This was my first actual purchase for a camcorder. I have experience with other units because of my job in computer technology. My main reason for buying this camcorder was the price. It had all of the features I needed as well. It has Firewire (IEEE 1394) to download the video to a PC, and it has USB to download the still shots to a PC. The quality is very nice. We took it on vacation to the Gulf of Mexico and were pleased with the convenient size and weight. I would definitely recommend this unit for someone to purchase. (By the way, at the time of our purchase, we received a $100 rebate from Sharp since it was purchased on Amazon.com but I don't believe that is currently available).

I love this little camera. And, after seaching all over for drivers for Mac OSX, I followed the advice of a previous review, bought the appropriate firewire cable, and iMovie recognized it immediately.

The picture and sound quality is exceptional for the price and it's small enough to throw in a pocketbook and carry around everywhere.

Positives:
1. You can recharge this camcorder by plugging it directly into an electric outlet- no dealing with rechargable batteries :)
2. Can take still photographs & uses SD instead of putting the stills on the tape.
3. While in playback mode (watching video footage you took), you can pause it and take stills from the tape onto the SD card.
4. The camcorder lasts a long time & I do not have to recharge it often :)

Negatives:
1. The quality of the still photos is not great but it is good for emailing.

Overall I love this camcorder because of the 'Positives' I mentioned above- it has everything I need. I know that the stills are not great quality but for the price of this camcorder I can manage ;) This is a great deal!

I priced DV other cameras before purchasing this one. This camera was $100 - $300 less than most cameras I looked at. It doesn't have the bells and whistles that the some other cameras did, but then it does! The feature I love most about my camera is the fact that I can use it as a go between device to copy analog video from my TV and/or VCR to my computer and convert it to digital in the process. I was prepared to spend quite a bit to get a device that was capable of doing what I can now do with my Sharp camera and all I had to do was install firewire on my computer.
I agree, this is an excellent entry level DV camera.

I purchased a older version of the Sharp DV camera. I had problems with interferance when transferring to the PC. I checked cables, etc. Finally, I emailed tech support. Never received a response. Better stick with Sony or Canon!