This camera has a lot going for it, the quality is great as is the low light sensitivity which is important for me for indoor shooting. I can get used to the cradle thing as I don't normally stream live to a PC so that is not a big concern for me. The camera IS compatible with XP SP2, just because the driver doesn't have Microsoft's "blessing" it still works perfectly. The still imaging capability is a little less than I was expecting, the flash is very close to the lens which forces you to remove any kind of additional lenses when using the flash. I didn't find the small zoom range to be very limiting but as with all my camcorders, a wide angle lens is a must if you don't want to force yourself up against a wall trying to get everyone in the video when shooting indoors. The time lapse feature is great! Also very good is the speed contol of the zoom lever, it's very smooth. I wouldn't mind having a "couple" quick access buttons on the unit itself rather than having to use the touchscreen menu each time, but being able to customize the quick menu helps make the most commonly used features more accessible. The battery supplied gives me a little more than an hour of constant use, will certainly need another one! No memory card supplied with the unit either, that's consistant though with other Sony products. Overall I'm very happy with this camera, it is replacing a previous model from Sony which quit working just over the 1 year warranty so I didn't think twice before buying the 4 year extended warranty.

They have made several changes - some good, most bad - since I bought my last Sony handicam in 8/2003. First of all, there is no carrying strap. This is very inconvenient if you plan to use your hand for anything else except for holding your camera. I managed to jury rig one but it is a royal pain. The docking station is just one more thing to have to carry and when you want to upload your mini cassettes to your computer, you have to take the camera off the docking station to change cassettes. This messes up my editing program. Fortunately I still have my old camera. The ability to take still shots is better - more megapixels - but not good enough to zoom in or enlarge.

While I was told most people prefer to use the LED screen (I don't knoiw why as it eats up more power and you can't see clearly in bright sun) I like to use the viewfinder. It no longer has a tilt up feature so I end up mashing the battery into my cheek.

This last complaint is about the batteries. Sony LIED about the amount of time that a battery will hold. The 5 hour battery only charges to 194 minutes on my camera. That's slightly more than 3 hours; It is nowhere near 5 hours. The 7 hour battery does not get anywhere near 7 hours either. Their packages should be accurate. All in all, It is not as good as the older product. There also should be a setting to stop it from running if the rec. button is not being pushed. THIS WILL BE MY LAST SONY UNLESS THEY MAKE MAJOR IMPROVEMENTS.

I had to decide between this camera and a Panasonic. we trust the Sony brand a little more, so we went with the Sony. We were looking for an easy-to-use camera that we could just pick up and record our daughter...nothing professional but good enough quality to enjoy years later. I also wanted a camera that could take still photos so we wouldn't need both a digital camera and a camcorder when we take vacations.

Here's what I think so far:

Great camcorder to do exactly what we want -- picture looks great inside and out, VERY easy to use, and small enough to carry along almost anywhere.

Still photos are not fantastic (only 3MP), but good enough for me. Color and resolution are acceptable.

Not easy to understand the LCD touch menus, but you can configure the buttons once you figure out which buttons you will use the most.

I got the bare minimums for accessories...bought a 1GB memory card (memory stick duo pro)...glad I did this since I will be taking stills and short video clips to email to the grandparents. Also got a carrying case, DV tapes, and an extra NP-FP71 battery. I'll be purchasing a firewire cable soon (I'm sure you've heard, the USB cable is inadequate for downloading video).

Handycam station doesn't really bother me that much, but I can see what the fuss is about.

All things considered, I'm extremely happy with my purchase. I think this is a perfect camera for a first-time camcorder buyer who needs an EASY button (there's one on the side of the camera). A little more expensive than some of the others, but the price is dropping.

Best of luck!

Perfect video camcorder for outside recording. Crisp picture and excellent sound. Wide screen mode looks great. Extra battery is a must on long vacations or shoots. Do not forget about shoulder strap because you do not want to drop this baby. Also excellent still photos with memory stick option. Easy button is just that EASY. Indoor shooting a little rough without proper lighting so be careful. Overall, great piece of electronics

I just bought this camcorder before Christmas, after many hours of researching, I had been deciding whether to buy the DVD505 and HC96. The miniDV format can recorder longer (1hour vs. 30mins), hence I bought HC96.

The bright light video quality is very good. The low light quality is so so. The super nightshot gives distorted color, as you would see in the DVD505. I do not know if the 3CCD cameras would do better.

This camcorder is pretty easy to use. The touch screen is big enough to operate on.

There is good and bad for the handycam station. The good thing: you do not have to plug the wires, cables into the camcorder. The bad thing: if you want to put camcorder onto a tripod, you can only do so after you charged your battery, since a handycam station won't fit.

The software provided by Sony is almost useless. It only can import 320x240 video, and does not provide compressed output format. A 10 min video requires 3 GB storage. I could not find where I can change this setting. If some one knows, please let me know. So I end up using Microsoft Movie Maker, which is more convenient and flexible. The Movie Maker can only export a maximum of 720x480 resolution, which is probably enough.

Another thing, I could not find a way to print the shooting date and time on to the video frames transfered to the computer. Is that the problem of the Movie Maker? You can see shooting date and time when you play back on the tape. Anyone knows how to do it?

I thought I would have time editing movies, but I do not. If you do not need editing, I would recommend buying HardDrive camcorders, it directly saves as MPEG2 format, and requires almost no effort to transfer the video to a PC.

I like this camcorder very much; especially the excellent video quality.

A reviewer remarked: "if you want to put camcorder onto a tripod, you can only do so after you charged your battery, since a handycam station won't fit."

If you look at the back of the camcorder, then you'll see at the right hand bottom corner a tiny flap with the text DC. If you open that, you'll find a DC connection!

Perfect product as per specifications. Easy functions and well explained instructions. Great performance for home video use. Good product.

Does not come with standard carry belt/shoulder strap. It some time becomes difficult to carry in one hand all the time as you can not hang it around. Must buy a shoulder strap separately.

Also, the software is not to updated. Slow and takes a long time to save on computer. Must go for alternative software to save video shot in computer. I also need to figure how how to transfer content from camera to computer.

Standard battery has too short life. Must go for additionl battery with longer life.

This is a great little camera so far, I've got tiny hands and yet it fits like custom tailored :p, the low light performance is outstanding, it's really easy to use but also has got some tricks for the aspiring artist, youtuber, movie-maker and journalist (me); fair price too! It's a Sony, so I know it's gonna last a good while. About the MiniDV Vs DVD Vs HDD, I spent months trying to make up my mind and all experts (including a major real movie editor) told me to go with MiniDV, some said it was a bad time to buy a cam because of the current format debate, but if you want it, MiniDV ensures easy safe storage, hundreds of both beginner and advanced editing features and strenght. It's up to you anyway!

The camera may be fine, it seems to be. But I interact with the camera through the software, and that's pathetic. All I want to do is transfer video to the computer for editing and creating DVDs. I've done this simply and elegantly for a few years with Hi8 tape and a digital converter. But the software with this thing won't allow more than 10-minute segments of AVI's. Sony Customer Support finally sent me to the software manufacturer, who said "that's normal". I honestly don't understand who would want, say, a 45-minute school play chopped up into 10-minute segments.

I guess I'll use Movie Maker. But this is more trouble than using my 10-year-old analog camera was to make DVDs. For the price, I did expect full functionality, not Mickey-Mouse software that even the company can't support. I was warned about Sonys, now I know why.

Oh yeah...they also said it supports "firewire" connection, but failed to say it was only a 4-pin, not 6-pin. Seems that the Sony computers have 4-pin, many of the standard motherboards use 6-pin. I learned a computer lesson.

i bought this camera in april and am very pleased with it. i had researched digital camcorders for over a year, and actually returned one panasonic because it would not work with imovie. this camera is easy to learn to use, takes great pictures and has good sound, and interfaces easily with mac's imovie. you need to buy a firewire to download to a mac computer. don't know about other computers. i bought a longer life battery and a charger, but the one that comes with it is fine also. pictures taken in low light seem to show up fine also. all in all i would highly recommend this camcorder to a non professional movie maker. also amazon makes it really easy to buy everything you need.

I got this camcorder for a week. Overall it is a nice camera.

The goods:
1. The color is much more accurate then those use sony lens(Or non T* carl zeiss lens).
2. It is very easy to use as a point-and-shoot.
3. Overall the connections to computer is OK for both USB and 1394. For USB connection, you'll need to go through the menu and make a selection before it can start. I had some difficulties in getting the 1394 cable working at beginning.
4. Auto exposure can get reasonable result in most conditions.
5. Frame lines are very useful during filming.
6. Digital zoom result is very usable. Thanks to the 3.0M CCD sensor.

The cons:
1. Poorer room light performance than TRV608.
2. Focus is slower.
3. Not enough dedicated button for functions. Like exposure, etc.
4. No focus ring.
5. Bundle software is useless. It only allows you to create VCD discs.
6. 10x zoom is OK to me but might be a problem to other people.
7. Not so good still pictures. Very noise to me. But it is OK to get some snap shots. You'll still need to carry a digi camera for serious pictures.

Overall I like it, just can't give it a 5 star. Actually I like the high end models of Digital8 camcorders. The bad things my old camera died too late for me to catch a nice digital8 camcorder.

Works well with Windows Vista no software needed .
Excellent color.
Probably, the best resolution before HD
Good low light performance.
Good digital stills, carry just one camera. Put the BCTRP battery charger on the top of your accessory list.
Using other then the auto settings, may take some time to master.

We bought this camcorder to record our daughter and pets. It worked great. The quality was excellent. It was also very portable. It could use an LED light like the old Digital8 camcorder we had. The battery life was ok for what we needed. We decided to return it because we are interested in archiving our media on DVD and this required us to transfer the video to our pc's harddrive. It needed more space than we had available. We are still shopping for a DVD or HDD camcorder. Amazon's customer service was great too. Extremely fast shipping.

This is a very good camera. It's definately a point and shoot camera. There are other shooting options you can explore. I bought a wide-angle conversion. (Standard lens is just too narrow for me). I also bought an external mic and light. Both are very helpful and add a little extra edge to the camera.

I wish new MiniDVs were not so streamlined, lacking manual controls, headphone jacks etc. Older models certainly had more to offer.

Overall, this camera does just great for capturing family moments.

I really like my TRV-20, but the zoom is not always working correctly, still very usable, but a bit temperamental. So it was time for a new one.

this review is done based on minimal use at this time.

the pluses over the TRV-20:
smaller and lighter means it goes more places and gets used more
3mp still camera vs 1mp
more responsive still camera
great video, but so is the TRV-20

the minuses
I don't really like the touch screen, though it seems to work well
no output directly from the camera, it has to be in the cradle. This is especially a bummer since I used the TRV-20 on a tripod to capture video to my ibook via firewire. I can't mount the HC96 on the tripod and feed my computer.
goofy attachments required if you want to use headphones - still haven't decided if I'll get the adapter.

The camera has excellent video quality in low, normal, and high lighting. I wish it had a little higher zoom however trade offs must be made when price is part of the purchase criteria. The only real flaw of the camera is Nero the included software for editing and transferring to the PC. The software is difficult to use and is not the full version. So if you plan on purchasing this camera plan on purchasing some software if you are going to burn DVD's.

We have been very pleased with this Sony Handycam HCR-HC96. The only drawback to this camera is the station in which this camera sits. When used on a tripod, we have to strap the camera and the station together as the two tend to separate when tripod is moved around. Would have been much better if Sony had incorporated the station function directly into the camera.

This camcorder uses MiniDV tape, which is mainstream but is becoming less supported as DVD and hard drive recorders become available. So why buy it? There are several reasons.

(1) The "on" process takes a few seconds. Some of the DVD-based recorders can take 20 sec or more to be ready to shoot. This one is as close to instantaneous as I can find, and is much faster than my older Sony Hi8 (tape) camcorder.

(2) Since MiniDV is a mainstream standard, there are many choices for software for editing or converting DV format video to DVD or other compressed formats. In addition, since tape units have been around for a long time the bugs have been worked out of the mechanical parts of the camera. It's not clear to me how reliable DVD or hard drive systems will be until they are "field tested" for a couple of years.

(3) Hard disk units can have significant limitations. The one that discouraged me was a note in the manual of one camera that said "do not use above 9,000 feet." The reason for this is that hard drives use air to float the read/write head over the disk platter. Thin air menas less float and possibly a head crash, which would kill the drive and destroy data. It's easy to go above 9,000 feet in mountainous areas, and in many cases how would one know if it was safe to use the camera?

(4) Tape (or DVD) permit umlimited amounts of storage to be carried with the camera. A hard disk must be offloaded once full. If it fills up on a long vacation, one could end up out of luck.

(5) Good video and sound quality is important to me. This camera has both. Especially welcome is the 1/2" CCD, which gathers more light than the 1/6" CCDs found is lower-end units. This permits video capture over a wider tange of lighting conditions than with less capable units. Regarding audio, reviews of many current camcorders indicate that audio quality is only fair, due to motor noise or other reasons. The sound quality on this camera meets my needs with the built-in microphone.

(6) The camera provides a mechanism to convert analog video to digital DV format. I have a library of analog video from my old camcorder to convert, and have found using this camera works better than capturing through my computer's video card.

(7) This camera can use 30mm add-on lenses, such as wide angle or telephoto. For about $5 I bought a 30-37mm step up ring that lets me use my older Sony lenses with the new camera. The only downside to this is that the lenses partially cover the flash, which causes shadows in still photos. There is no problem with video since the flash is not
used.

Other comments

Although I did not buy it for use as a still camera, it fully uses the large CCD to take good quality, relatively high resolution still images (3M pixels). The flash works well indoors, and the "super night shot" feature can be used for still photos as well.

The swivel LCD display is bright and clear. The touch screen is responsive and easy to use, although navigating the menus is somewhat tedious. Fortunately, dealing with the menus is infrequent since the camera works well when used in a "point and shoot" mode.

It's pleasant that the camera has a small speaker so video can be viewed with sound.

I didn't like that the still photo memory requires a proprietary Sony memory stick rather than a more standard Secure Digital card. I also felt Sony was nickel and diming me by providing an A/V connector without an S-Video connection -- that's an add-on expense for geting higher quality pictures when capturing analog video to convert it or to watch videos from the camera connected to a television.

The "Picture Package" software that comes with the camera is very primitive. I prefer other tools for interfacing with the computer.

If you get a working one, this is a really nice camcorder. it is remarkably small, quiet, good ergonomics and is loaded with features. A relatively large 1/3" image sensor promises solid low-light performance, and this is one of the rare models that accepts analog input. It also comes with a hot shoe for a variety of accessories. If you read the reviews and other customer comments, it is clear that a lot of people are very happy with their DCR-HC96. So, why the one star review? Simply put, this is a risky purchase.

I was never able to get the Firewire/i.LINK connectivity to work with this camcorder. I tried different firewire cards, different cables, and tried it on an older Windows XP system, a new Vista system, and two different Mac OSX systems. I could connect via USB, but never through firewire, which is the only way to transfer DV files to a computer. From reading on the camcorder info website's forums, there's a number of other people who have had the same problem. Again, we're a minority, but to date, I've seen no sign that there's a fix to this problem. To make matters worse, the Sony support proved to be of little value, offering only simplistic troubleshooting advice (try a different port, turn off the PC, restart the camera). And, they only offer repair service, not replacement service, even though this product is only a few days old. Sony's solution was to have me send it in for repair and do without my new purchase for however long it takes them to fix it. For me, it just wasn't worth the effort, especially during the holidays. They had their chance to keep a customer, but decided not to. And, Sony is very invasive about gathering personal information. Before I could talk to someone or email someone, I had to provide my mailing address, email address and phone number. That is a lot of my personal data sitting in some Sony CRM database somewhere, and I'm not even a customer any more.

So, weigh these risks when deciding on Sony. While they can make some nice hardware, their support policies and reliability issues could leave you out in the cold.

That is why I'm returning mine for a different manufacturer, probably the Panasonic.

The DCR-HC96 is a really good camcorder. I debated and debated whether or not to rate it 3 or 4 stars. Perhaps it lies somewhere in between. But in the end, though its grievances were minor, there were just too many to justify a 4-star rating.

But let's start with the biggest positives:
* Excellent video quality and color, even in dim light - perfect for me, and was the most important factor in purchasing this camcorder, since most of my footage involves recording my toddler stumbling around our house.
* Very lightweight and super small.
* Tons of features for the advanced user, and a great "easy" mode for novices.

Now, the cons:
* A soft motor noise is audible on playback, especially if the recording is done inside - this was the real kicker for me. The whole reason I purchased this camcorder was because of its excellent video quality inside, so I'm basically doomed to hearing the motor on most of my footage. It's not horrible, but it's definitely there.
* There's no light on the camera. And Night Shot isn't what it used to be. Not impressed with night-time recordings.
* The Handycam Station is cumbersome.
* Photo stills are good quality, but the color is really washed out.

Also, I was really wanting more than a 10x optical zoom. And I'm really not crazy about having purchased a digital-8 tape camcorder in the year 2007. I feel like this thing will be obsolete in 5 years. But, I can't technically hold these complaints against the DCR-HC96 since I knew that going in. But it's worth noting, as these were additional concessions I had to make to get the excellent low-light quality at my $500 price point. The touchscreen seems to be one of the big topics of discussion for this camcorder, many users citing they either love it or hate it. I'm sort of neutral on the whole thing. I don't love having to press on my LCD screen for easy controls, but it works well enough as long as you don't have big hands.

I can't stand having spent $500 on a Handycam (after months of research) that I don't adore. And I debated returning it for something else. But in the end, I guess I'm willing to live with all of my complaints to achieve the great "inside-recording" quality... but just barely.

Spent weeks researching which camcorder to get and decided on this one. Why? The large sensor (1/3"), the MiniDV tape format, the hot shoe for either external mic or video light...and the almost universal positive reviews. Do not regret getting it at all, but here are the things that I found lacking...most solved by some ingenuity and throwing more money at Project Camcorder.

After I got it, read reviews for the few Sony mics that would work with the hot shoe, and nobody seemed impressed. Oops. However, I bought a mic jack adaptor that fits onto the hot shoe, so I can connect an external mic of my choice. So got a used shotgun and found cabled workaround to use my Olympus stereo digital voice recorder as an external mic. Realized with iMovie that I could even record the audio track separately on the voice recorder (say for a seminar speaker) and replace the soundtrack in iMovie. That would free the hot shoe for a video lamp. Anyway, so far I've worked around all shortcomings, even to using a portable dvd player as a large video monitor.

I hope to keep working with the camera, but so far am so satisfied with the picture quality under all circumstances that I have not gone beyond the Easy Mode. I do not do large long programs, but short YouTube programs, and mostly shoot short video segments that are edited together. The still feature is nice also, to get sharper still images to work into the program. Would buy the camcorder again, and might buy another one day to for "two-camera" work.

This is the first digital camcorder I've owned. It replaced our old analog Canon. I researched cameras for months before I decided on the Canon Elura, which very shortly after became very hard to find. We are on a budget, and I wanted the most bang for my buck. So I researched for several more weeks and decided on the Sony DCR-HC96 MiniDV. I wanted to stick with the MiniDV format based on the reported superior video quality (of which I have not been disappointed...much better than our analog), and also because I have many analog cassettes I wanted to transfer to digital. This was one of my main purchasing requirements and this particular camera advertises the analog-to-digital passthrough. However, I have not been able to do the transfers because I would have to still be able to play the analog tapes on the old camera while the transfer is taking place, and our old camera doesn't work anymore which is why we were in the market in the first place. So I'm disappointed about that and will have to figure out another way to play the tapes while they are connected to the new technology.
Other than that, I have been pleased with the camera. The only other things I can think of after using it for a few months are: it needs a light!!! Still photo quality is okay, not great; would be better with a light. I will have to (eventually) purchase one for the shoe. Zoom under the right hand placement is a little too sensitive (my Canon had the same kind of toggle switch, but much better sensitivity). A lot of reviews I read stated more than a lack of enthusiasm for the LCD panel. I don't mind it at all and didn't think it was that bad. Of course, I read the instruction manual from cover to cover and played with the functions a while to get used to everything before I did any serious recording. The only disadvantage I have found with it is when I am trying to edit the bank of still shots (I only recently purchased my video card) the LCD buttons cover up the bottom of the photo and I can't tell sometimes if it's a keeper or not, especially if it's a closeup. Too much of the face is covered up by the buttons.
I am a mother of three young children and overall this camera serves my needs. I would purchase this camera again. Hopefully, though, in the future Sony will make a few improvements to make an even better camera in this price range.

I bought this product to replace an aging JVC miniDV recorder and am absolutely thrilled. We used it to record a focus group sitting around a table in dim light (using the sony bluetooth microphone) and had excellent results both visually and audio-wise.
We also recorded our greyhounds doing their chasing after things thing and the camera had no trouble keeping up with them.
Much improvement over the old JVC.
Can't wait to use it for some upcoming seminars and some utube stuff.

Overall, this maybe be the best non-professional camcorder I've personally ever seen, maybe disconsidering only the gs-500, but I was still amazed by the picture quality, and specially, by the vivid and strong colors that the camera providaded, which everybody told me I should expect the opposite... But it's not a perfect camcorder, far from that. The Handycam station, though a conceptually great idea, is incredibly irritating to use, not only because of the fact that it doesn't effectively lock at the camcorder, leaving it open for many outcoming risky situations, but also because it makes impossible to hold the camera over a tripod and connected to some source at the same time. Also is important to say that, despite the fact that the Touchscreen provides possibly many more ressources of menu in the camera, it is also very uncomfortable to be greasing the lcd screen with the finger all the time and to make contorcionism in some situations to be able to reach the menu.

Except for those facts, and an extra compleinment about the few-button remote control which makes it pratically unuseful, it's a grat piece of recording machine and I would recomend it to anyone willing to have the best movie-like experience!

Bruno S.,
Brazil.

I've had this camera for 6 months. 4 of those months have been spent fighting with Sony to service it.

Stay far, far, far away.

Nice sharp video much better then the Hi 8 that I had and much better then the hard drive models. Nice cam if you can find it but dont pay over 400 for it.

I purchased this camera eight months ago. Since then, I've recorded more than 30 hours of video. The HC-96 has performed superbly in some incredibly demanding environments. The touch screen is very easy to operate (although sometimes I use the tip of a retracted pen to make sure I hit what I intend to). Additionally, the programmable "P-Menu" ensures the features/options you use most are right at your fingertips. The transition from video recording to photo taking is extremely simple and fast. I recently took the camera to a wedding and was very pleased with the speed of the transition back and forth, not to mention the fact that I didn't have to reach for a still camera every time a photo opportunity presented itself. A 3 megapixel image won't win you any awards, but it's plenty clear for an 8x10 photo.

Picture Quality- Simply amazing. When people see the detail, color, and contrast that my little Sony is able to recreate, they are always impressed that such a little device is able to produce such incredibly crisp, detailed video. As long as your lighting is right, your videos will look like they were professionally shot. Example: While on a trip to Rome last fall I shot a facade at one of the many basilicas. Initially, I was focused on the outer columns and scupltures, which were in direct sunlight. But I also wanted to shoot the mosaics that were set well back from the front of the facade and in such dark shadow that I could barely make them out with my naked eye, three stories below. I simply zoomed in on the mosaics and as the white marble walls left the field of view, the camera adjusted the white balance so quickly that the mosaics were immediately crystal clear. The description hardly does the performance justice.

Ease of Use- Fantastic. The buttons fall under your fingers, it's lightweight, it's very durable (I've dropped mine, spilled Sprite on it, and done a hundred other things the manual doesn't recommend) and it's small enough to be inconspicuous.

MiniDV Media- I wouldn't trade my tapes for a harddrive or DVDs. The ease with which I am able to view, download and edit my video is awesome. Plus, each tape holds about 9G of video, for only $2.50. The firewire interface works very well (buy a 4-4 and a 4-6 firewire cable, because not all computers take a 6). Rewinding and playback do use a fair amount of battery, but most of the time I'm viewing I can have it plugged in.

Battery Life- The included battery leaves something to be desired. Buy the bigger ActiForce extended life battery. It's definitely worth having. I can have the camera on and recording for more than three hours at a stretch.

Other Features I've used:

Smooth Interval Recording- Produces fantastic time-lapse shots. Works beautifully. Allows you to choose from 1-120 seconds per frame.

Night Shot & Super Night Shot- Great for low-light shooting within about 100 feet.

Spot Focus- Works very well when you need to manually direct the focal point. Very good for off-center shots.

Steadyshot- The HC-96's electro-optical stabilization is amazing. The camera not only steadies out the bumps, it helps smooth out your panning, as well, so the resulting video is very smooth and a pleasure to watch even when zoomed in very tight on distant objects. I've taken it to the lake to film wakeboarding and waterskiing and the picture is incredibly steady- shot from my hand without any kind of external stabilizing equipment.

Remote Control- Works very well. Must have a clear line of sight to the front of the camera.

Variable Speed Playback- Allows for frame-by-frame viewing and editting. A must-have feature. The controls for variable speed playback are extremely easy to use.

End Search- Will automatically cue the tape to the last frame of the last shot you took and seamlessly transition it to the next shot you record. It's extremely convenient.

Summary- I'm so happy I purchased this camera. It has all of the features I want and produces video that is every bit as clear as that of much larger, heavier, more expensive cameras. More to the point- it produces video that is so clear I'm amazed every time I watch it. It's hard to believe that such a little device could turn out such a professional looking product. Add to that the convenience of taking still shots to a Memory Stick Pro Duo media card with a quick USB interface and I can't really say much more. It's a great piece of gear and it's held up for eight months. I would recommend this camera to anyone.