Great Job Sony!!!

-INTRO-
I have had the DCR-HC42 MiniDV Handycam by Sony for only a few months now, but so far I am very impressed. Sony jam packs ease of use and functionality into a tiny package! Coming over from a Cannon ELURA40, that I had many problems with, I'm glad I made the change.

-THE BASICS-
Select a mode: Tape, Memory, or Play. Ding! Sony appears on the screen, and boom! You are ready to start shooting. The DCR-HC42 is very small so you can take it anywhere. Unlike the Cannon ELURA40 that picked up its own mechanical noise due to bad placement of the microphone, I think that this camera was very well designed. A unique feature of the camera is that it can film in either full frame or widescreen, depending on which type of TV you'd like to play it on. It also comes with a dock, that can charge the camera, connect it to your computer, or connect it to your TV... or it can do all 3 things at once!! Which is great for if you are imputing a movie on to your computer, you can still watch it on your TV. If you don't edit movies and are just looking for a camera to take on vacation with you, I'd still recommend this camera, especially because it can also take 1 megapixel digital pictures on a Sony MemoryStick.

-SOUND COMPLICATED?-
This camera does have many complicated features, but if you want it to be more simple, just press the EASY button on the side. The camera goes into an easy mode that disables any advanced features. This is especially great for me because I do use all of the advanced features but this camera is also used by other family members on vacations and for home video who don't know as much about cameras.

-DESIGN FLAW? I DON'T THINK SO...-
It may be hard to tell by the pictures here at Epinions or at Sony.com but there are really 2 record buttons and 2 zoom control buttons. When you look at the pictures online it looks like the record button and zoom buttons are right on the screen, which I thought would get very annoying. I didn't realize until I went to Best Buy to check out the camera that they also have a record button on the back of the camera next to the battery so that you can easily hit it with your thumb like you may be used to with other cameras. They also have another zoom controller. It is a little stick that you move left and right. It, as most do, can detect how far over you are pressing it so you can make a slow or fast zoom (which you cannot do with the zooming buttons that are on the screen).

-THE BATTERY-
SonyStyle.com says, "Using the optional NP-FP90 InfoLithium® Battery, the DCR-HC42 can continuously record for up to 8 hours on a single full charge, providing extra long battery life." I don't know where they get 8 hours from but the included battery does last a very long time. It lasts about an hour and a half when you are using the LCD screen- and the battery is very small!! With the old ELURA40, the battery was about the same size but lasted only 30 minutes using the SMALLER LCD screen. The camera also has a battery info button that is really handy. If you have the camera charging, a small green light comes on to show you that it's charging but if you press the BATT INFO button, the screen shows you exactly what percent of the battery is charged already, what still needs to be charged, and how much recording time you could get with that charge. It even shows you two times, one for if you will be using the LCD screen, and one if you are going to use the color viewfinder.

-THE DESIGN-
I just want to tell you a little about the design of this camera. First of all, as I have already mentioned, is that the LCD screen is touchscreen! This is great because it completely frees up the camera of lots of buttons! There is one slight problem with this though. As it is great and easy to use, what about if you are using the viewfinder? Then you can't change any settings or add any effects. Speaking of the viewfinder, when you first try to look through it, the battery gets in your way from being able to put your eye all the way up against it comfortably. No problem- Sony has made it so the viewfinder can pull out, doubling its length, and making you able to use it comfortably. One more very smart design is that it doesn't have one of those lens covers that hangs down and gets in your shots or makes noise in your video by swinging and hitting the camera. There is simply a switch that you press and the cover pops out and covers the lens! It's the same thing that were on most film cameras.

-HOW ABOUT VIDEO QUALITY?-
One of the things that really annoyed me about the old ELURA40 was that it was really bad at filming low light situations. Even if the sun was out but you are inside, it would still look a little fuzzy. Now this camera is much better at low light situations. The sales rep at my local Best Buy told me that no company has really come out with a small, personal camcorder that is great in low light. Of course if it is dark and you are filming you will be getting some fuz, but the camera does have a built in NightShot Plus feature. You may have seen the original night shot feature on older Sony models. The reason for the plus is because Sony says that you don't get as much of a green tint to your video. That is really not true. With NghtShot Plus, you still get the all around green tint with a few other colors that pop up here and there. I don't really use it at all. If you have lots of light (or even just some light), or are outside, you can expect this camera to get a very high quality video, a higher quality video than its 2 younger models the DCR-HC32 and the DCR-HC21. When I was trying to find the best camera to purchase, we were trying to decide between the 32 and the 42. Someone at Best Buy told me that there was no video quality different between them, but after an e-mail to Sony, it turns out there is. Here's what sony had to say about it...

"More pixels there are on the CCD (Charged- Coupled Device) the more detail the camera or camcorder can capture, resulting in a better, sharper image and video. When it has over one million pixels it is said to have MegaPixel capability.
The figures for video actual resolution suggests the quality of video recorded with camcorders. Sony DCR-HC42 camcorder has a video actual resolution of 690K pixels where as the DCR-HC32 and DCR-HC21 camcorders have 340K pixels.
In other words, among the three models, the DCR-HC42 camcorder records video with better quality."

-THE DIGITAL CAMERA-
As I mentioned, this camera doubles as a digital camera. We have a separate 4 megapixel digital camera that we use for most pictures, but it is really great to have the 1 megapixel built into this camera. The reason being is that if you are somewhere where you want to take pictures and video but can't carry both a digital camera and a camcorder, this 2-in-one really gets the job done. (That even rhymes so it must be good!!) Some cameras have a photo button and then just record 5 seconds of a still picture right on to the tape. This camera doesn't do that. It has a separate memory stick that is saves all your pictures to. You can be in video record mode and still take digital pictures! There is a video record button and a picture button so you can easily do both without changing modes.

-SOME OTHER FEATURES-
::The camera has a 12X optical zoom lens and a 480X digital zoom. What surprised me is that the cheaper models actually have a larger optical zoom, but still 12X is plenty for me.
::There are many effects within the on screen menus. You can adjust color, focus etc. You can also use the D. Effects which are included on most Sony cameras that include: Still, Flash, Trail, Old Movie, and others. There are also some of the common picture effects such as: Neg. Art, Sepia, Black & White, Mosaic, and others.
::There is a port on the top of the camera for connecting a light if needed. You can get a light for about a hundred dollars.
::It has a Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar Lens.
::It films on MiniDV tapes.
::This is one of my favorite features of this camera. Say you just filmed some awesome video and you want to play it back. So you rewind, watch it, and it turned out great. But now you want to film more and you have the blank blue space between your shots. With this camcorder you just press a button and the camera rewinds and automatically detects where you stopped filming, letting you continue filming right where you left off. No more blank blue spaces.....unless you want them :)

-SOME OF THE THINGS I DON'T LIKE-
There are some things that I don't like about this camera but they are all small things. Like I said in the Cons, you need to use the dock to connect the camera with a DV cable. Which can be handy, if you leave the dock at your computer at all times but sometimes you may want to use it for something else and it may not be there... to me, that's not too big of a deal. Another problem is that since the LCD is TouchScreen then if you are using the viewfinder, you have no way of changing the settings without opening the screen. This isn't a problem to me though because i very rarely use the viewfinder. Especially since the battery will last an hour and a half. Another big problem for me is that the tape comes out of the bottom of the camera. The reason that can be bad is if you are using a tripod. Then you have to take the camera completely off of the tripod to change the tape. The final thing that can be a problem is that the widescreen/full-frame button is right on the screen. You could accidentally press it and not notice because of the cameras wide screen. You would then film everything in widescreen, which will be a bigger problem later because when you play back footage shot in widescreen on a regular TV, it doesn't have the 2 black bars at the top and bottom of the screen as you may expect. It squeezed everything into the screen! So everything looks really tall and thin.... so be careful of that!

-THE WRAP UP...-
All in all, for the few months that I have had this camera, it has been great. I highly recommend this product to anyone because it is so easy to use and fits everyones needs. You really get what you pay for with this product. I usually edit my video on the computer and burn to DVD and the camera is great for that. Plus our last camera was also a MiniDV so it plays all of our old tapes.

Thank you for reading my review and good luck finding the right camera for you!
The official website of the Sony DCR-HC42 Camcorder is:http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_DisplayProductInformation-Start?ProductSKU=DCRHC42&Dept=cameras&CategoryName=dcc_DICamcorders_MiniDVHandycamCamcorders