Digital Mini-DV and 3-MegaPixel Still Photos in One

Author's Rating:

Pros: Small size, mini-DV format, 0-LUX capability, 1-handed operation, touch-screen operation and 3 mega-pixel stills

Cons: Memorystick-Pro, battery life, touch-screen (good and bad) requires scrolling thru menus to adjustment

The Bottom Line: 
Combination mini-DV video and 3MP stills, mean you need only one device. Smaller means more likely to carry. Battery could be longer-life; touch-screen menu takes getting used to.

Author's Review
WHAT WORKS -
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* mini-DV (tape) format - (as opposed to the micro-DV (tape), DVD (disk), or internal/memory only formats). Good digital image quality, no drops or pixelation. Size wise, the micro-DV tape format cameras are even (slightly) smaller than the PC350 but the runtime/storage are about 1/2 as much, and the micro-DV format is not proving to be very popular.

* 3 megapixel still photos - just hit that sweet-spot of being good large enough for editing and sharing, but small enough so that taking photos is fast and storing them on your PC, CD, DVD or other device won't chew up lots storage. Also, my 4MP still camera gets left behind more and more these days, the PC350 has a decent flash and/or low light level speed, and the zoom (10X optical) is better than my still's 3X.

* Carl-Zeiss lens, fast, clear, clean zoom with little distortion, no lens abberations.

* Color saturation is good, natural and not overly colored.

* Sound recording are clear and relatively good pick-up. Stereo mics but at less than 1" apart... not

* 2.5" TFT color LCD is bright, swivels fully and is intelligent (image flips automatically depending on orientation)

* 0-Lux, night-time IR shooting capability (green images), works well if you have to have it. Lots of the other usual special effects, such as fade, etc. I hardly use these in camera, I generally do it afterwards during edit.

* Small size, even smaller than my previous Sony PC-115. As with all cameras, two handed cradling for steadier pictures is recommended, but if you want/need 1-handed operation was easy and intuitive. My hands are medium size and buttons/controls were placed well. Larger or small hands might need to shift. (Definitely try before you buy.)

* Small IR remote (included), has all the basic record and playback features and nice when you want to shot from a tripod or when playing back on TV.

WHAT DIDN'T WORK -
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* Sony does it again with their proprietary memory formats, this time with the MemoryStick-Pro, a shorter version of the old (Blue) gum stick sized MemorySticks. Even if you already have a stash of Memory Sticks around, your SOL, because they won't fit into the PC350. The silver lining is that with an adopter you can at least use the -Pro's in older (Sony) device, usually. For now, capacity is limited to about 512MB, there are non-Sony's with 1GB capacity; but they're still very expensive compared to CF, MD, of SD.

* the small size of the PC350 also mean that the battery is smaller, which means less battery life (and less weight, which is actually a plus). The standard battery is rated for about 60-90 min, which is about what I probably get. In real-life use, I have to carry a spare to get me through a day's worth (or 1 tapes's worth) of on-and-off, couple of min. of video here and there, and still photos here and there. They sell a larger 2x capacity battery but it sticks out from the body about 1cm, really spoils the clean lines of the nice camera (and add weight). I opted for a spare of the original size.

* included software is very basic. I consider this a minus only because the last time I bought a Sony camcorder I got Studio DV thrown in.

WHAT THE JURY IS STILL OUT ABOUT -
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* Sony made this camera clean and small by making many of the controls virtual (or hiding them) using the LCD viewfinder, which is a touch-screen. Many (most) of the settings are adjusted from menus presented on screen. There is certainly an "easy button" for fully automatic point-n-shoot, but for most other adjustments, you will need to navigate the touch-screen menus. The menus take some getting used to, and they're dynamic, which mean you get a different menu depending on whether you have the camera set to Play, Record or Photo; this takes a little getting used to and can be frustrating at first. It typically takes three or four submenus before I get to the features I want, and I still can't always find them on the first try. Its also a little scary pressing on the screen all the time. Plus, if you're trying to save batteries, by turning off the viewfinder that's harder, since you need it to make changes. On the other hand, the menus are see through, which means you can see the actions on screen as you adjust.

* Cradle for charging and downloading images to the PC - This is handy when I'm home, the power, DV-out (Firewire), S-Video-out, sound, USB (2.0) all connect into the cradle, and all I have to do to charge the camera or transfer photos is drop the camera into the cradle. Sounds lovely, except I also take the camera with me traveling, which means I have to carry yet another hard device in my bag. For my previous camcorder, all I had to do was bring cables. You can still charge the camera without the craddle but transferring video/photos require the cradle.

That's it for now. I may edit this as I play more and decide on whether cradle and touch-screen are good or bad. Only had it for a couple of months and only shot 3-4 tapes thus far. But still happy with my decision.

When I was shopping, I also considered a similar JVC and Canon MV with comparable features, in the end, the Sony seemed cleaner, smaller and the 3MP stills (highest, of them all, for now) and Zeiss lens, not to mention Sony quality, won me over (again). (BTW, my still's a Canon Sureshot.)