Sony DCR-IP220 Camcorder Review - First Review Available

by Robin Liss
Published on Nov 1, 2002 12:00 AM



Sony's DCR-IP220 MicroMV camcorder with an MSRP of $2000. With the first camcorder of the second generation of MicroMV camcorders Sony has made a lot of improvements. The picture quality, although not as great as many MiniDV camcorders has improved. The new innovative layout combined with the touch screen LCD makes the camcorder much easier to use. But the bottom line is that although it is a fun camcorder, it does not give you enough bang for the buck with video quality.

Video Performance
I was impressed with the improvements in the video quality with the DCR-IP220. The picture is pretty sharp, and at least comparable to some of the lower range MiniDV camcorders. Although the picture is sharp, I do feel that the camcorder lacks a certain color depth. It's hard to put in words but when I'm shooting say a black object and a dark navy blue object, they can appear exactly the same color when it's not a close-up shot of the two.

The pictures are very sharp and I believe Sony when they say it records at 530 lines of resolution. However they lack a certain depth to them, they look very "digital" (as they should be, they are being recorded in MPEG), almost as though they were produced by a high resolution web cam. The camcorder does suffer from the common problem of inexpensive Sony digital camcorders of producing artifacts (discolored small portions of the picture) with dark blues and blacks. It's a very hard judgment to make, but I would have to say that the camcorder is coming very close in quality to 1 CCD MiniDV camcorders. In fact, I believe that the DCR-IP220 beats the DCR-TRV18 and puts up some good competition against the DCR-TRV25/27 on video sharpness. This is due to the high resolution CCD. But the MiniDV camcorders still win out in luminance and overall color depth and in my opinion produce a much better picture.

Front
To start off, I must say that we've never seen a camcorder like the DCR-IP220. In a time when manufacturer's are putting more effort into the glitz and glamour of a camcorder than the quality of the video it produces, the DCR-IP220 at least stands out with innovation in camcorder design. There isn't much to the front of this camcorder because its so small. The lens is on the left, and next to the lens is the light meter and the IR sensor for communicating with the remote.

Right
There isn't much going on with the right side of the DCR-IP220. The handle of the camcorder goes along the entire length of the right side. Located on the outside of the handle is a slot where the stylus slides into. The stylus clicks in and out of the holder pretty securely. The stylus expands and contracts by about 40%. Located towards the lens on the camcorder is a port covered by a hard piece of plastic. Hidden behind the piece of plastic is the USB connector, the Control-L Lanc port, the headphone port and the MicroMV iLink port. I'm disappointed with the choice to place these features on the right side where they are covered up by your hand. It's too bad because it means its harder to use these ports while you are shooting with the camcorder in your right hand. Now I had this same complaint with the Canon Optura, but the situation is not as bad with the Sony. The ports are placed towards the front of the camcorder and not towards the back so if you have a small hand you 'might' not cover them up. The ports are also not as important as they were on the Canon. Instead of being critical ports like microphone in, these ports typically are used for playback, when they camcorder is not in your hand. Located on the right side towards the way back and on the top is the flash mode select with which you can switch between always flashing, auto flash (the camcorder detects when to use it) and no flash.

Back
There aren't a lot of external controls on any part of the DCR-IP220, most of them are recessed inside the menu system which is accessible through the LCD screen. Part of the innovative design of the IP220 is the LCD screen being located in the back. The screen folds up from the back of the camcorder, instead of out from the left or the right as it does on most other camcorders. Hidden behind the LCD screen is the memory eject button and the LCD backlight on/off button. The LCD backlight is a nice new feature to conserve battery life. You can turn the backlight on or off on the camcorder. With the light on the brightness is much much greater, but it uses more battery life.

Left
The left of the camcorder is also not feature heavy. Towards the lens is the focus / zoom ring toggle and the backlight compensation button. Below them is the Nightshot, Nightframing and Super Nightshot buttons with the fader button to the right. Towards the bottom and back of the right side of the camcorder is the DC in and AV in/out port. The AV in out port is unique on the DCR-IP220. One plug breaks out into the composite video, left audio, right audio and S-Video outputs.

Top and Bottom
The top of the DCR-IP220 is where its going on. On the top closest to the lens is the microphone. It's poor microphone placement, I don't know why they couldn't place it in the front where the IR port is, or where the big Sony logo is. To the right is the pop-up flash for digital stills. Located behind the flash is the power button which uses an interesting click mechanism. Instead of sliding from mode to mode, you click the button over and it springs back, switching modes between camera, memory / network and VCR modes. Located behind the power button is the tape open / eject button. When you click the button the tape mechanism opens up from the top. I really am happy that Sony decided to put the tape mechanism on the top of the camcorder instead of the bottom - as is the trend with small camcorders today. Located behind the tape eject button (not on the tape cover) is the tiny zoom control and the photo button.

Menu Control
The reason there are not a ton of buttons on the outside of the DCR-IP220 is partially because there just isn't a lot of space to place them on the camcorder, and partially because Sony has included a touch-sensitive LCD screen which makes using the menu much easier. The first part of the LCD screen options are not actually called the "menu" they are called "Function". Located on the bottom left of the LCD screen is a button labeled FN. When you click on it pops up a superimposed menu of options. Along the top are three tabs labeled page 1, 2 and 3. Along the bottom left is the menu button, self timer, "end search" (for playback), and exposure buttons. Located about the menu and exposure buttons are the spot focus and spot meter modes respectively. On page 2 is the title, digital effect and memory mix modes. On page 3 is the LCD brightness, volume control and the counter reset button.

Manual Control
I'm really happy with the manual control and automatic control options with the DCR-IP220. The only downside to them is that most are controlled via the touch screen which requires many clicks to adjust the options, however I do feel that the touch screen is an improvement over a normal menu system controlled by a jog dial or similar control.

Focus
The DCR-IP220 gives you three focus control options, which you won't find on any other camcorder other than ones made by Sony. The first is full auto control in which the camcorder controls the focus completely. The second is full manual control in which you control the focus by the nice focus ring located around the lens. The focus ring is almost 1/2 in. thick and has a nice grip around it. The ring gives enough resistance to get an accurate focus. As an added bonus, the camcorder displays meter distances on the screen when you are using auto focus. The third focus control option is through the touch screen. When the focus is in manual mode, you can select spot focus through the function option on the LCD screen. In this mode, the camcorder focus' on the area of the screen that you touch with the stylus (or with your finger). The spot focus is pretty accurate most of the time, though sometimes it takes the camcorder a few seconds to adjust to the new focus or it doesn't get a good "read" on the focus area and doesn't adjust the focus correctly. As I've said in previous reviews, I think that the spot focus and spot meter features on Sony camcorders is one of the best new features on camcorders in the fast few years. It works quite well. It really makes quasi manual control easier for the beginner camcorder user

Zoom
The zoom on the DCR-IP220 is 10x optical 120x digital. I want to take the designer of the DCR-IP220 and hug them for putting a zoom ring on a consumer camcorder that costs under $2000 finally! But at the same time I want to slap Sony in the face for doing it on the IP220 which is certainly not a camcorder for professional or serious hobbyist who are going to use the zoom ring. I just hope that they are starting a trend with all Sony camcorders. Please please please please!!!! You can switch the focus ring into a zoom ring by using the focus auto / manual control button on the right side of the camcorder.

The zoom ring isn't perfect, is is obviously electronic (they couldn't make a switching one with out it being electronic) so there is a slight delay between turning the ring and the zoom responding. However you can get a few different zoom speeds, from a very slow to a very fast. It's really an improvement over no zoom ring however. The other zoom control is a joke. It's a tiny back and forth rocker. Acheving a slow zoom is almost impossible. If not for the zoom ring the zoom control on the DCR-IP220 would be terrible

Exposure
The exposure is controlled again through the touch menu. I counted 24 possible steps of exposure, which is pretty good. It's too bad that Sony doesn't include actual aperture ratings with the exposure control though. I do wish that Sony also included a dial control for exposure in addition to the on screen control, because it's such an important feature.

The other exposure control (which also controls Shutter Speed) is the spot meter. Similar to the focus meter, the spot meter adjusts the exposure and shutter speed based on where you touch on the screen. My observations about the spot meter function are the same as they were with the spot focus. I really think it's a great feature, it's accurate most of the time but sometimes it has an error. It's a nice option to include however for the beginner who isn't comfortable adjusting exposure on their own. Of course the camcorder also includes a normal full auto exposure mode.

White Balance & Shutter Speed
The white balance is controlled through the menu, which is accessed through the function button on the touch screen LCD. The camcorder has four options, hold, auto, indoor and outdoor. With the hold option you can manually set the white balance. With the auto option the camcorder controls the white balance, and the indoor and outdoor options are for their respective settings. Toggling the automatic shutter on or off is controlled through the menu. The DCR-IP220 has no manual shutter, other than being controlled through the auto exposure modes.

Handling
I like how the DCR-IP220 handles. Sony has been very innovative with its design of the 220. Unlike the DCR-IP7 and the DCR-IP5 and other small camcorders, the DCR-IP220 uses an innovative design that makes it easy to use with the small size. The camcorder is small enough and you wrap your hand around it so it's easy to hold for a long period of time in one hand and keep the shot steady.

The camcorder weighs 520 grams, however I think the camcorder feels heavier than it is because of poor weight balance, a lot of the weight is towards the back. The buttons are easily accessible. And you can reach the photo and record buttons easily with your thumb. The biggest accessibility problem is the fact that all the controls are recessed in the touch screen menus. Although the touch screen menus are better than normal menus in other camcorders, it would be nice if the exposure could be controlled by a real dial.

Still Performance
The DCR-IP220 gives many options with digital stills and is advertised as the first 2 Megapixel CCD camcorder. Yes, it's correct that the stills are high resolution, but they aren't that great looking. When you zoom in on the stills, they are very grainy, regardless of the lighting condition. The detail isn't that great. You're going to get much better performance with a dedicated digital still camera. The companies can max out the resolution of the stills on camcorders, but in the end it seems it takes a dedicated camera to produce quality stills. Here are two stills, the first is in moderate lighting conditions, and the second is in slightly better lighting conditions. Click on the link to view the images, they are at the highest quality compression.

There are many options with digital stills on the DCR-IP220. You save the stills to Memory Sticks. The camcorder includes an 8 MB Memory Stick, but there are Memory Sticks up to 256 MB available. The images are saved as JPEGs. When you first press the photo button, the image is displayed, you can withhold pressing the button and the image will stay on the screen and not be recorded to the Memory Stick. When you press the button in all the way it saves the image to the Memory Stick. You can adjust picture elements, turn on picture effects, the title mode and access other features through the touch screen with the DCR-IP220. The DCR-IP220 has both fine and super fine quality modes, plus you can save the images as either 1600 x 1200 or 640 x 480 pixel resolution stills. You can transferred the stills to your computer by either ejecting the Memory Stick and using an external reader or by hooking the camcorder up to the computer via the USB port.

MPEG Movie Mode
You can also record MPEG movies to the Memory Stick. I think that the MPEG recording has finally reached a usable level. You can record 320 x 240 or 240 x 180 20 frame per second MPEG video of any length (only dependent on the size of your Memory Stick) to the Memory Stick. The movies are quite smooth and are pretty good quality. I'm really impressed with them now. Of course, I don't think they are high enough quality to output to tape (the resolution will have to get up to 640 x 480) but they are certainly watchable and acceptable for web or computer output.

Low Light
The low light performance of the DCR-IP220 is terrible. In moderately lit conditions, the camcorder produces a very grainy picture with many artifacts. In poorly lit conditions, the camcorder produces virtually no picture. It does not have the gain to produce any image in a poorly lit condition. If you are worried about low light performance stay away from the DCR-IP220.


LCD / Viewfinder
The 2 in. LCD screen has an innovative design like I mentioned above. I like the design. It allows you to hold the camcorder from the back close to your body and still look at the LCD screen. Many of the camcorders functions are controlled through the touch screen feature of the LCD. Located to the right of the LCD is the color viewfinder. I say it in every review and I'm going to say it again, it would be better if they included a black and white viewfinder on these camcorders with a color LCD instead of color versions of both.

Bluetooth / Network Handycam
The DCR-IP220 includes Bluetooth wireless networking technology. This allows the camcorder to communicate with another Bluetooth enabled device that is around 30 feet away. On the DCR-IP220, the Bluetooth is used for enabling Internet features. You can wireless connect to either a Bluetooth enabled cell phone, or an adapter that connects to a normal phone line, which Sony sells separately. The network features of the DCR-IP220 are accessed through an on-screen button when your in the Memory / Network mode. Once in Network mode you have four options, Mail, Browser, and Album and Setup.

Setup is where you configure the Internet options of the camcorder. You can configure the camcorder to connect to your own ISP or Sony's So-Net service. You can also setup your mail server for the email functions and you setup the browser proxy and port. You can also setup the network options and Bluetooth options from the Setup menu. Sony also offers a free online digital imaging service to use with your camcorder. You can sign up for this either through the camcorder or through your PC.

There mail function allows you to send email's with still image attachments. You can also receiving emails from your existing email account. The camcorder also has an address book (I can't believe I just typed that) to save email addresses. The album function interfaces with Sony's digital imaging website. Using this function you can upload images from your camcorder to your own personal online album. You can also view your album from the camcorder. The last function allows you to browse the web with the camcorder. I must admit the Network Handycam functions are slowly growing on me. When they first came out with them, the camcorders did not have touch screens. The addition of a touch screen has made it much easier to use the Network functions. Composing emails is somewhat possible with the stylus by typing them out on a tiny keyboard. It would be really cool if the camcorder had handwriting recognition software like Palm computers have. I think the most practical use for the Network functions is when you're on the road for a long time and you want to keep up with the world. I hope to spend more time with a network camcorder on a trip and write an article on the Network functions. With each Sony camcorder I'm beginning to like the Network feature more and more, however it is a little nutty and I don't think most people will find it useful.

MicroMV and Video Transfer
The MicroMV format saves MPEG video to the tiny tapes. The maximum tape size you can get is 60 minutes. The tapes are the smallest available today. Although the camcorder transfers the digital video to computer via Firewire, it is only compatible with Sony Movieshaker and other Sony video editing products. The imported video is okay, but it's not as great quality as MiniDV. Movieshaker is included with the camcorder for free. Many people, including myself see this as one of the biggest detractors of the IP220 and the entire IP line. Without jumping through hoops you can't get the video editing into a serious video editing program. The Movieshaker program is very limited in what you can do, and you won't be able to accomplish any thing more than simple, inaccurate editing in the program.

Other Features
USB Streaming
Sony started a trend by putting USB streaming on their camcorders and the feature works fine on the DCR-IP220. Through the USB port the camcorder can stream video over the Internet for for a conference call.
Electronic Image Stabilization
The electronic image stabilization on the DCR-IP220 is pretty good. The extra large CCD should give the picture a lot of room. It's comparable to any optical image stabilization out there.
Super Night Shot
Sony now includes a color night shot with their original night shot on the camcorders. The feature is nice but I wouldn't recommend using it for anything more than a gimmick because the video is of pretty poor quality.

Compared to the Sony DCR-IP7BT and DCR-IP5
I strongly disliked the DCR-IP7BT and IP5. I thought they were gimmicky camcorders with little practical use and a terrible design. I really like Sony has greatly improved with the DCR-IP220. The video is noticeably better quality and the layout is truly innovative. The touch screen makes using the bluetooth features practical. The touch screen also makes accessing all the features that were hidden in a menu due to the previous models small size easier. The added spot focus and meter features are great improvements. Of course I still don't feel that the camcorder is a good choice for someone who is interested in shooting serious video, however the improvements make the camcorder much more practical.

Conclusion
I really feel that Sony has made huge improvements in the MicroMV line with design with the IP220. The new tiny horizontal design, with the LCD screen in the back makes the IP220 really easy to use. The video has really improved and is quite sharp. The inclusion of the focus and zoom ring makes the DCR-IP220 much easier to use, and the control of the menu functions by the LCD screen is better than having them kept in a classic menu as they were in the first generation MicroMV camcorders. I like the MPEG video. I am disappointed with the still quality but it is good for a camcorder.

Overall I would recommend the DCR-IP220 to the consumer who is not interested in tweaking their picture, but one that is interested in having a fun camcorder which is tiny and easy to carry into any situation and is not worried about the price. I like the DCR-IP220 a lot more than the other MicroMV camcorders. It doesn't produce the best stills, best video (though some of the sharpest) or give you the best control but it is a fun camcorder with some very useful features and it all fits into a tiny package that is easy to shoot with. The problem is however, it's very expensive. You can get much better video with the same features in a slightly larger package with the Sony DCR-PC120BT or the DCR-TRV50, and those camcorders carry cheaper prices. My final word is that the IP220 has greatly improved and is an acceptable camcorder, but it's price way too high.