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Best Camcorders Under $500 5

by Thomas Houston on September 8, 2008 at 06:01 AM


The Computer-Free Camcorder: Sony DVD 810

What Is It?

The Sony DVD 810 camcorder uses a range of formats for recording footage. You can record to the built-in hard drive, to removable SD cards, and also to mini-DVDs. You can also record to the hard-drive, and later you can pick your favorite clips to burn to DVD. The main advantage of DVD camcorders is that you can burn your footage directly from the camcorder, thus bypassing any editing or burning on your computer. Remove the DVD from your camcorder, place in your DVD or Blu-ray player, and you can immediately watch your footage on your home TV.

What We Like

Like we said, Sony's entry is heavy on options: You can record to the internal 8-gigabyte (GB) hard drive, to swappable SD flash memory cards, or to a mini DVD (about 30 minutes of video). We were able to move footage from the internal hard drive and SD card to our computers (PC and Mac) without any problem, and the mini-DVDs worked as expected on our compatible DVD players. The camcorder comes with a responsive touch screen, and the menu system is logically set up -- in other words, it's easy to navigate the menus to turn off beeping, replay your clips, or to adjust display brightness.


What We Don't

Overall, the DVD 810 has a sturdy enclosure, but we were disappointed with the flimsy build of the DVD door. Additionally, the mini DVD's can't be used on all DVD players, especially slot-loading ones such as those found on most newer Macs and Sony's own PlayStation 3, just to name a couple of examples. The 25x optical zoom isn't the largest we've seen, but it's more than adequate for most situations such as birthday parties, athletic events, and everyone's favorite home movie time, Christmas morning.


Last Word

The great thing about the Sony DVD 810 is that it offers a wide variety of recording options, and it's easy to get content from the camcorder to your TV, computer, or DVD player. Although it's a bit bulkier than some of the new camcorders on the market, the 810 is still far more mobile than your parents' old shoulder-mounted VHS-camcorder.

When it comes to mini DVDs, it's usually a love or hate relationship for most people. If you do have a Mac or you primarily use a slot-loading DVD player, we suggest looking at Mini-DV, SD, or hard-disk based camcorders. Otherwise, if you really like the idea of bypassing the computer and going straight to DVD, the Sony DVD 810 is just for you.


Price

$479.99


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