Digital Trends

Sony DCR-DVD203 October 3rd, 2005 | by David J Elrich

Features and Design

It's been a real joy handling this current generation of DVD camcorders since they are so much smaller than earlier editions. Along with Hitachi, Panasonic and Sony models, we recently got a sneak peek of the new Canons that are even smaller than the competition and have a cool Millennium Falcon look (DC10, DC20). That said, the DCR-DVD203 is very compact and fits neatly in one hand (it weighs 1.1 pounds with the battery). A strap with a Velcro strip makes it very simple to adjust. Once you do that, your fingers fit neatly on the key controls—your index finger lies on the wide-tele zoom switch and your thumb rests on the main control key. By moving it you change from video, still and playback. Slightly lower is the record button. This is a very nice ergonomic fit and Sony designers should be commended for it.

The front of the camcorder is dominated by the lens; it's a Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar 12x optical zoom that can be boosted to a pixilated 480x. A built-in lens cover protects it when you power down. There's also a stereo speaker and a covered A/V output to connect the camcorder to a TV or A/V receiver. The top has a switch for Super NightShot Plus recording in zero light (it does not have a color enhancement light or flash). There's also the disc tray open key as well as the zoom and Photo key so you can record 1MP stills to disc (whoopee); there is no slot for a memory card since everything is saved to disc. Of note is the hot accessory shoe that accepts an optional Dolby Digital 5.1 Creator microphone (ECM-HQP1 for $149). This lets you record 5.1-channel sound, so your cinema verite really is verite.

The right side is dominated by the disc tray while the left has a swing-out 2.7-inch widescreen touch screen LCD monitor. More camcorders than ever have widescreen LCDs to mirror the widescreen TVs popping up in America's living rooms. Now you frame your video as they will appear on screen...very cool. Flip open the screen and you'll find handy wide-tele controls and a record button on the edge of the screen itself. Since so many people frame their subjects with the LCD, you can easily make adjustments with your thumb. On the inside of the camcorder is a USB2.0 output, a Wide Select button to change aspect ratio and a Display/Battery Info key.

We've always loved Sony's AccuPower Meter that tells you to the minute how much juice you have left in your battery. There's no guesswork involved compared to others that simply show a bar graph. Above the LCD when it's in the closed position is a Back Light key to handle those tricky lighting situations (someone standing in a window) and an Easy button. Sony realizes most people simply want to point-and-shoot although others like to play with manual adjustments. Any casual user who simply picks up the camcorder presses the Easy key and all main settings return to auto plus you cannot make certain adjustments to avoid mistakes. The font size for the onscreen menus even gets larger. Let's just call this the Baby Boomer button!

The back of the camera is the slot for the lithium ion battery slot that's rated around 35 minutes with the LCD on, the typical way most people shoot. There's also a pullout electronic viewfinder with diopter control. Unfortunately it only pulls straight out rather than on an angle. The bottom of the camcorder has two mounts—one for a tripod and other for accessories.

The camcorder comes with everything you need to get started including a remote control but there are no rewritable discs just a single 1.4GB DVD-R, good for around 30 minutes of video. Rewritable discs (-RW/+RW) cost around $8 each but with web searches you should find them for less. And as noted, you'll need to spend $149 for the mic to record multichannel sound. The DCR-DVD203 doesn't have a Quick Start page unfortunately and comes with one of those Owner's Manuals that's for 14 different versions  of the same camcorder. Actually it's eight but no matter how many it is, the 120-page book is confusing as a FEMA manual. Another negative is the supplied software because it's very rudimentary (Picture Package V1.8 for DVD Handycam using Pixela's Image Mixer EasyStep DVD). However, there's no shortage of good video editing programs out there like Ulead Video Studio or even Sony's own Vegas Movie Studio+DVD but expect to pay another $75 or more for them.

In a slightly unusual design, the DCR-DVD203's battery is charged while it's attached to rear of the camcorder. This is no big deal; just different. Setting the basic parameters is very simple using the touch screen LCD. I found it a bit weird tapping on glass but the LCD seemed no worse for wear unlike iPod Nanos. There are tons of manual adjustments, Program Auto Exposure (AE) settings, fade options (I chose black fade). Before diving into that pool, it was time to start shooting in plain old Auto with and without the optional mic.

Image Courtesy of Sony Electronics