) and you can't beat Carl Zeiss optics! So although I was very disappointed with the LCD issue, I stayed open to Sony because of the Zeiss optics and the Night Shot Plus feature. And the miniDV did work in iMovie.
br /
br /So while I was in Costco, again, desperate since it is just before Christmas and I still hadn't heard from Sony about repairs to my older camera, I look over the cameras there. I know Canons work well with Mac and iMovie, but there were no Canons there, and I had looked all over town in various stores. So when I saw this Sony, again with Night Shot Plus, Zeiss optics AND it said it WORKED ON MACS, I thought, the old Sony worked well, I like the features, it says on the promo literature it worked on Macs, kinda spendy but I decided to buy it. Plus it is a USB camera rather than Firewire (which for Mac work is really the way to go), and my Mac Firewire died and no place to fix it in this town. As Rosanadana once said, "If it isn't one thing, it's always something else."
br /
br /I get home, charge it up, do a couple of minutes test video (picture looked great, everything seemed cool), and connect to the Mac (remember the old Sony had no problems). Nothing. So I re-read the manual, see that the supplied software does NOT work with Mac and you have to go to a third-party website to buy the software. I even tried drag and drop of the MPEG file on the camera (remember this newer one uses a hard drive rather than tape). But the MPEG file gave mean error as unreadable by Quicktime (I thought if I did an import and export to DV that might have worked). No go.
br /
br /So I got to the third party website which is Pixela and see the software for Mac is another $99! Holy crap. But I really like the camera itself, no other brand has the Night Shot which I use a lot, and I can't afford to go to the higher level of camera with better optics in Canon, so I gamble the $100. Install everything. Still didn't work.
br /
br /So anyway, after messing with the software (thirdparty and Mac) I think I found a work around so that, but there are a lot of steps and conversions, is VERY slow, and uses a LOT of harddrive space until you can crunch it down. So if you buy this camera for use on a Mac, it probably should only be if you need Night Shot Plus (which captures available ambient light) to shoot in very low light conditions without external light. I still will keep the camera, for low light conditions because no other cameras other than Sony do low light using ambient light as well, but will probably save and get a lower level Canon for most of my Mac iMovie work (the Eleura I have heard good things about, though no low light and the optics not as good). But until I figure out my Firewire dilemma that is, and get a Canon, I won't be making a lot of videos, that's for sure.
br /
br /I wish Sony would make it easier for Mac iMovie folks, as there are growing numbers of Mac people, what with the ease of iLife (whcih includes iMovie) and iPod users. It would be worth their while, and they'd sell a lot more cameras.

I absolutly love my SR80. I can not imagine using anything but a harddrive based cam from now on. I took alot of video in short clips (surfing footage) and the fact that each shot is stored in a seperate file is priceless. It is so easy to review, sort, delete and transfer. The same process would be a nightmare using other recording formats.
br /
br /It is also perfect for me because it is very "point and shoot". The extra features are there, they are just a little harder to get to, but thats just fine because I don't really want to use them 99.9% of the time and the extra external controls would just get in the way. Personally, I love the touchscreen interface. It is very durable and is very handy when reviewing shots. All you have to do is touch the thumbnail!
br /
br /Some people are bothered by the lack of a viewfinder on this cam, but anyone who has ever used a viewfinder on a camera this size knows that they are too small to be practical anyways. There is simply not the room to put a real viewfinder on and if they try, you end up with a 1/4 in. screen that pokes you in the eye. The 2.7in widescreen lcd does a much beter job.
br /
br /This camera somtimes takes some flack for its video quality, especially in low light. From my experience, let me say this: it is respectable for what you pay. That is basically the mantra in the camcorder world, you get what you pay for. That said, you can probably get comparable video quality at a lower price. The extra money you pay for the SR80 is not to increase video quality, but rather, you are paying for the incredible convinience of the hard-disc recording medium. For me, that is well worth it. And don't misunderstand me, I don't think you can find much better video quality at a lower price, only comparable. So its not like you're loosing anything. The reallity is, you are not going to get awsome low-light quality from anything under $1000 (and even then it can be a gamble). And just as a side note about the SR80's low-light performance, the Super Night Shot, while probably not what you would want for profesional level video, works very well as far as "night-vision" systems go.
br /
br /So in conclusion:
br /If you are looking for profesional level video, your going to need to spend more money then this camera.
br /
br /If you are shopping mainly by your budget, this may not be your best value.
br /
br /But if you are looking for a camera that is super easy to use, this Sony line in general is probably your best bet.
br /
br /And if you are planing on taking alot of video in short segments, or are planing on doing alot of video editing, this camera should be your #1 choice, no doubt about it.

We recently took this camera on our trip to Yellowstone. Camera worked in temperatures of -30. We really love everything about it but you have to watch to make sure you turned it off. We have several incidents of camera recording car's seat. It has Excellent zoom ability.

This camera has been great. I haven't used it to much but the times that I have its been really nice, the quality of the movies are really good. I also liked that I didn't need any tapes. That would have been a big hassle. The main reason this camera was purchased was because I was getting married and it did the job quite well. I would recommend if you doing any outside filming that need sound of other people to get a microphone. I received one free from amazon when I bought the camera. It was made by Sony for the camera. I would recommend this camera to other people.

The only pseudo complaint is that the quality of the picture is grainy. The size and convenience make up for any deficiency in the quality of picture.

The camcorder is great. Good picture quality, easy to use, organizes your videos by date, easy to play back on TV, and remote makes it very convenient. Battery life is fairly good, but you may want a spare if you'll be recording for more than a couple hours at a time. I can record the highlights of an all day family outing and still have battery to spare.
br /
br /The software really falls short, I wish it were half as user friendly as the camcorder. It doesn't organize your videos as well as the camcorder, and the DVD creation is confusing and rather limited. The software documentation is also limited, confusing, and not always accurate.

My boyfriend is in a local band and plays a lot of shows in dark bars, so I was on the lookout for a camera with decent night vision as well as easy uploading to my computer. I also wanted to convert some VHS tapes to dvd and maybe do a few family and personal video recording. This camera does everything I needed it too.
br /
br /The picture quality is fantastic even when I tend to keep it on the lowest setting. The nightvision can make things a bit green when its really dark, and it can take a bit longer to focus, but it is much better than the dark mess I was recording with my digital camera. The hard drive makes transferring to your computer incredibly easy.
br /
br /My only complaint is that whenever I open a video file using Windows Media Player, I get an error about the codec. The videos will play with no problems but there is that delay each time and it seems to prevent you from viewing a preview image on the file. It also would have been nice if the software allowed you to paste videos together and create transitions rather than just allowing you to cut scenes out.
br /
br /The battery life is ok. I find that I tend to get 90 minutes each time. The camera is lightweight and easier to deal with than older cameras but my hand and arm do get tired after awhile.. I suggest getting a tripod.

Used this camcorder for about week now, well designed camcorder I ever owned. The touch screen menu is very impressive, I was confused at first 5 minutes because there's no button for you to enter the menu as other camcorders do, but after I realized the touch screen, that is so awsome!!! The video quality is way better than any other camcorder at this price range. The autofocus when you move the lens around is very smooth, stablizer works great! Only one drawback so far is the language selection is limited, only English, Spanish, French etc, no Asian language available.

No need convert anymore. You can just hook up the usb cable and drag the clips from camcorder to comoputer. Save lots of time.

I have used an older Sony 8mm camcorder for years. Nothing digital about it. Transferring tapes to my PC involved a third party converter. I had graduation to go to the next day that I really wanted better quality video of. I looked at the other brands and decided Sony had done me well for years. I liked the features. The hard drive made purchasing and carrying media go away. The camcorder has a more powerful zoom than my old one. The picture quality is great. Battery life is outstanding. 16.9 is great. Moving video to my PC is amazingly fast. After my purchase I saw Sony has a new model DCR-SR82 available soon. It has more zoom and can use memory cards. There is a limit to the amount of zoom you can use. At 800x it's still hard to keep the picture steady with a tripod. The 82 I think has 1000x. I haven't found a lot places to use that much zoom. I was able to get clear up close video of the people speaking at the graduation across a large auditorium with about half the zoom this unit has. The sound was great too. There was a sound system in the auditorium. I have no regrets buying this camcorder. If you intend to record for more than an hour and a half at one event get the larger model 90 something battery and use the one that comes with the unit as your backup. There is the auto settings and then, for the more qualified, many manual settings. There is an infra-red setting for low light video. My final answer; buy this camcorder.

If you want an easy to use camera just to do the basics, this one is great. It's lightweight, and the one touch DVD burn is a really nice feature. The image quality seems fine-no complaints so far!

We bought this camcorder in 2006, it's perfect for us! The hard-drive can store many hours of video and the zoom is great! The 12x zoom is so good that the 1MP still shots can actually look somewhat impressive (but don't get rid of your digital still camera!) I can't imagine how awesome the 25x zoom must be on the new 2007 models. The DCR-SR60 is easy to use, so don't worry if you're not very tech savy. It's simple to transfer video from the hard drive to a PC, and not too tough to burn video onto a DVD with an external DVD burner. Our only complaint is that it sometimes takes a second or 2 for the color to adjust when the light changes, and the video can look a little funky during those times. We don't use the camera in dark areas much, so we've been happy with the overall performance.

this camera is good with the two exceptions:
br /1) they should have used avi instead of mpeg2
br /2) the camera is below DV quality

It just doesn't get any easier than this sweet little camcorder. You can get started right away with the "easy button". The battery lasts a very long time and the features are excellent. I just point and start recording and the stability really keeps the picture steady. My husband is the techie and has done some very cool editing but for me having the hard drive and not having to worry about the tape running out or the lighting being bad is what makes it so great. When it came the lens cover was not with it and although I've called we still haven't received it. That's the only problem we have had.

I bought SONY DCRSR-80 Camcorder before the Christmas and it gave my family a very happy time in the season. Here I have to appreciate your service with a high quality and fast shipping. I like to have my next shopping at your Amazon becouse you are the best online and trustable store.

Very pleased with this product. So light and easy to use. Excellent picture quality.

I personally love this cam-corder, the huge hard drive makes it so you don't have to worry about storage. The LCD is touch screen which is really easy to use the only down side thing about the cam-corder is the battery life its not that great but besides that this Cam-Corder was the right buy.

My husband and I enjoy new technology and we purchased this camera two years ago when it was fairly new to the market. It was the worst purchase we have ever made. We were enticed by the "one touch burn" and fast transfer promises for backing up on our computer. We lost the software to the camera a few weeks after we purchased it- and we had not loaded it on our computer. Sony nor Pixella will replace the software. You can purchase it for $65. Not exactly what I expected after paying $995. In the last 18 months we have used several alternatives. We currently use Vegas Movie Studio from Sony and after a time consuming process we can burn a DVD. Not what we expected when we bought a product promising quick transfer to DVD. We basically just wanted high quality footage of our four children. My advice: be sure to hang onto the software if you buy it, don't plan to use Movie Maker or other standard novice software to edit- this camera's format is not compatable. Be aware you may find yourself in our situation: we now have a camera full of footage I don't have time to render. Just today I spent four hours trying to download fixes to no avail. I'll never purchase a Sony product again.

Excellent camcorder. Hard drive is the way to go. Good software makes it easy to save to computer and/or make DVDs (but application for customizing DVD menus themes is weak). Not a hi-def recorder, but if you have an upscaling DVD player it looks like high definition - excellent movie quality and very easy to use.

I had such a hard time choosing the right hard drive camcorder! According to most of the comments on the web all HD camcorders are of poor quality, or have software problems or something else. So i had to decide myself at the end and I converged on this one, which was a great pick, so easy to use, of incredible quality, and so far no problems with burning the DVDs! Slight compatibility problems between the existing burning software present on my laptop and the Sony software... But once solved, I love it and I love the touchscreen! I got the whole package with an extra battery, but I still haven't used it! The battery lasts pretty long.

I bought this camera directly from the sony store paid $650 on March 7, 2007. Amazon was selling it for $350 more than what i paid for it. Buy direct from Sony and save. The guy at the counter tried pressure me to buy the extended warranty, i declined. Sale guys make more money selling equipment warranty then the camera itself. Camera works great, i also bought the $20 stand which i use for my sony digital stills camera. You can't go wrong with this product.
br /
br /Bira Rai
br /
br /BiraRai

VIDEO/PIX QUALITY FROM SONY PRODUCT IS AMAZING!!!. ZOOM AT X12 IS GREAT! HUGE MEMORY! JUST GOOD ENOUGH TO MAKE A MOVIE THAT I CHERISH FOR A LONG TIME. EASY , FRIENDLY ACCESS ON THE TOUCH SCREEN PAD, SOUNDS IS GREAT WITH 2 CHANNEL AND OPTION OF 5.1 CHANNEL, IM IMPRESS!!!. ALL IN ALL, IT'S A GREAT PIECE OF HARDWARE THAT WILL CAPTURE YOUR MEMORIES THAT WILL LAST FOREVER! DEFINITELY RECOMMEND.

As a first time video camera owner I found this camera simple to use and intuitive. I turned it on out of the box and just started to use it without needing to read any instructions. Simple!

WARNING: STAY CLEAR OF USAPHOTONATION.COM
br /The above site will scam you by offering the lowest price for the most popular camcorder such as the Sony DCR-SR100. After you provide them with your credit card info, including the 3 digit ID number on the back of the card, you may think that the purchase has gone thru. However you will receive an email stating that your order cannot be processed until you call their 800 number, extension 208 and speak to "Ben". Ben will say he needs your 3 digit Card ID. However the sale could not have gone thru initially without it and would have been rejected. But know Ben has you on the phone! Ben will be pushy, nasty and down right rude should you have to ask him anything while he is pushing to "down grade" your order to a DCR-SR80, pushing you to add such items as a must have UV Filter, a Wide Angle Lense, a Video Case and a 4 year extended warranty and a upgraded battery pack. Lo and behold the low price for the SR100 of $495 has now jumped to $940 for the SR85. Of course the SR85 has a 60 GB hard disk compared to the SR100's 30 GB hard disk. Oh yes, forget about the SR85 only being a 1 MP still photo resolution. Ben will tell you that because the Sony's have the Carl Zeiss lens that the 1 MP is the same as a 3 MP and will take perfect 8x10 still photos. Try and call them on the phone. They will be rude and once they know what you want will hang up on you. OH yes, something else they will not tell you on the phone or on the internet - they do not take returns on Sony Products! No wonder they can bait and switch. The included items on the invoice did not have individual prices broken out with just the total shown. That way they have no record of the prices they were quoting you "rapid fire" over the phone. I never did get the upgraded battery pack that I am sure I paid $150 for that was buried in the $940 cost.
br /YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. GO THEIR AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Despite what the other reviewer say the low light performance of this camera is very poor. All the colors are washed out, and inaccurate! Red show up as some kind of orange, when shooting indoor.
br /
br /The 1MP camera is worthless, indoors or outdoors.
br /
br /The only thing that this camera has going for it is its 60MB Hard Disc recording medium, and even that Sony puts a NICE disclaimer on. Backup your content often; we are not responsible for data loss. Make one wonder if it's worth the risk.
br /
br /I do not know about you, for $$$ I expect a camera to record my memories as I remember them. My $$ digital camera take better move clips than this camcorder, under same lighting condition.
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I just got this camera 3 days ago. The low light performance is certainly disappointing, but it does fairly well on daylight. What is really annoying is the fact that the camera is not compatible with mac out of the box. To be able to download the movies to the mac, you need the mpeg-2 patch from apple ($20) and the streamplayer, which is free. Then, you need to convert the file into mpeg-4, which will allow you to use it with imovie. (DO NOT GET THE SOFTWARE PIMPED BY SONY! It is lame, and it will cost you $100.) Sounds simple, but it is quite irritating, not to mention time consuming. I would expect that companies like Sony and Apple could figure this out before charging you an arm and a leg for their products. I have yet to try editing the movies with a pc, so I cannot comment on this yet. I have been told that it is fairly easy, though.
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br /Certainly, if cannon came up with a comparable hard drive camcorder for the same price, I would certainly consider making the switch. By the way, the still pictures are worthless, but who cares! It is a VIDEO camera, after all. Go and get a throw-away film camera at the supermarket for stills. You will be better off.
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I researched and purchased the DCR-SR80 60GB Handycam for use in the classroom. After unpacking and testing the handycam I find that a special $100 driver needs to be purchased in addition to make it work with Mac systems. I was so annoyed that I returned the handycam and will avoid Sony products from now on. Most art schools and universities use Mac systems in thier art departments, so Sony has not thought this incompatibility out very well. I also don't care for the touch screen. It will be a place of inevitable corrosion.

No optical viewfinder. I had trouble using the LCD to compose in outdoor shots. Washed out so badly in bright sunlight I was guessing what I was filming. Critical oversight in a camera this expensive. Then again, none of the HD camcorders from Sony or JVC seem to have an optical viewfinder. Wonder why?

Plainly put: This camera will not work with a Mac unless you jump through loops, buying extra software and wasting a lot of time -- besides the conversion process to make your movies editable in iMovie is excruciatingly slow.
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br /This should be explicit in the amazon advertisement. It is now.