Sony DCR-HC26E

Pros: Use friendly, Light weight, touch screen LCD, exceptional video and audio quality, Carl Zeiss lens.

Cons: Not full digital. Still picture quality is not very good. No USB or S-video cables.

The Bottom Line: Many people tend to "over buy" when it comes to Gadgets. This little camera will do almost everything a camera costing $200-$300 more will do...without the guilt!

Review: My wife and I were looking for a digital camcorder. We are the kind of folks that would use it about 3-4 times a year, so we didn't want to spend tons of money. So off we went to the local Best Buy. We had been looking at Digital 8/Hi 8 machines ...

Pros: Ease of use

Cons: No included firewire cable.

Review: I bought a couple of these for my kids and they love them. Very easy to use, even without reading the manual. Capture is a breeze. Plug a firewire cable into a Mac and iMovie picks it right up. Edit away and burn it to your video ...

Pros: quality, video, clarity, and convenience, price,zoom

Cons: slight lag in color

The Bottom Line: A gem in a crowded field indoors... I think Sony makes great digital products. I was pleasantly surprised on almost every level

Review: I just did a review for the Sony hc 46 and now I returned that when I saw this on sale and tried it out. These tiny Sony camcorders are so under scored by experts its almost amazing. This is a super clear video camcorder that gives great results indoors ...

Pros: Excellent day light video, fairly quiet camera, generous 20x zoom, great sound quality.

Cons: night video is fair, no light or option to add one, zoom loses some stability

The Bottom Line: For anyone wanting a decent camcorder that doesn't break the bank, the DCR-HC26 will do an exceptional quality job.

Review: I was in the market (or mood) to buy a camcorder. I always wanted one. Figured it would be of some use at some point in my life. To tell you the truth, now being an owner it really dawns how much it depends on your lifestyle. Honestly, I thought I'd ...

Pros: Small, good features, good picture quality when used with windows movie maker or something similar

Cons: doesn't come with USB cable, software sucks

The Bottom Line: The DCR-HC26 is pretty cheap now for under 300 dollars. If you get a deal on one go for it. Just use second party software like Windows Movie Maker.

Review: This is my first camcorder. I got this for free as a gift from a vendor. I came home checked the prices on these and reviews. Which are so so. Bottom line the software that comes with this cam blows. Is it just me or are they actually using Old English ...

Pros: Compact, Quality, Easy to use, cheap as dirt!

Cons: Had to buy a second battery for prolonged use.

Review: This camera is awesome. I have used it to record a friend's wedding and just capture footage around the house once and a while. The video quality is amazing and the camera is so lightweight and easy to use. You can literally pick it up and start using it ...

Pros: Cheaper than previous years model. High quality for lower price.

Cons: No remote, no mic jack.

Review: This camera is the new 2006 model of last years DCR-HC21. While it is cheaper in price, it comes with a little less. I found it on sale for $320 (listed at $350), and it seems to just have a new case, the guts are the same. This years model doesn't ...

Pros: Touch-panel screen, small size, price, quality, ease of use, zoom, weight, battery life.

Cons: No included software, not like you need it. New computers come with Windows Media Player.

Review: I needed a camera to shoot promotional videos for my website. I had read reviews on this camera and people complained that the software it came with was poor for editing, well, first of all the software isn't even for editing! It was sort of difficult ...

Pros: Small size. Good battery life. Nice touch screen. Great value.

Cons: No cables. Useless software with shoddy encoder. Slightly noisy CCD (snow) at low/medium light.

The Bottom Line: For the money this camera isn't bad if you can forgive the sub-par software and the lack of cables. Weigh the pros and cons.

Review: With a baby on the way and some birthday money, I eagerly ran to Futureshop in hopes of snagging a cheapo mini-DV video camera that would "do the job". I considered my options and purchased the Sony DCR-HC26, why? Because it was the smallest. Even the ...

Pros: Small, good composite video quality, touchscreen interface, easy mode

Cons: MPEG quality very poor (bad transcoding?), awkward zoom, software

The Bottom Line: This camera is fine if you don't care to digitize your video to you PC to share online.

Review: I purchased this camera based on the positive reviews I had read about the DCR-HC21. BestBuy had the DCR-HC21 and the followup DCR-HC26 for the same price so I decided to try the newer model (even though the new model has no remote). Upon opening the ...