A Lightweight, in All the Wrong Ways

My faithful old Sony Hi8 camcorder bit the dust, so I decided to 'upgrade' to the digital MiniDV, happy that it weighed about half what the old camera did. Well, first off, don't assume (as I did, alas) that 'digital' is going to give you a better video image. It won't--not in this price bracket, anyway. My old Sony had as good or better image in daylight indoors and out, and MUCH better at night indoors, where this JVC was just abysmal. Even more abysmal was the still camera feature, with some of the murkiest images you ever saw. Sure, it was nice to 'upgrade' to a digital, getting images you can load to the computer quickly, but those images were awful. The video recording, even in good light outdoors, was awful with flesh tones, tended to put a kind of greenish cast on everything. Audio was bad too, did not pick up a conversation going on 5 feet away. One other quibble: the power switch (moving it from Off to Play or Record) is a hassle, requiring maneuvering a thumbnail into the control to get it to move. Bottom line: I returned this where I bought it in 2 weeks and was happy to pay the 15 percent "restocking fee" to be rid of it.