Sony DCR-PC105 Camcorder Review

by Robin Liss
Published on Jul 18, 2004 12:00 AM



The $1,000 MiniDV Sony DCR-PC105 is Sony's only vertical, match box style camcorder on the market today. The DCR-PC105 does a good job of shooting video under normal lighting conditions, and the CCD does a pretty good job in low light situations. The stills are quality, however I'm not a huge fan of the layout of the DCR-PC105. Despite some design improvements, the camcorder is hard to hold stable. Combined with a terrible zoom control and less than great manual control the DCR-PC105 is just hard to operate.

Video Performance (7.0)
The DCR-PC105 includes a 1/4.7 in. 1 Megapixel CCD, which is the exact same imaging system as is included with the Sony DCR-TRV33 and the Sony DCR-TRV38. In fact, the DCR-PC105 should be considered a vertical version of the DCR-TRV38. Under normal lighting conditions, the DCR-PC105 produces beautiful skin tones and doesn't under or over saturate any one color. The DCR-PC105 has a good dynamic range, working well with a variety of dark darks and light lights. The DCR-PC105 did have some problems with bleeding and the camcorder creates too much grain or speckle, random pixels changing color on solid surfaces.

The Front (6.5)
At the very top of the DCR-PC105 is a small piece of metallic reflective plastic - I'm not sure what the purpose of it is either than to look semi-cool. Below the metallic plastic is the lens surrounded by a focus ring. The rest of the front of the DCR-PC105 is split up into two columns. On the left is a black column. At the top of the black column is the Sony logo. Below the logo is the infrared receiver with a small red recording tally light in the bottom left. The rest of the black column is slightly ribbed vertically for you to grip. On the right is a silver column with the MiniDV logo at the top. Below the MiniDV logo is a hard piece of plastic which covers up the Firewire, USB and AC Adapter jacks in that order. I think placing the AC Adapter in the front is a really big mistake, there is certainly space in the back of the DCR-PC105 to put it there.

SonyThe Right Side (7.0)
At the front of the right side is the tiny zoom control. The zoom controller on the DCR-PC105 is the smallest one I have ever seen. Behind the zoom controller is the photo button, and behind that is the Night Shot switch. Below the Night Shot switch is the auto / manual focus button. Behind the focus button is a hard piece of plastic which reveals three jacks. The first is the Microphone in Jack. The next is the new A / V and S-Video break out jack which connects to a new Mini A / V jack which has three RCA connections as well as an S-Video connection. To the right of the AV connector is the Control-L / Lanc jack. Above the small patch bay is a tiny microphone for playback. Because of the nature of the layout it is unlikely that any of the jacks are going to get in your way, however I think they could have made the right side of the camcorder much more easier to handle.

The Back (7.0)
The back's where the parties at on the DCR-PC105.... Well, maybe not the party, but a whole lot of stuff is back here. At the top is the extendable viewfinder which pop's out and has a general 'cheap' feel to it. Below is the power dial which allows you to change from VCR, Off, Camera and Memory mode. The power dial surrounds the record button. There is also a lock which can be pushed in to prevent the camera from going into Memory mode. I still can't figure out why they need this, I would think a lock that keeps you in camera mode (so you don't switch out while recording) would make a lot more sense - but often it doesn't seem that what make sense always makes it onto a camcorder. Below the power dial is the flash toggle on the left and the LCD backlight (a new feature!) on off slider. Off to the right a little more is the headphone jack which is covered by a piece of semi-soft plastic and below that is the Memory Stick slot. At the way bottom, about a half inch up is the battery eject button. My biggest complaint about the back of the DCR-PC105 is that the record button seems very prone to being hit with your nose - I'm not kidding. If you're looking into the viewfinder you may by mistake hit the record button with your nose - inadvertently starting or stopping recording. I can see it now "sorry the tape of your wedding didn't work - it's because of my big nose."

The Left Side (6.5)
The left slide is dull besides the cool metallic blue color. At the top is the 2.5 in. LCD screen. Below that towards the front of the camcorder is the Display / Battery Info and the Back Light buttons. To the right of the buttons is the Battery Slot. Swinging open the LCD reveals more nothingness, not even a speaker.

The Top (7.0)
The top of the DCR-PC105 contains three simple items. At the front is the pop-up flash. Behind that is the terribly placed microphone and behind that is the hot shoe.

Picture & Manual Control
Automatic Control (9.0)
Auto superstar, that is what you are, comin' from Sony, to a distant star. Each time I review a Sony MiniDV 2003 camcorder I sing that song - the DCR-PC105 is outstanding with auto control options. The inclusion of a touch screen, as much as I dislike it, brings with it the Spot Focus and Spot Metering. Each one allows you to adjust the focus and the exposure respectively by simply touching on an area of the screen.

Overall Manual Control (4.0)
I do not like how Sony has placed all the manual picture functions inside the LCD screen. It is really hard to operate the functions inside the LCD. The only real positive of the manual control on the DCR-PC105 is the focus ring. The zoom control is way too small and the exposure control should be moved onto a real button. It's really too bad that Sony doesn't include manual shutter speed and manual gain control - they could very easily add it with just a simple software modification.

Zoom (5.0)
The DCR-PC105 includes a 10x optical zoom. The zoom control on the DCR-PC105 is likely the worst I've ever seen on a camcorder. When I first saw it I thought someone had snapped part of the zoom controller off. It's tiny. The zoom slider barely raises up above the side of the camcorder and there is such a small surface area that it's hard to get a hold of it with your finger. I was able to get a variable zoom with it but it's so small that it's way too sensitive. There is a good amount of resistance - if there wasn't it'd be impossible to control the zoom.

Focus (8.0)
The DCR-PC105 has a nice silver focus ring. The ring has a good amount of resistance allowing you to make very small focus adjustments. A focus ring is certainly the best way possible to control the focus on a camcorder. The placement is great because if you're holding the DCR-PC105 in one hand (how it's primarily designed to be held) you can easily adjust the focus while adjusting the zoom at the same time. The other focus feature that the DCR-PC105 has is Spot Focus. If you touch the focus button on the screen, and then the Spot Focus button a large box appears on the screen. When you touch on an area of the screen the camcorder will adjust the focus to that area. I really like the Spot Focus feature because it helps out users who realize that their camcorder isn't doing the best job with the auto focus but aren't comfortable with the manual focus ring.

Exposure (Aperture) (4.5)
The exposure on the DCR-PC105 is controlled through the touch screen menu. The DCR-PC105 has 24 steps of exposure, however there are no F Stop readings. I really wish that Sony had included a jog dial for controlling exposure and some of the other menu functions. It would have been a real plus. The problem with forcing everything into the touch screen is that you have to open up the LCD to adjust the exposure which creates unnecessary camera shake and is just generally awkward.

Shutter Speed (0)
The DCR-PC105 includes no manual shutter speed control.

White Balance (7.0)
The DCR-PC105 includes the standard level of white balance control for Sony MiniDV camcorders. The white balance control is accessed through the menu using the touch screen system. There are four white balance options including, manual, auto, indoor and outdoor.

Gain (0)
The DCR-PC105 includes no manual gain control.

Still (7.0)
The stills produced by the DCR-PC105 are pretty good. The camcorder can produce up to 1,152 x 864 pixel resolution stills saved to Memory Stick. The camcorder includes a 8 MB Memory Stick and a USB slot for digitally transferring the stills from the camcorder to the computer. The still quality is pretty good for a camcorder with similar performance as the video quality under low light. The DCR-PC105 also includes a flash which is very helpful in low light situations.

VCR Mode (6.0)
The VCR mode on the DCR-PC105 is controlled through the touch screen. The VCR controls include everything you would need and I don't mind the touch screen VCR controls as much as the camera touch screen controls - however because the buttons are superimposed over the image your video is always going to be slightly covered up.

Low Light Performance (5.0)
The Sony DCR-PC105 does an impressive job at shooting in low light conditions, however it certainly isn't outstanding. The camcorder produces a fair amount of grain, certainly not too much, but a manual grain control would really help. The color representation is pretty good and fair under low light conditions however there were some random discoloration that really detract.

LCD / Viewfinder (9.0)
The DCR-PC105 includes a very nice 2.5 in. LCD screen with 211K effective pixels. The color viewfinder works fine. I really don't have any complaints about the LCD or the viewfinder.

Audio (7.0)
The microphone placement on the DCR-PC105 is terrible. The microphone is pointed at the sky, not towards what you're shooting so you're just as likely to pick up operator noise as you are to pick up what you actually want. Usually, I don't put much weight into the on-camera microphone because they are all generally terrible. Where it counts is audio options, and the DCR-PC105 certainly delivers, especially for such a small cam. The DCR-PC105 includes a dedicated microphone in jack as well as a dedicated headphone out jack. The camcorder includes a hot shoe as well as audio dubbing. The only audio option which it's missing is manual control of the audio levels and an on-screen audio level display.

Handling (4.0)
In general I don't like how 'matchbox' or vertical camcorders handle. The major benefit of this form factor was the size, however with the introduction of the ultra cheap and ultra small DCR-TRV19 (Review, Specs, $372), DCR-TRV22 (Specs, $999) and the DCR-TRV33 the DCR-PC105 style is looking less and less attractive with regards to size. The DCR-PC105 is designed to be held with one hand and the camcorder includes an interesting leather strap to wrap your last two fingers on. On the DCR-PC120, an older model, Sony had a similar feature but it was made out of plastic. The leather strap is better than nothing, however the plastic was much more effective in aiding in the stabilization of the camcorder. Generally, I find that the DCR-PC105 is tough to handle. It feels very heavy and doesn't seemed to be balanced very well - I don't think it's easy to hold the DCR-PC105 in one hand for a long period of time.

Ports (8.5)
The DCR-PC105 includes a USB and a Firewire Jack. For audio options the camcorder includes both a dedicated headphone out and microphone in jack as well as a hot shoe. The DCR-PC105 includes a somewhat new 'breakout' cable for S-Video and the RCA AV In / outs. I'm not a huge fan of the huge breakout cable - I wish they had at least put a dedicated S-Video jack on the camcorder.

Other Features (6.0)
Battery Info The battery info feature is new for the 2003 camcorders. Battery Info lets you push a button and the camcorder will display the remaining battery time on the LCD screen - with out technically turning the camcorder on (although it requires power). It's a neat feature though I don't really see any huge uses for it - Sony's research and development time should have been spent on cranking better low light performance out of the camcorder.

Bottom Loading Tape Mechanism Not exactly a feature more like a terrible design misstep which Sony has been repeating on practically every camcorder for the past three years. The tapes on the DCR-PC105 are loaded from the bottom of the camcorder instead of the top meaning that you have to remove the camcorder from the tripod to put a tape in.

Analog to Digital Pass Through This is a really hot feature on today's camcorders - it allows you to use the DCR-PC105 as an analog to digital converter (and a really expensive one at that). Analog to digital pass through allows you to hook an analog video source up the DCR-PC105 and then convert the video from analog to digital on the fly for transfer to your computer or to another camcorder.

USB Streaming USB streaming allows you to use the DCR-PC105 either as a web cam or for video chats.

Widescreen This is a neat new addition on to the 2003 camcorders. Instead of just letterboxing the image, the DCR-PC105 uses the extra wide CCD to record a stretched image to the tape which uses more pixels than letterboxing would. One of the coolest things of this feature is that although the picture is squeezed on the tape, the image appears letterboxed on the CCD - allowing you to see what will be seen on a widescreen TV.

Comparisons (no score provided)
Optura 20 The Optura 20 does slightly better than the DCR-PC105 in my opinion under normal lighting conditions, however the difference is slight. The DCR-PC105 colors are more saturated. Where the DCR-PC105 wins is clearly in low light performance. I prefer the layout of the Optura 20 much more than that of the DCR-PC105 - though I'm personally not much of a fan of vertical matchbox style camcorders.

DCR-TRV39 The DCR-TRV39 and the DCR-PC105 are practically the same camcorder with a different shape and different handling as well as a larger LCD on the DCR-TRV39. I would clearly pick the DCR-TRV38, the DCR-TRV39's cheaper sister because I think it's much easier to hold stable and the larger LCD is much better. If you are really bent on a small camcorder, go with the DCR-TRV33 which will be almost as small and compact as the DCR-PC105 and has the same imaging components and features.

Who's it For
Try to figure out which section you fit into, and the corresponding comments should help you decide whether or not this is the camcorder for you.

Point and Shooter's (9.0)
This is a pretty good camcorder if you're looking for simplicity. The combination of the touch screen with the small size is nice, though I would go for the Sony DCR-TRV33 over the DCR-PC105 for point and shooters.

Budget Consumers (4.0)
The DCR-PC105 isn't a terrible buy however there are camcorders with much better handling.

Still Photo / Video Camera Hybrid (0)
The DCR-PC105 is an okay hybrid, with good performance in each area however there are certainly hybrid camcorders out there with much better still performance.

Gadget Freaks (7.0)
Sony camcorders are for you! Though I don't know if that's a good thing. The DCR-PC105 has all kinds of 'gadgety' features, maybe all it's missing is internet connectivity.

Manual Control Freaks (5.0)
The PC105 is okay however the zoom control is terrible and there is no manual shutter or gain.

Pro's / Serious Hobbyists (5.0)
The DCR-PC105 is certainly not for you, the vertical style alone looks terribly unprofessional.

Conclusion
The final score chart for the DCR-PC105 is as follows:

Area Weight Raw Adj. Poss.
Video Performance
2.00
7.0
14.00
20.0
The Front
0.20
6.5
1.30
2.0
The Right Side
0.30
7.0
2.10
3.0
The Back
0.25
7.0
1.75
2.5
The Left Side
0.20
6.5
1.30
2.0
The Top
0.15
7.0
1.05
1.5
Automatic Control
0.50
9.0
4.5
5.0
Overall Manual Control
0.60
4.0
2.4
6.0
Zoom
0.75
5.0
3.75
7.5
Focus
0.70
8.0
5.6
7.0
Exposure
0.65
4.5
2.93
6.5
Shutter Speed
0.60
0.0
0.00
6.0
White Balance
0.55
7.0
3.85
5.5
Gain
0.50
0.0
0.00
5.0
Still Performance
1.20
7.0
9.40
12.0
VCR Mode
0.30
6.0
1.8
3.0
Low Light Performance
2.00
5.0
10.00
20.0
LCD / Viewfinder
.60
9.0
5.40
6.0
Audio
1.00
7.0
7.00
10.0
Handling
1.25
4.0
5.0
12.5
Jacks / Ports / Plugs
.80
8.5
6.80
8.0
Other Features
0.70
6.0
4.20
7.0
Value
1.25
3.0
3.75
12.5
Total (weighted)
96.88
170.5

The DCR-PC105 does a solid job where it counts, in shooting video under normal and low light conditions. The problems start occurring however when you take everything else into the equation. The manual controls, especially the zoom are very hard to operate. Although the DCR-PC105 is small, I feel that vertical matchbox style camcorders are way to difficult to operate. If you're really looking for a small camcorder, go with the Sony DCR-TRV33 which is practically the same camcorder and only slightly larger. The DCR-TRV33's square shape brings it very close to the matchbox style of the DCR-PC105. Another camcorder to look at is the DCR-TRV38 which is practically the same camcorder (at least when you look at useful features) as the DCR-TRV39, the horizontal version of the DCR-PC105. With the DCR-TRV38, you get a better zoom control and a much better layout with a larger LCD. I wouldn't recommend the DCR-PC105 unless you are stuck on a vertical camcorder, in that case, it is an acceptable choice.