Review on Sony DCR-DVD108 DVD Handycam Camcorder - Discontinued by Manufacturer, 40x Optical Zoom by Deon Sweeney

The LCD screen on my 1 year old miniDV DCR-HC21 camcorder stopped working so I thought it was time to upgrade to a mini DVD camcorder which I have wanted for some time. The DVD108 is great and much more comfortable to use than a miniDV camcorder. I love that there's no more rewinding, fast-forwarding, or searching scenes on the tape. The DVD has nice thumbnails to make finding scenes easier. There's also a play button in record mode, so you don't have to toggle the disc between play and record. And it's nice to be able to skim scenes and then immediately start recording again without finding the end of the last scene. You cannot accidentally overwrite footage on a DVD. SP quality on miniDV tape looks slightly better than SP quality on miniDVD. So I switch to HQ recording, which only gives me 20 minutes of recording on a 1.4GB mini DVD, but they're cheap enough to buy a bunch. Now I bought another Sony because I read that the batteries are compatible with my old and new camcorder. This was important because I could use 3 other (very expensive) Sony Extended batteries from my old camcorder. A quick note on Sony, they're crazy about proprietary technology. In other words, their products often only work with their own branded accessories. I bought a different brand battery to go with my old camcorder and it turned on for a few seconds before telling me to use a Sony brand battery before turning off. Anyway, I'm trying to connect my "old" batteries to a new camcorder and they don't fit. However, the new battery fits and works on my old camcorder. Then I realize that Sony intentionally redesigned the new battery mounts to be backwards compatible with older products, but the old battery mounts didn't fit my new camcorder. So I have to buy new extended batteries for my new camcorder. I just can't believe Sony can entice consumers to buy more of their products. Well that's my only tirade about this camcorder, other than that it's fantastic. Basically I bought it because I burn all my miniDV tapes to DVD anyway and it saves me so much time.