OK, I have to start by saying I have not actually used this product. However, I have to comment on the review that says Sony is falsely advertising a 40x zoom. Unfortunately, the reviewer does not understand what 40x means, and since this is likely true of many readers, I wanted to clear this up.
br /
br /If you read the specifications, you will see that this Sony camera has a lens with a minimial focal length of 36mm and a maximum focal length 1440mm. To calculate the zoom multiplier, divide the maximum focal length by the minimum focal length. In this case, 1440 / 36 = 40 so indeed the Sony camera has a 40x lens.
br /
br /So, what happened when the reviewer "GAB" went to the video store and compared this to the JVC and other models? The answer is, he only compared the maximum zooms of the different cameras. The JVC, for instance, turns out to have a greater maximum zoom. JVC's camera specs for this model indicate it has a minimum focal distacne of 2.3, and a maximum of 78.2. You can't really compare the focal length numbers since the cameras are on different scales, but you can apply the same formula to the JVC, in which case 78.2 / 2.3 = 34, so indeed the JVC has a 34x zoom, as advertized. However, to completely compare the lenses, you should also zoom ALL OF THE WAY OUT, and compare those pictures as well. If you do this, you will find the Sony gives a much wider view than the JVC. In other words, the Sony has a wider angle lens than the JVC. So, if you are close to the subjects you are viewing, you will get much more in the picture with the Sony than with the JVC.
br /
br /The bottom line is that zoom multipler on any camera lens is the ratio of the widest angle to the strongest zoom. Which is more important is up to you. Do you plan to shoot more indooors than out? In that case, a wider angle is probably better due to the close quarters. Do you plan to shoot lots of sporting events from the bleachers? In that case you probably want a greater zoom to get close to the action from a distance. Some of of both? You probably want greatest flexibility, which in this case the Sony gives you slightly more.
br /
br /Consider how you plan to do most of your shooting, and buy the camera that meets your needs. But make sure you are comparing apples to apples, and considering all aspects of your decision. Zoom is only one of many features on these cameras - compare them all!
br /
br /Note: Since I have not used this camera, but I had to select a rating for it in order to write this, I choose four stars in order to average with GAB's rating of 2 stars and end up at 3. I apologize is this is misleading to anyone.

I wasn't originally planning to buy a hard drive camcorder (was mostly looking at mini-dv), but I saw this one at a discount at Circuit City, so that's why I purchased it.

After using this camera, I realized that it would have been a big mistake for me if I got the mini-dv tape camera. The advantages of convenience of a hard drive camera by far outweight the extra price (sometimes as low as 50$).

The best thing I like about this camera is of course the convenience of not having to buy tapes, and the ease with which the videos are transferred to the computer. I also really like the fact that I can review the clips on the camera right after recording, or earlier clips on the drive, without having to wait for the tape to rewind and trying to catch the right moment.

I also think that the audio is very good, the sound is clear and it records very quite sounds which make the videos even more interesting.

The other great thing I like about this camcorder is its powerful 40x zoom. I read a review here claiming that it's only a 25x zoom, but it still is really powerful and allows me to zoom up on people's face when they are so far that they wouldn't even be able to see that i have a camera. High flying airplaines can also be zoomed up to a full screen and I don't use the digital zoom.

There are other great things I like about this camera but I am sure it will be covered in other reviews so I am going to list some things that I thought were its weak sides.
First of all, the camera doesn't have a viewfinder which means that in order to see what is being recorded, one has to keep the LCD screen open, which uses the battery power pretty quickly. The camera can record, though, if you point it at something while it's on a tripod, and then let it record with a closed LCD, but hey, how often does that happen?

There is no usb port on the camera itself, the usb cable pluggs into the docking station, which means you have to carry it with you if you need to download a video on some other computer away from home.

As far as the video quality, it seems to be quite good by my standards. I mostly watch it on the computer and it is quite clear and sharp. The video is slightly better than on a Sony HC21 I tested before, and is about the same or slightly better than on my brother's JVC GZ MG21U hdd camcorder. The video is nowhere near the professional quality of course. But hey, professional cameras don't shake like camcorders either.

The bottom line, I think this is a good camera and the conveniences of instant file transfer combined with good zoom and audio should help the potential buyer make his/her decision. [...].

I got this camcorder a few days ago. It is very user friendly and simple. This is great for those of us that are not the most savvy. Sadly user friendly can also be a curse. Even though the picture quality of the video is great(still shots not so great, but thats not why I got a camcorder) special effects and other features are lacking. So if you want a camcorder thats easy to use and will make great home videos this is a good buy. You'll have few worries and no tapes. Easy DVD burn(just one button). If you want features and loads of them you may want to browse some other models. No light, but good night vision. No view finder, but the lcd screen is pretty good, I could even see it well outside with the sun hitting it. No adjustments to still picture quality. No special effects built into the camcorder. But really easy to use.

I had to think twice about getting this camera due to the price, but I'm glad I did. I have had it since last December. I used it at Christmas time and was able to store quite a bit of video on it, before downloading it to my computer and adjusting it. You can adjust features yourself or just use the Easy mode. The camera does such a great job of adjusting itself most of the time during Easy mode, that I haven't bothered with other features, except for the night vision. That does come in handy when taking night shots, though the video is black and white when using the night vision feature. Downloading is SO easy! Battery life is long. Video quality is great. My only complaint is that still pictures are very grainy and pixelly. I was hoping for just one camera that would give me good stills and good video. For some reason that holy grail has yet to be achieved. But as a camcorder, the quality of this product is excellent.

I read a review on this product that said it didn't work well with Macs. However, iMovie included with iLife '08 has great support for it. I plugged it in, hit the "Computer" button on the touch screen of the camera, and iMovie imported my movies with no problems. The resolution on those movies didn't seem that great, but I'm sure it's a user mistake somehow. I have updated my recording mode to high res but have not made any movies at this setting yet. The included software is not needed with a Mac as far as I can tell. I never looked at the CDs that came with it, so I have no idea if there is even Mac software included.

Camera is easy to use, setup was a snap, and the touch screen is a neat 'touch'. I would recommend the 'Sony NPFH70 H Series Actiforce Hybrid InfoLithium Battery' with this camera (and the charger to go with it), as it touts 6.5 hours of recording vs. the 1.5 hours of the included battery.

I will start with the bad first......
This camera and included software is NOT Mac compatible. Not to say you can't use it with a Mac, just not as easy as it should be. From what I understand many other Sony products are Mac compatible (including DV tape based video cameras), so I am not sure why their HDD cameras aren't. The Manual only explains how to transfer images to your computer using the included software. I had to figure out how to get the images into my Mac on my own and it is a fairly long process. Importing 1.07GB worth of video took 20+ minutes to get into the computer. Once it is finally in the computer, you will have to convert the MPG2 files into DV files if you want to use it in IDVD or Imovie. This is also a long process and requires the purchase of additional software. I am not able to use some of the features like the direct to disc burn feature on the camera. I also can't use some of the features on the Apple software that requires you to load video direct from your camera. Although I blame Apple for not allowing the use of MPEG2 files in their software, I also blame Sony for not including some sort of simple software or instructions on getting the files into your Mac.

My other complaint is the Manual. It includes a "guide" that constantly tells you to refer to the "handbook" which only comes on the disc in PDF. The 140+ page handbook includes instructions for at least 1/2 a dozen models and every you look it says except for this model or except for that model. Very hard to follow. For the cost of this camera, it should have had a hard copy manual specific to this model.

As far as the battery issue others are having, it doesn't seem to be much of a problem for me. I don't leave it on in stby mode too often and I always put it back on the dock at the end of the day. Most cameras come with the entry level batteries and longer life batteries are available.


Now for the good...
The size is amazing, it is comfortable to hold and easy to use.
Picture quality is pretty good considering they are compressed MPEG2 images.
A DV tape based camera does not compress the video and is a little better quality, but the trade off of not having any tape or discs was more important to me. Not having to worry about tape is great and 30GB is plenty of room for hours of video.
The 40X optical zoom is also great, which is the highest I found in any HDD camera including Sony's more expensive models.

Bottom line is it is a nice camera, but think about how much trouble you are willing to go through if you own a Mac.

I bought this from AMZN for Christmas for my wife. I was seriously considering buying the JVC Everio GZMG130 as it seemed the nearest comparable product. I looked at both models closely at Circuit City for quite some time, but ultimately chose the Sony.
br /
br /What I like:
br /- Great size.
br /- Superior picture quality (by my own unsophisticated testing) to the JVC. Several user reviews I read elsewhere about the JVC seem to confirm this.
br /- NO MEDIA!!!! This is HUGE!
br /- I like the NightShot feature that uses infrared.
br /
br /What I don't like:
br /- No USB interface directly on the camera, (I think the JVC had this) so you have to carry the stupid docking station (albeit quite small) with you if you wish to connect to a computer while away.
br /- The bundled software is useless.
br /- As others have mentioned, you'll have to get an MPEG-2 decoder from a 3rd party to use the video files from the camera directly on your computer.
br /- The touch screen was a selling point for me when I was looking in the store, but I've decided it's actually a minus, not a plus. The idea of touching/pointing at the thing you want to do seems great, but too many controls (for example, volume) are buried in the on-screen menu and do not have an external control button/knob. Also, you get greasy fingerprints all over your viewscreen and you can't use it with gloves. :(
br /- No viewfinder (although I think most cameras in this price range do not have one).
br /
br /Lessons Learned:
br /- Trying to plunk through the useless software and being unable to view the video footage natively on my PC caused me no end of frustration. A Google search for MPEG-2 decoder will yield TONS of results, and you'll have to do a lot of wading/experimenting, but you CAN get a decoder for free to solve this problem. However that was a frustrating experience.
br /- My solution to both problems (usable editing software and a good decoder) came in Adobe Premiere Elements.
br /
br /All complaints aside, this really is a GREAT camera and is a huge improvement over the 8mm tape camcorder it replaced in terms of features, battery life, and picture quality. In my personal opinion, the HDD-based camcorders are the sweet spot in the consumer segment and are worth the extra expense compared to the DVD or tape solutions.
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I bought this camcorder this past week, never had my own camcorder before, I took about 4 hours after looking at this product to think about if I really wanted to spend the money. After 4 hours I decided to get it and I love it. Its very user friendly, video comes out crisp and audio is great. I like how there is no worry with dvds or tapes since it has a hard drive. I know that this camcorder will come in handy for years to come!!

I love this camera! I went from full size VHS to 8mm to this hard drive camera. What an improvement over past technology! I looked at several hard drive and DVD cameras and this was the only one that fit my large hand. It is small compared to my old Sony 8mm, yet fits my hand nicely due to it's unique shape. I can toggle the zoom quite easily which was impossible on all other hard drive and DVD cameras with my large hands. I was amazed at how easy it is to download to my computer and burn cds or DVDs. I am well satisifed with the quality of the camera and the videos that it takes. I do not use it for still shots, so I can not comment on that feature. This camera has worked very well for me indoors with whatever lighting was available. The 40x zoom is more than enough for capturing white tail deer 2 to 3 hundred yards away; it brings them right in. I can film wildlife well after sundown with excellant results. Naturally, the darker it is, the more important it is to use a tripod or set the camera on a stationary surface, as with all cameras. I love how easy it is to stow this in the console of my truck and just grab it and run. I would buy this again in a heartbeat. Amazon had the best price and free shipping.

You will literally have to charge your camera dozens of times to use all the space available to you on this 30GB Hard Drive, even at the highest quality. I wish there were software that came with this to convert the MP2 files into something a little more usable for those w/o expensive video software.

I really like the way this unit feels in my hand. It's light and easy to manipulate. Pictures look great, and even pretty good in low light. I've been pretty impressed with the night shot on this. Even in no light situations the red LED/infrared light on the camera will light up the picture, although in B/W.

The battery lasts about 120 minutes on a full charge. Which I guess is pretty good considering it's powering that 2.3" (?) screen. This is my first camcorder so I don't have much to compare it to. My friend had one that could take pictures on the fly. This one you have to switch modes and the pictures turn out kind of grainy anyway, but it's nice to know that it's there.

I enjoy the touch screen on this. It's easy to navigate and the menu setup is fairly intuitive, but it does sometimes take a couple tries to get where you want to. The screen is not widescreen but does have the widescreen mode (with the black bars) as an option. I've used it on mostly widescreen. So much so that I almost could have justified paying the extra for the widescreen screen.

Final wrapup: Good (not great) battery life, oodles of space, nice touchscreen and nightmode but not fantastic for still pictures. Oh, and let's see if we can find an easy way to convert the MP2's, shall we?

i have bought about 3 camcorders in the past. And always the same disappointment... bad quality.. bad battery... bad way of transfering video to computer to dvd because of format issues..etc..but This tiny Sony is perfect! it has all i wanted! Although the quality of the snap shots is not great...the quality of the video and sound are pefect! and the touch screen feature..gotta love it!

I bought this camera with a limited amount of research as to compatibility with a Mac. Once I received the camera, I was very pleased with it, that is until I tried to transfer video to my Mac computer. To complete the transfer I had to buy a separate program from Apple and download an independent program to make the files compatible with iMovie and iDVD. Not a reflection on the camera though, just be informed if not buying for use with a PC.

I bought this camera last May before going on vacation. My previous camcorder was a 15 year old 8mm Magnavox, which was rather sleek at the time, but had a battery bigger than the entire Sony SR42. I researched all the new camcorders, there isn't much on the HDD because they are so new. I finally decided on a hard drive because of the the convenience.
br /
br /It is nice not having to mess with tapes or disks. The memory is far greater than I will ever need, and the battery lasts a fair amount of time, but charges up quickly when it does run out. You need to carry the docking station and a couple of cords to recharge or to hook up to your computer, but the whole getup is still very small and you would need to lug the extra stuff for any camera. I have not tried the one touch burn feature, but with the touchscreen display it is probably simple.
br /
br /I was told to buy a still camera for still photos and a video camera for video - 100% true, save your money and don't buy a memory stick, the still pictures are sub-par.
br /
br /Zoom feature is fine, I am glad that the confusion on the ratio and 40X zoom was cleared up in an above post. The negative review would have probably swayed me. Definately use a tripod to film anything very far away, it gets pretty shaky.
br /
br /The only real negative thing I have found is that there is no "pause". I use this for family video and miss that feature. I have not tried the software to piece it together, I just burn it all to DVD after downloading it. There is a separate image on the screen for each segment, so frequently stopping with no pause quickly gives me many small clips. Otherwise this was a very good buy for what I use it for.
br /
br /I bought it from Dell and it was about $530 with tax and delivered.
br /Not had any issued with the camera. Would buy this kind again!!
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Yes, I brought the Sony DCR-SR42 (with 40x zoom) home and did some comparisons to my Canon ZR600(with 25x Zoom).
I was shocked to see it could not bring in an object any closer than my 25x Canon.
I then thought that maybe I had a bad camera so I brought it back to CompUsa. I tested my SR42 camera against their SR42 floor model and both zoomed exactly the same. I then tested it against a JVC GZ-MG130 with it's 34x zoom and I was blown away. The 34x zoomed in much more than the Sony 40x.
I then turned on digital zoom just to see how much I had to zoom to get to JVC's 38x image we were seeing. I had to zoom "Digitally" to 80x to acheive the same picture closeness. We zoomed in on ipod's across the store which when zoomed in could get 8 ipods at a distance which was still not up close and filling in the camera screen. The JVC when zoomed in could zoom all the way to a singgle IPod and read the ipods screen....WOW! (SO I EXCHANGE the Sony FOR THE JVC and the JVC was $100.00 LESS & IT HAS A BUILT IN LIGHT & 16:9 WIDESCREEN RECORDING AND RECORDS OVER 4 HOURS LONGER IN HIGHEST QUALITY RECORDING)
The Store Director, Manager and employee who all had a hand in testing the camera's all could not believe what we were seeing.
SONY IS FALSELY ADVERTISING A 40x CAMERA THAT IS NOT TRUELY A 40x BUT A 25x.

I ordered this camera specifically for a vacation I went on right after Xmas to Fiji. I was impressed with the time it took for the battery to recharge. I had a spare battery but never had to use it during the trip at all. Overall, the camera is good but one feature that really bothers me is that when taking photos with this camera in dark places the lighting is poor. If you use the "nightspot" light switch on the camera then it makes your subjects look light they are possessed with no color in the picture at all. Being I'm a retired Army woman it honestly reminded me of how things looked when I used my night vision goggles. For the price of this camera if you are going to have that feature at least make it half way descent.

Its a good camera, but would've been better if it had a longer battery backup. One has to spend money on another battery to keep it going beyond 120 mins

We are SOOOOO happy that we purchased this camcorder. It is very user friendly and light weight. Downloading the videos into our PC was a snap. I would, however, recommend purchasing a longer life battery. Overall, we couldn't be happier with our purchase! :-)

This is my first camcorder ever, and I love it so far. Yes, it can be a pain to have to hook it up to its docking station when you want to transfer videos to a computer, but, hey, it's not all that hard to do, and it's all very portable. I love the fact that I was able to use it "right out of the box" - and I can't wait to actually read the directions and figure out all of its other capabilities.

While I have no complaints about the basic functionality of the DCR-S42 that I just bought, I am tremendously annoyed that it is basically non compatible with the Macintosh OS (or any OS other than Windows).
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br /I had reviewed several cameras, knew that I wanted a hard disk camera and already owned a couple of Sony digital cameras and an earlier Sony digital movie camera, so with the excellent low price, I bought the DCR-SR42 without thinking about it too much. After returning from a trip, I set about downloading the movies to my Macintosh. The first thing I noticed was that the software that came with the camera was for Windows only. No Mac or Linux support at all. That was a little annoying and most unusual since for about the last 10 or 15 years, basically all consumer electronics that interface with computers have come with support for all operating systems. But no big deal - I just hooked up a USB cable and my clever Mac recognized the Sony as another disk drive and so I copied the files over in the Finder.
br /
br /They were readily recognized by the Finder as .mpg files, but when I double clicked on one to open it, I got an error from Quicktime that said the file was corrupt. I then tried opening it in Windows Media Viewer for Macintosh and got the same error. A little googling revealed that the file format used by the camera is MPEG-2 which is not supported by any of the leading video applications for Macintosh. You need to buy additional software from Apple or a 3rd party vendor. When I called Sony to verify this they said "Sorry. That's right. We do not support the Mac OS".
br /
br /I am furious about this. It was not advertised on the box (or in any of the reviews I read). Certainly I can get around this but for a huge company like Sony to not include all the software needed to transfer its movies to ANY OS is really bush league stuff. And why choose MPEG-2 anyhow? Thus my low rating. Anyway, be forewarned. You will have to upgrade at least to Quicktime Pro and/or an MPEG-2 plug in for Quicktime in order to play or manipulate your movies on a Mac.

The cam is very cool, easy to use, small. The only problem that i see, is that when u shoot and move the cam fast and u are using the top quality in the camcorder setup, the image looks like lines and very ugly. U must take care of not move the cam soo fast. But it works great.

I've had this camera for 5 days now and am not too happy with the video performance. I have an older Sony TRV118 Super 8 camera and the video on it is at least as good as this one. Forget about taking nice videos unless the lighting is VERY bright. Outdoor videos are semi fair if you don't mind a bit of fuzziness. The bottom line is that even in the best lighting situations the videos are not all that great. I paid 450.00 for this camera and wish I could have tried it out first. I think that Sony put most of their money in the hard drive feature and dwindled on the most important components, being performance. By the way, forget about the still pictures. Those cheap 5.00 keychain cameras take better pictures. Over all, I'm stuck with this camera unless I want to return it to Amazon and take a big hit on the refund. I'll just keep it and maybe use it on those really bright sunny days.

The video looks great and is easy to operate. The "Easy" mode for videotaping makes this a great product for anyone. I mostly use this product for sporting events and family gatherings. Only down side to this product would be the camera features. Pictures don't come out very clear.

The camcorder is easy to use and produces video with good quality. Its size is small enough to be carried around conveniently during travel. However, one thing compromises the size and quality of the camcorder: the AC power adaptor. I do not like its big size and rough quality compared with the camcorder itself. Why Sony cannot make it smaller and better? I have to carry it along with camcorder to make sure I could charge anytime, but its size makes this inconvenient.

Needed good audio and a decent optical zoom. This camera does this for my
br /purpose. I would say that you probably will want to record in Hq which will bring your record time to about 7+ hours at a time before deleting
br /some of the video. No problem if you transfer to DVD... software is
br /useable but does not have editing for fades, chapters etc., at least that
br /I was able to find. It did produce a nice dvd at the resolution that this
br /camera records... This is NOT high definition.
br /It records dvd in mpeg2 so you will probably need a new dvd player if yours is over 5 years old... probably...
br /
br /Definitely better than the older tape based analog in my opinion, and not
br /quite as good as the high definition. Of course this would require a high
br /defintion Monitor etc... but I ramble.... a very good unit for the money.

Well, This is the first cam I bought all by myself and for my personal use. I had been raised between gadgets from my childhood and used some of the best stuff I could lay my hands on.

This camera first of all is very user friendly. I was actually shooting in the first 5 mins of unpacking it. Discounting the experience I have, I guess it would be the same for a novice. Its a great buy. ti just gets a bit shaky when you have zoomed great lengths. It would always be advisable to get a tripod.

The pro's are: it is compact, has great optical zoom, great lense, easy and simple to use menus, provides good deal of memory for recording. I am pretty happy getting 30gig and never felt the need for 60gig really. Video quality is excellent.

Cons...still pictures taken might not be of an exceptional quality. lacks flash and night shot.

Overall, a best buy in its segment among various brands and wont dampen your spirits. If you are looking on casual and travel lines...this is a great buy.

I had seen different versions of this camera in the store, but was completely surprised by how small this baby is. First I was concerned that this meant less power/quality, but not at all!
br /This camera fits into the palm of your hand for very convenient, inobtrusive filming, and you can just slip it into your purse/pocket to have it with you for that precious film-worthy moment.
br /Love it love it love it!

The video camera is nice and compact, and light. I purchased this primarily to record my daughter who dances at our high school. Often I am in the stands, but not at the top of the bleachers. This model has more of a wide angle than my previous Canon video camera, so I am able to get more of the whole routine even though I am in the middle of the stands.
br /
br /I read several comments/criticisms about the zoom -- for my purposes, the zoom on this is fine.
br /
br /I really like the ability to play back a segment from the hard drive without having tapes, and rewinding.
br /
br /The operation is very simple and I was able to start using the camera without reading the manual. The touch screen is nice...
br /
br /I have not used the camera portion yet -- I understand from the other reviews that the quality may not be that great... but I have a camera that I would use for regular pictures anyway... that is not the main reason I bought this unit.
br /
br /I did the one-touch burn to DVD... and it worked well. It moved ALL of my video over. It would have been "nice" to have the ability to pick which video's to transfer over, but... then I guess it would not be 1-step anymore would it. To "select" which files, I hooked the camera up directly to a DVD burner, and recorded the segments I wanted.

I have to say, first of all, it hurts me to write this review. I wanted to like this camera. I really, really did. I loved the size, the shape, the ease of use. I even ordered an extra battery on how much I was going to use it. But I just didn't like the video quality. It is plain bad. I even thought I was going to be able to live with it, but I watched a few videos last night and made some side by side comparisons, and it was just too much for me to bear. I am taking it back to the store tonight to get my money back.
br /
br /The interlacing was AWFUL. If the camera moves slightly, the lines dominate the screen. Even in bright sunlight, it looked like a youtube video. A few months ago, my wife won a "FlipVideo" hard drive recorder that takes very simple video with no zoom, etc. Seriously, these videos were better than this Sony's. This was the deciding factor in me taking this camera back. I am going to try another camera to see if it is just this one or all Hard Drive based recorders.

This camera has good lens, is light small and easy to work with. I do recommend it. It is also not expensive. Good buy for family time.

This is a great camcorder. The size is perfect and its simple to use. The recording time great unlike the others that after 30 min or so you have to stop and replace the cd or tape. Its even easy to burn to a dvd with the easy one touch burn button. I would recommend this product to everyone.

excellent product. Battery life and hard disk memory are really as long as Sony claim.
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Considering the price, function, and manipulation, it is good for beginners. But for advanced users, I would suggest higher level mini camcorder.

Merits:
br /
br /1. It's a Sony! (Brand value).
br /2. Compact and light-weight.
br /3. Carl Zeiss lens.
br /4. hard disk memory, easy to transfer to computer.
br /5. I got the refurbished one from sonystyle.com for 300 bucks. Thats pretty cheap for a 40x zoom HDD camcorder from sony.
br /6. Motion picture quality is good.
br /
br /Demerits:
br /1. Does not have a view finder.
br /2. The Still picture quality is not that great (As indicated by others too).
br /3. Does not have a neck strap (Or any provision for that).
br /4. You need the camcorder dock to charge as well as transfer movies into Computer.
br /5. The bundled video editor doe not have much functionality. Only you can cut a video, i could not find any option to merge several videos into one.
br /
br / Overall i like this camcorder, i will buy some video editing software to work on the videos a bit.
br /

If you are looking for a camcorder easy to use and easy to share video with, the Sony DCR-SR 42 is the camcorder for you!!! Compact with a very nice designe!

This is a very slick little piece of electronics! It has got its own internal hard drive so there are no CD's to pop in and out. Fits to contour of your hand for better grip. Flip screen is sturdy and useful.
br /
br /The only thing I would list as cons would be the fact that its a tad bit pricey (but you do get what you pay for). And the camera itself takes a bit of time to get familiar with.
br /
br /But other than that, if you are looking for a high quality camera that has everything you could need, look no further!

This is our first video camera and we love it! It is very easy to use. Our 9 and 12 year old daughters are very comfortable using it already. The 40 optical zoom makes long distance videos possible. The images are incredibly clear! It is very easy to download images onto the computer. We have not tried to burn a DVD but if it is as easy as the rest of operation, it should be a piece of cake. Two suggestions: The manual is on a DVD which you can down load on your computer. We like having a paper manual, our preference, so you might just go ahead and print some sections out and put them in a binder so that you can refer to them without the computer. You might want to also consider the upgrade battery. It will give a lot longer recording time. Just buy it and enjoy!

We purchased this camera on Nov 26th and till now we have had only good things to say. All the noise about the unclear resolution is fine but who is looking to shoot a movie? This one is pretty good for the regular stuff like a outdoor picnic or to capture some memories of friends who come visiting..and we think its super cool for that. It's light weight and fits nicely. But do buy it with the long life battery and life is peaceful. Amazon is great because we got a further price reduction because the prices dropped slightly within 30 days of purchasing this. So all in all its a good buy!

I bought this cameta for my daughter for Christmas. The camera and accessories arrived on the expected delivery date in perfect condition. My daughter is delighted with the camera. It has amazing performance, and so many features it is unbelievable. One of the features she likes best, is the touch screen menu, it makes everything simple.
br /The price was great, and the delivery was on time, I'm very satisfied.
br /Byron Crowley

Also bought this for my son in Miami, beach, Fl. He knows electronics and this was what he wanted,great price and delivered on time, thanks for competitive prices Amazon.Sony DCR-SR42 30GB Hard Disk Drive Handycam Camcorder with 40x Optical Zoom

The Sony DCR-SR42 w/30GB Hard Drive is better than I expected when I placed my order. It is so easy to use. The digital camcorder playback is so crisp and clear. And the colors are reproduced so faithfully. I am also impressed that the camera can easily be used at night and otherwise under poor lighting conditions. I am very pleased.
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br /The software that comes with the camera is easy to use and probably satisfactory for most users. But I use other software programs for both camcorder and still photos because they have more features.
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br /It is true that the still photographs are only of snapshot quality. But they are much better than the photos taken with my Palm Zire (a PDA with a 1MB built in camera). Of course my PDA is sneakier - has a crude camcorder function - and is always with me.
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br /Of course, for personal or family use, I would confidently recommend the Sony DCR-SR42. More good news: this is not the latest model and should be available at a bargain price.

I purchased the Sony DCR-SR42 a couple months ago as a replacement to my older mini-dv camcorder. I was very excited about the fact that the camera had a hard drive and assumed that transfer to my computer for editing would be a breeze...I was wrong.
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br /I am a Mac user (macbook) and found out pretty quick that the mpeg-2 coding of the dcr-sr42 is not supported. It took me awhile, but I finally found a few programs to convert the video into the correct format to view and edit from my Mac, but it's really time consuming and not at all what I was wanting.
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br /Until Sony recognizes and creates a solution to the unsupported format of its camcorder, I would recommend other HDD camcorders, and also urge you to find out before you buy if your computer can play the format recorded by the camcorder.

It is a nice camcorder, just some details: still pictures are really bad (but I bought it for the camcorder so it is fine), there is no way to adapt a light for dark areas. For the rest is a good camcorder that Iam hoping (because of the brand) it will run ok for some years.

I got this to record my sun. It works just fine. We liked the fact that it isn't too big and the video quality is nice. Only problem is sometimes when objects are moving fast camera gets blury.Can't adjust instantly.

Sony dcr-SR42 30GB hard disk drive handycam camcorder
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br /great little camera for a non pro., audio very clear and video very good and clear, inside and out, even the night vision
br /works well. easy to use and burn dvd's

My old aiptek mpvr died during spring break, and seeing how i love to make mini movies, i decided to get a Hard disc drive camcorder, and thats how i met the SR42. The 42 is amazing in many aspects (exceptions include still pics of course, but thats obvious right?)
But after filming a few clips, i decided to upload them to the computer to see how they edit, and when i imported to windows movie maker, movie maker would crash. After researching i found out that movie maker doesn't accept mpeg 2, but i found a solution on the official movie maker forums [use google ;)] and they are working fine so far
well, it's a great camera, and you should get it today

Un excelente producto que te va a permitir tener un recuerdo de por vida, para que lo puedas disfrutar con las personas cercanas a ti. Tiene un excelente zoom y la calidad de grabación es muy buena.
br /Ricardo

They might tell you this thing works with iMovie08, but they're wrong! You still have to get third party conversion software and buy the MPEG-2 codec or Quicktime from Apple to get iMovie just to import the files. All of this means loss of quality. I can't believe they don't tell you this more clearly on the packaging or in the spec's. If you're a Mac user, stay away.

I regret buying this camcorder. Video only looks okay when shot outside in the sun. If you shoot video inside, it looks very grainy. Forget about taking pictures with this camcorder since the resolution is so low. The pictures look awful! I'm buying a different one. Don't waste your money!

I bought this unit relying on the reputation of SONY and never thought SONY could offer such a bad quality video on his handycams. It is awful. It is a real lemon ! I won't recommend to anyone to buy this model. Sorry SONY but you just deceived me !

I have heard a lot of good things about Sony. And I was desperately trying to look for a Camcorder to make videos for Youtube. Well, I came across this Camcorder. My Friend had a Sony and she liked it, and I liked the features with this Camcorder
br /* Touch Screen
br /* Huge Hard Disk Drive
br /* Leading Name
br /
br /So I bought the Camcorder. Really Big Mistake. Opened it out of the Box, started using it, and the video quality was horrible. And I just don't mean horrible, I mean "Horrible, Extremely Bad". My Kodak Easyshare Digital Camera had better video quality than this. The video quality was very grainy and fuzzy, and I was very shocked. For an expensive camcorder like this, I was just really disappointed. The Camcorder isn't worth it if it doesn't have good video/picture quality. Yes, it has tons of great features, but that doesn't mean anything if it's a camcorder with really bad video quality. I think next time, Sony should pay attention more to the quality the Camcorder is making instead of the Features. I'm switching to Panasonic.
br /Overall Grade* D
br /Jordan
br /Not Recommended
br /2 Stars for the Features.

Pretty sweet little camera. And I do mean little! Love the 30gb drive, no disks! Takes stills too. The touch screen threw us for a loop at first, but overall, this camera does the job with probably the best zoom feature on the market.

I like this camera so much for it's easy to use+it's SONY. You'll never be sorry if you bought itlearned how to use it.

This camera is a great value! It was cheaper than any of my local electronics stores. Very user friendly! Extremely happy with this camcorder. Just now working on making DVDs of the videos I have taken and its has an easy burn which I have not used yet. I am using Windows Movie Maker because I wanted to edit and create and the format the videos download onto computer works great with WMM. No complaints on this camcorder! I know there is an updated version of this but I'm not sure I would even bother spending the extra $$ to get it. This camcorder is great! It also switches between video and photos effortlessly! Great Buy!

Very Low Quality and Blurry. I would compare the quality of this video camera to the standard video camera you get from a cell phone. I am going to try to return this camera.

This review has been updated, but the rating remains the same:
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br /This camera uses MPEG-2 format that Windows Movie Maker on my new Vista computer can't read; I bought Sony Vegas Movie Studio thinking that would work but it won't load on my computer.
br /Sony says it's not their fault, it's Microsoft's fault if Visual C++ won't load. Microsoft is no help.
br /Sony said they would help if I'd bought from directly from them, but because I bought from Amazon, I was on my own.
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br /UPDATE: Found out from an online forum that the problem arose from Updates to Windows not being permitted by Windows Vista. Was told to alter msconfig file, allowing updates, enabling Visual C++ installation and Vegas installation.
br /Still not pleased with performance of Sony and Microsoft. Millions of their customers use their products to record and edit videos; how many of them are getting annoyed because these two companies don't communicate?
br /Rather than wander around online forums looking for customer support, I'll look for their more responsive competitors.
br /Apple Camcorders, anyone? It's time for an iCam!
br /

I bought one and returned it. This product has a fatal defect. There's much noise in the video you recorded especially in quiet environment, sounding like "click, click". This drives me crazy.

I bought this camera recently to do occasional video shoot.
br /I am no photographer or professional.
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br /I find this camera good in zoom. However it lacks the wide angle aspect of it. I do not find zoom to be very useful compared to 10X/20X standard zoom on other sony cameras. Only good thing about this is, you can directly connect to the pc and browse through your files.
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br /Overall, its a good camera for the price if you specifically want to use the zoom feature. Else, go for other camera may be with less zoom but with wide angle capability.

It's a good product, it lives up to Sony's brand image. It's very compact. It's easy to carry. Good quality video is being captured...

I am happy with the features it has. Very handy and zooming is really amazing.

We purchased this camera at a national electronics chain, who shall remain nameless. We found it on here for $150 less! Give me a break!
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br /It's a great family camera, we use it to tape our baby as she begins exploring. It would also be great for family sporting events, vacations, and the like.
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br /Highly recommend!

Had a great time using it on my trip to the South Pacific,(Palau).
br /Very easy to use and tvery compact ,makes holding it a snap.

I love this camera!
br /It's slightly bigger than a soda can.
br /Touch screen!!
br /Awsome zoom
br /The picture quality for still pictures is not that great, but its a CAMCORDER its made for motion pictures!
br /as far as the Low light shooting (Night vision) mode its awsome, but it has kind of a green hue, some people don't like it...I do...its an awsome camcorder.

The enclosed software does not support Mac OS.
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br /The only software for Mac the will work with this format is Capity Mpeg edit, a horrible program that will run you an extra $200.
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br /The Capity package is included with the JVC HDD camera, you may want to look there.
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br /I love SONY and the camera is nice but without the ability to put it on my computer the HDD is useless.

My husband purchsed this camcorder; we've had several in the past which were used hesitantly due to learning curve. This one has been in use since day one! He loves the fact that there is no disk or tape involved, has emailed video and is enjoying it to the max. Sorry I can't give you more specifics, I haven't been able to get my hands on it---- :-)

Great camcorder! Easy to use with terrific quality. I originally bought a samsung that used DVDs. What a mistake returned it asap. No Discs! No Tapes! Family loves it.

I bought this product mainly because of its HDD feature. I liked the fact that the videos and pictures could be transfered and saved in a computer rather than disks and cassettes. But the video and picture quality is extremely poor. My Nikon camera does a better job than that.

So far I have been satisfied with this camera. It has been very easy to use and I love the size. I haven't used it with my computer so I don't know how well it downloads.

Am not really camera savy but it fits easily in hand and is simple to use with the "easy" button on. Haven't ventured any farther than that.

I want to let everyone know that if you plan to make DVDs of your movies your computer needs to have a DVD Burner. It doesn't mention this in the description (nor anywhere on the Sony site)...it just says you can easily burn a DVD just by pushing a button on the Handycam Station. This is assuming you have a DVD burner in your computer. I'm having to take my computer in to have a burner installed...it will cost me about $70.
br /
br /For people who aren't that computer savvy...i thought you'd like to know.

I saved 170 bucks buying this camcorder from here. And it is all they claimed it to me. It came in factory sealed box. Don't pass up this deal.

It was not as new condition as I expected....since it was told that the item was in the shop for display only.....Since no accessories is provided so please add the price and then think whether it is economical or not?????

Overall I like this video camera. I am not familiar with all its functions yet. The only thing I don't like about it is that I have to manually handle the lens every time.

I bought this lil guy a few days ago and i love it! its so small and light weight and very easy to use the picture is awesome :)

totally worth the price. and i really recommend it if you have never owned one before.

THE MORE I DEAL WITH THIS THE ANGRIER I GET!!!

I bought the VRD-MC3 and the DCR-SR40 because of the way you advertised how you could directly record from one to the other.

Not seeing the coded fine print footnote that DOES NOT STATE DIRECTLY THAT ' you can NOT record directly from the DCR-SR40 to the VRD-MC3 on a duel layer DVD"

That is stupid!

Why would anyone build a video system with a 30 GB drive, then say it is compatible with a burner that they make and then make the largest medium that burner can burn NOT compatible with the video direct record system?

When are you going to fix it?

I have always thought Sony was "top of the line" but i have been severely disappointed with the last 4 Sony products I have purchased and I think I'm gonna start doing something about it.

NO THANK YOU!

Bruce A. Clark

Purchased this video camera for almost 4 months and now the battery charger is not working correctly as it sometimes charges and sometimes refused to charge.

I'm now in Europe and it completely stopped charging.

This is a very bad piece of equipement.

i am going to buy a handycam for the 1st time ... i love sony "BRAND" ... i choose DCR SR-45 (for my price range and better zoom) ...
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br /but now i am confused that should i go for SR-42 or wait for SR-45 !!
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br /anyway, can i change the HDD of these models camcorder ? i mean can i put a 60 or 80 b in the place of default 30 gb ?
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br /waiting for your positive reply ...
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Purchased this camera brand new yesterday. Once home, I plugged in the cord to charge the battery and the CHG light just kept blinking. I tried the extra battery I had purchased and the docking station, but just kept getting the blinking light. I left it for a few hours thinking that perhaps it will work, but it didn't charge at all.

Took it back and got another one and so far so good...

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2TJXGTL65O1F0