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Sony DCR-HC53E Mini DV HandycamSnagging.org In association with Amazon.co.ukOnline Shop | Property Guides | Kitchen & Home | Garden Tools | Power Tools | Consumer Electronics Get the Snagging Checklist Here!  
Price: £255.95 Prices subject to change.Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Brand: Sony EAN: 4905524482843 Label: Sony Manufacturer: Sony Model: DCRHC53E.CEH MPN: DCRHC53E.CEH Publisher: Sony Release Date: June 24, 2008 Studio: Sony Accessories:
Average Rating:
 Rating:  - I can't understandI can't understand how this camera got so many good reviews. I found it unwieldy, very user unfriendly and the quality of the pictures was not as good as my little (now unfortunately broken) Traveler from Aldi. I also cannot understand why Sony didn't include at least one tape with the camera, you have to go out and spend another £11 or so before you can find out how poor the camera is. I will be very careful about relying on customer reviews in future. Fortunately Amazon have a brilliant returns policy. Rating: - Fantastic little gadgetAmazed, this DV camcorder is amazing for the price! 40X optical zoom, Carl Zeis optics, what more could you want for £119? I recommend as a best buy for people on budget, if you want a slightly more powerfull and higherspec camcorder there are plenty out there. The quality is amazing, Nice solid feel and the screen is large enough for most people. The only issue is that they could of made the film quality a bit better, but 800K pixels is good enough for me. Hope this helped! Rating: - Missing USB cableI am missing the sony USB cable. The USB cable provided with the camera does not work with my laptop. Even when i install the sony CD... Rating:  - Amazing camera for the priceWow, is all i can say! I made the choice to slice my budget and order a small mini-DV camera as opposed to the £460 high definition one i had in mind. I was skeptical, assuming mini-DV equaled inferior quality. Well, i was proved wrong! Unless you're an HD fanatic and have a giant 50" HD LCD television, this camera is great. I was really surprised by the picture quality when i transferred the video over via firewire to my macbook. Yeah, it's not HD quality but it's damn well close. Obviously the quality falters in poorly lit conditions, but so does every other camera. It has lots of settings to help you get the perfect image you want. If you're looking for an affordable, easy to use and great quality camera and are not concerned about buying tapes and other things then BUY this. I got the camera, a pack of tapes, a tripod and firewire cable for £!54 :) Rating: - Great camcorder for the price - it's only an 800k pixel budget model thoughI like this little Camcorder - I had and loved the near identical Sony DCR HC22E miniDV camcorder that has just gone kaput [the LCD screen failed although the camera still records/plays]. The HC22E came with a next to useless USB2 'docking module', whereas this HC53E has the AV/USB2/iLink Fire-Wire PC connections on the body [which I much prefer]. However I always use the AV or iLink output with our Panasonic TV DVD recorder, rather than a PC, as picture quality is better. The camera comes an NP FH30 battery, a mains adapter 'brick', a USB2 cable and an AV [3-phono] cable, so if you want to use iLink [mini Firewire] you need to buy that cable separately. There's also a CD of PC software and the paper/pdf manual. Strangely there's no remote control option though, which I do really miss. Plus this HC53E looks a bit naff in black compared to the older cams classy grey/silver, not helped by a bulbous tacky plastic 'hand grip' on the right side. I much prefer miniDV tape camcorders like this to hard drive/miniDVD models, as you can pack 15 hours into the suitcase (15 tapes), battery life for the supplied NP-FH30 is about 80 minutes [you need three batteries really to cover a day's intensive shooting], and tape recording has always been very reliable [compared to DVD]. You can recharge batteries in the camera, but I bought a £15 generic mains/12v car charger combo, so that I can recharge one battery while filming with another - recharging in about one hour. Very very annoyingly my old [identical looking] 7.2v Sony NP-FP30 batteries don't fit the camcorder though, thanks to a few mm more plastic on the base lugs and Sony's new info-lithium chip. This camcorder shoots very well even down to low light, and there's the B&W NightShot Plus mode that can film [somewhat video noisily] in absolute darkness. Video colour is a bit washed out, particularly indoors [I tend to run in `easy' auto mode], but image sharpness is good and it's noticeably better than old hi-8 analogue tape. Autofocus is OK, except in poor light and high zoom, plus there's a few menu options for things like white balance & focus, and there are buttons for battery level, NightShot, zoom and backlight compensation. However the newer and more expensive HC62E miniDV has 20% higher resolution over this model and it's better for widescreen and stills capture, plus it has a small remote - so check that out if it's important to you. As our kids have just left primary school behind, with all its associated video opportunities, and all our old MiniDV tapes are recorded at this lower resolution anyway, I'm not so fussed. In fact I bought this model over better models simply because it was likely to play all my old MiniDV tapes also recorded at 0.8 mega-pixels [the HC53E's resolution] - and it was also cheap. This camcorder offers 40x zoom compared to the 62E's 20x, although you can't go above 20x without using a tripod or leaning on a wall. This HC53E camcorder is easy use and the small batteries last for over an hour, although its tubby shape isn't as cumfy a grip as thinner models. I bought one `genuine' Sony NP-FH50 spare battery (Sony has nobbled the camera so that cheaper generic ones can't work without a patch cable, which loses the almost essential info-lithium battery 'hours/charge left' on-screen graphical info). I wouldn't go for the larger battery sizes though as they stick out a long way from the camera rear, spoiling the camera's smooth lines and make handling uncomfortable. Also get a Psion 5mx stylus or similar (they are still about at £10 for three) as using your fingers on the touch LCD screen really messes it up and it's very difficult to clean off - whereas a PDA stylus eliminates that completely and doesn't scratch [you can buy screen protectors as well]. The picture quality via AV/out is as pretty much as good as a standard TV picture at around 500 lines to PALs 625 (and is 20% better than analogue hi-8). The little MiniDV tapes take up much less storage space - plus they search better that Hi8 tapes [particularly with a nice little remote, shame there isn't one]. But more importantly the camera itself is miniscule compared to old Hi8 camera's, fitting into the hand for easy handling, but still with all the features [colour LCD playback, sound etc..]. That said this HC53Es image quality naturally lags well behind new & expensive HiDef camcorders and even the comparably priced 1 mega-pixel Canon 235 and Canon 160 MiniDV models. However I avoided these decent Canon video cameras as often MiniDV tape recorded on one model won't replay correctly on another manufacturer's camcorder, and I have that Sony archive of tapes. I use cheap Sony Premium miniDV tapes that work perfectly with this HC53E Sony camcorder, with never a drop-out. So overall the HC53E is highly recommended if going cheap [I paid £110]. This HC53E model also offers a USB2 PC link [as well as standard AV and Firewire] and this is the main 'extra' over the similar Sony HC51E base model.  Try searching the Internet for "Sony DCR-HC53E Mini DV Handycam" or Ebay for "Sony DCR-HC53E Mini DV Handycam". You might also be interested in the following great products:
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