Customer Reviews

Sony DCRHC40 MiniDV Digital Handycam Camcorder w/10x Optical Zoom

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I needed a cam to make some movies of my new daughter. I wanted something compact so that I would never hesitate to carry it around. I also wanted to make sure it was easy to use and took great video indoors. This narrowed my choices down to the Sony PC-105, TRV22 and the Canon Optura 300 / Elura 50. Except for the TRV22, all were the vertical style which while small, were awkward to use (the Sony being the worst with its horrible zoom control). The Canon's also do not have the IR-illuminated night shot capability. So, I was all set to buy the TRV22 especially since it has outstanding low-light capability when I tried out the HC40. The HC's form factor is just so great, I couldn't pass it up. It to me seems as small as the PC105 but is the much more hold-able horizontal style everyone prefers.

So I bought both the TRV22 and HC40 and compared them at home. Yes, the TRV22 does shoot noticably better in low light conditions, but practically speaking the HC40 is good enough for me, and the form factor more than makes up for it. I'd give it 5 stars if 1) its low light ability was as good as the TRV22 and 2) if its auto focus responded a bit quicker.

I used to have a Canon Elura 2, but I despised its nightshot capability and the battery life was dismal. I discovered this camera searching several review sites and after seeing it in person, I was sold by its compact size.

This camera is very easy to operate and the quality of footage taken with it is phenomenal. There aren't a lot of buttons on this camera, as most of the configuration settings are accessed through the screen-based menu system. I've read a lot of people find the menu system annoying, however I find that it's laid out quite nicely. Once you pick a setting, the camera will shut down other options that aren't applicable given the settings you've selected.

I'm very happy with the nightshot mode. If you've ever watched Survivor, the night shots shots taken with this camera look like.

The zoom control on the camera took some getting used to and I've found that using your right hand middle finger to control it works quite well. You'll also want to adjust the hand strap to firmly hold your hand to the camera.

I have not used the software that comes with this camera and that seems to be where a lot of the whining comes from on CNet. If you're going to get a DV camera and you plan to edit the footage, invest in some decent video editing software (or buy an iMac).

I bought DCRHC40 because of the compact size and because it was a SONY product. But, I hate to say that the whole HC series of camcorders come with a motor noise when you put a tape in it, which gets recorded on tape also. You can hear the noise even when the unit is in standby mode. The noise goes away when you switch to Memory Stick mode. If you don't have too much noise around you when recording, you will clearly hear the motor noise on playback.
I sent mine to Sony Service Center for repair, thinking it was only my unit that had the problem. But, the Sony technician told me that he tested out some other units and all of them have the motor noise. He said he even checked the DCRHC20 and DCRHC30 and they too have the motor noise. They sent it back to me saying "No Fault Found".
I also went to the local store with my miniDV tape and checked out DCRHC40 and DCRHC65 (which is a larger model), and they too have motor noise. I called Sony Customer Support and even after talking to 5 different people and 2 weeks of arguing with them, they did not refund my money. They said they could not do anything about it because it "meets factory specifications". I asked them to tell me how much motor noise in decibels (dB) was in your specs. They had no answer for that, I told them that "specifications" means that you should have "specifics" on how much noise is allowed. Sony Customer Care was just using "meets factory specifications" when there are no specifications on the acceptable noise level at all.

I did not expect this from a Sony product and Sony customer care.

Please consider this motor noise issue before you buy any of the DCRHC series of SONY camcorders.

After looking at/researching cameras for a few months, I decided on this one. Here is what I was looking for (and what I got) in this camera.

1. Small. I wanted to be able to carry it in my pocket for easy access. This is not much bigger than my digital camera. It's freakishly small.

2. MiniDV. This appears to be the dominant home camera format, and I didn't want to be stuck w/ a format that would be out of date in a year.

3. Easily transferrable to my laptop and/or DVD recorder. No problems here. Very, very simple to transfer video.

4. Video quality. I wasn't comfortable paying a bit less for lower video quality. I'm glad I chose to pay a bit more. I'm very pleased w/ the quality. No washed out colors in my experience (as indicated in some other reviews). Very crisp and clear.

5. Low Light Capability. A number of cameras in the under-a-thousand price range have trouble w/ low light. This one does a very solid job.

A Couple of Caveats:

1. I've had a bit of trouble with wind noise. Granted, I live in Oklahoma where there are perpetual 459 mph winds, but I am surprised at this. It's not a deal-breaker, but it's mildly annoying.

2. Buying this through online services offering ridiculously cheap prices is annoying at best and dangerous at worst. I tried, no kidding, 6 different stores trying to 'get a good deal.' They all had something wrong--either it was a gray market product, or it didn't come with a battery, or it was going to take a month to get it. My strong suggestion is that you pay a bit more and buy this from someone you can trust.

3. You may want to consider buying a spare battery. You're looking at somewhere in the hour and a half range for the battery, but if you're filming your daughter's 83 hour long dance recital, or if you don't have electrical access to recharge it, the extra battery is a good investment.

BOTTOM LINE: If you're looking for a solid videotape-the-kids-at-the-beach-or-playing-t-ball camera that you can use indoors and outdoors, this is a wonderfully small, convenient, and fairly reasonably priced option.

I bought this camera at a retail store the day before a trip to New Orleans. My original intent was to purchase a camera but I noticed that the DV recorder was only a little more and felt adventurous. Of course, I paid a hefty price but I wasn't able to go through amazon because it was the day before my trip. That being said, I was afraid that I had been suckered into buying something of lesser quality. Being a photographer and used to high definiton cameras I thought that the DV camcorder would be a great step down.. I hadn't really even investigated camcorders for at least 5 years. Now that I'm back from the trip having shot both indoor and outdoor scenes, and watched the results on my widescreen tv I can say that I was very pleased. The camera is very very easy to use (as are most SONY products) and the quality is superb. I'm not sure what the other reviewer is complaining about. Color and contrast are great. Low light scenes will be difficult regardless of the tool you use.. the camera can't make light where there is none.. the nightvision mode helps but takes away some color.. but overall a great camera.

If you're looking for a tiny miniDV camcorder, especially if you want to do widescreen 16:9 recording now or in the future, this is the model.

The HC40 is about 32 cubic inches, and very lightweight.

It can fit in a small-medium size camera bag, or in a large pocket. Much easier to take with you than larger camcorders.

If you don't care about size, there are some discontinued models you might find for much less, like Panasonic DV-53, or the Sony TRV22 or 19.

Unlike the HC20 or HC30, this model provides a high quality widescreen mode, with little or no loss of data when using widescreen. Instead of just putting black bars on the top and bottom of the screen, you actually record a wider area when in widescreen mode, and the image is stretched to fit normally on the tape, filling the screen with a distorted stretched image. You can then use your TV setting to compress the image to widescreen 16:9.
I've tried it, and don't notice any loss in quality compared to 4:3 mode. (To evaluate, I also looked at the stretched image compared to 4:3, to make a more fair comparison. It's hard to make a true comparison.)

Doing direct A/B comparisons on an HDTV, the image seems a little better than the Sony TRV19 (19 is similar model to the 22) in medium indoor light, but much worse in low light.
However, the motor noise is much quieter than on the TRV19.

If you want to do low light recording, less than 100 watts incandescent in small area, you might want to get a camcorder with a larger sensor. This sensor is only 1/5 inch.

The menus are customizable, which is very convenient. You can make your own menus for each camera mode.

The lens cover switch is a nice touch--no lens cap.

The battery is small, but still has about the same capacity as last year's larger one.

The LCD display has a new feature which makes use of external light. It is much more visible in bright sunlight, and you can turn the backlight off, saving the battery.

An s-video/composite/audio cable is included. One end is a small plug similar in size to iLink, and the other end of the cable has audio&video plugs.

Unfortunately the viewfinder does not tilt upwards like other models. And, you can't slide it out halfway to make extreme diopter adjustments; you can only turn a dial to make the normal adjustment. I can't use the viewfinder without my eyeglasses, because I have a strong prescription.

The photos are terrible; I wish camcorders would eliminate this feature, and focus on better video.

The strap is nice, but cannot be removed. Makes fitting in a small bag more difficult.

Sony camcorders are reputed to have great automatic point-and-shoot capability, including this model. When steadyshot is on indoors, the camera tries to set shutter speed at 1/100 to reduce blur. But if there isn't enough light, it will step down to 1/60. Gain is only applied after the aperture has opened completely and the shutter has reached 1/60. When using a tripod, you can shut off steadyshot, and the camera will automatically use 1/60 shutter, to allow a smaller aperture for better focus, or in low light, less gain for a better picture. These adjustments are made very quickly, and very intelligently. You can display the settings the camera chooses on screen while recording or in playback.

Wonderful camcorder, glad I got it!

I just bought this camera, at first I was a little scheptical, cause I read on some reviews that it was kind of dificult to transfer the movie to your pc and then to record it on a DVD.
I bought it anyway, the camera is small, easy to use and has very nice features. Some people also said the image was washed out, I've had two minidv camcorders prior to this one, a sony and a canon, and I can tell the image, colors and brightness are the same quality as the others I've had.
Transfering video and audio to my pc was very easy, I used a firewire cable and a popular program to capture it and then to burn it on a DVD, very simple. Photos taken with this camera are not bad at all, (of course you cannot compare with photos taken with a megapixel digital still camera).
I gave it four stars just because I haven't used all the features on the camera, but I can surely recommend this camera for anyone who wants an easy to use and very high quality video camera.

I evaluated a number of camcorders PC105, DRV38 and DRV22 when I came acroos the HC40 at the store. I fell in love with the look, the feel, and the great small size. It is not a vertical design, and it fits very nicely in your hand. I purchased it and brought it home.

The first thing my wife and I noticed when we powered it up was how washed out the screen looked. The salesperson said it would look that way on the screen but that the colors would look perfect after downloading the video to my computer. That was not the case - it was just as washed out on my computer. In fact, the video looked worse than the 30sec clips I can take with my Canon S230 digital camera. I went back to the store and returned the camcorder.

I was still intrigued and wondered if I had just gotten a lemon. So I went to a different store, where the saleperson said a number of customers had mentioned how washed out the screens look (especially reds & yellows - flesh tones look out of wack). I asked him to arrange the HC40 and the TRV33 side by side since I discovered that the TRV33 was also small, but not as small as the HC40 - we were astonished (along with other customers watching our impromptu demo) at how poor the HC40 screen looked. The TRV33 blew away the HC40 and it wasn't close by any means. It had much richer colors and captured the colors much more accurately than the HC40.

If you're seriously considering this camcorder, I highly suggest that you put it side-by-side with another Sony not in the HC series and see what you think of the image - I, along with everyone at the store who watched our demo, obviously give this camcorder very, very poor marks for the image.

I gave this camcorder 2 stars b/c the rest of the camcorder seems great - great asthetics, strong ergonomics, nice features like a built-in lens cap - but the poor image defeats to purpose of all the great features especially at this price.

I love the new design of the HC40. The way it feels in my hand and the fact that it will fit in my pant pocket is a define advantage. The backlight on/off switch is useful when recording outside on sunny days. The record button on the side of the display is also an added advantage over the TRV33.

My only complaint about the HC40 is that the eyepiece does not tilt up like the TRV33.

My favorite feature that's not usually mentioned in reviews about the HC40 & TRV33 is that you can use your camcorder to transfer old vhs tapes from the VCR to mini DV, or from VCR to camcorder to PC via firewire cable. I recommend Pinnacle Studio 9 to edit & capture video.

I would highly recommend this camcorder to anyone searching for a new camcorder. If you have a higher budget I would still suggest getting this camcorder & spending the extra money on accessories.

I was debating if I should sell my TRV33 and get the new Sony HC40, but opted not to only because I had received a lot of accessories I had for my TRV33 as a gift. I already have 3 batteries & battery charger, 2X zoom lens, 256 mb Memory Stick Pro, infrared light extender, light & flash. The only two accessories that are compatible with the HC40 are the infrared light extender and light & flash. The next accessory I'm looking to get for my TRV33 which is also compatible with the HC40 is a marine pack (SPK-HC) so I can bring my camcorder underwater.

MY beloved TRV 22 was stolen recently. Having only owned and really enjoyed it for 3 months I was aghast to find it was discontinued when my insurance company sought quotes. With a new baby I had been using the camera a lot.

Seeing the early comments about CCD size and potential low light performance on the web, I was really nervous about picking up the DCRHC 30 - the deemed replacement for my TRV 22.

Anyway, I just got my new WHITE (this was a surprise but it does match my Sony Ericcsson T630 phone - maybe I'd better buy a MAC (not)) DCRHC40 (I paid extra for the 1 Megapixel - better a half useable crappy still than a completely unusable 640 x 480 still) and the verdict is ..... it is an object of great joy. Believe me.

The form factor is just fantastic. And while I am no video expert I cannot see the differance between the TVR22 and the DCRHC40 in low light. By low light I mean shooting around the house at night under low incandescant lighting - as low as I care about.

There are are a number of small touches and features that place it well ahead of the TRV22. Just take one look at the LCD and you will know what I mean. You can see it outdoors in sunlight!!!

The lens cap!!

The sound is better!

I am really happy.