I have had this camera only a short time, but I am impressed with it already. After doing a lot of research and not wanting to spend hordes of money, I decided on this camera. It was a great purchase. It is perfect for the amount of recording I do. Although you have to purchase the bigger battery to get the longer life, it is worth every penny.

I bought one of the Sony miniDV cams and it lasted less than a year with minimal use. A google search will show you how many others have had this problem. Sony wants more than the price of the camera to even look at it. Do your homework before you buy one of these lemons.

I wanted a miniDV camcorder that had a Analog to Digital passthrough capability so that I could convert all my old Hi8 tapes to DVD's. I wanted one that was small and light, had a large zoom range, and was good on batteries. After agonizing over choices between Canon ZR, Elura models or the Sony HC32 I finally settled on the Sony. So far, no regrets.
- The video looks great. Colors appear very accurate and bright. I just turn on the camera and it does all the work. I don't mess with manual features much. If you do, this is probably not the best choice of cameras.
- The management of the battery is uniquely good with Sony camcorders. You get a constant rundown of how many minutes of battery life you have left that is pretty accurate. The optional extended batteries are expensive, but provide amazing battery life. Even the small battery that ships with the camcorder gives me over an hour of use.
- The camcorder is very small yet is still comfortable to hold.
- The LCD screen is top notch.
- The Analog to Digital Passthrough works great. I converted a 2 hour tape to my Mac with no problems. The audio and video remained in sync for all two hours.
- I cannot hear any camera noises on the tape. Some people complain about the built in microphones picking up camcorder noises on these little camcorders. I looked for it and did not hear any, even after transferring video to my computer.

Some other thoughts on the camcorder.
- The touch menu system is not so bad, easier than most other camera menu systems. The only problem is that certain options go away when you are not in the correct mode.
- The camera does fine with low light until it is dark enough to want lights on in the room. The night shot really goofs up the colors (like a poorly colorized movie). My old Hi8 camcorder actually does better when it gets dark out (I guess this is not surprising since the CCD is bigger yet it has less pixels).
- The docking station is fine if you only connect the camera to one TV or device. If you need to move it around, then I would perfer not to deal with it but this is a pretty minor detail.
- The camera is a bit expensive and accessories are even more expensive. The Canon ZR-200 is very similar in capabilities (not sure if the video quality is as good) and a good bit less expensive. I borrowed a friends ZR-85 and thought the video qualitiy was not as good especially in less than ideal lighting. I think Canon improved the low light video for the ZR-200's however.

The product HC32 never says what are the accessories that is included when you buy online. What are the basic accessories
needed to test the unit. This will help online customers to purchase them before hand.

Wow you people have to learn about video editing software. When you import and when you are editing on your computer the video is not going to look good. The reason for this is that the computer has not rendered or finished the movie. So its not the cameras bad quality it will come out fine after export or just on the camera. Oh yeah and the other guy who said that his rec. button doesnt work well he put the post in the freaking wrong spot. He had a DCR-HC40. This is a DCR-HC32. This camcorder is good for the average person who wants good video for a cheaper price.