Sony DCR-PC101E

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Sony's point-and-shoot PC101E combines an ultracompact one-chip MiniDV video camera with a one-megapixel digital still camera in a package that alternately pleases and frustrates. Outfitted with a 10X Carl Zeiss zoom lens, a 2.5-inch touch-screen LCD, and a Memory Stick slot for saving still shots and MPEG video, the 565g (fully loaded) PC101E ranks as one of the most portable and versatile MiniDV cameras available, despite its flaws. It isn't as tiny as Sony's MicroMV cameras, but those models capture MPEG-2 video that can't match the PC101E's DV video when it comes to video-editing flexibility.

Design
The sleek, high-tech PC101E inspires a "gimme" reaction from bystanders. At a svelte 565g with MiniDV cassette, Memory Stick, and InfoLithium M-series battery installed (more commonly found in Sony's still cameras than in camcorders), it's so light and small that you won't think twice about taking it on vacation, to a job site, or anywhere else you might want to shoot. While it's not as small as MicroMV-format cameras, MiniDV offers greater compatibility with existing playback and editing equipment.

At 2.5 inches, the PC101E's flip-out touch screen is large for the camcorder's small body, although it falls in the average size range for camcorder LCDs. In this case, big is good: the screen is the sole interface for accessing most of the camera's controls, including exposure compensation. (You can't access them via the color viewfinder.) Since the LCD is nearly unusable in strong sunlight, you'll have to head for the shadows if you need to adjust the controls--and you will if you shoot a lot of stills. Should your screen lose its tactile bearings, Sony includes a special cleaning cloth and directions for recalibrating the screen.

You navigate playback and effects menus via the touch screen. You'll find some novel features; for instance, you can choose your focal point or spot metering target simply by touching it on the LCD image. But after our initial oohs and ahs, we never again used these features. They take too much time to get at, especially for a camera that's all about taking advantage of the moment.

Among our other gripes, the delete function for Memory Stick stills is incomprehensible. We had to refer to the manual several times. And as for mechanical controls, there are precious few, among them a focus ring and a zoom control. Another ding: you must hold the dangling lens cap yourself while you're shooting.

Features
The PC101E works well for handheld shooting. Its flip-out screen, optical image stabilization, rapid autofocus mechanism, and 10X optical zoom (with up to 120X digital zoom) lend themselves to shooting on the move and will help you bring home some very nice images for this camera's class. You can also switch easily between auto and manual focus via a button on the camera; manual focus is controlled via the zoom ring on the lens when activated.

You have a choice of four programmed shooting modes. You can optimize exposure settings and shutter speeds for spotlit subjects, for portraits with backgrounds you want in soft focus, for action, and for extremely bright scenes that can leave faces excessively dark. Tweak the modes to shoot bright subjects, such as sunsets, which usually render backgrounds indistinct, as well as for distant shots through windows.

On the supplied 8MB Memory Stick, the camera stores still shots as JPEG files and video as MPEG files. If you want to use the PC101E to play back your footage, you can mix stills and video and zoom in on your stills.

Performance
The PC101E performed spottily in our tests. The autofocus handled rapid focal changes well, except for some perceptible hunting back and forth while panning an open landscape. However, the internal viewfinder is too small to make it easy to ascertain sharp focus. Fortunately, the flip-out LCD's resolution is a bit higher. Large exposure changes occur a tad too slowly to keep up with typical camera movements, so if you're panning down from bright sky to landscape, you'll need to do so gradually to avoid temporary overexposure.

The top-mounted omnidirectional microphone accepts sound from both in front of and behind the camera. Although the microphone does a workmanlike job of picking up a wide range of decibel levels, we'd prefer one mounted on the camera's front for more rearward sound rejection.

Image Quality
The PC101E is a camera for people on the go who are willing to take what they get. Mostly, results are good. We noticed occasional artifacts: the usual parading stripes in high-contrast areas that plague MiniDV cameras, a blocky artifact when a tourist's camera flash fired nearby, and a curious stutter in two places. Otherwise, Sony's capable optical image stabilization, autoexposure, and autofocus combine to give you great shots with ease.

However, even that megapixel of sensor power can't keep trouble away. Some footage was a bit too contrasty, and stills appeared to have about one stop less light available as the same shot recorded as video. Nevertheless, the chance to get great low-resolution stills anytime is surprisingly hard to resist. We snapped and snapped.

Sony has entirely solved the picture noise problem that plagued its earlier efforts at low-light videography. But although the PC101E's single CCD produces clear images, it's not terribly sensitive in normal shooting mode; its minimum illumination rating of seven lux killed our attempt at capturing a moonlit tropical sea. The camera's Night Shot mode is rated at zero lux--no light at all--but only for objects close enough to be illuminated by the camera's built-in infrared light. Night Shot doesn't record color, so there's also a special slow-shutter mode for low light levels that retains color at some cost in image fluidity: a slow shutter means images that move in stutter steps.