Sony DCR-HC21 Camcorder Review

Still Features (1.5)
The DCR-HC21 (Review, Specs, $329) doesn’t have many Still photo features because it can only capture stills to tape at a resolution of 640 x 480. The only feature available, aside from the digital effects available during video and still capture, is a self timer which captures a still after about ten seconds. Normally, when held halfway down, the photo button captures whatever is within the camcorder’s frame, and then if pressed down fully, captures this same image for seven seconds to tape with real time audio.

Still Resolution (0.8)
The Sony DCR-HC21 captures stills to tape at a resolution of 640 x 480. It does not capture stills to card at any resolution as there is no card to capture to. The seven-second still images that are recorded to tape upon pressing the photo button, therefore, would yield the same typical resolution results as standard video capture would. For this reason, I will refer the reader to the Video Resolution paragraph for an understanding of the resolution of the DCR-HC21’s still images. The video resolution was scored at 0.078 MP.

Still Performance (2.0)
As stated above, the Sony DCR-HC21 only captures still to tape at a resolution of 640 x 480. It does not offer a card or the option to record still images to one. The seven second interval used to record still images to tape can be said to perform similar to standard video capture color-wise. Noise and grain, however, would not be moving. For this reason, I refer the reader to the Video Performance paragraph above for an example of such a still image.