Sony DCR-DVD610 DVD Handycam Camcorder with 40x Optical Zoom

by Sony

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 2.2 x 3.5 inches ; 15.8 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00123Q8YQ
• Item model number: DCR-DVD610
• Batteries: 1 Lithium ion batteries required. (included)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (76 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,216 in Camera & Photo (See Top 100 in Camera & Photo)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: April 18, 2005

Product Description

V4) SONY DCR-DVD610 DVD CAMCORDER

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

124 of 128 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellant camera for the price, February 26, 2008

By 

Bruce L. Borgesen - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sony DCR-DVD610 DVD Handycam Camcorder with 40x Optical Zoom (Electronics)

I bought the camera a few weeks ago for to use on a trip to Disney Land. The camera was delivered the day before the trip so there was not much time to learn how to use it.I breezed through it and was on my way. If you own a GPS and or a computer you should have no problems sorting things out. I put in a Sony disk, pushed the Easy button and during the trip took two hours of pictures that are excellant. There is a format for fireworks that I used at Epcot that came out just great. Pictures that I took inside I was very happy with and are much better then the old VHS. I would advise buying a larger battery as well as the small sony battery charger. The charger that comes with the camera is so you can charge the battery through the camera is a rather long piece of wire with a box. My luggage was opened twice for inspection and I believe that was the reason.The 40x telephoto is nice but if you push it to far you will not be able to hold the camera steady enough. At least I can't. The only complaint I have is the same as the first review. If you put in a disk that is not Sony, Disney does not sell Sony, it reminds you of that fact every time you open the camera. All in all for the money i would highly recomend it.

71 of 72 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing at the price., February 23, 2008

By 

StealthBadger - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sony DCR-DVD610 DVD Handycam Camcorder with 40x Optical Zoom (Electronics)

There is a brief learning curve for switching modes and such, and if you're not going to read the manual you should expect that things do not exactly turn out how you expect the first time you use it.

That being said, the optics are excellent, the digital zoom is excellent (though, as cautioned in the manual, at higher zoom levels you lose picture quality), and the camera itself is very solid. About the only complaint I have with it is that if the mini-DVD you're using is not Sony-branded, it has a little nag screen that last for a second, but disappears without any user interaction (you can probably get rid of that somehow, but I haven't bothered to find out).

You will want both a memory stick and DVDs for the camera. You will probably also want to buy a longer-lasting battery. Video at night is very possible, but if you're focusing on a distant object (such as the moon) you'll want to zoom out and back in if you've just adjusted your tripod, etc. - as the autofocus will sometimes judge the distance incorrectly, and lose focus.

Literally, those are the only bad things I can think of about this camera. :)

65 of 66 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hybrid technology makes this a cut above, May 24, 2008

By 

austin_Larry (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Sony DCR-DVD610 DVD Handycam Camcorder with 40x Optical Zoom (Electronics)

This is in effect a hard drive/ mini DVD recorder. Unlike many others the memory stick can record video. On some/most? other company's camcorders the SD card or what not can record only photos.

Without that cability it is still a fine camcorder. The touch screen is very easy to use and easy to learn, the video quality is very good, colors come out looking fine. But the video to memory stick is very nice. We have an 8gb memory stick. It gives roughly 2 hours of high quality video. Good enough for most situations where you are not on a multi-day vacation.

So you record video to the memory stick. Then connect to your computer via the USB port. A utility comes up with literally one touch copying to a DVD-R. DVD-Rs full size are very cheap. The memory stick works like an R-W disc. And 8gb for instance is much better than even a dual layer capacity. Works out to about 3 dual layer discs. So on most days you do not even need to buy DVDs. But on a vacation you have the flexibility of bringing as many discs as you want.

Finalizing discs does take sometime so it is nice to have 2 hours of capability without having to finalize. Recording straight to DVD we had no problem playing it back on a very old, at least 7 years DVD player.

I am giving it 4 stars because in the wide mode it seems to well widen people even when playing on an HD 16/9 set. Not sure if it is me or the camera but it is annoying.

Bottomline good camcorder with very easy to use and extremely useful hybrid recording.

Couple of updates after vacations. More pleased with the camera now. The video looked good with the exception of too much shake at high zooms. If you think you will be zooming a lot I would suggest one of those mini-tripods. Finalizing CDs took 2 minutes time after time. Not bad. Getting video from the memory stick onto full-sized CDs, not a problem.

Best of all because we were on a long-trip we went down from the highest video quality to standard to get more per tape. No noticable drop off on quality. Lastly on our 16:9 HD TV the width now comes out correctly. Colors were remarkably accurate, friends and family all commented positively on the quality.

As I mentioned though, the zoom does shake. So that brings me to my final advice. I bought this one over the 710 or 810 because of the higher optical zoom. But that is not as functional as I thought, at least without a tripod. The 710 and 810 have more pixels on the sensors and that should lead to better video quality. Something to think about. However very pleased with this little guy. Great results.