Sharp VLWD255U MiniDV Digital Camcorder with 2.5'' Viewscreen, Smart Media Slot and Built-in Digital Still Mode
by Sharp

List Price: $849.99
Category: Digital Camera
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Digital Photo Product Details

• MiniDV camcorder
• 26x optical, 780x digital zoom with digital image stabilization
• 2.5-inch color LCD monitor and color EVF
• Photo mode records still images onto tape or SmartMedia card (not included)
• Uses an included lithium-ion battery; package includes remote control, battery, charger, lens cap, serial cable for still image transfers, and video cables

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• Adobe Premiere Elements 9 [Old Version]

Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Sharp VLWD255U MiniDV Digital Camcorder with 2.5'' Viewscreen, Smart Media Slot and Built-in Digital Still Mode

Customer Review: Unfortunately, got two lemons in a row.
Summary: 1 Stars

Both camcorders play back with alternating lines of pixelation at seemingly random intervals, but probably related to the movement of videoed objects (at least that is the only pattern I could pin down, though I'm not really confident that I have truly isolated a pattern in the odd playback behavior), and then sometimes won't play back at all. Oddly, sometimes the playback will work perfectly, and we began to hope that it just needed to be "broken in." But alas, the behavior would return at the most inopportune moments of playback, very frustrating experiences indeed.

We began to postulate that perhaps there were two batches of camcorders at work here, some that worked perfectly, and some that were flawed. Hence our hope that if we got another machine, all would be well. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately, depending on how one looks at it), as I stated, the replacement was worse than the first. Thinking it might be the tapes, I took the tapes into a local Best Buy, where they allowed me to use the floor models to test playback and recording on the tapes. Playback of the tape made with the replacement camcorder was very problematic on all models used while the other two tapes seemed to work ok for a time, then had a few problems. An interesting side note: at one point I had the Best Buy sales people quite baffled when playback yielded every other line alternating between the currently playing video and the video I had had in just before. I suppose that can only happen with this new-fangled digital technology. Maybe sometimes it's better not to be among the first to use new technologies, like when our hospital was so excited to get only the second produced multislice CT scanner of a certain type ... but I digress.

The bottom line is that when I used the floor model miniDV camcorders (I used a Sharp VL-WD450U which I would have thought would basically have been the same machine with some perks, a Panasonic PV-DV51 of which they only had the floor model left, and some fancy high money machine which may have been a JVC but I'm not sure) to record, they recorded and played back without a hitch, and interestingly enough, the taped footage seemed to play back well on both the "lemon" Sharp machines, suggesting that maybe the problem was in fact in the recording rather than the playback as I had originally surmised from the random nature of the playback problems.

Well, if you're still with me after this long tale, the bottom line for us is that in our price range, we needed to either go back to the proven Sony Hi-8 machines or consider the Panasonic PV-DV51 for fifty dollars more...

Assuming the Panasonic works well (and I haven't seen any truly worrisome reviews, though there are only four), this has the advantage of a higher pixel CCD than the Sharp and of course, the digital format. I actually kind of liked that the cassette loading mechanism for the Panasonic is the old spring-type open and close as I hope this may have less ways to break compared to the fancy load mechanism of the other mini DV's. The only serious disadvantage (for me) of the Panasonic vs a Sony Hi-8 is that Sony's motion sensor based image stabilization truly does appear superior by my own comparison. (The Panasonic's stabilization takes a minute to kick in after zooming or panning.) Despite this, I think we're going to give the Panasonic a try, a small added advantage being that we may not have to return the free Vivitar kit as this is now offered with the Panasonic as well as the Sharp.

Well, I hope my rambling may be of use to one or two people.

I do want to applaud Amazon.com for their great return policy. Though it is initially annoying to have to email rather than complain to a live person, their fast, helpful response was truly amazing and prevented me from looking elsewhere to shop.

(Sharp, on the contrary, wanted me to take the machine to a service center despite only being a few days old, and stated explicitly that they do not send out new replacements. One wonders if they should consider the long term effects of their policies.)

Description of Sharp VLWD255U MiniDV Digital Camcorder with 2.5'' Viewscreen, Smart Media Slot and Built-in Digital Still Mode

For those interested in still pictures, the VL-WD255U comes with the capability to record digital images onto either a MiniDV tape or SmartMedia card (not included). The camcorder comes equipped with four autoexposure modes that help make sure all your camera settings are correct. A 16:9 mode lets you shoot video in the same aspect ratio as feature films. The VL-WD255U comes equipped with a rechargeable lithium-ion battery and remote control.

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