Rating: 
Summary: expensive to drop
Review: love the camera, just don't drop it - expect to replace, not repair. costs the same.
Rating:
Summary: Good camcorder for the price
Review: My sharp camcorder is a little small to handle there is no place to hold it without having a problem using a fuction. Picture and sound are good. Camera is some what hard to keep steady when filming. I could't order a extra battery from Amazon.com they do not carry them when i did find one it was $80.00. that takes the edge off the good price. If i could i would send it back and buy another model of sharp camcorder.
Rating: 
Summary: Best mini-DV camcorder for the features and money
Review: My wife and I were having our first child. My father-in-law said I should have a digital camera and a video camera. I wanted a product that would combine the two (...). I didn't know much about them when I started my hunt. I was aimed at the Sharp product from the start because of its style, no viewfinder, a simple LCD screen acts as viewfinder and monitor, also I liked how the screen and camera can twist 270 degrees from each other. Here are some things I really liked: mini-DV format; 660,000 pixel CCD, this is very important for the image size; manual control of focusing, color, etc.; ability to shoot single images (9 or 16 in group) at 1/10 second separation for fast moving sports; digital image stabilization; ability to brighten forground objects against a bright background; ease of use if you read the instruction manual; and availability of Sharp developed software and cable for image transfer to the computer. A few tradeoffs: basic battery is short lived, longer life battery is available, and AC/DC adapter provided and charging is quick; slight motor hum/whine that is picked up by microphone when recording, not serious problem because the frequency is such that any voice or other sound will cover it up and if you do not think about it you will probably not hear it; and I could not find it in any store and had to purchase over the internet (this turned out very easy and great). Conclusion, buy this camcorder and the software, for the features and the money you cannot lose. P.S.: be careful not to compare pixels in camcorder to digital camera, a $150 digital camera, 1.3 mega pixel will beat a $700 camcorder, 0.7 mega pixel. An important question to ask is what resolution will the camcorder create images at for sending on the internet? An average I found was 640 x 480, about 0.3 mega pixel.
Rating: 
Summary: Sharp is dull
Review: Purchased this camcorder in September and have not been able to get the software or cable necessary to transfer images to the computer. Sharp says it's the only manufacturer with the necessary software/cables. Sharp now says the camcorder is outdated and the software/cable is on backorder for over 350 people! I will never buy anything from Sharp again.
Rating:
Summary: Best Digital Camcorder for the money!
Review: Right out of the box this camcorder takes no time to get it up and running. Excellent picture and features. Size and weight are just right, its large enough to be able to hold steadily and easily, but not too large and bulky as are some camcorders. I was impressed by the number of features for such an inexpensive camcorder. Picture quality is great! If you are looking for a camcorder anyone can use, and at a great price I would highly reccomend The Sharp VLSD20U!
Rating:
Summary: Camera goes everywhere...
Review: small enough to take everywhere.....it's been all over the world and through some tough climates and still works great! Large LCD for viewing eliminates the need for a view finder, which most people don't use with todays DV camera. Functions easy to access. Takes 37mm filters. Suggest purchase of two batteries so you can cut back on down time when shooting. Liked it so much....getting one for my son in the military!! Looking for underwater case...if available.
Rating:
Summary: Camera goes everywhere...
Review: small enough to take everywhere.....it's been all over the world and through some tough climates and still works great! Large LCD for viewing eliminates the need for a view finder, which most people don't use with todays DV camera. Functions easy to access. Takes 37mm filters. Suggest purchase of two batteries so you can cut back on down time when shooting. Liked it so much....getting one for my son in the military!! Looking for underwater case...if available.
Rating: 
Summary: Unique form means you'll use it more
Review: The Sharp VLSD20 offers one characteristic you won't find in too many rival products. You want to pick it up and use it more often, because its peculiar form encourages use. Sharp shaped it short and wide, like a window rather than a weapon. As you use it, you feel you're a less threatening and intrusive presence than most camcorder users. That catapults this product and a few other similar Sharps into a league of their own. People seem unusually eager to pick up the VLSD20 and play with it. It's approachable, a little toylike. It's also extraordinarily simple to use. Commonly-used controls mostly fall perfectly to hand, the record button and the zoom control neatly under your right thumb. (I remain astonished at the number of rival camcorders intent on hiding key controls.) The handgrips sit in the right place. My wife, a fine photographer but no tech-head, understood it straight away. And its size encourages you to throw it in a bag and take it out into the world, increasing your chances of actually filming video with it. Which is why you bought it in the first place. You cannot, of course, prop it against your head to steady it, the way you can with any eyepiece-equipped camcorder. What you can do is cradle it in your hand at hip level, your arm in an "L" shape and the screen tilted up. You'll find yourself in a shooting position at once less obtrusive and more stable than the traditional head-level camcorder stance. Or you can use a tripod - which, in the absence of highly sophisticated optical image stabilisation, keeps the subject steady in the frame better than any other method. And on a lightweight tripod, the little gizmo maintains that same remarkably unthreatening demeanour. Other pluses? The VLSD20's picture quality equals anything at this price point. Shown a Firewire port, it will pour digital video straight into your PC for editing. And construction puts to shame a couple of JVCs at a similar price point; the thing feels not unlike a Pentax SLR. Drawbacks are minor. The screen cannot be folded away, although ours has so far resisted damage. There's no mount for external microphone (you'll need a bulky bracket). The 10x optical zoom range trails several competitors. The snapshot button is too easily pushed, giving you an occasional five seconds of motionlessness. A one-touch manual focus would make life easier. As noted above, image stabilisation works just as poorly as on other comparable products. The remote controls playback, not recording. No product could make better use of a custom-designed carry-pack, but you'll have to buy one off the shelf. Several friends' camcorders went quickly to the back of the cupboard and have stayed there. The lesson: the best product is the one you'll use. On that principle, the VLSD20 and its Sharp cousins take some beating. This device is unlikely to get shut away.
Rating: 
Summary: Beware the Surprises
Review: This camcorder brought us three unpleasant surprises: 1. It is not completely compatible with Apple Computer's iMovie. The first few seconds of video are lost and cannot be imported after every Stop/Start break in the camera footage. It also leaves lots of square artifacts at the beginning of an export to tape. Both very frustrating. 2. After two years of admittedly heavy use (hey, when else will he be a baby again?), the auto focus mechanism went quite mad. It simply wouldn't hold focus under any circumstances. This sort of thing happens, I suppose, but then for the big surprise... 3. There is, in all of the United States, exactly ONE place that Sharp allows to work on their digital camcorders. Our camera has now been there for six weeks and the best we can get from them is that "the part is on order."
On order? These guys are the only repair facility for the entire U.S. and they don't have parts stocked?!? This isn't a little garage outfit that would go broke stocking spare parts for every camcorder ever made; this is a monopoly that knew darned good and well that anything that went wrong with this camcorder model was going to come to them. They should have had a ready supply of parts.
Repeated calls to them got us nowhere. A call to Sharp Customer Assistance got us nowhere. If you like surprises like these, then this camcorder and the rest of the Sharp line are for you.
Rating:
Summary: Beware the Surprises
Review: This camcorder brought us three unpleasant surprises: 1. It is not completely compatible with Apple Computer's iMovie. The first few seconds of video are lost and cannot be imported after every Stop/Start break in the camera footage. It also leaves lots of square artifacts at the beginning of an export to tape. Both very frustrating. 2. After two years of admittedly heavy use (hey, when else will he be a baby again?), the auto focus mechanism went quite mad. It simply wouldn't hold focus under any circumstances. This sort of thing happens, I suppose, but then for the big surprise... 3. There is, in all of the United States, exactly ONE place that Sharp allows to work on their digital camcorders. Our camera has now been there for six weeks and the best we can get from them is that "the part is on order."
On order? These guys are the only repair facility for the entire U.S. and they don't have parts stocked?!? This isn't a little garage outfit that would go broke stocking spare parts for every camcorder ever made; this is a monopoly that knew darned good and well that anything that went wrong with this camcorder model was going to come to them. They should have had a ready supply of parts.
Repeated calls to them got us nowhere. A call to Sharp Customer Assistance got us nowhere. If you like surprises like these, then this camcorder and the rest of the Sharp line are for you.
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