Digital Cameras

Reviews

This PCI Firewire card makes it easier for old DV camera to transfer the video from tape to hard disk.

This card is cheap, unsupported junk. The drivers didn't work and the seller had the manufacturer fix them. After a few weeks of waiting, the repaired drivers also didn't work. The seller was kind enough to offer me a full refund. This review is not of HDE, they were very responsive and fair. I came back to Amazon, bought the Belkin and it works like a champ. Save yourself the time and trouble, just get the right tool for the job.

Regardless of brand name after installing pci card this works really well, I'm currently running windows 7 64 bit as well!

I've struggled for years trying to get video from my Sony camcorder's mini-DV tapes onto DVD. When I connected the camcorder with the USB cord that came with it, my Dell PC didn't recognize it at all. Sony told me that to do it using a computer, I'd have to buy a Sony computer. I did some online searching and found that I needed a firewire connector and a new cable. I found this one on Amazon for the unbeatble price of $10 including shipping. Others I saw were $30 just for the card. I decided I didn't have much to lose. I installed the card, connected the camcorder, and there it was! The included software captured the video from the camcorder, allowed me to create titles and menus and burned it to DVD, slowly, but painlessly. Sony should be ashamed of themselves, and I'll have to think twice before buying another of their camcorders.

Do NOT buy this card. It worked for about 2 days then wouldn't show up on my computer. I reinstalled it did a bunch of other stuff and still nothing. I then purchased a real card from a name brand and it worked. The packaging it came in was also a joke. Just save your money and buy a name brand card, this is a piece of junk.

Reviews

This camera can not be called a camera. It is a piece of plastic posing as a camera. Save your money.

The top two reasons this camera isn't worth purchasing are the two reasons that any parent would buy it - ease of use and functional ability. 1 - the onscreen icons for the camera are rather vague, but after reading the instruction book they're clear enough for anyone over ten to understand. I would bet that many parents out there, like us, have this camera for someone well under the ten year mark. 2 - the camera will only snap a pic with strong lighting. I took a picture of someone standing next to me with light overhead and to the side, but the pic didn't take. It would only take when pointed at one of the two lights directly. We also tried snapping a pic by someone looking down at me with the light overhead - no luck. The camera is set to hold 25 pics at hi quality, and with each click the camera would continue to show "25" unless pointed directly at a light source. If you go through a store and your daughter absolutely gets her heart set on this camera because it has ICarly plastered on the front, then do as you need. It may be a lesson learned for your daughter at the expense that some things aren't as good as they first seem. Just hang on that receipt.

Our daughter received this as a birthday present. The camera is unbelievably finicky. Most attempts at taking pictures failed -- even in good lighting. We tried several different new batteries, thinking this was likely the problem. In fact the issue is that the camera needs extraordinary lighting conditions. When pictures are successful, they are grainy, blurry at any distance, even at the highest picture quality setting. We didn't bother playing with the diary software since the camera was such a clunker. Don't waste your time with this, return it immediately which is what we are doing. By the way, those of you who remember the old Kodak Instimatic; well the Instimatic is leaps and bounds better than the iCarly Digital camera in every facet of comparison (except of course conversion to digital....).

Reviews

This is a large heavy book that has little really useful information considering its size. Digital Video for Beginners by Colin Barrett is a much better choice.

Don't end up like me-time wasted at camera store book racks; fatigue from endless internet book searches. Eliminate the grief. Buy "The Complete Digital Video Guide" by Bob Brandon. Chapters include: choosing a camera; using your camera; your camera and light; composition; telling a story; capturing sound and pictures; building your story; shooting a personal profile; editing your video. A professional videographer's lifetime of experience distilled into an essential book. Strunk & White for digital video.

Reviews

We couldn't get this item to work properly after an Hour of trying. It also came without the Disc which didn't help. The Instructions were vague & the sentence structure/grammer made it worse. The Co. DID supply a Full Refund.

The camera works perfectly. I fly model airplanes and bought the camera to take flying videos. It's small and light and works well in the air. The service from the vendor was quick and excellent. I'm having a great time with it. Uses are limited only by imagination.

This is a very poor quality product. The camera does not even appear to be 5MP to me. Starting with the badly translated manual (a folded piece of paper) to the missing CD rom (which is repeatedly mentioned in the manual) this was a disappointing purchase all around. The box mentions that there is a 2GB card provided; there is none. The box also mentions that there is a 1GB card provided (yes.... that's right... on one side it says 2GB on another 1 GB); there is no card whatsoever in the box. The box also mentioned the camera will take up to 16GB card; it does not and if you try anything larger than 8GB be aware that it may burn. It burned my 16GB Sandisk card. There is conflicting information in the manual about the size of the card it would take (4gb in one paragraph and 8gb in another) which is different still from what is written on the outside of the box. There are no drivers with the camera. There is no way to configure the resolution of the pictures (since there is no CD with any drivers or software whatsoever). There is no way to program the date and time, which (whether you want it or not) appear on every picture you take. I wish I had something positive to say ... but I would be lying. Oh ... I got it.... It's very small ... about the size of a stick of gum. That's good. But unless you want to chew on it .... it's pretty much useless for anything else. I realize it's only $30.00, but you are better off putting that $30 towards the purchase of a better product, which you can actually use.

Reviews

This program is easy to learn and intuitive. I did have to refer to the manual a couple of times. I have made great videos of trips and family. I did purchase the MPEG converter for authoring DVD's. Kinda reverse salesmanship there. My only complaint is that importing tape is limited to large, hard drive consuming files. I want to import as MPEG as some others do. I have two 60 GB HD's on my laptop that works well for 1 movie at a time. If I could do MPEG the computer wouldn't have to work as hard and I could store material for 2 movies. It is still usefull today (1/06) as I contemplate upgrading to Vegas.

If you're looking for special effects at an unbelievable price, you can't go wrong with Screenblast Movie Studio. Before purchasing this product, I used Pinnacle Studio 8 exclusively. While I like Studio 8 alot when it works, it is riddled with bugs and very unstable (it's constantly crashing). Screenblast Movie Studio has NEVER crashed on me. The features I really like about Screenblast Movie Studio that Pinnacle Studio 8 does not have (without buying their Hollywood FX upgrade):*two video editing tracks*chroma keying (works great with good lighting)*masking*transparencies (you can overlay two clips and change the "transparency" of one to get a "ghost" effect)*zoom in and out*basic "animation" abilities (using zoom and fly path features)After playing with Pinnacle Studio for a year, I was ready for more, and this package gave it to me.This package does the basics just fine (I bought of copy of this for my father rather than Studio 8), and it also have some awesome special effects features that will not disappoint.

The product lacks some of the features that I love with Pinnacle Studio 8. The DVD tools in Pinnacle Studio 8. Having used Pinnacle 7 & * pretty extensively, I was curious about this product based on feedback I had received. authoring in MovieStudio (MS) is lacking, compared to the awesome If DVD & VCD authoring and making basic videos is your thing, don't stop at MS. Use Pinnacle 8. For basic video editing and creating videos from pictures, it does not get much easier. However, once your imaginations starts to run wild, you are going to need something more power. I bought MS for that reason, realizing that I will still use Pinnacle 8 for DVD authoring. Pinnacle 7/8 provides only a single Video track. Splicing in video is possible, but much more painstaking than having multiple tracks (like most decent video editing tools.) MS has two tracks, but even on a single track you can overall (and blend) multiple video tracks! Pretty neat in concept.Cool features:* Chroma keyer: pretty much the big winner for me. This allows you to make solid color backgrounds (though not limited to backgrounds) to become transparent in a video (or image) that is to be overlaid unto another track. (Now you can be in a scene with out having ever been there.)* Much better collections of transitions and video filters out of the box then Pinnacle 8. (MS has 23 dissolve type transitions versus the single one in Pinnacle Studio 7/8). Although lacking 3-D object type transitions, the collection quality is on par with the Pinnacle Hollywood Effects add-on (non-pro version.)* While Pinnacle 8 is one of the easiest to use editors out there (that I have tried), I prefer the general layout of WS. There seems to be less wasted space. From the video editing side, I am hard pressed to see what Pinnacle can do that does not seem possible in WS. (I can definitely see the other way.)As for DVD/VCD authoring, I will not waste my time trying to do it in WS. Now, if you do not have Pinnacle 8, then what I might suggest you consider is to get MS plus a stand-alone DVD authoring kit. Both Pinnacle and Ulead have great packages.I am interested in seeing how well the codec in WS works. The rendering process in Pinnacle is among the slowest!!There's more, but I will stop here until I log more time in WS.Hope this is helpful.

I purchased the product hoping to burn family videos to DVD. I found that you had to purchase the MPEG add on to do so. I also wanted the ability to add menus to the DVD so it doesn't play like an old fashioned video tape...the product doesn't do that. I found that this product does not offer any more functionality more than Windows Movie Maker which is available for free download from the MicroSoft site. I'm sending the product back.

No mention of the fact that you will have to pay an additional $... to get an MPEG plug-in until you try to use the program (which by the way both my Sony Digital Camcorder and my Sony Digital Camera spit out in the MPEG format - but their software won't work with it).You had best compare this to similar products that run around a $... because once they're done with you at Screenblast that's what you'll have into it!