Sharp VLNZ100U MiniDV Compact Digital Viewcam w/3" Color LCD, MMC/SD Memory Card Slot & USB Interface

Lens
With an optical zoom magnification of 10x, the VL-NZ100U also has a digital zoom--which works by electronically enhancing the optical image--that can magnify the picture up to 300 times. The digital image stabilization system keeps the picture steady and solid throughout zooms and camera shakes.

Other Features
With its 270-degree variable angle, you can hold the VL-NZ100U in a variety of angles to record over people and objects or for shots close to the ground. You can even record yourself by rotating the view screen 180 degrees.

The built-in speaker allows on-the-spot playback with sound for checking and viewing video footage anywhere. An on-screen recording guide helps you line up landscape footage and can be used as a guide for easy framing of subject matter. The backlight compensation feature corrects exposure in poor lighting conditions.

The VL-NZ100U also features several digital effects (black and white, sepia, NEG) that can be viewed without affecting the original recording.

Digital Stills
The VL-NZ100U can also operate as a digital still camera. Full-motion video is recorded onto a DVC tape while digital stills are stored on the included 8 MB Secure Digital (SD) memory card for easy transfer to a PC.

Inputs and Outputs
The VL-NZ100U comes with the standard DV IEEE 1394 port (also known as FireWire; Sharp refers to this connection as iLink) for a super-fast, lossless connection to a PC or other DV machines.

MiniDV Format
MiniDV digital technology delivers clear, sharp video with over 500 lines of horizontal resolution--far superior to the 240 lines of resolution offered by 8mm camcorders. You'll also get minimal color noise interference for a more stable picture.

The camera features excellent sound quality, recorded in either 12-bit or 16-bit audio recording modes.

• 16-bit audio includes one set of stereo audio tracks to produce CD-quality sound.
• 12-bit audio utilizes two sets of audio tracks so you can easily add background music or commentary into your videos while maintaining the existing soundtrack.

This is all delivered on a cassette that's 1/12th the size of a standard VHS tape. A MiniDV tape offers a digital recording time of two full hours--20 times the capacity of a CD.

Contents
This package comes with the VL-NZ100U camcorder, one rechargeable lithium-ion battery, AC adapter, tripod adapter, remote control (and batteries), AV dubbing cables, wrist strap, lens cap, and 8 MB memory card.

Product Description
Developed for consumers on the go, the VL-NZ100U digital Viewcam offers a number of exciting features, in a sleek, compact design with a three-inch color LCD view screen. With Sharp's return to the two-handed Viewcam form-factor for its digital line, the company has created a line of exceptionally compact and user friendly digital camcorders. With a 20 percent overall size reduction and handy new shoulder and hand straps, it's possible to carry these camcorders almost anywhere. Each Viewcam is approximately the size of a paperback book, weighs only one pound and has both still and full motion recording capability.The VL-NZ100U digital Viewcam with digital still capture has an 8MB SD memory card included for an easy transfer to a PC and for e-mailing images easily. The 8MB SD Memory Card/Slot allows the Viewcam to operate as a digital still camera and as a camcorder. The full motion video is recorded onto a DVC tape while digital stills are stored on the supplied memory card for easy transfer to a PC. The 10x optical lens provides the best picture quality and the digital 300x zoom allows images to be captured at a distance. Digital Picture Effects allow different digital effects (B&W, Sepia, NEG) to be viewed without effecting the original recording and to give your video a custom edited look.

This thing is nothing more than a fancy webcam with firewire and usb connections that records on DV tapes.

Believe me, all you get is webcam quality capture on DV tapes.
The native resolution of the capture I bet is 352 x 240 (which is the same as VCD). You will not get DVD quality capture (720 x 480) with this camcorder.

I have Adobe premiere 6.5 and used it to do live capture. This is how you see the full capability of the camcorder capture. If you record on tape, the manufacturer could say or you might believe that the issue is with the tape. So, doing live capture to your computer hard drive is the best way to test the camcorder.

I did a series of capture 4:3 and 16:9 (widescreen) at DV settings of 720 x 480. The movies were awful as if I was using a netcam. In fact, this camcorder only takes slightly better picture than my netcam.

This camcorder is meant for capturing movies for TV (since most TVs display at 320 x 240). It is not meant for high resolution capture. The movies looked barely OK on my TV, but just awful on my computers when viewed at full screen. The movies looked Ok if viewed in a small window on the computer just like they do on the TV. However, when you maximize the movies to full screen, you realize that they were captured at low resolutions.

I spend two hours going through the settings and manual thinking that the camera was set for low resolution movie capture and that I could change it. That was not the case. For one, you have no option to change the resolution at which movies are captured. Two, the resolution you get is the camcorder's native and maximum resolution.

The still picture of this camecorder as you might expect by now is just as awful. The maximum resolution for the pictures is 320 x 240 just about like the movie capture resolution.

Finally the camera is cheaply constructed.

My advice: skip this piece of ....

I gave it two stars because it was cheap otherwise that would have been a zero star.


Easy to use...but not worth it!   November 11, 2002
22 out of 28 found this review helpful

What appealed to me about this camcorder was that it is easy to use and comfortable to hold. Other camcorders seem to have a confusing layout and are uncomfortable to hold in one hand (my hand would hurt after awhile).

Unfortunately, I didn't think about the downsides:

(1) you can't really hold this camera in one hand -- you must hold it with two hands pretty much all the time.

(2) the camera has no means of putting a neck strap on it -- this is EXTREMELY irritating, to say the least. It has a hand strap, which does me no good at all--I don't want to carry it that way.

(3) the camera has a lens cap that does not fit without the lens hood...and guess what...I lost the lens hood. The lens cap is ridiculously cheap.

(4) there is no viewfinder other than the LCD screen. The way I have found to hold it the steadiest is against my abdomen (with the LCD tilted up to my face. Unfortunately, it is hard to see the LCD in sunny conditions!

Its ease of use of this camcorder still has appeal to me, but the lens cap problem is really getting to me.