Whatever you do, STAY WAY FROM SONY!
I spent about $1,200 on their IP5 and it's the biggest piece of junk. It never worked right from day one, and they blamed the problem on EVERYTHING but their unit. I even got a new laptop to try to get it working - no dice. I went through 3 Firewire cards, 2 laptops, 3 pieces of software, removing EVERYTHING from my PC and it always had a problem. After all was said and done, I called and demanded they fix it. The response? Oh, the warranty was only 6 months because you didn't register the product, so you will have to pay a flat fee of $350 to repair it. And it was *ONE WEEK* past the 6-month deadline. Actually it was WITHIN the deadline, but I bought it in March of 02, they said they did not know what DAY in March I bought it, so the warranty started from March 1st. That is BS because I bought it on the 23rd or 24th (I was at the Panoz race school, and it was a 2 day window I bought it in). They said if I sent them the ORIGINAL receipt they would cover it, but if not it would cost $350. Of course I can't find the receipt and Circuit City doesnt have a copy since that was before they started logging them and it was in Atlanta, not Boston, etc, etc. When I bitched to Sony about their tactics, they said "ok, we will cover parts if you pay labor". Guess what? Parts were $38, and labor was $312. How messed up is that? What a crock.
I am soooo fucking pissed about it. I will never buy another Sony product again. Their support just S U C K S. Look online and you will see the same trend "Sony support sucks". There are many people having the same problem with this camcorder as I have, and Sony is denying any problem and making *ME* pay for it. It's a $1,200 paperweight.
I hear great things about the JVC stuff -they are supposed to be pretty much the top when it comes to digital camcorders. And WHATEVER you do, make SURE it's MiniDV. Forget MicroMV, Hi8 or any other stuff - MiniDV, because *all* the standard software and hardware is made for MiniDV.
I spent about $1,200 on their IP5 and it's the biggest piece of junk. It never worked right from day one, and they blamed the problem on EVERYTHING but their unit. I even got a new laptop to try to get it working - no dice. I went through 3 Firewire cards, 2 laptops, 3 pieces of software, removing EVERYTHING from my PC and it always had a problem. After all was said and done, I called and demanded they fix it. The response? Oh, the warranty was only 6 months because you didn't register the product, so you will have to pay a flat fee of $350 to repair it. And it was *ONE WEEK* past the 6-month deadline. Actually it was WITHIN the deadline, but I bought it in March of 02, they said they did not know what DAY in March I bought it, so the warranty started from March 1st. That is BS because I bought it on the 23rd or 24th (I was at the Panoz race school, and it was a 2 day window I bought it in). They said if I sent them the ORIGINAL receipt they would cover it, but if not it would cost $350. Of course I can't find the receipt and Circuit City doesnt have a copy since that was before they started logging them and it was in Atlanta, not Boston, etc, etc. When I bitched to Sony about their tactics, they said "ok, we will cover parts if you pay labor". Guess what? Parts were $38, and labor was $312. How messed up is that? What a crock.
I am soooo fucking pissed about it. I will never buy another Sony product again. Their support just S U C K S. Look online and you will see the same trend "Sony support sucks". There are many people having the same problem with this camcorder as I have, and Sony is denying any problem and making *ME* pay for it. It's a $1,200 paperweight.
I hear great things about the JVC stuff -they are supposed to be pretty much the top when it comes to digital camcorders. And WHATEVER you do, make SURE it's MiniDV. Forget MicroMV, Hi8 or any other stuff - MiniDV, because *all* the standard software and hardware is made for MiniDV.
