Sony Handycam DCR-DVD403 review

Features
Earlier generations of Sony DVD camcorders, such as the DCR-DVD101, often lacked features found in MiniDV models of the same price class. Sony has definitely closed the gap here: the DCR-DVD403 is very full featured, with a high-resolution CCD, surround-sound recording and excellent still-photo capabilities. In fact, the only feature that fails to impress is the mere 10x zoom reach of the Carl Zeiss lens.

The Sony Handycam DCR-DVD403 records to 3-inch write-once DVD-R/+R or rewriteable DVD-RW/+RW discs. With the latter, you gain some basic editing capabilities, including the ability to split, reorder and delete scenes. When you finalise the disc, the DVD403 creates a DVD menu, complete with thumbnails that you can use to navigate your clips on a standalone player. It can also create a video slide show of any images on the disc. The camera lacks a Memory Stick slot, instead storing still photos on the disc. Unique to Sony, the DVD403 supports Dolby Digital 5.1 audio recording using its built-in directional microphone. You can also connect an external surround microphone.

The DVD403 supports both normal (4:3) and wide-screen (16:9) aspect ratios. In fact, the wide-screen LCD makes it easier to see what you're shooting in 16:9 mode, since there are no black letterboxing bars using valuable screen space. On the downside, during playback, neither TVs nor PCs seem to be able to autodetect which aspect ratio you used.

The camcorder includes manual exposure and focus options along with six autoexposure presets. Sony often loads its camcorders with an abundance of special effects, but here they're limited to luminance keying; the ever-cheesy Old Movie mode; and Sepia, Pastel, Black and White, and Mosaic effects. There's also a fader setting for scene transitions. The DVD403 offers Sony's trademark NightShot and Super NightShot infrared modes for low-light shooting as well as a colour slow-shutter mode for when you want to maintain the original colours and avoid the greenish cast found in infrared shots. There's no video light, but there is a flash for shooting stills. The DVD403 features Sony's Active Interface Shoe for adding lights and other accessories.

If your computer can read DVD-ROMs, file transfer is a snap -- just drop the finalised disc in the drive. Otherwise, you can use the bundled USB cable to move video and stills to your PC; the camcorder mounts as a drive for easy transfer. Some Mac users are out of luck: Sony doesn't include any Mac software, and the DVD403 lacks a FireWire port. Also, keep in mind that some video-editing packages don't support the compressed MPEG-2 format used on DVDs; you'll have fewer editing choices than with a MiniDV camcorder.

The supplied composite/S-video cable lets you connect to a television for playback or for passing through an analogue source to burn a DVD. The bundled infrared remote is handy for controlling the camcorder in either application.

Performance
With the DCR-DVD403, Sony addresses most of the performance complaints we had about DVD camcorders. Start-up, for instance, takes only a few seconds -- much better than the shot-missing 30 seconds on older devices. Waiting for the drive became frustrating only when shooting stills; the camcorder delays a few seconds between shots while writing photos to the disc. Battery life is good, lasting about two hours with the LCD in use. That's longer than you can record on the 3-inch DVDs, which hold only about 20 minutes of best-quality video.

Whether you're zooming quickly or gradually, the comfortably placed zoom switch offers precise control. The secondary controls on the LCD bezel zoom at a fixed, slightly sluggish rate. Sony's Super SteadyShot image stabilisation proved effective at wide angles and through most of the zoom range; camera shake became evident only near the 10x end of the zoom range.

The Sony Handycam DCR-DVD403's automatic focus performed quickly and accurately in both bright and dim light. The 2.7-inch (69mm) widescreen LCD is viewable even in direct sunlight, though its smallish size makes it difficult to use for manual focus. The colour viewfinder provides very good resolution, but its 4:3 aspect ratio makes for a tiny image when you're shooting in widescreen mode.

The surround sound microphone did a great job picking up narration, dialogue and ambient sound. Despite its sensitivity, we didn't notice it recording any camcorder noises. Though it lacks a wind filter feature, its placement on top of the camera means it's not as susceptible to wind noise as front mounted microphones.

Image quality
The Sony Handycam DCR-DVD403's video quality is very good, with no graininess evident in well-lit indoor and outdoor shooting. Low-light performance is above average, with good colour and a fairly low amount of noise in more dimly lit rooms. The camcorder's automatic-exposure feature works well, even when quickly panning from bright to dark subjects. Dynamic range is reasonable, though the camcorder tends to blow out highlights too frequently.

Colour depiction is very good -- colours are saturated without being overblown. The high-resolution CCD makes for fairly sharp video, but the camcorder's compression algorithms cause a very slight fuzziness. Overall, the video looked very good but was slightly softer than comparable MiniDV footage.

The DVD403's still-image quality is among the best we've seen from a single-CCD, single-lens camcorder. Colour is excellent in the 3-megapixel stills, and exposure was right on in our test shots. Upon close examination, images are a bit noisier than with dedicated still cameras, and they suffer from severe JPEG compression artefacts, but the quality is definitely good enough for casual shots.

Edited by Lori Grunin
Additional editing by Tom Espiner