I bought this particularly to record band rehearsals and performances. I feel I may possibly take it back since it is missing a couple of essential features, despite the fact that it is fairly easy to use and has surprisingly good audio high quality.

When I began searching for a handheld camcorder to record music rehearsals and performances, I speedily narrowed down the field to the Sony Bloggie, the Zoom Q3 and the Zoom Q3 HD since of their listed attributes and the great critiques on these products. The Zoom Q3 was the front runner as far as audio good quality was concerned (according to reviewers) but was not 1080p. The Bloggie was 1080p, but did not have the audio rep of the Zoom. The Zoom Q3 HD had both. I lastly settled on the Sony Bloggie because the Zoom Q3 HD was a small out of my price tag assortment, and because I could uncover it locally and I required it ASAP.

So here’s the evaluation:

The Bloggie came in a slick little box which can also be utilised as a carrying situation for all the paraphernalia (USB cable, carrying cord, manuals.) The device is also really smooth and slick hunting, and feels substantial in your hand. The initial point you require to do ahead of making use of it is plug it in to your pc. Editing computer software will then be downloaded into your pc automatically. (The editor is extremely primitive, but does the work for standard applications.) The instruction manual does not genuinely inform you much— it is one particular thick card, and does not aid significantly at all! You type of have to figure out how the thing works on your personal. Fortunately, it is rather straightforward. Press the red button to record!

The battery came charged out of the box, which was good. It is recharged through the USB, so you do not ever need to have to buy batteries.

I attempted a speedy little vid in my bedroom and uploaded it to my harddrive with no issue. According to the specs, there is an internal flash drive (which can not be upgraded) which allows 2 hours of recording in 1080p. This seemed to me to be a small low for what I would need to have it for (band rehearsals,) but close sufficient. I erased the test vid from the memory, and went off to rehearsal.

Because I didn’t get the optional stand, I sort of balanced the thing in between two books and pressed record. It seemed to be operating fine (it has a constructed-in video screen), so we began rehearsal. About two hrs later on we quit, and I went property, all excited to download the vid and take a listen to what we had performed.

Right after plugging the camera into my laptop and opening the editing software, I picked “import.” A couple of minutes later, the file had finished, and (with great anticipation!) I pressed play to view it. Listening to the video with headphones, I was stunned at the sound top quality for such a tiny camera with no external mike! The video was fairly excellent, too, even though that wasn’t my main concern. The audio top quality was my priority, and the Bloggie seemed to pass that check.

Unfortunately, at that moment, I noticed that the video was only 29 minutes extended! In which the heck was the other hour and a half of rehearsal? I had no notion! Gone into the ether! I by no means touched the camera the moment I set it up, but for some explanation the thing quit recording at 29 minutes! Gah! What a waste!!!! I was sick. I read the (non)manual, but could find practically nothing about this concern.

I also realized that we had played for about 2 and half hours, so even if the camera had worked, I would have missed the last half hour because of the lack of memory.

Soon after I got property I went on line to do some study. At some camera web site with the Bloggie specs and assessment, in the really last footnote at the bottom of the page, it stated “movie recording is restricted to 29 minute segments.”

GAHHH!!!! Really, Sony? Genuinely??? Even though there is nevertheless an hour and half of memory left? Truly???!?!!

So, what that indicates essentially is that if I want to record one of our exhibits, I have to set up the camera, then a half hour later leave the stage to press “record” once more? Then a half hour later, leave the stage Yet again to press record Once again?

Epic fail.

The 2nd difficulty I have with the Bloggie is that there is no way to expand the memory capabilities. With the Zoom you can upgrade your memory to be in a position to record up to 16 hours of video! With the Bloggie, you are stuck with two hours, but in 29 minute segments.

So here is my final summary:

PROS:
Surprisingly excellent audio top quality for such a modest camera.
Good video good quality at 1080p.
Simple to use.

CONS:
Unfathomable 29 minute limit on movies.
Non-expandable memory.
Poor and useless tech manual.

For my requirements, the Bloggie doesn’t quite cut it. Even so, the audio top quality is quite great. Nevertheless, I feel I will be forced to return this gadget.

I am sad…

Read more

The day this arrived, I took it out of the box, charged it, and then learned to use it while documenting my 10 year old son’s fourth grade chorus concert. I ran into my very first snag when I plugged it back into my personal computer to retrieve the photos and movies: it wasn’t displaying up on my desktop. Turns out you have to turn it on, then plug it in, which is in fact sort of a handy way to go about it, because that way, you can plug it in to charge it with no obtaining the drive and linked computer software spring to daily life just on general principle.

I gave the ease of set up and ease of use attributes 5 stars each and every. This camera comes with a quickstart manual, and that is actually all you require. To set up the computer software, you just turn it on, plug it into your personal computer, and let the program walk you through it. The committed software runs a lot quicker – a LOT – than my flip camera’s software runs. I am still figuring out the interface for sharing content material, but I was capable to load to youtube and facebook without having any glitches or hitches. Using the camera is simple. Turn it on. Point, zoom if you want, shoot. Still camera button is on the edge. Video recording button is on the back in the middle of the wheel. You can shoot stills while shooting video (but it may possibly make your video shake a bit at that point ). To turn on the self timer, push the correct arrow button on the wheel.

I gave four stars to the features set. This is a robust, tiny video camera. As noted above, you can shoot stills and video at the identical time, which already can make it much more beneficial to me – a Mom who has fourth grade concerts to document – than my flip ultra hd (which I also like a lot) or my iphone. This is also thinner and lighter than my flip, which indicates I can carry it with me a lot more simply. It does not have a flash, but it’s just fine in indoor light. Good quality suffers in reduced light, but I do not know of any camera without having a flash that can tackle that situation. This a single does better in reduced light than my iPhone and does as nicely as or greater than my flip.

Three stars for sound top quality. It really is thoroughly satisfactory. On playback, I could hear the children singing and make out the words, but the sound was flat and muddy. On the other hand, it did not fuzz out or clip. This helps make the camera well-suited to documenting family members gatherings, video-blogging in spots where there may possibly be background noise but not an overwhelming amount of it, and so on. It is not substantial adequate top quality to use for concerts (it’s also mono, if that matters to you). However, the image quality is significantly greater than the Zoom video-recorder my husband employs to record his gigs. So, this plus a Zoom plus an straightforward movie-making plan to sync video with audio may well be an superb spending budget resolution to posting your band movies on youtube. Unless everybody in your band is ten. Then, just use this for now.

Purchased this Sony HDR-CX160 Handycam which also came with the Ultimate Bundle sold by way of Seaside Camera. The camera is excellent but had issues with Beach Camera on finding the right products in the Ultimate Bundle. The description of the Ultimate Bundle indicates it comes with Deluxe Filter Kit. The filters did not come with the camera. After a few e-mails to Seaside Camera, I was told by a revenue manager that the filters never come with the Ultimate Bundle. After a couple a lot more e-mails I did get an e-mail from the revenue manager who said that he had to speak with the Sony Rep (??????????) and he would send out the filters. I’m still waiting for them to arrive. Now I’ve observed that the back-up battery is not a Sony battery. Soon after charging the battery it would only run for about two minutes then a message would seem on the screen that says “not compatible with this device.” Over all the camera is good its just that an individual isn’t watching what is going into the packing box at Seaside Camera and they never know what they’ve got in their advertisements.

An old saying “the left hand does not know what the proper hand is performing.”

The build quality is excellent. The user menu is all also user-friendly.

Vivid sunlight was impossible at any setting as far as the LCD display readings went. You will have to guess and point for shooting the materials you hope to get.

For us, we shot within, outdoors, evening and day to ‘TEST’ the CX160. Hands-down kudos to Sony for the best doable image stabilization I have ever seen. Even even though walking on a agressive basis, the picture stayed as although I had been on liquid wheels. Amazing stabilization.

Video is HD at 60 but it is missing he 60/24p aspect so you’ll get a vivid image but it comes out way also soft for it to search Blu-Ray or 1080. Had a lot more of a 720 look and effect and it just did not warrant a 0 value tag for lower-finish HD quality.

If they’ll offer this someday for 0 or much less, then it would be a fair purchase. For now, continue looking elsewhere for a greater model.

Gread HD Camera, I do expert Video recording, i have two professional Hd cameras, and use this a single for an extra angle, the top quality of video is all the occasions same than the other for what I paid above 2000 dollars, I had a little problem importing to imovie, but after touch all the setings I got it. Now if someone can inform me what to do, thanks for it, because I do’nt know what i did, but nonetheless I’m importing whit no issues.

As other folks have talked about this is an Amazon exclusive and could be considered a “child TM700K.” It does lack the manual attributes and accessory shoe. It is also NTSC and does 60P (to solution someone’s question). The problem with the 1080 60P is it is supposedly only compatible with the incorporated Panasonic software package. That is my greatest complaint, it’s basically useless at this point (I would leave the door open for long term compatibility, but not much). I know when making use of VLC or WMP 12 it certainly stutters. And that’s not a drive or pc limitation but a limitation of the AVCHD codec (from what I collect, anyways). It’s a shame it can’t be set for 720/60P as that would actually function fine. This model also has the wide angle lens, which is undoubtedly greater than my Canon cams (HV30, HF200) but not entirely satisfactory to me. Low light noise is minimum, at least for a camcorder in this price tag variety and it surely looked far better than my Canon’s. The fan, which seems to be at the top of everyone’s worry list doesn’t seem to bother me. I haven’t noticed it. It does appear like a dumb design and style to call for a fan on a client camcorder in this day and age. Admittedly, I haven’t taken any video in silence, largely focusing on the kids (in which silence doesn’t exist). It’s basically identical to the PAL edition in almost each and every regard (other than the fact it has 60P vs 50P) and also has the same horribly inadequate documentation. The Digital Cinema mode is not even pointed out in the manual.

Overall, it really is not a lousy camera. I can not say for confident the 3MOS can make any appreciable difference other than it appears like it does far better in low light. Video good quality is what you’d count on for a camera in this value array, very good. Sometimes there are some oddities when it is picking white balance (ie a blue tungsten hue at occasions) but it corrects itself right after a handful of seconds or camera angle movement. I actually like the OIS (image stabilization). It surely does very a bit greater than other camcorders I’ve owned.

Photo good quality is almost certainly equal to a low to mid range point and shoot. But I didn’t buy it to take photos so it does not bother me.
I’d bump it up a star if someone is aware of how to get the 60P video to operate with no stuttering (and not using Panasonic’s software package).

UPDATED WARRANTY Info (12/30/2010):
Because there looks to be so much confusion and misinformation about warranty concern surrounding this camcorder, I made the decision to update this review to contain the right warranty details. I have personally spoken to Pansonic and confirmed the US warranty. To verify if you have a US edition of this camcorder model (NTSC recording format), take away the camcorder battery. Beneath the battery, there is the official camocorder model # imprinted. If this model # reads, HDC-SD600P, you have an official US edition, with US warrnaty. If your camcorder model # reads HDC-SD600GK, you have a UK edition (PAL recording format) and your warranty probably will not be valid right here in US or may well have a challenging time getting warranty services.

Warranty Information: This camcorder carries one year components and 90 days labor warranty. Battery itself carries 10 days components warranty only. To acquire warranty solutions, please speak to 800-211-PANA. Please note that there is also a postcard integrated in the camcorder box itself for warranty registration and for extended warranty buy discount by way of Pansonic directly.

****************************************************************************************************************************************************

Unique Assessment (12/25/2010):
Why did I bought this camcorder? Properly, if you have a residence complete of youngsters, you know how essential it is to preserve individuals precious childhood memories. I have upgraded my CRT TVs to LCD TVs, easy cell phones to iPhones, VCRs to Blu-ray DVD players, but considering that final 10 many years, I had not upgraded my camcorder. I utilized the exact same standard resolution Digital eight, cassette based camcorder because 2001. It was time to ultimately take a plunge and upgrade to a newer technological innovation.
I had been doing my study about digital camcorders with HD recording capabilities. I had set my spending budget to all around 0, to purchase camcorders with decent stability of cost vs. functions. I wasn’t expecting to pay out any more and at the very same time, I didn’t want to cut corners on some simple capabilities.
I researched Sony (as well expensive at comparable capabilities), Canon (broad angle is a joke), JVC (reliability problems) and eventually I settled for this camcorder model, when Amazon presented it in its Gold Box deal. I waited via Thanks-providing, Black Friday and eventually in December, I found this deal here at Amazon.
When I purchased this camcorder model, I could not locate much info about this model, due to the reality that it was lately released in USA (even even though it is provided for sale in UK and other European nations). Basically this camcorder is exact same as HDC-TM700 series camcorder, minus the number of minor functions (such as no developed-in storage memory, no mic input, no manual focus, no five..1 digital surround sound recording). Take away these couple of attributes and you have a camcorder that is cheaper by nearly 0. Perfect compromise considering the fact I do not intend to use these features, whilst saving additional 0.

Following objects are included in the box,
one) Camcorder
2) Battery
3) Battery Charger/Adapter
four) AC Cable
five) DC Cable
6) USB Cable
seven) AV Multi-cable
Stylus Pen
9) Lens Hood
10) Remote Management
11) CD with Drivers/Computer software and so forth
12) Manuals

Initial impression: This camcorder is really tiny, has a very modest foot print, and aesthetically it is very pleasing. It weighs only .85 lbs with battery and SD card installed. Wow, what a relief!! It grips comfortably in your palms. I was ready to record straight 30 minutes of a birthday party video, with out any fatigue, a task not possible to achieve with my old digital 8mm camcorder. In spite of its light weight, it has a solid-constructed really feel to it. It does not feel cheaply constructed or flimsy.

Operation: I employed 8GB SDHC card for my recording purposes. I was in a position to record close to 45 minutes of video clips (at 1080i/60p) and few pictures, taken at 14.2 Megapixels. I got all around 80 minutes of recording time on a complete battery charge. I assume taking images with flash probably decreased that all round video recording time proportionately. Touch screen based handle alternatives are more than sufficient and they function properly. Touch display control feature itself functions very effectively. Display itself can be rotated 180 and folded back in to the camcorder body. Touch screen also displays operational messages. For illustration, when you zoom in as well quick, or move camcorder about too fast, it displays the warning. 18x intelligent zoom works quite well. If you feel adventurous sufficient, you can enable digital zoom as properly and get up to 700x zoom array, although its usability is questionable, unless of course you are employing a tripod (tripod mount is at on the bottom side).
I am extremely pleased with the nevertheless image quality at 14.2MP. Photographs are sharp, vibrant and clear. There are no detectable…

Read more

Nicely, I am positive this camcorder will be discontinued quickly with the new models released. But I want to clarify a few items. I have just lately heard people saying on various web sites

First, some people have been saying”:

“The Panasonic SD60k is only 50 dollars more and offers a better set of functions, zoom, and so on.” This is ill informed. This camcorder has 3X the sensor chips a lower Fstop (that means brighter video), a genuine Lecia Dicomar lens (not generic pany) and the crystal engine pro processing engine (superior processing engine).

This is a completely far more advanced piece of engineering. The SD60 is a midrange, this is the toprange flagship consumer camcorder. However the midrange is Nevertheless 50 dollars much more. If you feel about this you will see how ridiculous it is. Get this a single instead.

I personally owned the SDX1 (the midrange class camcorder for 2011) and the SD600 at the identical time so I ran side by side video comparisons, which I presented to my wife to see if she could tell the distinction. We bust out laughing the distinction was so apparent, and she by no means mistook the SD600 for the SD60, not even as soon as.

I have also heard

“This camcorder does not have sufficient zoom.” With higher definition, it is a lot harder to get bigger zoom and Preserve substantial definition. Therefore, at the max zoom of 18X you will still have Large DEFINITION video at 1080p60. Not like an SD camcorder, which only has to preserve SD video. You can even now zoom digital zoom, and since it is in HD with so much far more detail the video will nevertheless be much greater than standard SD for a pretty good bit of zoom range. In addition, 12-18times is far more than adequate for any affordable application for which you would require to view something in substantial def. If you can see the hairs on the eyebrows of your daughter on stage that is close adequate. The SD60 offers a bit much more zoom, but thena acquire you loose on colour, sharpness, lower light, in conversion help, Mbs (17 vs 28) and general video good quality. Is a number of X zoom actually worth all that and a lot more?

I have also heard:

“Software package is not compatible.” This is merely not correct. The software program is now, it wasnt in jan 2010. Nevertheless, the camcorder has a conversion help feature which cuts down the conversion of 1080p60 footage by 35X for me…so…right after I convert to 1080i60 or SD for family with no blu ray players I have no issues at all.

If you do not know what I am speaking about, you require to understand. Interlaced video is when the video is filmed at two seperate moments in time then mixed into a single frampe. 1080p60 is progressive, which means each and every frame is filmed as one particular comprehensive frame. A lot greater good quality overall.


I have also heard

The fan is loud.

Hogwash. Unless of course you are filming indoors of birds out your window you are quite unlikely to recognize it. In addition, the autofocus on the SDX1 was Practically just as loud as the fan. The two only noticable in that a single condition for me. Possibly in a quite woods filming birds it would be a small irritating. But even then there is generally enough background noises, crickets, and so on, that the acquire on the mic sets itself such that I am not capable to hear it.

I have also heard.

“The fan introduces an extra moving component which may possibly fail.”

True, but then once again panasonic only offers a 90 day labor warranty. So you actually must purchase with a credit card that doubles warranty, and consider a third celebration warranty that will also cover Accidental injury. Then the fan is a non situation anyway.


I have study a lot of other…stuff…out there, by misinformed individuals.

This is an amazing camcorder. Remarkable video. Quite functional. I was shocked by how good it is. And for about 60% less than any camcorder of even comparable video high quality, it is a no-brainer obtain.

I was contemplating among HD camcorders, iPod Touch 4th Gen, Digital Cameras with video recording and this and am content I chose the Samsung HMX-E10 to complement my Canon Digital Rebel XTi and SX210 digital cameras for fantastic 1080p image stabilized video with simple to use UI and good design and style on the USB and mini-HDMI-ports.

Video good quality is great but not flawless as there’s a tiny lag on videos with quick complete frame movement but it is not as lousy as with the Flip cams. The touch display is fantastic but is not delicate enough for my swift button presses – this is actually evident on employing the start off/quit button for the video which demand all around 800ms button press.

The display does not appear to scratch easy – I’ve had it in my pocket with keys and coins for days now and can’t see a single scratch. The swivel lens is a excellent thought but does not get utilized that typically – most likely best for blogging sort videos.

Overall – really happy with the benefits. Have been utilizing this to capture each and every move of our baby and share the videos by way of Picasaweb to grandparents overseas. The integrated intelli-studio sync computer software does not help Picasa out of the box but can be customized and has assistance for Flickr, facebook and Youtube uploads.

Very pleased with the product – hopefully Samsung will refine the touch display software package for quicker response. Very competitive and aggressively priced pocket camcorder.

I’ve attempted many pocket HD camcorders above the previous year or so: Creative Vado (3rd Gen), Kodak Zi8 and the Panasonic TA-one. I recently got my hands on the Samsung HMX E-ten, nonetheless, and I feel I’ve found a keeper. I’ll just get proper to the point and break down what I believe about it:


__________________
The Very good:

** Solid reduced-light overall performance: I’m no video professional, so I can’t give you a bunch of jargon. All I can say is that, with my other pocket cameras, I could barely make out some of the stuff that I recorded at night. With this one, nonetheless, everything’s pretty clear. Ironically, the TA-1 has an real light on it, but in my viewpoint, the E-ten blew it out of the water in a side-by-side test I did. That stated, do not sleep on this small guy.

** It’s beautiful: I typically don’t care considerably about looks, but this camera is pretty attractive (even much better in person). It looks a lot more like the most recent smartphone than a video camera. I think kids especially will enjoy the design of this camera.

** Fairly noise-free audio: Not an audio professional either when it comes to these items, but I have not heard anything at all funky however (unlike my Vado). Indoors, it sounds excellent. Outdoors, it picked up very a bit of wind noise in the course of my test but it was a quite windy day, so I won’t be too harsh.

** Excellent image stabilization: This was massive for me. My Zi8 makes me look like I have a nervous condition. The E-10 is fairly stable although. It is not perfect, but this is a camera that I’d really feel fairly confident shooting with while I’m walking.

** Swivel lens: This really won me above. I was “meh” about it when I purchased the camera, but you can do some quite neat stuff with it. More than anything, I like that I can swivel it about and shoot video of myself even though nonetheless looking at the display.

__________________




The Negative:

** Awful Zoom: The zoom feature on this camera is absolutely nothing quick of pathetic, by any standard. It is only 1x, and to make matters worse, it really is slow and jumpy. This definitely isn’t the camera you’d want to zoom on-the-fly with (not that you’d be in a position to see a lot added anyway, offered the crappy 1x capability).


** No Mic Jack: This is the feature I miss most from my Zi8. Naturally, it wasn’t a deal-breaker, but flexibility is often good

** No port for an AC adapter: I wish I could plug the camera into the wall although I’m recording on a tripod, but no luck w/ this camera. Also, if you want to charge your battery, be ready to have your camera dangling from the side of your Computer. If you’re like me, you might want to invest in a female-to-male USB cable and a USB wall adapter.

** Touch Display: Phone me old-fashioned, but I like buttons. I recognize that this is most likely an appealing attribute to a lot of individuals, though. That stated, you’ll be happy to know that it works quite effectively. It’s not as responsive as, say, an iPhone, but it’ll certainly get the job accomplished. Also, considering that there are no buttons, you can play back your videos and photographs on the great big screen, so I guess that is a plus.

** Employs MicroSD cards: I just do not like em. Also, Amazon is suggesting full-sized SD cards to go with this camera as I write this. Do not obtain a single!!

** Does not come with an HDMI cable: If you wanna hook your camera up directly to the Television, get ready to commit a lot more income.

** No Webcam function: Unless of course I am missing a thing, forget about using this camera with Skype and whatnot.


(Most of this stuff, I’d take into account minor drawbacks even though)
__________________




Extras that I don’t genuinely care about, but do not mind obtaining:


** Stills: Take up to 8MP photographs. It won’t precisely outwork my digital camera, but I’ll surely get some use out of it. You can also snap pics in the middle of a video.

** Panorama mode: This attribute is wonderful. Just hold down the shutter, turn your entire body and you can get some beautiful wide stills.



Overall: a fairly solid device. I’d suggest it. This is easily my new favored pocket camera.

This little video cam is great. Very best point about it – IT Works Fantastic ON OUR MAC! We do not really recognize some of the unfavorable reviews out there – can’t think about what some men and women expect?? The marketing and characteristics seem to skip above MAC compatible, but it performs just fine on MAC. Now you do not get the “Pc” software program attributes, but don’t want them. We use an iMac G5 with one.8 Ghz PowerPC running Leopard ten.five.eight . The E10 Camcorder plugs correct into a USB on back of our Mac. Turn the camcorder energy on. A desktop icon (Folder) appears with a user manual to very easily download, and folders containing your videos and snapshots also appear. The Mac instantly pulls up iPhoto and importing snapshots is easy. You can close iPhoto if you’re only operating with videos.
You can choose a video and it opens Quicktime to play it – but the quality is not perfect. However, you can open iMovie and import the videos, it does take about 4 to 5 minutes for every minute of video to import into iMovie, but that’s not a big deal since when you view your videos on iMovie they are Perfect! IMovie can splice, edit, cut, your videos, and so on. Also, when on iMovie you can e-mail a video. Additionally, there is no issue uploading a video to YouTube, either directly from the CamCorder folder, or you can copy videos from the Camcorder folder to your desktop. (We produced a new folder to copy videos into) – then upload them to YouTube, or import to iMovie.

The high quality of videos and snapshots are good. We have no difficulty taking excellent videos and snapshots in moderately reduced light either. This is a Quite Basic camcorder to operate! We almost bought the “FLIP” since my sister’s functions fantastic and is Mac compatible – but she has issues about easily damaging the lens which is unprotected – and we study several FLIP reviews exactly where folks accidentally broke and/or scratched the lens (which is not a replacable item). The Samsung’s rotating lens also works to defend the lens by rotating to the up position then you can carry the camera in your pocket complete of keys, coins or whatever, and not be concerned about scratching the lens. We definately would recommend this camcorder to our pals.