Lens
With a lens developed by world-renowned lens maker Leica AG, the DV852 has an optical zoom magnification of 10x along with a 200x digital zoom, which works by electronically enhancing the optical image. The optical image stabilization system keeps the picture steady and solid throughout zooms and camera shakes without compromising picture quality.

Digital Stills
The camcorder has a mode called progressive photo shoot, so that images captured will not have the jagged lines of interlaced video and instead come out clear and undistorted. You can store the stills on DV tape or on the included 8 MB Secure Digital card (the DV852 is also compatible with MultiMediaCards). The convenient pop-up flash unit comes in handy for low-light environments.

Inputs and Outputs
The DV852 comes with the standard DV IEEE 1394 port (also called FireWire) for no-loss connections to PCs or other DV machines. By using the USB port or RS-232C serial connection, you can easily transfer your digital stills. RCA connections are used for direct viewing on a television or for VHS dubbing.

MiniDV Format
MiniDV digital technology delivers clear, sharp video with up to 500 lines of horizontal resolution--far superior to the 240 lines of resolution offered by 8mm camcorders. You'll get minimal color noise interference for a more stable picture. You'll also get excellent sound quality in either 12-bit or 16-bit audio recording modes.

• 16-bit audio includes one set of stereo audio tracks to produce CD-quality sound.
• 12-bit audio utilizes two sets of audio tracks so you can easily add background music or commentary to your videos while maintaining the existing soundtrack.

This is all delivered on a cassette that's 1/12 the size of a standard VHS tape. A MiniDV tape offers digital recording time of two full hours--20 times the capacity of a CD.

Outdoors it is also quite good but, being a bit more challenging, you might be able to tell it's not the travel channel you're watching (but it's still very good)

Now here's the bad news.
The optical image stbilizer is OK but you do stil have to be very careful to get good video. It does not iron out the bigger shakes like the electronic ones do. So I am not so thrilled with the stabilizer.

Still pictures, if you care, are good 1M pics but nothing more. They are useful.

Surprise! The lens is mismarked and will not accept 43mm filters or auxiliary lenses. In fact it won't accept ANY filters because it is 50mm (not 49 and not 52) and therefore non-standard. So you can forget about getting a wide angle lens for it. This is a problem for us... No polarizer, no wide angle lense. So, at this point we are not sure we'll keep the camera.. even though we have been favorably impresed with the basic quality.