Sony DCRIP55 MicroMV 1.0-MegaPixel CCD Bluetooth Camcorder

The bottom line: The DCRIP55 is all it's cracked up to be.

I've taken stills and movies, both interior and exterior shots and found the quality of the video to be exceptional and the sound to be crisp and clear. That being said, here are the pros and cons based on 10 or so filming sessions including full use of MovieShaker to download and edit films:

Pros:

- Way smaller than the web pics make it appear
- High quality video and sound
- Very solid construction, everything is quite sturdy
- The touch screen makes using most features a breeze
- Incredibly convenient handle and good access to key controls near handle
- Virtually no compromise on standard camcorder features (steadyshot, nightshot, megapixel, etc.)
- LCD is very crisp and clear even in bright light
- Taking still pictures and making videos is easy and straightforward

Cons:

- No FireWire cable included so you have to spend [money] if you want that
- MovieShaker and one commercial product from Pinnacle are your only options for actually downloading. And no editing in other products *until* you convert the MMV files to something standard.
- Native MMV tape format is not in actual DVD MPEG format (it's actually higher quality!) but it's still MPEG. My QuickTime player had no problem playing the files directly downloaded from the camcorder.
- Conversion to regular MPEG files had minor quality and artifact issues, I was NOT pleased with this but it was acceptable.
- Bluetooth capabilities appear only to work with Sony Bluetooth hardware, could not find my laptop using two different Bluetooth transceivers
- LCD seems small, but what can you expect when the whole camcorder will fit in your pocket (pants pocket not shirt pocket).
- Sony put no money into the remote control, it's huge, bulky, and... . But so are they on all Sony models is what I find.

The bottom line is that this camcorder works as advertised. The biggest problem for most folks will be that the Firewire/i.Link port does not put out the standard Sony MiniDV format, it is a new proprietary format but I had no problems getting it to work.


What Sony doesn't tell you...   December 22, 2002
17 out of 24 found this review helpful

The problem with all of the Sony MicroMV cameras is that you cannot use them with any of the standard video editing packages such as Adobe Premiere or Apple's Final Cut Pro. Sony neglects to tell you that you can only use their included MovieShaker software which is notoriously unreliable. So, unless you plan to edit in the analog realm, or not edit at all, you're better off with any other MiniDV or Digital8 camera.


5 Stars if it worked on a mac   November 9, 2003
13 out of 20 found this review helpful

Please sign the petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/osxmicmv/ requesting Sony support this camera (and other MicroMV camcorders) on Mac OS X.

This is a great camcorder, but it is impossible to use because you cannot get the video onto your Mac. For those of you that use a PC for video editing (yeah, right...) and don't mind using Sony's proprietary Movie Shaker program to do your editing instead of something like Premier (again, yeah, right), you will find this camera wonderful. But for the rest of us, Sony needs to take steps to open up this format or support the camcorder on the most popular digital video platform (Mac).


Size versus video quality   March 11, 2003
Tim CH (Mountain View, CA)
10 out of 11 found this review helpful

In a nutshell, the major issue with the IP55 is the small trade-off of video quality versus size.

Mind you, you're getting by far one of the smallest video cameras on the market, with all the camcorder features you'd expect in a larger model. However, its only major limitation in my eyes is the video quality.

Regardless, it's still very impressive. In all my use of it, the only thing that bugs me is the slow autofocus. That's it. I can only tell the video quality issues when compared side by side with the TRV50, but after converting to DVD there's little difference between the two.

MicroMV isn't a hard format to handle once you get it converted to the MOV format. To do this you need Quicktime Pro 5 (Quicktime Pro 6 doesn't work), which Sony should've bundled with it. Simply open your MMV file in Quicktime, select Save As, and save it as a MOV. Load it into Premiere or whatever video editing software you like and away you go, no other issues to speak of. I've successfully edited my videos using a variety of programs, so don't let the MicroMV format put you off.

Quibbles aside, the best bit of owning the IP55 is when you pull it out of the case (which, incidently, is the size of a regular camera case, not a camcorder). You can't beat the wow factor.