The reason I chose this camcorder is that it's a hard drive and it's a lot cheaper than the high end DCR-SR60 product. The camcorder is small, stylish, easy to use, but poor picture quality. I did a little research before buying. Many online reviews of this camcorder mentioned poor picture quality, I just didn't think it would be that bad. I can say that my Canon digital camera shoots better video than this camcorder. I also found that this camcorder captures still images, but with very poor quality. My Logitach Quickcam takes better photos than they do. Actually I was disappointed with Sony, I can't believe they can produce camcorders with such poor video quality and sell them for over $500. For me, video quality is paramount when choosing a camcorder. Others cannot. If you can record low quality videos but pay more attention to other features, this camcorder might be your choice. But for me I came back the next day. I can buy the DCR-SR100 that sells for $300 more, I think there's a reason.