The DCR-HC21 from Sony gives you a full-featured, compact MiniDV camcorder at an entry-level price. Highlights include the Advanced HAD CCD imager, which captures stunning detail and clarity, and the Digital Zoom, which focuses on distant subjects, providing clear close-up images with less distortion. The Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar lens offers less glare and increased contrast for vivid, more life-like color and tones

Specifications

1/6-Inch Advanced HAD CCD Imager, 680K Pixels Gross
1/6-inch advanced HAD (Hole Accumulation Diode) CCD with 340K (effective) pixels provides stunning detail and clarity with exceptional video (up to 500 lines of horizontal resolution) and still image performance.

MiniDV Recording
Offers up to 500 lines of horizontal resolution, three times the color bandwidth, and a significantly higher signal/noise ratio, to provide spectacular video performance.

20x Optical/800x Digital Zoom
The optical zoom helps to bring the action close up from far away. In addition, the Digital Zoom Interpolation means that extreme digital zooming is clearer, with less distortion than previous types of digital zooms.

Super SteadyShot Picture Stabilization System
Picture stabilization system that uses motion sensors to detect and compensate for camera shake without compromising picture quality like some other digital stabilization systems.

USB Streaming
Stay connected to family and friends by broadcasting live video with audio over the Internet using the USB interface. You can even playback your favorite recorded scene on the camcorder's tape. It's like having your own video-conferencing system.

InfoLithium Battery with AccuPower Meter System
Charge the battery at anytime--unlike NiCad (Nickel Cadmium) batteries, Sony's rechargeable lithium-ion batteries are not subjected to a life-shortening "memory effect". Sony's exclusive AccuPower meter displays the battery time remaining in minutes in either the viewfinder or on the LCD screen.

Stamina Battery Power-Management System
Using the optional NP-FP90 InfoLithium battery, the DCR-HC21 can continuously record for up to nine hours on a single full charge, providing extra-long battery life.

Professional Quality Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar Lens
Carl Zeiss lenses have an advanced optical multilayer coating that offers less glare and flare with increased contrast. This results in vivid image brilliance, true-to-life color saturation, and perfect renditions of subtle tones.

Fader Effects
Enhance your personal videos by adding professional-looking fader effects. Choose from Black, Mosaic, White, Monotone, and Stripe

Battery Information
At the touch of a button, battery information is displayed on the LCD screen when charging or when the camcorder is turned off. The display will show how much the battery is charged in 10% increments and the recordable time left when using the LCD screen or in the viewfinder.

Easy Handycam Button
Using a camcorder can be intimidating for some people, so with a press of the Easy Handycam button, most of the advanced features of the camcorder are "locked out," leaving only the buttons essential for recording operational.

2.5-inch Touch Panel SwivelScreen LCD Display (123K Pixels)
Provides excellent viewing clarity with improved resolution. The high-resolution 123K pixel LCD screen rotates up to 270 degrees for multiple viewing angles, providing sharp, detailed images for monitoring or playback.

i.LINK DV Interface
A digital high-speed bidirectional interface, which provides audio/video communication between two compatible devices. This connection allows for pure digital transfer between devices equipped with an IEEE1394 interface, such as camcorders, digital VTRs, capture cards, and PCs.

Accessory Shoe
Provides a location directly on the camcorder on which to add optional accessories.

Picture Package Software
Easily organize still images and video, and turn them into stunning music videos using the supplied software

Program AE (Auto Exposure) Modes
Program AE modes make recording easy even when filming in challenging situations. Choose from Portrait, Beach & Ski, Sports Lesson, Landscape, Spotlight, or Sunset & Moon modes.

NightShot Plus Infrared System
With Sony's NightShot Infrared System you can capture natural-looking video, even when shooting in low light. Record subjects up to 20 feet away using the built-in infrared system, but without the overall monochrome color common with earlier low-light recording systems.

End Search
Automatically advances the videotape to the last 5 seconds of the recorded scene. This prevents accidentally recording over previously recorded videos.

Photo Mode
Using Sony's Adaptive Frame Interpolation for better image quality, you can store hundreds of individual still images with seven seconds of audio on the videotape.

Manual Focus
Allows the user to manually adjust the focus of the camcorder using the touch panel. Manual focusing also allows the user to control the focus in difficult situations in which either the environment or the subject does not allow the camcorder's autofocus to perform optimally, such as when shooting through a window or in a crowded environment

Picture Effects
Get creative when recording or playing back your videos with Sony's Picture Effect Modes. Effects available in Camera mode: Negative Art, Sepia, Monotone, Solarize, Pastel, and Mosaic. Effects available in Playback mode: Negative Art, Sepia, Monotone, and Solarize.

Review

This was my first video camera so I wanted something easy to use, lightweight, uncomplicated. That it was. It was a Consumer Reports Best Buy and that influenced my buying decision. In daylight the pictures it took were OK. In low light they were terrible, even with Nightshot. When I tried to use it with a tripod I found I had to unscrew the camera from the tripod to change the tape-- an unnecessary hassle created by bad placement of the tape compartment. The software was worthless--unusable. I am a Mac user but did not even get to try out my computer DVD software because the camera broke before I got around to it.
After six months of most moderate use, the tape compartment refused to open and it had to be sent for repair. Sony asked for more than half the price of the camera for the repair. Fortunately I had a Mack extended warranty so I did not have pay Sony. It only cost me another $30 for processing. I would not recommend this video camera even for a beginner. And it taught me not to have implicit trust in Consumer Reports. There must be better choices
Source: http://www.amazon.com/