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Like most Mini DV models, the PC110 can take still pictures and store them either on tape or on a flash media card--in this case, Sony's proprietary Memory Stick. Unlike most DV camcorders, the PC110 also can record 15- and 60-second MPEGs, saving you the trouble of having to convert your footage to this e-mail-friendly format in your PC. The camcorder comes with a 4 MB Stick, which holds just six high-resolution stills, and is useless unless you have a Memory Stick-equipped Sony VAIO, a Memory Stick accessory drive, or a built-in USB port.
The PC110 also enables you to spice up your recorded video with an array of picture and digital effects, such as negative, sepia tone, or black and white. You also can zoom in during playback of a recorded image. These extra effects are for those folks who do in-camera editing and can be output only through the camcorder's analog outputs, not via i.Link/FireWire. If you've got video-editing software, you can add many of these effects and more on your PC.
The PC110 also includes in-camera digital-editing compiling capabilities--choose in-and-out edit points for particular scenes, set the scene sequence (up to 20 scenes), and the camera automatically goes back and forth to output the image to whatever tape player you've connected the camcorder to. This program editing is a bit convoluted, but it's better than doing it manually.
The biggest problem is the placement of frequently accessed control buttons and jacks. For instance, the zoom and still-photo shutter release buttons are located at the front of the camcorder, vaguely where your pinky is supposed to be. But the pinky isn't the most dexterous digit, and the hand-strap further limits the little finger's angular movement necessary to manipulate either switch.
The PC110's stocky design also necessitates the scattering of the various inputs and outputs. The microphone, headphone, and DC power inputs are located on upper-right side; the i.Link (FireWire), USB, and AC power are on the front below the lens; the S-Video output is on the lower-right side under the hand strap; and the analog A/V minijack is located to the right of the power/standby/record switch.
And being that this is a tiny camcorder, the 2.5-inch LCD viewscreen also makes it difficult to make out the details in a crowded frame. The menu does include two sets of LCD brightness controls to ameliorate the lack of LCD area. --Stewart Wolpin
Pros:
Cons:
I'm a journalist. I take a lot of photos for the newspaper I work for and also do a lot of interviews for articles I write. This camera has been a great help to me in getting my job done.
It's true that the resolution of the stills the Sony PC110 captures is not the best quality available, but they are easily good enough for web and email publishing, and, they even look good for newspaper print when shot correctly.
The DV digital video format is fantastic! It's better than any analog video I've ever shot(VHS, BETA, HI8, etc) and believe me I've shot a lot of video! I used to work for a TV news outlet in my previous job. The thing I love about digital is that I can record my interviews and easily download the video to my laptop, cut out what I don't need and then burn it onto a CD in MPEG format or in an AVI file format. THis means all my notes are ready to access whenever I need them, and I can keep tham archived for as long as I need them.
There are dozens of video editing programs that will make the process easy for you. I use Sony's DVgate software and Adobe's Premiere, and both are great. You can even take your digital stills and record them to a videotape som you can send copies to your family and friends that they can watch on their TV.
I highly recommend it even though it is a bit expensive. If I were buying a new camera today I would almost certainly buy a Sony.
During a week of painstaking research I happened upon this DV-camera. I had set a budget of $700 and of course the PC110 is quite a bit over this price. I felt I wanted a camera that would last well, and would deliver excellent picture quality so I splurged and hoped for the best.
What I got was better than I expected. The video quality is superb. The LCD is bright and clear. The unit is very compact, and well-designed as I expected with Sony. Using device-control and a firewire card, I can import, edit, preview and save video back to the tape in the camera. Bags o fun, and be warned if you aspire to do it, a major time commitment and steep learning curve.
As a digital still camera, it is not on par with a good prosumer model, but I find it useful to incorporate stills into video where the still is taken at around the same time as the video. The 10x optical zoom and good lens makes this a great still camera for snapshot close-ups. It has a pretty decent flash, and the big rechargeable battery allows for lots and lots of stills. USB performance is rapid.
After a month of using it, I would thoroughly recommend the PC110 to the hobbyist videographer.
PROS: It's best features are its incredibly compact form-factor, fantastic lens, menu jog-dial controller and every control you could possibly want (gadgeteers rejoice). I think you can have up to eight different cables attached to it at once. The battery supplied ("smart Lithium" rechargeable) is acceptable, but an extra would be welcome.
CONS: I received a 4-MB memory stick with the camera. This gives you room for 3 15-second MPEG videos or 6-8 stills. It is a waste of time really -- I've assigned it to my CliŽ. You need at least a 32-MB memory stick, and preferably a few of them. The camera makes MPEG video clips which are cool, but will only allow 15-seconds worth at the highest quality setting. No case came with the camera either.
Once you see the quality you get with DV, I'll wager you'll never go back to analog.
Unfortunately, the way this is implemented makes this device more like two cameras than one. You are either in "Memory" mode or "Camera" mode when recording, "Memory" mode or "VCR" mode when playing back. Stills and MPEG are transferred through the USB port, DV video through the FireWire. It all makes sense, when you realize that this camera does not consider MPEG to be a tape format. But it does take some time to get used to. And after you get used to it, you can move on to tricky little things like transferring small portions of your DV video onto the memory stick as MPEG etc. I think you can even transfer stills from memory stick to tape if you'd ever want to do that.
The message here is: this is the camera for people who want to do something with their images other than just watch them as is. It has a lot of features for in-camera editing and effects, though as has been pointed out in the editorial review, you can do this more easily on a PC than in the camera.
Finally, ignore the comments about the ergonomics. The author was holding the camera the wrong way. Your pinky should be nowhere near the focus or still photo controls. A closer reading of the manual and some experimentation would have put him straight.
Try to add 64MB memory card, 10H battery and filters for lens It's just great , the size, the quality, I just love it.
Some of the things to think about when buy this is, if you are planing on make digital movies on your computer you needd to go out and buy another part for your pc. It is called a video capature card. I bought one this is called a firewire or iEEE.... And if you want to open the box and start shooting film that is not going to happen. You have to go out and buy the tapes as wel,...
One of the new features on the pc110 is mgep movies on the memory stick. That is true but theere are downsides. The stick that it comes with can only hold 17 seconds not much, and a 64mb stick will cost you....
Now don't get me wrong this is a great product, there are many digital features for filming that are great. I do not regret asking for the camera it is the best.
Now, for the negatives. No progressive scan. Let me say that again. NO PROGRESSIVE SCAN!! Heaven knows why Sony continues to leave this feature off. It was so noticeable between this camera and the TRV900 which does have progressive scan, when you capture stills off of video. The ones from this camera are nowhere near as good. Not even close. If the subject is moving at all (which is usually the whole point of trying to capture a still from video), without progressive scan it is just not as clear, sharp, colorful, etc. Why Sony does not put progressive scan on their cameras is beyond me. Most of the other gripes I have with this camera are fairly minimal. Some of the buttons are fairly hard to locate, the zoom is hard to use and rather touchy, the photo button is right next to it so I often hit the wrong one, etc. Fairly typical problems for a camera of this size. Were it not for progressive scan being missing though, this would definitely be a 5-star camcorder. Without it, sorry Sony. You blew it again.
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Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the
Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.
Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-eight million miles is an
utterly insignificant little blue-green planet whose ape-descended life
forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches
are a pretty neat idea ...
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