Even *I* look like a pro

Author's Rating:

Pros: Size; quality of video; ability to edit movies on my computer

Cons: Supplied battery life; difficult to find 1.5 hour Digital 8 tapes

The Bottom Line: 
Outstanding quality for a reasonable price. Point and shoot simplicity for basic functions. Don't count on it as a digital still camera. Be prepared to purchase a better battery.

Author's Review
My wife and I purchased the 340 primarily to record her students' dance recitals this Spring, as well as to record the early years of our child, who is still in the planning stages. It also fulfilled my need to purchase a shiny new gadget with lots of buttons. Thus far, we love it.

Introduction: Digital 8 v. DV - What's the Difference?

I add this because it took a long time for me to figure out. Simply stated, nothing, quality-wise. The video quality is the same, but mini-DV cameras are smaller, more expensive, and use a more expensive tape. Mini-DV cameras are not backwards-compatible - you can't play your old 8mm tapes on a DV camera. Digital 8 is proprietary to Sony, and provides an excellent quality product at a lower price.

What You Get

The box contains the camera, a folder with manuals and a catalog of overpriced accessories, USB software, a USB cord, a memory stick, power cord, battery, lens cover, a digital to analog conversion cable (for your TV or VCR), a remote control w/ batteries, and shoulder strap.

Setup

Basic setup and use is very easy. The tape goes into a frightening little mechanical drawer in the bottom of the camera (I see future repair dollars going here), the battery clips into the back of the camera under the viewfinder, the shoulder strap attaches to two hooks on the back of the camera (so it points down), and the lens cover attaches to the hand strap on the side of the camera. The memory stick fits in a slot to the left of the battery. Since the battery is uncharged at purchase, I had to plug the power cord into the camera to play with it, and that cord also goes into the back of the camera under the battery. When plugged in in this manner, the battery is charged.

The controls are well placed for a right-handed user. Your thumb activates the mode (VCR, Off, Camera, and Memory) as well as the start and stop recording buttons. Your index finger operates the zoom and still-picture function. The hand strap is adjustable to fit different sized hands and is fairly comfortable. You can use either the B&W viewfinder or the color LCD monitor to view what you are filming. Operation is simple "point and shoot"

The Instruction Manual

The manual for this camera is poorly written, confusing, and entirely too long. I highly recommend you skim it for an overview of the many features of the camera, and then refer back to it only for specific questions. This camera is fairly intuitive to use, and I doubt I use many of the special features it contains.

The Still Camera Function

Don't throw out your digital camera. While this feature is certainly neat, the quality of picture is far below what you can expect from even an entry level digital camera. I like that you can take pictures while doing video without interrupting the video. I like that the pictures are recorded to the memory stick rather than the tape. I don't, however, like the quality of the pictures. That said, I did buy this camera for videos. For a few hundred dollars more I could have bought a version with a better still camera function. I chose not to because I have an excellent Mavica, and I recommend you not rely too heavily on this feature for recording still pictures of important life events.

The Battery

The supplied battery's life is dismal to say the least. Realistically, you can expect 30 minutes of use before it dies. I purchased the FM/QM-91 battery for $102 from Etronics as a replacement. This battery gives me up to 8 hours of use. This is certainly more than I will ever need at one time, but gives me one less thing about which to worry while filming. The battery charges quite quickly (3-4 hours) in the camera when plugged in; I see no need to purchase Sony's rapid charger. One note: this battery is HUGE. It is the reason you can pull the viewfinder out from the camera.

Software

Sony provides its Pixela software, as well as USB drivers, on a CD-ROM. The software installed quickly and without problem using Windows 98SE. Pixela is an entry-level, user friendly interface that provides the ability to download still pictures and video, as well as the limited ability to do some editing. I purchased another editing package (more later) so I don't use this software much. What I did use it for was a test of the USB cable, which worked fine, and it has a feature where you can use the camera as a web-cam, which amused me for a few minutes.

Digital Editing

This is the best feature of this camera. For around $100 I purchased package containing an iLink (or firewire or IEEE-1394) card for my computer, an iLink cable (4 pin (camera) to 6 pin (computer), and video editing software. For this to work, you need at least 128 MB RAM, at least a 40 gig hard drive, and a fairly fast processor. It runs fine for me with my Athlon 850. The video downloads onto the computer extremely fast compared to the USB connection - almost the same as watching the video in real time. Once you have edited, inserted fades, etc., you can load the finished movie from your computer back onto the tape in the camera, OR you can use the digital to analog cable to hook to your VCR and record the output on your VCR, OR you can do both at the same time. The quality of the finished project is unbelievable, even on a VHS tape.

The Memory Stick

I have used the memory stick to record still images, but I have not used it to record video. I was disappointed to find you could only record in short blocks, rather than filling the memory stick with one long video.

Other Features I Haven't Used

This camera allows you to record any analog video into digital format using a VCR. I plan to use this for my wedding video. It also can play older 8mm tapes. You can insert titles and fades on the camera itself, but since I do this on my computer I haven't spent much time working with this feature. The camera allows you to insert clips in different order and edit "on the fly", but again, I do this on my computer. The camera has an S-Video connector, but does not come with the cable, and besides this camera, I don't own anything with S-Video on it.

Downers

This camera can use HI-8 tapes, but can only record 60 minutes on these tapes. Finding Digital 8 tapes, which can record up to 2 hours, is difficult. Digital 8 tapes are around $10 each; HI-8 tapes are around $5.

In addition, the manual is too long and complicated for an average user to easily understand. I guess this is the consequence of having such a feature-filled camera.

There is almost no support available for this camera. Sony's website is a wealth of 404 errors and long-loading pages, even with a T-1 connection. Fortunately there are a number of Internet forums available for Digital video users to exchange problems and ideas.

Conclusion

This camera has more features than I will likely ever use. It shoots extremely high quality video with very little shaking. It comes with a remote control that is great for when you use a tripod because you don't touch the camera and shake it when starting, stopping, or zooming. It is a complicated camera, but the basic features are easy to use. For our intended purposes, it is perfect and we are very pleased with yet another Sony product.