Customer Rating: 
Summary: Poor Warranttee Policy (90-day labor) + expensive repair
Comment: I was a happy owner of DCRHC30 for first 10 months, and felt that we made a wise purchase.
Until recently, we found out that the REC/STANDBY button sometimes did not respond, and it happened more and more frequently. When it happens, I have difficult time to make it record, or I had to power it off to stop recording. When I contact SONY Customer serivce, I found the warranttee for labor is only 90 days, though part is 1 year (FYI: labor is way more expensive than part!).
CS rep gives me an estimate of flat labor rate $269, PLUS shipping and handling to/from the repair center in CT. That's 60% of the purchase price of the HC30!
We had already spent extra $100+ for SONY accessaries (like batteries, memory cards, etc), which normally are NOT compatible with other brands of Camcorders/cameras by design (a typical SONY strategy following the proven-unsuccessful footsteps of Apple Computers decade ago). I can pretty much say good-bye to these accessaries as well...
When purchasing SONY, be aware of its warranttee policy and think twice. There is a reason that the company has been losing ground to its competitor for years, and not likely can the newly-appointed U.S. CEO overturn the trend!
We will definitely avoid Sony products in the future.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Really good little camera
Comment: I bought ther camera five days ago and was amazed at how easy it was to use. When I first saw all the options of the menu screen I thought I was in over my head. I just played around with them, and they were very self explanatory. The sound quality is great for an internal mic. The video quality is very good. I am very pleased with how clear the video is when I hook it to my TV and watch what I've shot. The zoom does get a little fuzzy at full throttle, but is very clear up until that point. Overall very good for the money
Customer Rating:
Summary: good camera except in bright light
Comment: This is a very nice compact camera and works great. The zoom is excellent. However, images in bright sunlight are very washed out.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Beware of Sony
Comment: My little advice - Beware of Sony. The quality has decreased over past years badly and customer service and technical support is very bad too. Not to mention the warranty plans and costs to fix things. I just owned a nice handycam DCR-TRV19 that died after one year of seldom use. Something that is obvious factory defect (since many people experience exactly the same problem) costs more than half of the camcorders price to fix at sony service. I advise you to have a look at http://reviews.cnet.com/5208-6142-0.html?forumID=59&threadID=53316&messageID=1064984 and see for yourself how Sony treats their customers.
Once again, don't be blurred by pretty design. The inside is piece of crap.
Sincerely.
Customer Rating:
Summary: great value for the money
Comment: First, I advise potential buyers to keep in mind the category of this device - simple, for quick home videos. And it is just perfect for that.
Tests done
1. Picture is definitely better than the best Hi8 and the sound is very good (use 16 bit option always). Does not work perfectly at low light, but that is not expected.
2. Handling - excellent, touch screen is the real saver, easy to use and handy.
3. Efects - there are too many. Those I tried are perfect.
4. Analog-to-digital pas through - it does not get any better than this! The best way to convert your analogue tapes to DVD. You can also make direct DVD recording from any possible source (TV, Hi8, VCR ...)
Note: I use Intervideo DVD Creator Platinum 2 with XP home. Did not test the Sony software, did not use USB, only fire wire.
5. Images - perfect for e-mails, naturally not good for regular photos.
New model 32 has better optical zoom, but the catch is it is extremely difficult to adjust it using the small lever on the camcorder. Model 30 had optical zoom 10x and that is just perfect.
Highly, highly recommended (if you can still find it somewhere).
Summary: Poor Warranttee Policy (90-day labor) + expensive repair
Comment: I was a happy owner of DCRHC30 for first 10 months, and felt that we made a wise purchase.
Until recently, we found out that the REC/STANDBY button sometimes did not respond, and it happened more and more frequently. When it happens, I have difficult time to make it record, or I had to power it off to stop recording. When I contact SONY Customer serivce, I found the warranttee for labor is only 90 days, though part is 1 year (FYI: labor is way more expensive than part!).
CS rep gives me an estimate of flat labor rate $269, PLUS shipping and handling to/from the repair center in CT. That's 60% of the purchase price of the HC30!
We had already spent extra $100+ for SONY accessaries (like batteries, memory cards, etc), which normally are NOT compatible with other brands of Camcorders/cameras by design (a typical SONY strategy following the proven-unsuccessful footsteps of Apple Computers decade ago). I can pretty much say good-bye to these accessaries as well...
When purchasing SONY, be aware of its warranttee policy and think twice. There is a reason that the company has been losing ground to its competitor for years, and not likely can the newly-appointed U.S. CEO overturn the trend!
We will definitely avoid Sony products in the future.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Really good little camera
Comment: I bought ther camera five days ago and was amazed at how easy it was to use. When I first saw all the options of the menu screen I thought I was in over my head. I just played around with them, and they were very self explanatory. The sound quality is great for an internal mic. The video quality is very good. I am very pleased with how clear the video is when I hook it to my TV and watch what I've shot. The zoom does get a little fuzzy at full throttle, but is very clear up until that point. Overall very good for the money
Customer Rating:
Summary: good camera except in bright light
Comment: This is a very nice compact camera and works great. The zoom is excellent. However, images in bright sunlight are very washed out.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Beware of Sony
Comment: My little advice - Beware of Sony. The quality has decreased over past years badly and customer service and technical support is very bad too. Not to mention the warranty plans and costs to fix things. I just owned a nice handycam DCR-TRV19 that died after one year of seldom use. Something that is obvious factory defect (since many people experience exactly the same problem) costs more than half of the camcorders price to fix at sony service. I advise you to have a look at http://reviews.cnet.com/5208-6142-0.html?forumID=59&threadID=53316&messageID=1064984 and see for yourself how Sony treats their customers.
Once again, don't be blurred by pretty design. The inside is piece of crap.
Sincerely.
Customer Rating:
Summary: great value for the money
Comment: First, I advise potential buyers to keep in mind the category of this device - simple, for quick home videos. And it is just perfect for that.
Tests done
1. Picture is definitely better than the best Hi8 and the sound is very good (use 16 bit option always). Does not work perfectly at low light, but that is not expected.
2. Handling - excellent, touch screen is the real saver, easy to use and handy.
3. Efects - there are too many. Those I tried are perfect.
4. Analog-to-digital pas through - it does not get any better than this! The best way to convert your analogue tapes to DVD. You can also make direct DVD recording from any possible source (TV, Hi8, VCR ...)
Note: I use Intervideo DVD Creator Platinum 2 with XP home. Did not test the Sony software, did not use USB, only fire wire.
5. Images - perfect for e-mails, naturally not good for regular photos.
New model 32 has better optical zoom, but the catch is it is extremely difficult to adjust it using the small lever on the camcorder. Model 30 had optical zoom 10x and that is just perfect.
Highly, highly recommended (if you can still find it somewhere).
Sony DCRHC30 MiniDV Digital Handycam Camcorder w/10x Optical Zoom Reviews: Page 3 of 8
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