Sony DSR 250 is Best in Class
Pros:
Stability, Video Quality, XLR Audio Connectors, 3 Hr record time
Cons:
Zoom Speed too fast, Iris/Shutter Control
The Bottom Line:
Does a great job for the price. Great for event videography.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
The quality of this camera makes it a great value. This camera can be used for professional videography including event, corporate, news, even low budget broadcast videography. I have used most of the Canon, Sony, and Panasonic miniDV cameras, but I like this camera for its performance and features.
There are other video cameras that will shoot the same quality of video for even slightly less (The Sony VX-2000 or the PD-150), but not with two very important features that this camera offers: uses miniDV tape or DVCAM tape up to 184 minute loads and XLR audio connections.
This camera is not a lightweight palmcorder. It must be shoulder mounted. A good tripod is needed to secure it.
This camera is not perfect. It has several features that create problems. First, there is no way to turn off full auto exposure. If you turn the shutter on, it gets close to full manual. But with the shutter off, there is no way to adjust exposure completely. The camera always overides with gain or the like.
The second problem is lens control. The zoom speed has discreet steps that prohibit smooth zoom stops and starts. Not even external lens controls can make it work nicely.
The last negative is the audio. When on manual control, it easily over peaks causing distortion because it has no compression. The auto level works well, but not good enough to rely on. And the noise floor should be lower for the analog to digital converters.
So though it is not perfect, it is the perfect camera for those that need long record times, professional audio inputs, and can't afford a $15000 broadcast quality camera.
Addition 11/19/2003:
Another plus about this camera is using it as a feeder (VCR) to a non-linear editor though the IEEE 1394 connections. When using with Adobe Premiere, the transport reacts quickly to commands, much like a dedicated VTR.
