*** This review was updated in May 2007, after I'd owned the DCR-DVD108 for about a full month. ***

The Sony DCR-DVD108 – hereafter, the “DVD108” – was announced by Sony back in January of 2007. As I write, it’s mid-April 2007, so the product has been on the market for approximately three months.

The DVD108 is in a class of device called DVD camcorders. These devices use miniature DVD’s about 3 inches in diameter, as compared with Mini DV camcorders, which use digital tape cartridges. One of the inconveniences inherent with tape camcorders is what I call “unspooling”: if you want to get the content off the Mini DV tape for use in DVD creation, you have to play the tape back while the DV camcorder is attached to your computer (by way of a FireWire/IEEE 1394 or USB 2 cord). If you have a 30-minute tape it will take at least 30 minutes to unspool or import the video. A 60-minute tape will take at least an hour. I say “at least” in both these cases because I have observed that occasionally, during the import process, the tape is paused to let an internal buffer catch up with a process known to insiders as “transcoding”. DVD camcorders let you bypass the irritation associated with unspooling to get your video content to your hard drive.


MOTIVATION FOR BUYING

I speak from experience, of course – my previous camcorder was a Sharp ViewCam VL-NZ50U (where do they make up these names??) and while I loved the fact that the unit was a Mini DV unit, the process of copying video from Mini DV tapes to the hard drive was not convenient. (Side note: have you ever heard of anyone that’s come up with a way of “speed reading” these digital camcorder tapes? I haven’t; if anyone figures out a way and sells it, they’ll make a fortune.) In addition, I bought that Sharp unit waaaay back in 2002, so the ViewCam has experienced a considerable amount of wear and tear, the most annoying of which is the “still” button is so easily pressed that I’ve lost seconds of video scenes. So I decided to replace it.

In researching the DVD108, I found the most helpful feedback on the Circuit City web site, and nearly all of it rated the DVD108 as a 5 out of 5. Many other units, some less costly and some more costly, did not rate as well. Considering the DVD108 is neither the most expensive nor the least, it’s saying something for Sony that so many people like this unit.

Some of you may be wondering why I didn’t consider the hard drive class of camcorders – these are units that have a built-in hard drive. Essentially, that would be carrying around a huge hard drive that just happens to have a camcorder attached to it. While it would offer more freedom in that there would be more space to store video (one model I looked at said up to 6 hours), I have always preferred removable media to fixed media for one reason. If that fixed hard drive in that camcorder goes south, that ENTIRE UNIT is going back to the factory for repairs (unless you gambled and bought a retailer’s “protection plan” allowing you to replace the unit at the store). At least with DVD camcorders like the DVD108, if one disc is bad, you can toss it and insert another one.

So for those and other reasons I decided on the Sony DVD108.


EXPECTATIONS

Like me, if this is NOT your first time using a camcorder, you probably bring some expectations to the Sony DVD108. In this section, I am going to try to blow those away, because I had to adjust my way of thinking to use this unit.

First of all, consider tape camcorders. To record to a Mini DV tape, you open the unit (usually by pressing a button), insert the tape into a holding mechanism, it “accepts” the tape which retreats into the body of the camcorder, and you’re ready to record. With DVD camcorders, remember that you’re now using (effectively) a miniature DVD burner, meaning the disc has to be formatted before you can use it (I am assuming the use of reusable “RW” discs here, by the way). That’s a 12-second operation, but my concern is this: if I’m at a sporting event or a public performance, and I have to change discs, and something happens in that 12 seconds while I’m formatting, am I going to be furious?

Using a DVD camcorder like the DVD108 will require some planning ahead to prevent incidents like this.

Here’s another example – most of the blank mini DVD’s now will let you record 30 minutes (in standard recording mode; you can get more time by going to a lesser quality mode). You now must bring twice as many media as you would have before (or purchase double-sided media ahead of time). By the way, you might think that using LP mode (long play) delivers twice the recording time as SP (standard mode) - not so. SP is about 30 minutes, but LP is only about 50 minutes. I got this surprise recording at a live night club performance recently.

When you place the DVD in the DVD108, record video, remove the disc, and place it in your computer’s DVD drive, you’ll be able to copy an MPEG-2 video file from the disc to your computer’s hard drive just like copying pictures from an SD card, right?

No. It’s not like that. I had the impression it would be, and this was actually my first disappointment with the DVD108. Depending on whether you have DVD player software installed on your system or not, you’ll either see (a) the videos begin to play on your computer, or (b) a set of mysterious folders with names like VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS. In either case, you can’t just copy files over; you have to use software to IMPORT the video from the mini DVD.

Now, even though this is the case, this is still faster than the process of unspooling video from a tape.

I’m not trying to say not to buy this camcorder – I just want you to be ready before you buy the thing.


FIRST IMPRESSIONS

The Sony DCR-DVD108 is a nice little unit. It has about the same footprint as any other camcorder on the market these days – pretty small, about 4-1/2 inches deep and 3 inches high. Sony stays true to their tradition of curves and swooping lines with the design of the body, which is mostly silver colored on one side and black on the other.

When you flip out the viewing LCD screen, you’ll like the feel of this. This is probably one of the moving parts on the DVD108 that will get the biggest workout (besides the DVD motor), so it needs to feel sturdy and the one on the DVD108 does. Other units I looked at didn’t feel this good, so with the Sony unit you won’t have to worry about it popping off after a few months opening and closing.

There is a slot for a Memory Stick Pro Duo photo card; the DVD108 can take still photos. Remember that the Pro Duo cards are the half-sized cards, not the Memory Stick Pro cards (such cards won’t even fit, which may have been intentional on Sony’s part).

One concern I had right off the bat was the power-on/mode switch. It’s a rotating, bi-directional switch with a green lock button on top (to prevent, I assume, accidental turning on). I had a Sony HandyCam unit a long time ago – an 8mm camcorder, to be exact – that had a similar type of switch. The thing broke off within a matter of months, leaving me to have to operate the camcorder with the remote control. I hope Sony’s learned something about the durability of stress points on their products; the power switch is critical.

One positive point I noticed is that the lens cover is activated by a switch on the camera – pretty slick. On my Sharp camcorder, I had a plastic lens cover tethered to the carrying cord to prevent its loss. I think this switching lens cover is a little better. It’s certainly more stylish.

The hand strap for the DVD108 is just big enough to go around your hand, which is wise. It allows you to one-hand the unit when taping (which wasn't quite as comfy with the Sharp unit since all the weight was off to the left side). But for that convenience there’s an irritant – the handle is over the DVD access door. Not sure what would have been better, but I can see this being a hassle if I ever have to change DVD’s quickly.


INSERTING MEDIA

So now let’s talk about actually using the Sony DVD108. First of all, you have to buy some blank mini DVD’s beforehand; the camera doesn’t include any (cheapskates!).

Sony has created a new irritant – the brand nag. After you place a non-Sony-branded blank disc in the unit and turn it on, you get the message, “Sony disc recommended” … EVERY DADGUMMED TIME. Sony got my money for the camcorder; is this sort of harassment to buy their accessories REALLY necessary?

I have not observed any problems with using Memorex discs with the DVD108; just that damned message. If I discover a way to turn that message off (any takers willing to bet I can find it?), I’ll post it here in an update.

(I will add this as a mitigating counterpoint, though – just to bypass the annoying message I did go to a Sony Style store in a major shopping mall and bought a couple of blank DVD-RW discs – at $4.99 apiece! In addition to looking pretty cool, when I put one in the DVD108, it seems to provide a couple of extra minutes – 32 – rather than the standard 30. But for comparison, a stack of 10 Memorex DVD-RW’s cost $20.00. Do the math.)

To put a blank disc in the DVD108, you slide a switch labeled “Open … Access” toward the word “Access”. If the unit is finishing writing image data to your disc, it pops open right away; if not, it may take a second or two to open while it completes. Then carefully snap the mini DVD in place on the spindle – it’s a good, tight fit and it has to be; the unit is going to be moving around with you and your hands.

A major departure from other camcorders I’ve used – and, perhaps, a trend of the future – you operate the DVD108 with the LCD, which doubles as a touch pad. No more using thumbwheels to make your selections; you just poke the screen. The blue buttons that appear in the corners of the LCD and along the bottom control various features, settings, and the like. The house icon button takes you to a home page at the top of the DVD108’s menu structure. Playback and image settings are activated with pale blue buttons.


RECORDING VIDEO

Recording video is pretty simple, accomplished by pressing a button with a red dot conveniently located about where your thumb should be. The display’s on-screen information tells you which mode you’re recording in (SP, EP, etc.), how much video you’ve recorded, the type of mini DVD in your unit (DVD-R, DVD R, DVD-RW, DVD/PLUS/RW), and how much battery life is left (in minutes). To prevent confusion about whether you’re actively recording, the display either shows the word “STBY” in green, or “REC” in red. With my older camcorder, I’ve had times before when I thought I was recording and was dismayed to find out I wasn’t, so I like this color-coded feature.

When you enter video recording mode each time, it momentarily tells you how much estimated recording time is left on the disc. I wish that information would remain on screen all the time, to be honest; it matters more since most of the time you’ll be using a 30-minute disc. You can bring the estimated time back by entering and exiting the “Home” screen mode by pressing either the house icon button to the left of the LCD, or by tapping the blue house icon button on the actual LCD screen itself (remember, this is a touch-screen LCD).

Recording itself pretty much goes smoothly; when you stop recording you’ll see an icon in the upper right corner that looks like a spinning disc; this is the DVD108 telling you it’s emptying its recording buffers to the mini DVD.



VIDEO MODES (NEW SECTION – MAY 2007)

In my previous review of this product I did not mention the DVD108's video modes, but I have since discovered they are actually rather important and versatile.

Some of the video I've shot – particuarly those at lower light levels – seemed to produce an effect that didn't resemble video, that sort of "live" look I expect. In the camcorder's "Auto" mode, the DVD108 makes its own adjustments for low light, but I didn't like the results. It was like I was watching 8mm video.

But then I started playing with the built-in shooting modes. Wow! What a difference! The DVD108 has the following modes in addition to Auto: Twilight, Candle, Sunrise & Sunset, Fireworks, Landscape, Portrait, Spotlight, Sports, Beach, and Snow. Oddly enough, for nighttime shooting, the Snow setting has produced the video "feel" I expected to get with Auto. The differences between each of these modes have to do with faster or slower shutter speeds (brightness/darkness) and larger or smaller apertures (how far back things remain in focus). I would strongly suggest that you play around with each of the different shooting modes. You'll probably discover at least one or two other modes you'll want to use on a regular basis.


VIDEO PLAYBACK (NEW SECTION – MAY 2007)

A great thing about the DVD108 - and other camcorders in this class - is that there's NO REWINDING! If you want to show a particular video clip to someone, you just open the visual index, scroll to find the clip you want, and tap the LCD screen and it starts playing.

You can fast-forward and fast-rewind the video (while the video is playing) if you need to search for something, or pause it. This feature alone separates this type of camcorder from Mini DV units.


TELEPHOTO LENS – 40X!

The zoom lens on the DVD108 is a whopping 40X, more than any other I’ve seen on the market. It does not include any sort of image stabilization that I’ve been able to identify, though, so you’ll either want to use a tripod or, perhaps, steady the camera with your other hand.

One thing that concerns me about the wide/telephoto switch is its proximity to the power switch. Both are rocker switches and in the heat of the moment, I could see someone thinking they’re zooming in and they turn off the camera. Not sure how I would have solved this, but it’s something to be careful about when using this.

UPDATE: I have also noticed, at full telephoto length, something I've never seen in a camcorder before –"chromatic aberration", commonly known to users of digital cameras as "purple fringing". On a sunny day it's the most vivid. This will bother some of you a lot, but I notice that the DVD108 does has a lens thread that allows you to add a telephoto converter (if one is available).


SHOOTING PICTURES

You can shoot pictures with the DVD108, but they’re going to be VGA resolution only (640 x 480). You cannot change this. Why the DVD108 has a “VGA” icon that appears on the LCD is beyond me; it seems to imply you can change the resolution. If you want to be able to shoot higher resolution photos, you’ll have to opt for the DVD308 which runs $100 more.

As with the video part of this device, the DVD108 does not have image stabilization, so be careful when shooting in lower light conditions or at full telephoto focus range.

You can change a few settings on the camera, such as light balance, but not much more. But this is intended to be a camcorder first, anyway. If you’re looking for a digital camera with more features, you might consider one of Sony’s digital cameras (like the DSC-S600 which I reviewed elsewhere on this site) which give more of the features you’d expect with a digital camera, but with a modest amount of video capture control.


EXCHANGING MEDIA – AND THE CONCEPT OF “MEDIA CHANGE GAP”

I hereby coin a new term for users of camcorders – “media change gap”. This “gap” is the period of time between which you press a button to open a tape or disc access hatch to remove the media, and when you’ve inserted a new tape or disc and the unit is ready to record. It’s significant mainly when you’re at an event in which anything can happen any second, and in which you risk missing it if your camcorder is not ready.

The media change gap with a tape camcorder is pretty small. The mechanism that accepts the tape has to open and extend itself, and retreats to put the write head in position to record, but otherwise there is no formatting of the tape that needs to be done before you use it. The media change gap with a digital camera that records video is even smaller – you open a little door, pop out an SD media card, push another one in, and you’re ready to go. Again, there is no formatting to be done before you play.

The media change gap with the DVD108 is pretty significant by comparison, particularly if you decide to close – or “finalize” – a disc. Formatting a reusable mini DVD-RW takes about 25 seconds. You don’t have this time if you use a write-once DVD-R disc, by the way, so if you’re going to a big event, carry write-once DVD-R or DVD R discs with you; you’re not likely to want to reuse such discs anyway. If you do decide to carry reusable “RW” discs, then I would strongly not suggest doing any finalizing – finalize all your discs later, after the event is over. Otherwise you may miss something you wanted to capture. As an extreme example of how long finalizing can take, I recorded about a half minute of video and then finalized the disc. It took TEN MINUTES. And I imagine you just can’t rip open the camcorder if you change your mind, because you may foul up the recording process. (I have come to understand that the more you’ve filled up the disc, the less time it takes to finalize. Just remember this.) The moral: avoid finalizing unless (a) you have time to wait, or (b) you’re planning on playing the mini DVD’s on your set-top DVD player.

One other thing to point out – while these mini DVD’s are smaller, they seem more delicate and easily breakable, so handle them carefully. (Sony’s discs claim to be "100 times" less breakable. How did they arrive at that figure? Did they try to break 100 discs?) The admonition to handle carefully goes double if the discs are double-sided. And remember that if they are double-sided, DO NOT USE A MARKER TO LABEL EITHER SIDE OF THE DISC or it will be rendered unusable (stick to labeling the jewel cases). I myself am going to stick with single-sided discs because I can label them with a Sharpie marker.

Double-sided discs, by the way, have to be turned over to record on the second side; the camcorder won’t automatically record on the other side – this is not to be confused with dual-layer discs, which are actually one-sided. Did you follow that? Good.


IMPORTING VIDEO (UPDATED MAY 2007)

There are a couple of ways you can import video with the DVD108. You can either connect the unit to your computer using a USB 2.0 cable, or you can remove the mini DVD and place it in your computer’s DVD-RW drive. If you connect the DVD108 to the computer, it will be seen by Windows as another removable drive (as if, for example, you had an SD card connected through a card reader). But that’s where the similarity to other removable media types (like an SD card) ends.

Whichever way you choose to make the video visible to Windows (and you'll note that I refer to Windows since that is what I have on my computer; I have no idea how Apple systems will behave), you will see three folders with mysterious names “DCIM”, “AUDIO_TS” and “VIDEO_TS”. These are the folders normally associated with commercially produced DVD’s. The fact that you see no files in a file browser doesn’t mean there’s nothing there; it takes special processing to read it.

And that’s where the process of importing comes in.

Importing video from your mini DVD is, more or less, copying the video. But it’s not identical to copying because how long it takes depends on the software you’re using to accomplish this.

Sony’s software package included with the DVD108 includes a program called Picture Motion Browser, which includes a facility for importing video. (I’ll take more about Picture Motion Browser in a little bit.) You point the program to your DVD drive (or the DVD108, if attached with the USB cable), and it sees all the video clips you recorded. You may then check off the ones you want to import, select a folder, and start the program.

This program is adequate for the job, but it won’t set any speed records. You pretty much have to do things Sony's way in order to get the best results. I have learned that finalizing – or closing – a disc will give the best, fastest results. For most folks, finalizing the disc will take between 2 and 6 minutes. See "More on Finalizing" below for details on other findings.



MORE ON FINALIZING

I wanted to discuss "finalizing" a little bit more, since it's a necessity if you plan on using write-once DVD-R or DVD(plus)R discs. If you're planning on playing the discs on your set-top DVD player, or using it with the DVD player software on your computer, you'll need to finalize, or close, the disc. This allows the disc's table of contents, etc., to be written. This also means you can't add more video content to it later, so if you do finalize the disc be sure you don't want to add any more.

If you want to import video off a write-once disc that has NOT been finalized, you won't be able to do it. Windows sees the disc as a blank with nothing on it (even though that's not true). If you plan on getting video off a disc that has unused space, I'd recommend using reusable "RW" discs instead.

But there is this advantage to write-once DVD-R or DVD(plus)R discs that have been closed - Sony creates a little menu for it that you can use to play on any set-top DVD player or with any DVD player software on your computer. Each clip is its own chapter. For "quick and dirty" reviewing of video, this is handy, and most novice users will probably use write-once discs this way.

For finalizing, also remember that the MORE video you've recorded, the LESS time it will take to finalize the write-once disc. Figure the finalizing process will take about one minute for every three minutes of UNUSED space on your disc. So if you've recorded 15 minutes of video, it will take about 5 minutes to finalize your write-once video since there will be 15 unused minutes. If you've recorded 27 minutes of video, it will only take about a minute (for 3 minutes of unused video space). If you've only recorded 6 minutes of video, it will take about 8 minutes to finalize.

Do you see why tape camcorder users should think twice?

By the way, if you want to share video directly from the DVD108, you can use a specially equipped jack with stereo and video RCA jacks (red, yellown and white heads, or as I like to call it, the "three-headed monster" plug), to send the video output to your TV. If you don't want to finalize your write-once disc but you do want to show your video on TV, using this triple-headed jack would be the way to go.

UPDATE: In my previous edition of this review, I said that you should consider using another vendor's video editing software, such as Ulead or Pinnacle. I have since learned that those applications don't necessarily produce better results. For videos longer than 16 minutes, I discovered that Pinnacle 10 seemed to "miss" anything past the 16-minute mark in the resulting MPEG-2 file – not reassuring. Ulead's VideoStudio application can get the job done also, but if the disc isn't finalized or closed, it can still take a while. Sony's own import application, on the other hand, has been pretty consistent – as long as I was willing to finalize the disc.

In more recent use, I have learned that the DVD-VR format may be problematic (at least for me). I recorded an outdoor performance where I used almost all the space on the disc, then finalized it. I had problems getting the video file imported, and I'm not sure whether this was a Sony problem, or a limitation of the VR format. The VR format is supposed to allow users to do editing of the video file right there on the camera and offer more flexibility, but I don't think users seeking that level of sophistication would be using this Sony model if that were the case. It took a Ulead application (Data-Add) to close the disc and make the DVD-VR disc readable for VideoStudio 9; once that was completed, importing was a snap.

One nice thing I will say about Sony's import application –each file carries a date/time stamp when named. For example, a video clip recorded on May 2, 2007 at 4:15 in the afternoon would have the file name 20070502161500.mpg. This makes sorting the video clips chronologically a simple task.

One more thing about finalizing - you can "unfinalize" a reusable disc (DVD-RW or DVD/plus/RW) and add more video to it, if space allows. The process of unfinalizing a disc, surprisingly, only takes a few seconds. It's too bad that finalizing couldn't be so quick a process. (The VR format, according to the user's guide, supposedly does not require finalizing at all; the jury's still out on whether that's actually true.)


PHOTOS

Sony installs a utility that lets you import directly from your camcorder to your computer’s hard drive, but since I’m comfy using Windows’ file manager (Windows Explorer), I generally double click on the Removable Disk, go to the DCIM folder, and just manipulate the files directly.

The VGA resolution is about what you’d expect – low-end, grainy and blocky. The stills will look adequate on a TV screen, but you’d do better to carry a digital camera with you if you want stills. The images the DVD108 produce aren’t good for anything but the web – you won’t want to print them unless you have no other alternatives.

But I hope you’re not thinking of buying the DVD108 merely to take photos with.


SOFTWARE: ADEQUATE, VERY SLOW VISTA INSTALL

Sony includes a CD with HandyCam software. It includes a utility called Picture Motion Browser (what a strange name) that lets you review video and photos. The software features “swooping” visual special effects but functionally isn’t otherwise exceptional. The bundle also includes a DVD copying facility (presumably to burn copies of your mini DVD’s if your machine has two drives, one which can burn). The most important of the bundle is the Disc Import Facility, which Picture Motion Browser actually calls.

For those of you like me that may have taken the plunge and are running Windows Vista, you may be stupefied to learn that installing the software bundle may take SEVERAL HOURS. I kid you not. I imagine Vista’s enhanced security causes a lot of administrative stuff to happen under the covers, but I watched the process inch along, finally completing about 3 hours after I started it. And I have a notebook with 2 GB of RAM! So if you’re going to install Sony’s software on a Vista machine, start it, go take in a movie, maybe go grab dinner, and come back. It should be finishing up. (Disclaimer: “actual mileage may vary”. Your machine may produce a better result; I hope so for your sake!)

The install under XP, of course, only takes a few minutes.

I went to Sony’s web site to see if there was a Vista version of the software; there isn’t. I hope that my experience isn’t shared by others planning on buying this camcorder. If Sony knew that it would take forever to install their package and just sat on their hands, shame on them!

Not only that – if you lose your CD, guess what? You can’t even download a replacement from Sony’s site (at least that I was able to find). So I suggest you burn a backup copy of the software bundle straightaway; I hope Sony makes the software available on their web site in short order.


BATTERY PERFORMANCE

One charge of the H-series Lithium battery that comes with the DVD108 produces a little over 90 minutes of power, which is better than I got with my Sharp camcorder about five years ago. With the new InfoLithium batteries, you get more accurate information about how long your battery is expected to last, expressed in a specific number of minutes – very helpful.

When videotaping you’ll see the battery duration remaining in the upper left corner of the LCD. If the DVD108 is off, you can check it by pressing a button on the left side of the unit (with the LCD screen extended); the LCD will light up to show you a color-coded bar graph of what remains along with the number of minutes expected if videotaping or taking photos.

Fully charging the included battery the first time takes about 2 hours. UPDATE: Recharging the battery after its first use takes less time. I was surprised on one occasion that I was back to full charge in an hour. Sony has also introduced a new generation of their "H" series batteries, which are supposed to recharge even more quickly, and provide more accurate information on the state of its charge. Their packaging claims a 10-minute charge delivers 40 minutes of recording time. I bought one of these new cells as a backup battery and now use it as the primary battery since its recording life is a little longer (about 2 hours).

You may set the camcorder to automatically power off after 5 minutes, or to never power off. You do this through one of the settings screens.


DESIGN PROBLEMS AND ISSUES

While the Sony DCR-DVD108 is an attractively designed unit, I have observed some design flaws I wanted to mention here, briefly. Many of these aren’t deal-breakers but I would like to see Sony improve on them before the DVD109 comes out (whenever that is).

BRAND NAGGING. As I mentioned earlier, I don’t want to be nagged to use Sony brand media every time I turn the thing on.

HAND STRAP IN FRONT OF DISC ACCESS DOOR. The hand strap for the DVD108 is in front of the DVD access door, which makes it a little tricky to open. Maybe this is the only way it could be, but I’d like to see Sony engineers work on this.

“DUMB” POWER CORD. If one end of the DVD108 power cord is plugged into your camcorder and the other end is in the wall and you unplug it (for whatever reason), the camera doesn’t think to itself, “Okay, I’m on battery power now,” and stays switched on. It thinks, “Crap! Open circuit! I’m shutting down this second!” and switches off immediately. My old Sharp was smarter than this, and Sony should know better than to have power supplies that are this primitive. The end of the power cord that connects to the camcorder is kind of small, too, and seems a bit delicate.

“EXECUTING … AVOID ANY VIBRATION.” Get used to seeing that message, a lot. Because the DVD108 is a portable DVD drive that rotates at thousands of revolutions per minute, you don’t want to rough and tumble with it. Or drop it. Accidentally. Think of the first generation of portable CD players – BEFORE anti-skip protection – and you’ll get the picture. The DVD108 requires a bit more care than tape camcorders. I don’t know how much rugged treatment it can take, but I hope Sony did their homework.

VIDEO QUALITY COULD BE IMPROVED. Maybe I'm a bit of a stickler, but when I viewed some of my videos on my 20" TV, I felt like I was watching my Sony 8mm video (but with better color saturation). The focus seemed to be a bit on the soft side for distant objects.


DESIGN PLUSSES

Flipping the coin, the DVD108 does have quite a few nice design and operational features.

GOOD IN LOW LIGHT. Another reviewer on another web site talked about picture quality in low light and the DVD108 does well. In addition, the unit has a switch for infra-red recording called NightShot Plus, letting you videotape in total darkness! (Note that your images, while clear, will come out in black and white.) Pretty cool!

BUILT-IN LENS COVER. The built-in lens cover opens with the slide of a switch on the front of the DVD108. That’s one less thing to lose.

TILT-SWIVEL LCD. The tilt-swivel LCD can be adjusted to a number of different angles, or flipped 180 degrees to let you watch yourself as you videotape.

STEREO SOUND. The DVD108 records in stereo sound, for those of you obsessive enough about sound.

TOUCH SCREEN OPERATION. Although you’ll likely have to use your fingertips – or fingernails – to operate it, the DVD108’s touch screen LCD is quite nice. Once you understand the menu structure and where everything is, it’s a nice alternative to using thumbwheels and buttons.


ACCESSORIES

The H-series of Lithium batteries for this unit come in three durations, and range in price from about $60 to well over $100. Naturally, the longer duration batteries are also larger and extend the physical girth of the camcorder.

There is a two-bay camcorder battery charger Sony makes available at their stores for about $130, and it appears to be a pretty nice charger, too. UPDATE: Since the batteries appear to charge fairly quickly, I would not suggest the added expense of a charger unless you just have to have your batteries topped off constantly, or you have more than two batteries.

Sony stores (Sony Style) also carry lots of blank mini DVD’s but beware – as you may expect, you’re going to pay more for them. A blank DVD-R runs about $3, a blank DVD-RW runs about $5, a double-sided DVD-RW runs about $10, and a dual-layer DVD R runs about $12. For comparison, I bought a stack of 10 Memorex DVD-RW’s for $20.

Caveat emptor … is all I’m saying.


FINAL VERDICT

The Sony DCR-DVD108 is quite a piece of engineering. At an average street price of $399 ($379 if you go to Circuit City), it’s a good deal for a DVD-based camcorder. However, like other newer technologies, it’s not perfect. How much you like this camcorder will depend on your level of sophistication and your wallet. If you like a lot of control and super quick operations (not just the camera’s operation, but what it takes to get video content from the entire process) you MAY find this unit with its software a little frustrating. If you’re a relatively simple video user, and you’re new to video, I don’t think you’ll be bothered.

I had initial concerns about a camcorder that uses write-once discs, but looking at my own personal history that was a misplaced concern, particularly the way the cost of media plummeted. Having come from the world of floppy drives, I had the impression that CD burners would be a huge waste of discs, and that I would need to utilize each one to its utmost. Once CD-R’s became cheap, though, and I found out that CD-RW’s didn’t provide much other advantage, write-once technology ceased to bug me. Ditto for this. I have discovered that 98% of the time, when I record to a Mini DV tape, I generally don’t reuse it. (One reason for this, of course, is the massive cost of “unspooling” the tape’s content. I just don’t feel like having to process an entire tape just to reuse it.)

My main motive for buying the DVD108 was to get around the issue of “unspooling” – what you have to do, even with the all-digital Mini DV format of tapes, to get the content from there to your computer’s hard drive. I don’t tend to play videos directly from the tape or disc to a TV, so it’s important to me to be able to copy the raw MPEG 2 files to a hard drive, do some finesse work on it, then in turn burn it to a full-size DVD. THAT’S how I like to share. Some of you out there probably won’t care – you’ll be happy to just plug the Sony into your TV’s RCA jacks and you’ll be fine.

For those of you that like to transfer video to your computers, remember that you’re making a trade-off switching to DVD technology: in exchange for not having to “unspool” a 60-minute mini-DV tape to copy video to your computer, you’re accepting: (a) shorter 30-minute RW discs and/or 60-minute write-once discs meaning you’ll be swapping media twice as often, (b) having to format a reusable RW disc, and (c) dealing with the process of “finalizing” (aka “closing” for those of us familiar with DVD burners) which may take time between switching discs (my coined term, “media change gap”), causing you to miss something important (if you’re at a ball game or performance, for example). My advice to you is that if you plan on using reusable DVD-RW or DVD/PLUS/RW discs, format a bunch of them before the event you plan on attending – say, five to six for a total of 3 hours recording time – and you’ll save yourself some hassles. Finalize the discs AFTER the event is over.

I would also suggest visiting Sony’s web site (www.sony.com) and downloading the user’s guide to read up on the features of the camcorder.

If you’re a new user of camcorders, you’ll enjoy the DVD108 and I heartily recommend it. If you’re an experienced camcorder user coming from the world of 8mm or mini DV tapes, I advise you to consider everything I’ve mentioned here – a disc-based camcorder might not necessarily be for you, but for most of you the DVD108 will satisfy you. For those of you seeking more features, take a look at Sony’s DVD308, or keep shopping.

So far, I've been pleased with my purchase of the DCR-DVD108. The more I learn about it, the more I like it.

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 379
Recommended for: Home and Families - Keep Memories of Family Vacations