Sony HDR-CX550VE

great features compact size feels good quality in your hand brilliant zoom

expensive poor battery life

The quality of the image is excellent. My first filming challenge was at the wedding of my niece - a "must not fail" assignment. The camera surpassed my expectations.

I bought two Vaio laptops in the past, and had truly terrible service from the manufacturers when they both went wrong. They had the effrontery to charge me more than a day's pay for looking at each machine and then sending them back, saying there was...

The quality of the image is excellent. My first filming challenge was at the wedding of my niece - a "must not fail" assignment. The camera surpassed my expectations

I bought two Vaio laptops in the past, and had truly terrible service from the manufacturers when they both went wrong. They had the effrontery to charge me more than a day's pay for looking at each machine and then sending them back, saying there was...

"SteadyShot" is excellent. Large viewing screen. Videos and pictures can be downloaded to external WD HD. Good range of accessories.

An i.LINK (IEEE 1394) connection would be useful. The camcorder developed a fault after 3 months. It will not record after 3 minutes and displays "Buffer Overflow". It has been sent to a Sony Service Centre for warranty investigation. I have several...

1. Large clear screen 2. Separate viewfinder for strong light conditions 3. Outstanding image quality 4. 'Steady Shot' function works well 5. Good in low light conditions 6.Wide range of menu options

1. On screen menu manipulation can be fiddly, - taking a while, sometimes, to find the correct function. 2. Battery life in typical use seems distinctly shorter than my previous Handycam which recorded on Mini DV tape

excellent picture quality

will l let you know soon

very good on most things

battery on standerd supply would be better with type 70 instruction manual not the best user for first time user

Fast to operate, you can rely on it´s automatic sound recording, "big" CMOS image sensor, for being such a small camera it has excellent sensitivity - "it sees in the dark", it´s image stabilizer is far ahead of it´s rivals - you are able to perform...

"Odd" mini size hot shoe - which you can be overcome with an extra adapter - but not really bad points for what it is. Of course, manual sound recording is missing but who cares. It´s meant to be quickly ready camera without cumbersome adjusting. More...

amazing picture quality and the steadyshot are second to none

none

Image quality , sound, reasonably ease of use.

Battery life bit rubbish, menu goes on a bit, could have longer telephoto lens, but other than that it's a dam good piece of kit!