Overall Product Rating:

Pros: Excellent lens, decent still shots, top quality
Cons: bigger than the smallest available

Recommended: Yes
Has Owned Product: 6 Month(s)

Comments:
The GR-DV500U (and its later incarnations) is a top quality MiniDV camera. The still shots are good enough
for me to leave my Olympus digital still camera home. This camcorder has nice built in features and takes
excellent video, even in very low ambient light conditions with its f1.8 lens and back-light capabilities. This
camera has a better lens than many competing camcorders.

I found I don't use any in-camera editing or transition features, finding it much better and easier to edit and
add transitions in my computer using iMovie (Mac). Also, with digital video, the days of boring, un-cut video
are gone. Previously, I used my analog High-8 camera with an analog to digital conversion box to bring the
video into my computer for editing. The MiniDV digital format is much better, and I can add music
backgrounds with the stereo and extra sound channel. Buring a video with iDVD (Mac) onto a DVD -R for
use in my DVD player is a nice feature.

Tom