This camera was my family's first venture in the camcorder world and what a product it is. It is so easy to use, not too large and records a great quality video.

To start things off, what was expected from this camcorder was something that was able to cope with point and shoot. Like a still digital camera, all I wanted to do was point the camera, press the record button and capture those great moments. It does that! Literally all you have to do is turn the camera on, press record and control the zoom and the onboard software will help to stabilise the image along with other technological tweaks that help produce the best quality video.

The camera gives you the option of two different types of storage medium, the first and primary being a mini dv tape and the secondary being a Sony memory stick slot. I believe the camera comes with a 8MB card, pretty tiny in this day and age. It is good enough to hold a couple 30s clips.

I have not used the wealth of features this camera has, tending to only use the standard video recording, the zoom, still photo capability and the nightvision mode. Since I have not used any others I cannot comment on their functionality. The zoom is a 12x optical zoom which offers high quality magnification to allow video recording of distant objects, this is furthered by a 120x digital zoom but quality is lost using this. The still image mode allows the taking of a still image which records the image and sounds for 5 seconds onto the tape. This is a bit annoying until you realise it does record the sound!

The battery provides an impressive recording time but usage length is greatly reduced when using the LCD screen! The screen itself is of good quality but much better quality is viewed on a television or computer.

Cables are supplied to allow you to connect the camera directly to a tv which is very useful. You need to buy a mini dv cable should you wish to easily transfer video from the camera to both computers and dvd recorders. The box also includes a user manual and a remote control. Software and a USB cabe is also included but I haven't used them.