The only thing I would list as cons would be the fact that its a tad bit pricey (but you do get what you pay for). And the camera itself takes a bit of time to get familiar with.

But other than that, if you are looking for a high quality camera that has everything you could need, look no further!

This camera uses MPEG-2 format that Windows Movie Maker on my new Vista computer can’t read; I bought Sony Vegas Movie Studio thinking that would work but it won’t load on my computer.

Sony says it’s not their fault, it’s Microsoft’s fault if Visual C++ won’t load. Microsoft is no help.

Sony said they would help if I’d bought from directly from them, but because I bought from Amazon, I was on my own.

UPDATE: Found out from an online forum that the problem arose from Updates to Windows not being permitted by Windows Vista. Was told to alter msconfig file, allowing updates, enabling Visual C++ installation and Vegas installation.

Still not pleased with performance of Sony and Microsoft. Millions of their customers use their products to record and edit videos; how many of them are getting annoyed because these two companies don’t communicate?

Rather than wander around online forums looking for customer support, I’ll look for their more responsive competitors.

Apple Camcorders, anyone? It’s time for an iCam!

1. It’s a Sony! (Brand value).

2. Compact and light-weight.

3. Carl Zeiss lens.

4. hard disk memory, easy to transfer to computer.

5. I got the refurbished one from sonystyle.com for 300 bucks. Thats pretty cheap for a 40x zoom HDD camcorder from sony.

6. Motion picture quality is good.

Demerits:

1. Does not have a view finder.

2. The Still picture quality is not that great (As indicated by others too).

3. Does not have a neck strap (Or any provision for that).

4. You need the camcorder dock to charge as well as transfer movies into Computer.

5. The bundled video editor doe not have much functionality. Only you can cut a video, i could not find any option to merge several videos into one.

Overall i like this camcorder, i will buy some video editing software to work on the videos a bit.

The software that comes with the camera is easy to use and probably satisfactory for most users. But I use other software programs for both camcorder and still photos because they have more features.

It is true that the still photographs are only of snapshot quality. But they are much better than the photos taken with my Palm Zire (a PDA with a 1MB built in camera). Of course my PDA is sneakier – has a crude camcorder function – and is always with me.

Of course, for personal or family use, I would confidently recommend the Sony DCR-SR42. More good news: this is not the latest model and should be available at a bargain price.

The interlacing was AWFUL. If the camera moves slightly, the lines dominate the screen. Even in bright sunlight, it looked like a youtube video. A few months ago, my wife won a “FlipVideo” hard drive recorder that takes very simple video with no zoom, etc. Seriously, these videos were better than this Sony’s. This was the deciding factor in me taking this camera back. I am going to try another camera to see if it is just this one or all Hard Drive based recorders.