5 out of 5 people found this review helpful.
Good picture, but falls short in most categories
Date of Review: May 21, 2005
The Bottom Line: Buy another brand, you may still get bad software, but you can get other features for the same price; for example, with a Panasonic, a color viewfinder and extra card-slot.
The picture quality is very good, however that's to be expected from any well known brand. The infrared nightsight is pretty decent. Aside from that, the HC-21 falls short in many respects.
The battery that comes with it isn't worth anything, about 45 min using the LCD and perhaps 75 using the viewfinder exclusively. So you have to buy a decent battery which costs about $90. The first time I used it, I didn't have an extra battery and had to take a continuous video of about an hour. I used the viewfinder exclusively, which is not too hard, except that the black and white viewfinder makes the task rather difficult. So, I would say, definitely buy another model that has a color viewfinder. The problem with Sony is that you have to upgrade to the HC42 with $200, to get a color view finder.
The Picture Package software that comes with it is really a piece of junk, don't even bother installing it - instead get Nero 6 Ultra, PowerProducer etc. About all you can do with the software is to create AVI files (that too limited to 10 min. segments) or burn a VCD directly through USB (you can't even burn a VCD directly through Firewire even though the manual itself stated that the data quality is better through Firewire) And forget about creating DVDs, you can only do that if you have a Sony desktop (which struck me as absurd in this age of open standards) or other software like Nero Ultra. So after you buy the camcorder, you will find yourself in the position of having to buy a lot of accessories, and spending at least another $200, its a drain.
In a digital camcorder, considering that it isn't exactly cheap, you would expect good quality software to truly make it digital (the retail versions of good software cost $100, how much would it cost Sony to include a full featured OEM version? Perhaps $50 or less and its really essential to call their product "digital").
In summary, you're better off buying another brand, you may still get crappy software, but atleast you can get other features for the same price - with a Panasonic, for example, you would get a color viewfinder and an extra card-slot.
