SVP HDDV-2300 5 MP 2.4-inch LCD Red Digital Camcorder

Rating

I have carpal tunnel so its hard for me to hold things with my hands. This is the great it do not hurt my hands while holding it

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Rating

This little camcorder is not bad. It does the job. The picture quality is not better than most video clips taken from digital cameras. It comes with a large SD card, which is not directly readable from windows XP. Something has to be updated to be able to read it. But once this is done, it is easy as a breeze to move files to PC The USB cable to the camcorder is pretty useless, unless you want to use the device as a web cam (which does a really good job, by the way) The connection to TV is a joke. It shows the LCD screen on your TV, including all the menus. The resolution on TV is really poor. It does not do its justice of what is actually recorded as a file and can be seen on the computer. The still shots from the camera mode are not great at all. The claim of high pixels is all interpolated, so do not expect amazing resolutions, more like a decent cell phone picture, even if each picture will take over 1 MB of memory on the card. The videos inside are challenging as soon as the light is not super bright. There is no backlight compensation at all. The videos outside are reasonable. Just make sure the subject you take is facing the light. Again, the camcorder does not behave good with back light. Some people have reported problems with shaking: it is actually not bad at all. You cannot run, but you can walk slowly and the image does not make you sea sick. The sound: well, there is a consistent (light) buzz from the microphone. The location of the microphone is right where you would naturally put your finger to hold the device if hand held. If you block the mic, the sound will of course be affected. Now the good thing: It is very easy and quick to turn on and shoot a video clip on the go. Perfect if you have kids and want to catch lots of memories. It is small. It does not take too much batteries. 2x AA from the original package and I still have not changed them... The video review requires to go to some menus so it is not instant playback, but when you know how to do it, it is not too bad either. When the device turns ON, it makes a loud wake up melody, which after a while is really annoying. It does not seem possible to take it off or lower the sound. I block it with my finger on the speaker to muffle it. I wanted to return it and I kept it. It is not really bad, just not as good as I was expecting. If you want a real camcorder, look into the $300 range with real optics and real sensors. If you want something rather cheap to do a little video editing or just post clips on YouTube, this one is perfect. The sound is not great: the background noise often covers conversations, unless subjects are less than 6 ft from the camera. Overall, It is OK, not perfect, but OK.

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