Sony Handycam DCR-HC27E Camcorder Camcorder Best Buys

Lovely little camera that's dead simple to use - 11 Jan 2008

1 out of 1 found this review helpful.

I bought this camera for my elderly mother, and she had absolutely no problems using it, despite the fact she's a bit of a luddite. It's small enough to fit in a large-ish handbag. There was only one problem she had, and that was accidentally zooming-in when she first grabbed hold of the camera. This is because the zoom control a very low-resistance rocker switch and it's possible to move it without realising. A little more resistance in the switch would help.

She even understood how to cue backwards and forwards during playback, something that's always puzzled her. Oh, and she also left the lens cap on a lot, and then kept asking me why the screen was black. Alas, there's no technological solution for this problem!

When I had a chance to play with the camera, I was also impressed. The image is sharp, as you'd expect with digital video, and outputting to TV and capturing on the computer via Firewire is a piece of cake. It makes me laugh to think that we now have the kind of quality once only seen on professional TV equipment. It also records in widescreen with the tweak of a menu setting, although the viewfinder is standard 4:3 ratio.

My only complaints are that the high-pitch whirr of the cassette motor is just about audible on the recordings, and there's no external mic jack, so there's no way around this. This is a really minor issue, however, because this is a home and family camcorder, and nobody will care. You could probably filter it out with the right software and a little effort.

Note that this model differs from the standard HC27 because it's an updated model with antishake built-in (I believe). I think it also has better battery life. Battery life was OK, by the way, but if you intend to film all day long then you'll need one or two spares.