I bought a MD216 a few years ago after finishing a Media course at college but never really used it that much as my laptop doesn't have a firewire port!

For PC users the firewire connection could be a bit of a problem but there is ways around this. Does your PC have a cardbus or expresscard slot? If so you can but an adapter to turn them into firewire ports for around £10 online.

Finally i decide to start a filming project for my business and get the camera out and get to work! In terms of features this camcorder is quite limited however there are 2 modes on the camera that determine how much control you have over the camera settings. On the 'easy' mode the settings are already all set up so you can just shoot and go without having to play around with the settings, this is useful for people that are new to using camcorders. On the manual mode you can change things such as white balance which would be useful for more experienced camera users who would like to better their shots. I found this feature useful as in certain lights on easy mode the picture ended up noticeably off colour but by changing the white balance i was able to resolve this problem.

The camera has a microphone slot so you can plug an external microphone into it. I have never used this option as i have always found the built in microphone quite adequate for my needs.

A missing feature that could be quite useful is the ability to take still images.

The battery life on this camcorder is noticeably short at around 90mins.

Features:-

Quickstart
41xadvanced zoom
True wide high resolution 16:9 recording


I would recommend this camera to Media students on a tight budget and anyone who wants a simple, easy to use camcorder.