Review on 📹 Sony DCR-DVD308 1MP Handycam Camcorder with 25x Optical Zoom (Discontinued by Manufacturer) - Improved SEO by Robert Aiono

Sony DCR-DVD308 works great and looks well put together. It's lightweight, compact, comfortable, and well-designed overall. The operation is very simple, although it's so simple that it's very difficult to hold on to a long zoom, and the zoom is very fast and difficult to do unobtrusively - probably both what you get in this type of camera. This can be a great camera if you just want to see what you've filmed, conveniently right away on a DVD player in your living room. Not much if you want to edit it for something other than YouTube. The problem seems to be MPEG-2 specific compression for mini DVD storage (which is not unique to Sony). I shot a DVD and then tried to edit it which was a nightmare. I was able to find a converter that would allow me to edit in Adobe Premier Elements, but the result was crappy and otherwise rather inelegant. I've had much happier results with my old analog 8mm film camera and capture card. I've seen a few links to the basic editing software that comes with the box, but I couldn't find it on any of the CDs that came with the camera. The highly rated Sony Vegas packages weren't developed by Sony, and reviewers say they don't offer any proprietary editing benefits for these mini-DVDs. I finally found some obscure software that can edit in the camera's native format without conversion and might work better - for another $100. To me these are just moving shots, but when I edit a lot (and I really want to edit) I need decent results that I won't be ashamed to share or hate to look at myself. Reviewers (I'll read later) say that the quality of the miniDV format is better, although the tape is less convenient. So I dropped the tech, ordered an upgraded Sony DCR-HC62 miniDV, and if it's better, this one's on Craig's list.