Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I bought the Camcorder with some hesitation knowing that this is Toshiba's first Hard Drive Camcorder and that they are not noted for making camcorders. My investigation indicated that it basically has Canon lens and optics with the Hard Drive from Toshiba. First some of the bad things that i have encountered:
1. The camera has a focus problem. There is significant difficulty in getting the camera auto focusing especially in dim/low light. In daylight it is much better. Placing the focus to infinity helped a great deal.
2.Does not perform well in Low light, problem common to most Canon Camcorders. I recorded a Graduation Ceremony in a dimly lit hotel hall. With the bright light focused on the people the camera tends to produce too much white for the face. Adjusting the exposure helped somewhat but not very satisfactory.
3. The Hard Drive does get hot working it for some length of time and this places some discomfort on the hands. Not unbearable though.
4. There is indeed some Zoom lens noise picked up by the speaker when no other sound is present. This is however not a major discomfort.
5. Not too good quality stills in Low light dispite the flash. Everything looks too white.
6. Does not have a viewfinder. One has to rely on the screen. Thought that this would affect the battery life significantly but it did not.
7. Does not have an audio or Mic input port. This is a disadvantage for those wanting to record audio from a Mixer or other device.
8. The ACDSee software is really quite basic but gets the job done and a welcome for the novice.
Good things
1. Very well built. Fits the hand nicely. Good feel and weight.
2. Good Quality video in Outdoor lighting. I was indeed surprised at the accuracy of the colors.
3. Very easy to operate. Accessing the menu functions and features were really simple.
4. The output to DVD was very easy and fast. The included software is reasonable but has no editing features. DVD authoring is very limited. Tested importing a clip with Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 but it had difficulty in conforming the audio. Maybe i need an upgrade to Pro 2.0 to dealt with Dolby Digital.
5. The audio quality is surprisingly quite clean and very sensitive. Has three options to selecting the volume sensitivity.
6. The Battery life is excellent for such a small battery.
7. Very slim and Good Capacity hard drive.
8. No Tapes and limit to recording long events.
9. The included Cradle is very useful for charging and connecting to a the computer and network.
With the price and features compared to the competition Sony's i believe that this is a good value for money buy. This is certainly version 1 stuff from Toshiba/Canon but i am sure that improvements are on the way. Since HHD camcorder are relatively new except for JVC, i believe that all the makers will be tweeking and improving on this new technology and as such no brand will have the ultimate at this time.
For those willing to take the plunge into the HHD video world this is a good start.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Toshiba Gigashot GSC-R60 60GB 2MP Hard Disc Drive Camcorder w/10x Optical Zoom
0 comments:
Post a Comment