There seems to be an abrupt disconnect in the middle of Sony's DVD Handycam line. On one side of the divide is the DCR-DVD755 and its lower-end siblings, with their puny 1-megapixel or lower-res sensors and inferior, plain-old Zeiss lenses. On the other side are the rich relations, starting at the DCR-DVD805, with its 3-megapixel sensor and high-quality Zeiss T* lens, and its even better-equipped brethren. These might seem to be trivial differences, but they end up making a significant difference in practice.
The DVD755 also appears to be disconnected from the market -- in other words, overpriced. For example, it costs more than the Canon DC100, which has a 25x zoom lens compared to the Sony's 12x zoom.
Sony does include some features that the others lack, such as an analog input (for creating DVDs of analog videos), an active accessory shoe for an add-on video light or the bundled surround-sound microphone, Memory Stick Duo Pro support for storing still photos, and built-in Dolby 5.1 surround recording. The last couple of options are pretty much wasted here, though. As you'd guess, the DVD755's photos are low quality. And surround sound is a poor fit for a budget camcorder. Sony might have been better advised to relocate the ill-positioned built-in stereo mic from the front of the camcorder to the top, as well as add some sort of wind filter. In my videos, the sound of the admittedly strong summer breeze occasionally overwhelmed the sound of whatever I was recording.
Normally, sensor resolution becomes an critical issue only if you plan to take still photos with the camcorder. But DVD- and hard drive-based models, which compress the video on the fly, tend to need more headroom on the resolution to deliver decent MPEG-2 encoding quality.
Needless to say, the DVD755's 690,000-effective-pixel video looks pretty mediocre -- it's soft, with purple fringing, severely blown out highlights, and the occasional motion hiccup. That's for video shot outdoors, in the type of diffuse afternoon light photographers like best. Indoors, the video also becomes visually noisy -- even with adequate illumination -- and severe edge crawl sets in.
It does better on exposure and white balance, but you have to hit the Backlight button to compensate for backlit subjects; these days, most cameras and camcorders are intelligent enough to recognize and adjust for it automatically. And though it was fairly speedy, the autofocus system had an occasional but annoying propensity to lock on anything but the subject.
On the subject of annoyances, there's the 2.7-inch touch-screen LCD, which is too small for negotiating the menus; the plastic DVD drive cover, which always feels loose; and the weak battery, which seems to last between 20 and 30 minutes. The DVD755 allows you to finalise discs while on battery power, but given its short life, you probably should save that for video emergencies.
Unless this model has some unique, crucial feature that you can't live without -- and I can't imagine what that might be -- you're better off with almost any other more highly rated model than the Handycam DCR-DVD755.
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enosroy
07/09/2007, 01:35 AM
rating
6/10
good in natural light especially outdoors afternoon when carity is quite good. for night shots it is awful and i repeat HATES low light situations when you end up fiddling with color temperatures to salvage some decent look. sound is mediocre needed windshield batery life short charge times quick viewfinder cluttered uncessary
Pros: outdoor sunlight
Cons: low-light situations, viewfinder, no IEEE1394 cable, 1.0 mb pix, windshield
irritating switching 16:9 / 4:3
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17/10/2006, 11:48 PM
rating
9/10
Good capturing except for the supplied battery pack which should have more shooting time.
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TEJINDERPAL SINGH J.S.
28/09/2006, 10:19 PM
rating
9/10
low end only on still shots other features are excellent
SONY-DCR-DVD755E is having less mega pixels for steady shots compare to DCRDVD-805E but i want to say is occasionally you take still shots with handycam since cyber shots cameras available today are having 8.1 megapixels and more and you wont compare still shots of both. I will only say buy and enjoy it is really a best bargain.
Pros: When i had used my DCR-DVD755E camcorder i found it really easy to operate. Sound record quality is also very good. surround sound feature makes it really a next generation camcorder. Excellent LCD Touch screen, ACTIVE INTERFACE SHOE are features which make this handycam upperhand than others brands of same 1.0 megapixels handycam
Cons: The handycam only lacks in still shots due to 1.0 mega pixels
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piyush
29/08/2006, 03:05 PM
rating
9/10
Too Good....better then Author's comment
Pros: It is good to shoot for landscape and beaches...
Very easy to use with decent auto-focus and night vision
Cons: Still Camera resolution should have been more
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Dr Muhammad Karim Beebani
23/08/2006, 04:19 PM
rating
8/10
Best in its price
With spending of slight more spending it is better to go for the better version of sony dvd cam with 3.0 megapixel so that you do well both on still as well as video.
Pros: Handy, Excellent resolution. Maintains and extends the execellent resolution set by Sony and that which is unmatched by any other brand. Instant dvd making and playback. Can edit, format, erase the dvd on camera.
Cons: Two big faults from my point of view. Falls short on stills with only 1.0 megapixel. Secondly has no port for audio input or external mic connection. Has a mic for surround voices but that is not of much interest to me at least.
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Dr Muhammad Karim Beebani
23/08/2006, 04:18 PM
rating
8/10
Best in its price
With spending of slight more spending it is better to go for the better version of sony dvd cam with 3.0 megapixel so that you do well both on still as well as video.
Pros: Handy, Excellent resolution. Maintains and extends the execellent resolution set by Sony and that which is unmatched by any other brand. Instant dvd making and playback. Can edit, format, erase the dvd on camera.
Cons: Two big faults from my point of view. Falls short on stills with only 1.0 megapixel. Secondly has no port for audio input or external mic connection. Has a mic for surround voices but that is not of much interest to me at least.
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tom
09/08/2006, 11:39 PM
rating
7/10
Great for low effort home movies
Pros: The DVD recording 'pop and play' works great.
Very easy to use with decent auto-focus and night vision.
the DVD's are cheap and allow for endless record times, if you buy many discs/decrease quality.
great overall camera
Cons: To edit the footage on your computer you must copy the footage from the disc to pc, change the format from VOB to MPEG, buy a good quality video editor that can read it (windows movie maker has a hard time). the whole proccess is long but eventually worth it.
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