Sony DCR-PC330 Camcorder Review

by Robin Liss
Published on Nov 11, 2004 12:00 AM



Sony's MiniDV DCR-PC330 retails for around $1,500. The camcorder is billed as the first single, 3 Megapixel CCD camcorder. The DCR-PC330 is also the first Sony camcorder to include the new 3D menu system. The camcorder features a slightly improved design which improves handling, however the area of focus on this model is the stills - and they don't disappoint. The DCR-PC330 is certainly a solid camcorder.

Video Performance (8.5)
The video performance of the DCR-PC330, under normal and well lit lighting conditions, is pretty good. The camcorder's 1/3 in. 3.3 Megapixel CCD produces 3,048K effective pixels for stills and 2,077K effective pixels for video. The video is extremely crisp under normal lighting conditions and the colors are vibrant and clear. The camcorder doesn't under or over compensate any one color. PC330's lens is a ''Professional Quality Carl Zeiss® Vario-Sonnar® T* Lens.'' The T* lens has an additional coating that Sony says reduces lens flare and lens glare. It is the same coating that was included on the DCR-PC120BT and the DCR-TRV80.

(6.5)
At the top of the front of the DCR-PC330 is the lens, which is surrounded by a focus ring. Below that are two columns, one a blackish gray and one a silver like color. On the right towards the lens is the infrared sensor. To the right of the infrared sensor is the Sony logo and below that the camcorder name, DCR-PC330 NTSC. Below the logo and name, is a removable hard plastic panel. There are three jacks which are one after another, the Firewire, USB than the DC in jack at the bottom. I really don't like the placement of the DC power jack in the front of the camcorder, it makes shooting very awkward when you have the camcorder plugged in because you have the plug protruding out of the front which gets in the way of your hands.

The Right Side (8.0)
The right side of the DCR-PC330 is pretty well laid out. The camcorder is pretty much broken up into to two parts, at the top is the lens barrel which goes along the entire length of the camcorder and extends a good half inch from the front. Below the lens barrel is the tape portion which is slightly thinner than the lens barrel. On the blackish grey lens barrel there’s a silver patch which features many of the control buttons. In the way back is the back light and focus buttons. Ahead of that is the night shot / night framing button, then the Photo button and lastly the zoom control.

The Back (6.5)
At the top of the back of the DCR-PC330 is a pull out color viewfinder. The viewfinder comes out of the body of the camcorder about an inch, and clicks into place. It doesn't really lock though; once it's out and if you apply even gentle pressure it will pop back in. Below the viewfinder is the silver record button with the power slider which switches from off, to camera, tape, memory and playback modes. Below the slider is a charging indicator light. Towards the base of the camcorder is a battery lock and below that is a flash on / off button.

The Left Side (8.0)
The left side of the DCR-PC330 is taken over by the LCD screen and the battery. The LCD screen opens to reveal a LCD back light toggle switch, and a display button. They should have put a jog dial on the right side so you would not have to use the touch screen if you didn't want to.

The Top (6.5)
The top of the DCR-PC330 is pretty simple. At the front is the popup flash. Behind that is the poorly placed microphone, part of the reason the PC330 gets a low score of this section. Behind hat is the hot shoe.

Picture & Manual Control
Automatic Control (9.0)
The 2003 line of Sony camcorders are automatic control super starts. The introduction of Spot Metering and Spot Focus have put the Sony's in a new class for automatic ease of control. They are a great compromise between full manual and full auto control for the user who knows that their camcorder isn't doing the shot just right on their own, but can't master full manual control.

Overall Manual Control (4.5)
With the 2003 model line Sony placed all the picture functions and VCR functions inside the LCD screen. The first interface was not very good, it made it hard to control the different picture functions. With the DCR-PC330, Sony has upgraded the interface with a new 3D animated one with bigger buttons which are easier to use. I still don't like the fact that you have to control the picture elements through a touch screen, but this new interface is certainly an upgrade.

Zoom (6.5)
The 10X optical zoom is controlled by a slider on the right of the camcorder which is slightly skewed. Although the slider is large giving you good griping area, it's hard to work with. It's very hard to get nice smooth zoom and to hold variable speed zooms with the new zoom slider on the DCR-PC330.

Focus (8.0)
The DCR-PC330 includes a good focus ring which all camcorders should have. The ring is not too loose or too tight, allowing you to make minor focus adjustments. In addition to the focus ring, the Spot Focus feature, accessed similarly to the Spot Metering feature in the touch screen is a great addition to the focus control offered by the DCR-PC330.

Exposure (Aperture) (5.0)
Exposure control is done through the touch screen. Clicking on the EXPOSURE button in the upper right corner makes an auto and manual buttons appear. In manual mode, the plus and minus buttons on the right and left of the slider will increase or decrease the exposure level, or you can just put it in auto. To access the Spot Metering function, tap any area of the screen and the camcorder will automatically adjust its exposure to the area. For a control option as important as exposure, I really wish Sony had given it a dedicated jog dial on the side of the camcorder instead of relegating it to a touch screen menu.

Shutter Speed (0.0)
The DCR-PC330 offers no manual shutter speed control.

White Balance(7.5)
The DCR-PC330 offers the standard white balance control that is on most consumer camcorders. You can either select auto, manual, outdoor or indoor.

Gain (0.0)
The DCR-PC330 disappointingly offers no manual gain control.

Still (8.5)
The still performance of the DCR-PC330 is truly outstanding, and in my opinion the best still performance I have seen on a consumer camcorder. The stills are extremely high quality, rated at 2016 x 1512 pixel resolution which is just slightly under that of the Panasonic PV-DV953 (Review, Specs, Recent News, $899.88)'s 2,048 x 1,496. Although there are slightly fewer pixels, the Sony's image is much clearer and crisper. It might technically be the number two in still resolution, but it's certainly number one in my book for overall still quality. The stills are stored onto Memory Sticks and the camcorder includes at 16 MB stick in the package. The DCR-PC330 also has a USB port and a USB cable for hooking the camcorder into a computer for transfer of your digital stills.

VCR Mode (6.0)
All of the VCR controls on the DCR-PC330 are accessed in the touch screen by changing the mode dial. The only problem with it is that the buttons are superimposed over the picture so they sometimes get in the way.

Low Light Performance (5.5)
The low light performance of the DCR-PC330 is pretty good. There is some grain in low light situations but the large CCD produces pretty good colors. The low light performance doesn't compare to other 1/3 in. chip camcorders, however the performance is better than the Sony DCR-TRV70 (Review, Specs, $744.99) and the Panasonic PV-DV953 as well as the Canon Optura Xi (Specs, $799.99). The dynamic range of the camcorder in low light is what impressed me the most, you could see the difference between dark darks and lighter darks.

LCD / Viewfinder (9.0)
The DCR-PC330 includes a 211K pixel 2.5 in. Hybrid LCD. The LCD is the brains of this camcorder, considering that practically everything is controlled through it's touch screen. The camcorder also includes a 180K pixel color viewfinder — I would prefer that the viewfinder be black and white but it is a pretty crisp viewfinder as color viewfinders go.

Audio (7.0)
The microphone on the DCR-PC330 is located in possibly the worst location, it's located more towards the back of the camcorder than the front, so you shouldn't expect to get any good audio out of it. In fact, you'll likely get more operator sound than you will subject sound. Of course, all camcorder's on camera microphones are pretty much created equal - they suck, so we don't really factor on the on camera microphone performance into the overall score. The camcorder does allow you to dub audio and it has a dedicated microphone in jack. The camcorder also includes a hot shoe and a headphone out jack. The DCR-PC330's only audio weakness is that it doesn't allow you to manually set audio levels and you can't monitor the audio levels.

Handling (5.0)
I am typically not a big fan of matchbox camcorders otherwise known as vertical style camcorders, however, although the DCR-PC330 doesn't handle as well as a standard horizontal style camcorder, it does have some feature improvements which make it much more useable. The major problem with matchbox style camcorders is that they are awkward to hold with two hands, making it hard to hold your camcorder steady. I put a lot of weight in the handling performance of a camcorder because no matter how good the video is, if it's not steady, no one will want to watch it. The DCR-PC330 is a little heavy for a matchbox style camcorder, which is typically designed to be held in just one hand. I think you could hold the DCR-PC330 is just one hand, and probably for a good 10-20 minutes, but only because it's very well balanced, eventually though the weight would get to you. Sony brought back the neat flip down handle bar that was originally introduced on the DCR-PC120BT. The hard ballistic bar rotates about 80 degrees and you can rest your last two fingers on it; with your middle and index finger on the front of the camcorder and your thumb in the back operating the record button. Your index finger can easily move to access the photo button and the zoom control. As matchbox camcorders go, the DCR-PC330 has some of the best layout that I've seen and that's why it gets a relatively high score in this category.

Ports (6.5)
The DCR-PC330 has all the port and jack one could need: A Firewire, USB, DC, Microphone in, SVideo In/Out, headphone jack, and a hotshoe. The only draw back was the placement, specifically, the Firewire, USB, and DC in-as when shooting, camcorder in hand, the wires are sure to get in the way.

Other Features (8.0)
16:9 widescreen mode The DCR-PC330 offers the same stretched widescreen mode that is included on other Sony camcorders, and the best non native 16:19 chip widescreen mode in a camcorder out there. The camcorder uses the most pixels availble. The image also appears letterboxed on the LCD even though it's being recorded using all the pixels available to tape.

Webcam Using the USB port, the DCR-PC330 can be hooked up to a computer to act as a web cam.

Analog to Digital Pass Through You can hook an analog source into the video in's on the DCR-PC330 and hook a digital source into the Firewire port and the camcorder will convert the video on the fly from analog to digital - a great feature if you have old analog tapes.

Comparisons (no score provided)
Sony DCR-TRV70 The DCR-PC330 offers slightly better manual control than the DCR-TRV70, very slight, only because it includes the new menu navigation system. The DCR-TRV70 however offers better handling, while the DCR-PC330 offers a better video image and way better stilsl - though the difference is negligible. In the end, I would pick the DCR-TRV70 over the DCR-PC330, unless you want outstanding stills.

Panasonic PV-DV953 Although the DCR-PC330 offers better stills and better low light peroformance, I would pick the PV-DV953 because of it's superior manual control, superior image under normal lighting conditions and general better feature set.

Who's it For
Point and Shooter's (6.0) This is a great point and shoot unit, that will be fine for capturing your kids soccer matches, and snapping a few stills of the winning team after the game.
Budget Consumers (7.0) The DCR-PC330 is slightly cost prohibitive. It’s a hefty price tag for a matchbook
Still Photo / Video Camera Hybrid (8.0) The DCR-PC330 excels in stills, with one of the highest resolutions images on the market.
Gadget Freaks (6.0) The camcorder is a gadget, and the motion gif menus set a standard for interactive LCDs.
Manual Control Freaks (9.0) With no manual gain, and the majority of control within the touch screen, the camcorder still scores high because of a really well designed focus ring.
Pro's / Serious Hobbyists (7.0) If you’re looking for a matchbook with a great 3 megapixel CCD, and some decent manual controls, then try out the DCR-PC330.

Conclusion

The Sony DCR-PC330 is a great camcorder for digital still purposes. The stills are outstanding in quality and the best I've seen out of a digital camcorder. The feature set is pretty good and the 3D menu navigation system is a good improvement but one of the DCR-PC330's biggest weaknesses is the fact that picture elements are controlled through the touch screen. It's a strong camcorder and the layout upgrades over the DCR-PC120BT make it pretty manageable for a matchbox style. The biggest problem isn't something that the DCR-PC330 does wrong, it's how good the competition is. The DCR-PC330 is competing with the Panasonic PV-DV953 which is arguably the best value in control, feature set and video quality of all camcorders on the market - hard competition. If you want stills and a good hand held model that works well in point and shoot situations the DCR-PC330 is a great choice. It's a camcorder that I would certainly recommend.