Sony DCR-HC37 Handycam Mini DV Camcorder With 2.5'' LCD Screen

I was very impressed with the delivery from Amazon having ordered this item; it arrived the following day! This is the first time i have purchased an 'electrical' item from Amazon, so i'm well impressed. I bought the Sony DCR-HC37 Handycam to replace an old analogue samsung 8mm camcorder that finally died on me after owning it for 8 years. I'm one of these people who hate going through the instructions first (impatience i know) but found that the handycam HC37 was so easy to use, i didn't need to view the instructions first. Basically, get the camcorder home or have it delivered next day by Amazon and charge the battery (all necessary units included in the box, except DV tapes). I also purchased the DV tapes so i was all ready to go as soon as the thing charged, this took about 45 minutes if my memory serves me right. switch on, open the viewfinder, press EASY button and press REC to start filming. I took the camcorder off to the park with the dog in tow and filmed around five minutes. Got home stuck the cables into the tv (audio, video jack etc) and into the camcorder and hey presto, there was my filming on the TV!!!! I'm writing the review before i've tested it loading onto the computer so i can't give 100% review.If you basically want a very easy to use 'point and shoot' camcorder, then this is the one for you, particularly if you hate all the added features that can sometimes come with a camcorder and you never use!!!!Go ahead and buy one, I don't think you'll be disappointed and at this price it's a great one to buy dad for Father's day; if like my dad, gadgets are all too much. This one will be a sinch!

It has been many years since we bought our previous and only camcorder, a JVC S-VHS device which got little use, and today looks frankly embarassing! So when looking around for a replacement I had no idea which "flavour" to go for DV/DVD/HD etc but after reading a few forums, I ended up deciding to go for the tried and tested DV format - I have to say first impressions are great....easy to set up and connected with my mac and imovie first time, having read other reviews I made sure before buying, that I already had the right firewire cable, as you only get the AV variety in the box.The colour and sharpness of the image is impressive for such a "low end" model and all in all, for £150, I think it would be difficult to find a better camera!

It seems a nice camera. I bought it so my wife could take and edit family film. It wont work with a MAC. It might work with Windows if I also bought a firewire cable and a firewire card for the windows machine ( and a new windows machine because there is no room for another card ). So good basic inexpensive camcorder for short tapes to be shown on your television without editing.

very small and neat and very easy to use

The camera as bought comes with an NP-FH30 battery which is only 530mAh capacity . This battery is not available to purchase as an accessory since it will only last for about two thirds of a tape if you like to use the zoom lens . The available batteries are the NP-FH50 (900mAh) , NP-FH70 (1800mAh) and the NP-FH100 (3980mAh). These batteries are ridiculously expensive as Sony have had to use special circuitry to prevent non-Sony batteries being used . Sony have just recently made their AC adaptors and batteries even more sophisticated so the camcorder will not charge non-Sony batteries and even worse since these non-Sony batteries use a cord to plug into the AC adaptor socket, the batteries will not even operate the latest Sony camcorders . If you are lucky enough to have the slightly older version of this camera, it will work OK with non-Sony batteries . I do not know the date of the AC adaptor modifications , so please be careful when making a Sony Camcorder purchase . This now means that you are forced to buy a Sony battery at a cost of between half the cost of the camera and about three-quarters the cost of the camera . I find this incredible that a company like Sony can prevent freedom of choice in simple things like batteries . I suspect that the camera is a loss-leader and that the company make the real profit on the batteries . I realise that this camera is a great item , but if we had realised that we couldn't use a cheaper battery , we would not have bought Sony . I for one will never again buy a battery-powered Sony item unless the batteries are readily available to me at a sensible price .If only we had gone for a camcorder that used the rechargeable AA batteries ....... still you have now been forewarned and can make your own decision on this camcorder model plus all the other Sony models.

very pleased with service provided by seller. product was good

Excellent

great