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It is so easy to take it with me, conceal it in a pocket and not look like a tourist, that I take use it much more than I would with a regular camera. It turns on almost instantly and is ready to record family moments.If you don't like fooling around with AVCHD, then simply place the camera in Standard Quality mode - the resulting output is still excellent in both daylight and dark or indoor situations. (BTW, you can record about 20 min of HD on a standard DVD and play in a Blu Ray player. If you don't have the computing power or software now, just use SD until you are ready.
I've been using this camera now for over a year to record family vacations and events. The high quality construction and the high definition video are simply icing on the cake.P.S. The memory stick cards play natively in HD on my PS3).To sum it up, this camera has allowed me to record MANY more family moments than any other video camera I have owned over the last 15 years. I have greatly enjoyed the camera and feel that it was well worth the purchase price.Put the camera in proper context before evaluating - it is not a professional video camera - it is a small, high quality camera that I can slip into the front pocket of my jeans or my coat pocket and carry with me wherever I go.
Many people fumble with HD clips and then wind up downgrading them to SD to fit them on a DVD. - for night shots, such as recording half time performance at high school footbal games, I bring along a $20 monopod - it greatly helps in stabilizing highly zoomed shots. The all metal construction makes it feel like the high quality device that it is - no cheap plastic construction. When I get home, I simply remove my 4 GB or 8GB memory stick and place it in a card reader to save on the PC.Don't get all hung up on the difficulties with the AVCHD (high definition) format.
Sony, allow usto turn this useless option OFF.The other gripe is that the export to.avi or.mpeg mode is thoroughlyUSELESS. Buy this camera before they discontinue it. This camera unites everything about where consumer videocameras are going in the future, pocket size, high definition, flashmemory, and features fit and function.Some of the complaints about it might have been solved simply with time.The video format it uses is now widely supported, and I got a newversion of Pinnacle Studio that supported the format just fine (butbeware, if your video card does not have enough memory, Studio justfails to display it without telling you why).I choose the HDR-TG1 because the newer version simply added GPS and a built in memory. The only other issuewas that on one machine that already had the still camera version thesoftware with Windows XP, it canceled the installation with anincomprehensible message about "use the original installer" withoutaccomplishing anything. The minute I saw the camera on the Sony web pages, I knew I had to haveone.
It took wiping the entire application andstarting over to fix it. The price difference is breathtaking.I tried a shot in low light, and it has noise like all other cameras.The photo still shot capability is adequate, but I carry a 12 megapixelSony along with this camera, and am happier with those shots.One warning, the software that comes with it is fairly useless. At the risk of being repetitive, Sony, you needto get better software programmers for your PC applications.That's it. Its a deal. All it does is turn any motion shots into nightmare comb(interlace) artifact displays. Sony, if you paid people for this software work, ya gottaken.Otherwise, the Sony app is quite nice.
I am a long time fan of Sony's ability to turn out these small,watch like products, back to the original Sony walkman, a player forstandard cassette tapes so thin and small that the player itself would fitinto the same box as the tapes did.The HDR-TG1 is another Sony hit clean out of the park. The"motion browser" was annoying with still images due to its need towaste tons of computer time accomplishing nothing that I can figgureout. It catalogs the movies and photostogether well, and thus I was impressed at how it integrates the shotsfrom my movie and still cameras (both Sony) well. The complaintsabout it sound like complaints that the Apollo moon rocket could havegone farther. Pinnacle Studio managed to filter thisout just fine, and had far more output options that the Sony freebyapplication. When you try to cancel it, it warns you that you are going tolose video, a claim I will have to test at some point.
I just added a 16gb card to get the same capacity forfar less, and I guess I will have to miss being able to navigate viamy pocket camera. With movies, it becomes downright obnoxious, taking HUGE amountsof time.
I have yet to record continuously to test the full battery life. I have not transferred any video as of yet to see quality so I cannot comment.
My main reason for getting this camera is the compactness. The picture quality is so so but I have not played with the settings to get the yellow out or reduce it.
So far the camera has been awesome. Very weird.
What good is a good quality film camera if you don't have it when you need it because it is too bulky. Its very portable and the battery life has been excellent.
I have recorded for 5-10min blocks but have done so for weeks and the battery is fully charged.
My first recording was shot on my Disney Bday trip. Sony does have a newer version, the TG5, but the only difference is a GPS Tracker. This is the HD camcorder I've been waiting for. Watching it on my 50" plasma is like looking through a window into the past. Which I dont really want or need, save yourself about $300 to $400 and buy the TG1 before they run out. Great Color and Detail are what you get with this take anywhere camcorder from Sony. I would have bought it sooner, but decided to wait till pri ces dropped.
It recognized the camera, and would play the stills, but didn't find the videos. And so far as the AVCHD footage issues, well, given that I've got a 6+ year old Sony Vaio that has been upgraded as much as it can handle, I sort of expected my PC to choke on the HD footage. It's got all the features I wanted (some sort of optical zoom, rotating LCD display, anti-shake feature, in a "flip" body type) packed into a very small unit. Complaints.
Also have seen that the still pictures don't come out well. :) All in all, very happy with this little camcorder so far. Had this a week, and have nearly filled the included 4gb memory stick with test footage, shot in all sorts of situations. I've seen complaints that it doesn't do well in low light. And it did. Most likely I'll just burn the footage directly to DVD most times and not worry about it.
I still have more manual to read, so I'm not worrying about that too much yet either, I'm fairly sure that the problem is just a user error not a hardware error. That I can't use the included software to burn an HD disc that will play on my standalone player. Plus I have other software that will burn HD footage to an HD DVD on standard DVD-R discs that IS compatible with my Toshiba, so that should take care of the problem until then.Also that it treats HD and SD footage completely separately; while the camera is in HD mode, it won't play back SD footage, and vice versa. It SAYS that I can hook up the camera via USB cable and record the HD footage to a DVR, but I tried that tonight, and it didn't seem to work. Would play the first frame, and then would get stuck there while the audio played on. Will probably shoot mostly in HD anyway, so also not a big deal. Haven't found that to be a problem yet, even shooting in a dim hallway with half the light fixtures out.
I've got a Toshiba HD player, and I'm fairly certain that the included software will only burn a disc that will play back on a Blu-Ray player, which I don't have, but I'm sure I'll get eventually, so not a big deal. Well, there were several: convert the footage into something that my PC CAN handle, burn it directly to DVD without trying to edit it, or just shoot in SD mode, which my PC could handle just fine. The ones I've shot seem perfectly fine to me, no complaints there either, they're coming out nice and sharp. Solution.
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