Brilliant piece of kit!

Received my Flip today (1 day late, but Royal Mail's fault, NOT Amazon's)

I have been looking round for a digital camcorder, some over £100. As I didn't want to spend a lot I saw this one and heard good things about it.
Good things I can agree with.

Came in a nice stylish box (first impressions are important to me), and lifts out nicely with the Flip on top and underneath you get x2 AA batteries, video cable, pouch, cord and manuals etc.

Batteries easily go in the front panel by unlocking it from the bottom and sliding the front down.
Once the batteries are in, it's ready to go! Switch it on from the side, set the date, and then hit record!
Plug it in via USB, installs in a few seconds and you can access all your video files just like you would browse a USB drive or any other memory card.
You can then either copy, edit, burn your files.

The quality I was impressed with. As it uses DivX it does have a SMALL amount of artifacts in the video, but not enough to put you off.
I was very impressed with how it handles different lighting conditions, from going dark to light etc.

Overall, it's a great piece of kit. SO easy to use, no annoying menus, just easy press buttons which do what they say!
Cannot fault this superb piece of kit.

If they bring out one that holds more footage(I know they have the Mino, but it doesn't hold more) I will most likely buy it.

Poor improvement

I have recently returned two Mino's and am about to purchase two more Ultra series models. The reason for this backward step is the poor sound recording quality of the new Mino's compared to the previous models. I couldn't hear a thing unless we were talking loudly directly into the mic area of the Mino, whereas the ultra had amazing sound pickup even in very noisy environments. Pity, as the styling of the new ones is beautiful, and the rechargeable Batt a great advantage. If anyone can tell me I just got unlucky (twice) I ,may review my opinion, but for the moment, No sound, no good!

Cannot register and loses your recordings

Now this looks a very smart camcorder as was pleased when opened the box. Very confusing though when you try to get it started. Cannot register it either. When trying to register it with the disc it will only register it if you live in the states (although purchased on Amazon UK). So i tried online and that will still not register either. Filming was good though which we bought specifically for our new addition to the family. Recorded a whole dvd's worth. Could not get the disc out to use it for a friends wedding though. When finally it decided to eject i took it out and then put it back in the camcorder (for some reason i really don't know why i did) and it formatted it without me even touching it. Not good with a little one around. I lost 5 months recording that i had done. Thats because i bought the DVD+RW that Amazon recommended. It automatically wants to format a disc when you put it back in. Crazy. If i had known i would never have purchased these discs. I have given the camcorder 1 star for its recording capability and that only. The manual is hard to understand and everything else for that matter. The touch screen looks good but is difficult to figure out. The rest is rubbish and i can never recover the recordings of our little baby boy. Annoyed.

lost data

i bought this camera to film a friends wedding it was great not having to change tapes, and i bought a bigger battery which lasted all day. I also bought the sony vegas movie studio so that i could edit the wedding as a present for my friend, i have used premier elements before but thought i would use sonys product thinking it would run smoothly. I put the camera in the docking station and opened sony vegas i renamed some clips and imported clips into the media files and left some clips on the hard drive. i then thought i need to save the whole footage on a disc so that i didn't loose any. i used the one touch disc burn on the docking station,after doing this i looked back on the camera and all i can see is a symbol like a broken chain and clips that i didn't name have gone off the computer. I have looked through the manual and cannot find any info on this and seem to be left with only part of the wedding. I don't seem to be able to get any help on this as i'm not sure if i have lost the data or not. So although the camera has been great to use its no good if i don't have confidence at editing i feel that i can't use the camera again until i find out what has gone wrong. and i can't edit my friends wedding. There needs to be more back up support from sony.

Perfect for taking around and capture precious moments

I bought this a few month ago to video my baby and to send the videos by email to my parents living abroad.
I have never owned a video camcorder before and I have to say, I am impressed.
It is very small (smaller than my digital camera), the quality of the videos are quite good, and it tales SD cards which is very handy.
The uploading of the photos on the laptop is easy. I'm not a great fan of the software with it, but it does the trick... i.e. for me upload and converting to wav, or mpegs to be able to email them over.
The negative is the photo side - no way near as good as a digital camera... the pictures are grainy and not great resolution... but i did not buy for that, so I am happy with it...
depends what you want out of it!
I thought it was great value for money.

flip cam

Bought this for Daughters 21st, she loves it, great, fun,small handbag size,great picture,easy to download, overall brill.

Great video images but stills not so good

This is a beautiful camera. It feels surprisingly solid for such a small object. Video images taken with this camera is superb but because the camera is so small that without supporting it against something solid you get quite a shaky image if you zoom in. The 4 megapixel still images are not good enough to produce a 10x8 print from it - which is a shame because the rotatable flip screen is ideal for composing candid photos and taking image from high and low angles. This also means carrying 2 cameras if you want to combine taking stills and video. If you buy this camera, I suggest you carry a spare battery with you as you might find you run out of power just in the middle of taking Spielberg beating footage

Great Pictures

Panasonic HDC-SD9EB-S HD Camcorder

This is the 5th Panasonic Camcorder I have bought over 17 years. All are working as well as they did when new. This camcorder has easily the best pictures, and the stabiliser does a superb job without degrading the picture quality.

I have also bought the optional disk burner and this works superbly.

Things are not so good when it comes to sound. All my previous camcorders have external microphone sockets and the sound obtainable is better than the built-in microphones on this (or any other small) camera can achieve.

As it stands, the camcorder is an excellent tourist product. With better sound facilities it would be good enough for serious work.

Blown away

Had this now for just over a month and used it in a variety of locations. Indoor performance is OK - still way better than any SD cameras I have owned previously, but outdoor and decently-lit scenes are simply mind-blowing.

Here are the key points:

- Wonderful colour and definition.
- Well built and comfortable to hold
- Easy to operate
- Simple full-auto mode
- Enough manual controls to provide fun for people who wish to experiment with settings
- The docking station - convenient connectivity

Downsides - no manual focus ring, mic input or headphone socket, but these are all things you would normally pay a lot more for.

And it will connect to an HD TV in HD resolution without a mini-HDMI cable - if your HD TV has a component video input, this camcorder comes with a component video cable which support HD resolutions.

Overall - just brilliant.

Backward step

Got this to replace a mini-DV Panasonic. Big mistake as the picture quality is vastly inferior. Auto-focus? It would be quicker to do it manually.

Sat under the stairs in its case now, we use video mode on the digital camera.

As another reviewer wrote, Sony should be truly ashamed of this.

Perfect for capturing those family moments

After lots of research I settled on the SR55. The reasons for this were

1. Sony products are normally good quality.
2. 40gb hard drive meant I didn't have to carry lots of DVDs as with other camcorders.
3. Small size meaning easy to carry round on holiday.
4. Not overly priced.

What I have found about this camcorder so far is that it is very easy to set up and use. A novice could easily pick this up and be fully conversant within an hour. The docking station is very effective when connecting to a PC and/or TV. I personally have the station attached to my TV and PC together meaning I can connect to either one at the touch of a button. The software included was easy to install and use and the one touch disc burn is very handy. The file formats mean they can be transferred to any PC unlike some other hard drive camcorders on the market.

If you are looking for professional quality video footage then this camcorder is not for you. If, however, you are looking for a fairly cheap and easy to use camcorder to capture family moments, holidays etc then the quality of this is fine. I would recommend transferring to the high quality setting immediately though as the other settings would not really be suitable for buring to DVD or for playback on a large screen TV. At high quality you can capture up to 10 hours of video. The photographs are not very good quality but I did not buy this for still photos so not an issue for me.

Overall, this is a very good product and I am very happy with my purchase. If you have the money to spend on a Sony High Definition camcorder then go for one of them but if you only have around £250 to spend then go for this. You will definately need an extra battery as the one which comes with the battery will only last for about 90 minutes of recording time before needing to be recharged. i am going to try the ex-pro versions on here as they are much cheaper than the Sony versions but will let you know how this pans out.

Small and easy to use

I did some research on hard drive camcorders as I was fed up with tapes and I didn't imagine DVD would be straightforward. I was off to USA for the first time so wanted to ensure I had sufficient storage. I also didn't want to spend a fortune as I had no ambition to be a movie director. Out of the box I didn't need to read right through the manual to be able to use it straight away. I used standard quality but wish I had used the ultrafine mode to get that extra quality. The only niggle is that you switch it on by opening the screen and this hides the shutter control - so you have to close it again to open the shutter - until you remember (hard at my age). Zoom is controllable either by using a hand through the strap (with 3rd finger (traditional method) or by holding the camera in the hand and looking down on the screen and then fiddling the zoom with the thumb - lazy but easy. Its size makes it easy to control. It also has a stable, flat base so can be left on a table, wall etc. Controls on the screen are easy to use and playback and slide shows are easy. It plugs into a TV easily and I have recently downloaded the movies onto my computer hard drive. The software provided allows you to download, edit, make movies and DVDs. However you can just access the camera like a hard drive or pen drive without the software if you just want to copy the movie files. I like using Moviemaker and writing onto DVDs so I probably won't bother with the packaged software. This is a neat piece of kit for those who want to do easy videos. Budding Spielbergs might turn up their nose a bit but for us mortals this provides a clever, compact camcorder which fits in a pocket or a generic camera bag. Anyway how do they fit a hard rive into such a small space????

My Vado

I was after a camcorder to take on holiday and was looking to spend £150 - £200. Fortunately I stumbled across the Vado that cost me £79.99! Not only did I save myself some money my bag was also a lot lighter! I've taken it out on nights which is excellent as it just sits in my pocket and it's really easy to upload my videos to my PC the next day! It also doesn't require batteries which saves me a bit of cash. All in all, great fun!

A great fun camcorder for sharing

I love my Flip camcorder - it's so easy to use - just a couple of buttons and I'm shooting my own movie! The sound quality isn't as great as a standard camcorder but the images are really clear and the software is simple to use so loading to You Tube is very quick and straightforward. It's a great fun camcorder that I can just carry around in my handbag and have out and using in seconds - which is really great at parties.

Does what it says on the box

First - excellent delivery. Ordered Friday, delivered Monday morning.
First impressions are excellent. Video quality is super - indoors as well as outside, but I need to try low light. And still photos are good as well. I am using HD video and 5mpixels - the default settings. The 3x optical zoom works smoothly - even while filming (despite other reviews) Playback through my 1080p LCD was super, using the supplied composite video cable. The little remote control made this easy to manage and can make the thing record and take stills as well - handy if mounted on a tripod. Playback using Media Player didn't work, despite installing the codec from the supplied CD. But both QuickTime and RealPlayer worked well, with QT being a bit smoother. It charges from the supplied mini-usb charger and will also charge from a computer's USB socket - despite reports to the contrary in a forum. So - excellent so far.
There are several different Camileo models - so just to be clear, this is the Pro HD. What you DON'T get with this model is:- a tripod, mp3 playback, movement sensing, web cam capability, digital zoom and ebook reading. But the HD quality more than makes up for these. One thing I would like is to be able to load MP4 files and JPG files from other sources onto the SD card and then use the Camileo to play them back - but I can't make it do that.
P.S. loaded the K-lite set of codecs - Media Player works well now.

Neat piece of kit

I bought this item specifically because of it's size - and also i hadn't bought a gadget in a while!!! My last purchase was a Canon DSLR and I love it - however it is bigger than my old compact. So as we were going on holiday and I am the one that has to carry the cameras (you know what it's like guys!), I wanted a smaller camcorder than our old bulky JVC DV camcorder.

I toyed with a the idea of a small DV camcorder, but the simplicity of the GZ-MG330H and my experience with JVC to date made the decision easy. Although this is around £100 more expensive than the DV equivalent, it is lighter and quicker to use. This is the equivalent of a point and shoot digital camera, with no settings for white balance, no fill light, no special features. But it's great...

We have just taken it on a weeks holiday and are really pleased with the results. It adjusts to bright sun and shade quickly, and the mic is pretty good too. Wind cut was useful as we were holidaying in England.

Being Hard Disk based means that you cannot overwrite footage. You can be viewing something and then need to quickly switch to record without having to find the end of the recorded footage, so you don't"tape" over it... This is also great as it meant I could let my little boy play without too much concern.

Transferring files to our home PC is simple - the included software is easy to use and each take is transferred as a small digital movie file.

If I had one complaint it would be the file format - if it could save as standard MPEG, MOV or AVI you could transfer to any PC anywhere..

If had two complaints it would be that JVC don't make it clear that the remote and dock are not compatible.

Nice Video, sound non-existent

Great looking camera, great video performance, especially keeping in mind the price.

I was hoping that the previous review just got a dud, but it is true... If you want to hear ANYTHING on your recording your mouth has to be right on the microphone. And you have to shout. Not great if you want to record your baby's first words. Think 1920 silent movies. No connection for external microphone, so the problem is really not to be overcome.

1 star, even though the video quality is great, because who would want a camera that doesn't record sound?!

ok for the money, but not great,

After using for 2 months on various family holidays etc I have now had time to download the result to my pc. The results are generally very good, albeit a bit grainy in low light. The problem I have with this camera is the very low resolution of still photographs. In fact don't bother they are rubbish. As such it meant I had to carry 2 cameras around. There lies the problem. My canon G8 takes excellent still photographs at 10 megapixels. and two video resolutions are included. The results of which are excellent but not widescreen. So my advice is buy the new canon G9 which is a far better still camera (chalk & cheese) but has widescreen video as well. All for around £300.
My other problem with the f100 is the lack of a decent software suite. In fact virtually nothing but a photo organiser and the download driver for your pc.
On a positive note the 45x optical zoom is excellent.

Okay - Not Quite as Trendy as it Seems

I do like this solid state camcorder but it's neither exceptional value for money or versatile either. For kick off the quality of production is nothing exceltional, and by that I mean to compare with other similar priced products. To give some sort of idea what it is like, your mobile phone if it has the function for video would be similar if used on low res. That's not to say it's awful and clearly it's designed as an easy cheap youtube device, just don't expect too much. It's also big. Given that it's a solid state unit, it could be made a bit smaller, which would fit in with it's go anywhere utility advertising. Having said that, a large part of this is down to using standard AA batteries which is convenient. They seem to last a good long time compared to other products like this. The zoom is digital which does limit quality. The recording angle is a wee bit narrow as well, so don't expect any great indoor wide angle shots either. One thing that did bother me most of all is that there is no protective cover that closes over the clear plastic lens cover, meaning that any rough stuff, or grit in a pocket would cause a problem. There are many good points though. It's well made, comes with it's own flip out inbuilt USB A connection, so no extra wires, and I like the shape. Clean and simple. I guess in the end it would be exceptional value at 50 quid but at 100 it's perhaps a bit steep.