I bought this camcorder almost a month ago and have been extremely pleased with the quality of this product. I had planned on staying away from the MiniDVD format because of the overwhelming sub-par reviews, but one look at the specs on this baby and I had to try it. The max resolution of all other models I looked at was around 690k effective pixels for recording, this one has 2048k effective pixels that is what sets this one apart. I have seen video with one of the other sony DVD models and it wasn't even in the same league.

The video recording quality is excellent, as with all recording equipment low light photography or videography is just that ....low light. No matter how hard the companies try nothing compares the the camera that is our EYE! That said I am pleased with the low light results.

The fact that is records in DD 5.1 is a big plus for me. The form factor is great small enough that it isn't a hassle to carry around but not to small that you can't easily access all the buttons, but i have normal sized hands if if you have mammoth hands you might have a problem.

The 3.0 megapixels stills are great but i have a Canon Digital rebel so that won't get used that much, but it is nice to not have to carry my other camera around.

I really can't say enough good about this camera. The cost benefit is actually a big seller for this camera you can get this camera for around $100 more than the next step down (dvd-301).

The battery life is excellent from what i have seen over two hours using the LCD, and you can use it with the DC adapter plugged in if you need that option.

It's not without it's faults though but I have not found many.

The optical zoom could be a little larger 10x is normally plenty but the lesser models have 12x so why leave that out? Speaking of the zoom sometimes when using the optical zoom the camera takes longer than I would expect to focus on a new subject, not always but just enough that I noticed it.

The advanced features such as manual focus, exposure, etc... are not easily manipulated during filming. You have to go through the menus each time to use them such as fading to black at the end of recording a certain scene.

Those are the main reasons that this camera didn't get all 5's from me.

If you get this camera you will not be dissappointed. Now all we need is for someone to make MiniDVD's that record over 1.4GB's LOL!!