An Amazing Little Camera
Written: Dec 14 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: big screen, lots of features, on screen menu, audio and video quality, small size, Most bang for the Buck!
Cons: cheap lens cap
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| spiderlegs's Full Review: Sharp VL-H880U Camcorder |
I needed a better than average, small and easy-to-use camcorder with line in/out jacks and a mic jack for a field recording project I had coming up. Also planing on using for home video and video projects for the web. The tough part was That I only had about $500 to spend.
I found a Sharp VL-H880U at Sears for $450 + $50 rebate. One good thing about all the digital camcorders coming out is it forces the price of analog camcorders down. The VL-H880U had all the jacks I needed, it was Hi-8, Hi-Fi, it was small and the screen was larger than most. So I picked one up along with an extra 2-hour battery.
Oh boy this camera is fun to play with! The screen looks great! There are lots of features such as iris, white balance, effects, 12x zoom, 200x digital zoom, effects, auto focus image stabilization, level up for dark conditions + more and are all very quick and easy to use.
Recorded Video look good from the camera to my 27" TV via line out. It's image is sharper than any standard 8mm or VHS though not as nice as the semi-pro $1200+ Hi-8 and S-VHS cameras that I have used in the past. I notice the camera is a little sensitive to contrast in bright light giving people big black eyes -Though tweaking the setting a bit could improve this effect. In dark conditions the Sharp does well for a cheap Hi-8. Other than dark in darker conditions colors appear very rich and natural. The camera has an S-video jack which would give an improved image to VCR/TV if used instead of the standard RCA line.
The audio sounds great. The mic input is very good. The camera's built-in stereo mic sounds very good and spacial though it's right on top of the transport and I once noticed some noise from what I think was a noisy tape spool from a tape of a wedding. Other than that I am very impressed with the audio quality.
What I love about this camera is I can hold it any which way (like way above my head pointing across a crowded room) and still see what I am recording from the big screen. The small size and weight is great. The on screen setting are easy to get to and use (but there are a lot of them), The battery life is good, charge time is good (you must use the camera as your battery charger).
If you want to make money recording wedding or events you may want to spend at minimum of a few times more on a higher quality Canon Hi-8 or a big fat Panasonic S-VHS but for under $1000 this little Camera is great.
If you find one of these at a decent price buy it. This Hi-res camera is way better and cooler than any digital under $1000 (for the moment).
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
spiderlegs
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Reviews written: 5
Trusted by: 0 members
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