Customer Reviews

Sony DCR-DVD105 DVD Handycam Camcorder with 20x Optical Zoom

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

This camcorder does capture good shots. But the main drawback is that it records to DVD. Initially its nice and easy to capture video and watch it on DVD instantly. It gives you instant gratification. But after capturing 4 or 5 hours of video, you will notice that your videos aren't so great as you expect it to be. Its not the fault with your camcorder. Its because all of us shoot extra footage, unwanted scenes, shakes, etc which we want to edit. You may want to add a title or two, add transitions, add backgroud music, combine your photos with the video, etc. Basically you may want to edit your footage. Its here when you find the major drawback of this camcorder. The DVD that you used to capture is non-editable. Therefore you need to download it to your computer and use a program like Pinnacle 9.0 to edit it. But the original picture quality is so bad that you won't have sufficient bandwidth to edit the video. As you know, DVD videos are compressed in MPEG2 format. This is a lossy compression that is good enough to watch the video on TV but not good enough to edit. When you edit these videos, add some transitions or special effects, increase/decrease brigthness or noise, etc, the newly edited video loses further clarity and thus makes your video look ugly and pixelated.

In summary please don't buy this camcorder if you are serious about your videos and would like to edit them. But if you are not bothered about editing and want to watch your "RAW" unedited footage forever, then go for it.

That said, if you still think you want to go for this camcorder, please read the review on its other features:
1. Super NightShot Infrared System: Not a useful feature. Its amazining to initially see how this camcorder is able to "see" using infrared light. But the moment you shoot your wife or kid using infrared light, you never want to shoot again as they will appear like devils when shot using this infrared light. Remember infrared footage appears in black-and-white and not color. And the subject's eyes really look like devil.

2. 2.7-inch wide SwivelScreen LCD display with touch panel capabilities: Good feature if you always want to shoot in widescreen. In fact I would suggest you to shoot in widescreen only as all future TVs and current LCD/Plasma TVs are widescreen. You can future proof your video by shooting widescreen

3. Digital still photos: Please don't rely on this feature. The best photos from this camcorder as as good as the worst photos from any popular digital camera. Technology has still not matured to the point where a camcorder can shoot as good as a digital camera and vice versa.

4. 20x optical/120x digital zoom: Optical zoom is very good. You can handle upto 10X optical zoom without a tripod. Any more zoom requires the use of a tripod. I was able to zoom in and read a car tag from the top of Sears tower, Chicago. I love the zoom feature in this camcorder. Don't use the digital zoom feature. Turn it off. As mentioned above, MPEG2 compression already makes the video bad in quality. The digital zoom further makes it worst.

5. Progressive shutter system: Sony tries to mislead you into thinking that the camcorder is progressive. Not its not. Video is still interlaced only. Only digital photos are progressive which obviously they must be. Its no big deal. Forget about this feature.

6. Professional-quality Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* lens: Yes its good. The image quality is truly great till it gets compressed into MPEG2 format for storing onto DVD.

7. Super SteadyShot picture stabilization system: Good enough to avoid small vibrations caused when going on a ship for example. But not good enough for the shakes encountered when walking with the camcorder. Don't expect to get great footage in such conditions. For great footage, you must still rely on a steady hand or a tripod.

8. Dolby Digital 5.1-channel recording: Not a big deal. If you have a 5.1 home theatre, you may get some good results. But if you are watching your video on ordinary TV, you will actually lose some audio as your DVD player downsizes the 5.1 audio into 2 channel audio. All professional Hollywood DVDs actually have at least two seperate audio information. One for 5.1 systems and one for ordinary stereo. The DVD produced by this camcorder has only one track for 5.1. So if you watch on an ordinary Tv, you may lose some audio information. I would suggest not to rely on this feature and instead shoot in stereo only as its more than enough for everyday regular home videos.

9. On-screen zoom and record buttons: Not an useful feature. The camcorder tends to shake more when you use these zoom buttons on the LCD because the LCD is always projecting outside when shooting video. Hence you shake the camcorder more when you touch the LCD than when you touch the camcorder's body.

10. USB 2.0 interface: NOt a useful feature. Its easier to remove the DVD and place it on your DVD ROM drive on your computer, than to connect the camcorder using USB cables. The USB interface is useful if you want to burn DVDs using the camcorder's DVD burning feature. But remember, this camcorder can burn only miniature sized DVDs and not the regular DVDs. Moreover its cheaper and more convenient to use the computer's internal DVD writer or external DVD writer than to use this camcorder as a DVD burner. You don't want to decrease the life of the camcorder's DVD writer as the camcorder is far expensive than an ordinary DVD burner.

11. One-touch wide-angle shooting: Useless feature. You tend to always shoot in wideangle or letterbox. Who would want to switch constantly between these modes? Also as suggested earlier, better to shoot in wideangle only and future proof your videos.

12. Picture Package software: Very useless software. The free Picasa software from Google is far better in organizning your videos and pictures than the software that comes with this camera. Forget about this software.

13. DVD-R/RW and +RW Compatible: The camcorder is somewhat slow and non-responsive when you use DVDRW. This may be because DVDRW always have slower burn speeds compared to DVDR. So this is not a very useful feature unless you are planning to shoot still photos only. The slow speed problem occurs when shooting video only.

14. Active interface shoe: You can use this to connect external flash or mic. Not a very useful feature as any external device spoils the compactness of this camera.

15. InfoLithium battery with AccuPower meter system: Great battery life. I could shoot for upto 1 hour 20 minutes with one battery. Remember we always don't shoot continously in everyday life. We turn the camcorder on and off repeatedly when shooting. This battery last for 1 hour 20 minutes during normal shooting as explained above. If you shoot continously you may get longer battery life.

Overall summary. Buy this camcorder only if you are not serious about editing the videos. Its a good buy for point-and-shoot-and-view viewing pleasure.

This camera is a lot of fun to use, it has Great quality (low-end professional), lots of features (widescreen mode, black & white, faders etc), it was very easy to use especially with the touchscreen lcd. I did find one big issue with the functioning of this camera, when you play back the video you can actually hear the sound of the dvd spinning in the camera, pretty hard to overlook or try to tune out.

Then, after hours of toying around with this camera I became extremely disappointed. Editing with this camera is virtually impossible. The software that it comes with (nero 6) only allows you to burn the small dvd onto a regular dvd. In order to attempt to edit I had to burn the small dvd onto a cd as data, then I had to open the cd folder and drag the contents to the desktop, then I had to download a converter to change the formats from vob to mpeg and then the converted file wouldn't even drag onto the desktop. After hours of all the complicated nonsense I have decided to return this camera and purchase the Sony DCR-HC46 mini dv camcorder. This one has the same if not better quality as the dvd105, but will be better for editing, then if I ever want the film on dvd i can just burn it onto a regular sized dvd since i'll actually be able to get the videos on the computer with this one.

But of course if you are a point > shoot > play sort of person this camera will be great for you.

I have to say that I've been tremendously impressed with the reviews of (especially) this product after owning it for a brief period just to check the Sony DCR-DVD105 Handycam myself: it's a great "first" camcorder for the novices -- especially if you're not looking for crystal clear high quality images -- but that's saying about all you can. The features -- the 20x Optical Zoom, onscreen programming, etc. -- are all terrific, and, at a glance with a reasonably informed sales associate -- you might think you're getting a camera that'll make you the next Steven Spielberg, but, truth be told, you won't even end up as a Russ Myer (sp?). The images are less than one megapixel, and they're strained and grainy. While the photos burned to the MiniDVD are Windows compatible, the video isn't, and I had tremendous difficult getting the Nero software to keep my Windows XP from crashing (according to Nero, this was due to other software I had installed but not running on Windows). The camcorder has no ability to interface with a computer, so viewing your video footage is only possible through one burned movie OR hooking a DVD player up to your TV card via computer in order to capture the video a second time, at which point you can do some modest editing.

Don't get me wrong: the 105 is a great camera for beginnings OR for folks who are looking to get their feet wet through experimenting and planning to upgrade at some point in the near future. Sony makes some great products, and, after a week of trial use, I immediately went out and exchanged the 105 on the vastly superior DCR-DVD405, which is a truly awesome camera. I just felt it highly relevant to post a quick review here stating that most of the folks who've contributed to these Amazon reviews TRULY are helpful and know what they're talking about, especially from a consumer perspective. Had I spent more time researching my initial decision here, I probably would've went for the Sony 405 right away, but, dollars to doughnuts, the 105 is a nice first camera.

We purchased Sony DCR DVD105 in preparation for our first born. The camcorder had all the features that we wanted and was very affordable. Overall this camcorder offered great value, and we have great videos of our new born. However, if you want your video files to be transferred to a computer for editing or to post it on the Internet, forget about it! This camcorder does not come with USB port to connect directly to your computer. Plus Sony does not provide any software to transfer your video files from the finalized DVD. If you are looking to do some video editing, you might want to consider higher model. Otherwise you will be spending sometime searching for software that will convert the file for you.

I don't normally write reviews, but this camcorder is exceptional. I admit to being a novice, and I don't like to read directions, and my first result (an evening football game--high school) was amazing. My old (not that old) was a Canon Elura that used the small mini dv tapes, and I paid more than twice the cost of this one, and it was poor at best. This was easy, touch screen, and you can record in WIDESCREEN!! We finalized disc and popped it into the DVD player in Toyota Sienna Van and it looked great--and even better on the big screen at home. My only complaint is battery time, but I bought an extra, and that should suffice for my use. Overall, this was a great decision, and about $50-80 bucks less than Circuit City or Best Buy--and NO SALES TAX.

I just bought this camcorder and find it so easy to use and the best feature for me is the fact that you can view your videos on your dvd player so easily!! I am not interested in dowloading the videos on my computer or editing them as some other reviewers mentioned, so it's perfect for me. I just want to capture my kids in motion and am not looking to create a "perfect" movie of my kids. I strongly recommend this product to anyone looking for a great product which is very easy to use.

I originally bought this camcorder because I liked the idea of mini-DVD storage and I liked my old analog Sony camcorder. It is not the same Sony.

First of all, the camera is terrible at focusing on anything closer than 10' away...if the target is moving, forget about it. Second, you get a message on the screen if you dare use a non-Sony mini-DVD disk. Third, I bought a 'compatable' Energizer battery and it will not charge it. Why must Sony try and wring every nickel out of its customers?

My biggest beef is the way they try and disguise the fact that you CAN edit the image using non-Sony software, but it took me a couple of hours of surfing and another hour of experimentation to find out how. You can format the disk one of two ways, and you need to use VR formatting to get to the program. Do NOT finalize the disk first, or you will never be able to access it.

Sony then disguises the fact that one of the files in an mpeg by simply changing the extension...so change it back. Then you can bring it into any editor that has an mpeg codec. Hey Sony, am I giving away your trade secrets? Well, take me to court!!!

Hi. I purchased the Sony 105 after reading many reviews for it (and other camcorders.) I also handled some camcorders at BestBuy (NOTE: Amazon price is MUCH cheaper than BestBuy - and BestBuy won't match the price.) Being a newbie to the dvd camcorder and having a very low mechanical aptitude, I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to figure it out. I was very surprised at how easy the Sony is to use. Also, comparing it to the Canon version (a little cheaper than Sony), I found that the Sony feels more sturdy and secure. Only thing I don't like is the small rubbery cover on the camera that hides the little input for the charger cord (see, I'm technically challenged - I almost called it a doohicky) doesn't seem very sturdy and it might break off. Don't know for sure. That's why I gave it a 4, but really the rating should be 4 and 3/4. The price is right, the pictures are great, it's very very easy to use after the initial battery charge. My kids and I love it. We're having a great time with this camcorder!! For all you novices out there, it's much fun.

When I saw the recommendation at Consumer Report 1 year and 4 months ago, I was sure that buy this camera would be the right move. Such a mistake...

The final result of any film made is very disappointed: the colors came out too washed out.

However, the worst part happen recently. I was in my dream vacation in Hawaii last month (August) and the camera simply stop working, suddenly dead, no power, after only 1 year and 4 months of use. Even when I connect the device using the power cord. The DVD-R was trapped inside and I am not even able to take it out.

Best Buy Geek Squad confirmed my camera is really dead and tried to charge me US $ 100 just for shipping. Sony told me that, since is out of warranty (1 year), I need to pay US $ 200 + S/H in order to fix it.

And we are talking about a US $ 380 value camera here...

Bottom line is: do not buy this piece of junk!

This camcorder has the easiest instruction booklet to follow. My husband is very pleased with its size, clarity, ease of use, versatility and high quality pictures and movies. We are very pleased with this purchase.