Capturing Memories to mini-DVD

It's been a LONG time since I bought a video camera. The last one I had was a JVC VHS-C camcorder that weighed over 4 lbs and had a pitiful battery life around 35 min per battery.

It was also the size of a small toaster.

I walked into Circuit City about a month ago and walked out with a SONY DVD305, I spent around $675 for the camera, extra disks and a $79 P-series extended life battery, BUT I got a terrific deal: a free 6 foot Tripod, free 3pack of DVD-R's and a free CAMERA BAG.

A spectacular sale if I ever saw one.


WHAT’S HOT

The 305 features a Widescreen LCD, NIGHTSHOT, 5.1 surround sound, a Memory Stick PRO DUO slot, and most importantly: a 1-Megapixel photoshot, an expandable adapter for lights/microphones and a remote control.
The camera is VERY light even with the heavier P-series extended life battery installed. It is also quite small...enough to fit in a coat pocket or be worn comfortably around the neck.
The Touchscreen can rotate for self recording and can be neatly tucked away like most other models.


FUNCTION

The Camera records Video to DVD-R's,DVD-RW's and DVD+RW's.
DVD-R's/RW's must be finalized before you can play them in a DVD player.
DVD+RW's may be used without formatting or “Finalizing” - hence, they are the most expensive.
One of the common misconceptions about mini DVD disks is that they only hold 30 minutes. This is actually untrue. If you select LP mode, your disks will hold 1 hour per disk side. If you select SP mode, your disks will then only get 30 minutes, but the quality will be better. Selecting EQ mode will grant you only 20 minutes of recording length, yet, give you the clearest, most vivid quality video possible.

Don't worry if you have shaky hands because the DVD-305 includes digital stabilization technology that nullifies hand shake very well. My mom recorded with it, for the first time ever recording with a camcorder, and when I watched the result video, it looked perfect. As if she was slowly moving it on a tripod.

In order to get 5.1 sound in your videos, you will need to use the camera’s included attachable microphone. When you use it, you will notice that the sound in your videos is directional when you playback the video’s through your 5.1 speaker system. Some other camera models have the 5.1 surround microphone built into the camera’s roof. I suppose SONY didn’t do this because that feature adds bulk to theoverall device.
Why SONY didn’t include a flood light in the 5.1 attachment is beyond me, since it would fulfill two needs at once.
When you need to finalize a disk, a very simple to follow menu asks you if you’d like to create a name for the disk, which you input, and then you are asked to choose between 4 different backgrounds for your title menus. You may want to alternate between backgrounds to represent the different sides of the dual-sided disks if you have them
The Image Quality is excellent compared to DV tapes and its quite easy to use since SONY includes an EASY operation mode that disables features a layman wouldn't be able to navigate.

The main draw of the camera is the ability to playback your disks in a DVD player or edit them quickly through a PC's DVD-ROM drive. Naturally, if you have a DVD-RW drive in your pc, you’ll be able to burn multiple copies of your memories for friends and family.


And WHAT’S NOT SO HOT

The major downside of the camera is the short battery life. You will be lucky to get 80 minutes out of the battery included with the camera. You are almost obligated to buy a
P-series extended life battery which will add another $75-$100 to the purchase. This is forgivable though since cheap batteries come with ALL camcorders just so the store's employees have more to sell you. Normally, the SONY model of the P-series battery is always sold out at Circuit City’s and Best Buy’s. However, there is an Energizer P-series matched battery, which I purchased, which is $75 and offers up to 7 hours recording. You may want to invest in a dual charger so you can charge both batteries simultaneously since charging through the camera takes a long time- around 3 hours.


Many shoppers will also be turned off by the camera's lack of an internal flood light. Many new models include ultra-bright LED diodes to illuminate close subjects. These LED's don't burn power very fast and are extremely bright for their size. SONY didn't even bother trying to include a lighting feature- however, the ever present NIGHTSHOT is there so you can make PARIS HILTON style videos. As I mentioned, it would have been nice if SONY included a flood light in the attachment mic.

Another peeve I have is the inability to record VIDEO to the Memory Stick PRO DUO. Being able to record stills to it is O.K., but most people aren't going to want 1 -Megapixel stills. It beckons the question: ”if SONY includes mpeg2 video recording in virtually all of its digital cameras to Pro Duo sticks, why have they not done so with their video camcorders?” …which are BTW the very essence of video recording devices !.
I also don't see the point of having USB 2.0 just to download from a Memorystick. Sure its faster but, its unnecessary since 1 MP pictures are measured in quickly transferable KILOBYTES.


You also cannot use this camera as a WEBCAM which would have been a nice feature for those of us who do questionable things, live, in front of our camera and then broadcast them over the internet.

BOTTOM LINE

OVERALL the SONY DVD-305 is a fantastic DVD camcorder but, I wish to God I was on SONY’s design team because with just a few tweaks it could have been extraordinary. The memory stick’s inability to be used as a video capture method is inexcusable. I actually enjoyed being able to make video’s on SONY’s T-7 camera so for me, getting this expensive new camcorder and finding out I couldn’t use my 512 MB ProDuo stick for video was utterly disappointing.