I'm really pleased that I'll be able to share video of my daughter with friends and family who have dvd players, or video viewing capability on their computers.

FOLLOW-UP: We took this camcorder to Sea World and the footage was excellent. It was nice not to have to lug around a heavy piece of equipment while trying to transport a toddler, stroller, etc. Once we got home, I put together a 5 minute edited video using the ImageMixer software from Sony (included when we purchased the camera). Wow, it was so user-friendly! I added some of my own music to it, as well as some text to some scenes. Then we burned the edited project to a simple, inexpensive CD-R instead of DVD-R, for family/friends to view on their computers. I checked, and many in-home computers have some sort of video viewing software such as Windows Media Player, or another compatible program.


Great camcorder   December 18, 2003
12 out of 12 found this review helpful

While the price is higher than other camcorders on the market, I think this product is worth it. It's easy to set up and use, the editing software for the computer is decent, and I'm able to get high quality footage and share it with family and friends.

One note of caution: the software really does require a higher speed computer and/or updated platforms like Windows XP. It ended up leading to the demise of our old computer (a Windows ME), but functions much better on our new one that has XP.


Very Pleased with this product!   December 6, 2003
David A. Lamore (Whitesboro, NY United States)
63 out of 63 found this review helpful

I purchased this product when my son turned 7 months old, just 1 month before his first x-mas.
I looked at all the competition and quickly singled it down to either the Sony DVD200 or DVD300. For an extra 100 or so dollars I could have bought the DVD300, but the 3.5 LCD screen was not important to me. The only difference in the DVD200 and the DVD300 is the LCD Screen size.

The ease of use is great! 5 Stars there!
The noise and vibration is almost un-noticable. Don't be worried by others comments about the vibration and noise. I noticed it as soon as I put the DVD Disk into the camcorder, but while video "taping" I didn't feel a thing.
The zoom is great, and I am very happy with the lens. I like the special features such as being able to change the lens, put filters on the lens, add flash and mic. hardware as well.

If I had to find something I didn't like about the camcorder it would have to be the Pixela software that comes with it. I own a Sony Digital Camera that came with similar SW, and was not pleased with that either. I wish sony would just get away from Pixela!

Overall, if you are in the price range of 600 - 1200 dollars for a camcorder, there is really no other reasonable product to compare it to. I was planning on spending approx. $600, but the benefits of doing this right out weighed the 300+ I haad to shell out.

Things I don't use that got bad reviews: 1 meg. pix. still shots. If you are buying a camcorder for still shots don't buy this or any camcorder. BUY A CAMERA!

Also, the only concern I had going into this product was how do you stop and start again with DVD technology. I was so happy to find out that when you stop recording the DVD is indexed. So if you start and stop 6 times, you will have 6 imaged indexes to look at. If you just want to keep recording after every time you stop, simply press the record button and it will take off from your last track. Nothing to worry about with respet to stopping and starting over and over again.

----This review was based on about 10 hours of use, and was not used with DVD-RW DVD's. I only used DVD-R DVD's. DVD-RW's offer in camera editing, but might not work on all DVD players. However, if you don't edit inside the camcorder, it will work fine and you can use the Disk up to 1000 (one thousand) times.