Panasonic PVDV102 MiniDV Multicam Digital Camcorder w/ 2.5" Color LCD and SD Drive

Rating:
Summary: Great Camera, Still Pics and Software Awful
Review: The camera itself gives you crystal clear movies, they transfer perfectly to VCR with great video and sound quality. Image transfer to PC via FireWire (cable and card not included) is also outstanding. Only problem is that I had to get seperate software (Adobe Premiere which is expensive) because the included software was, without excaggeration, one of the worst applications I've ever worked with weather multimedia or otherwise. It appeared to be written by someone with very basic programming ability! I emphasize this fact for those of you looking to do PC stuff with it. The still pics from the [optional] memory card are average but OK for Ebay and emailing pics. Overall: great for price range. I'm happy with it.

Rating:
Summary: Great Camcorder
Review: This is an excellent camcorder. I have had mine for a about a year and I have had no problems at all with it. The buttons on top are a little small for large hands but if you buy the optional remote control then you don't have to worry with them. I create digital movies on my computer using the USB cable that was provided. The special effects built into this camcorder work excellent. I have recommended this camcorder to all of my friends.

Rating:
Summary: Great for the price
Review: This is my first Camcoder, the other choice I considered was JVC-DV120, I liked JVC's 16x optical zoom, but its construction looked cheesy and it's much bulkier. The DV102 looks much better and has some nice features I like: zoom-mic and build-in light. It's a real good deal.
Camera is pretty easy to use and takes good picture, the image stablization does a good job, I took a lot of video by holding it without a tripod, sometimes I need to walk around, and the image wasn't very jerky. The sound quality is very good, no background noise at all.
In low light the image is a little bit grainy, but still very acceptable.
I'm not worried about the SD card, though I do have a spare one from my digital camera, I rarely use it, the still picture quality is too low to justify the price of a card. If Panasonic removed the SD drive and offered it with a remote, I'd have given it 5 stars. The other thing I missed is it doesn't have S-video output.
The Camcoder offers some manual feature such as iris lock, backlight and program AE, which are essential to cope with certain light conditions.
The camera's control buttons are a little hard to reach for me by just using one hand, my hand is relatively small, so make sure it's good for your hand.

Overall I feel it's perfect for begainers on a budget.
Btw, the software is virtually usesless.

Rating:
Summary: small but powerfull
Review: This mini-dv camera does all that i expected and more.Take still photos from the recorded tape then download to pc and enhance them then send them in e-mail WOW what more could u want?
Take all the still photos u want (use a 32mb scan disk memory card and u get 440 stills .......need more?64 megs gives u 880 pics.the pics are awesome and the camcorder is easy to use