I got this in fall of 2005, and it was ready to go with tapes, 6pin adapter to download and edit on my computer. The quality of the pix is 5 times better on a Sony memory card. The lighting and everything else I had no issue as I used higher exposure. The battery needs to be checked as it drains over about 2 weeks time, which isn't too bad, and it recharges fully in 2 hours. It doesn't record on widescreen 16:9 for some of the film submissions, but great for yahoo, utube, and other websites. Sound is great, and mic input is great for a portable clip mic or boom, which I recorded separately and edited on top of the pix.