I am delighted with my purchase & think I made a good choice. You can comfortably hold and operate the camera in one hand and then press the record button with your thumb and the zoom lens with you index finger.There is a strap on the side of the camera which your hand fits tightly under leaving your fingers free to operate the controls whilst the camera feels like it is strapped to your hand and you don't even have to make an effort to hold it. I'm generally a little on the clumsy side but I had no problem quickly gaining good control of the zoom, panning in and out easily whilst filming. All the while the LCD screen which opens outwards provides a good sized viewing area although you can view directly through the lens if you prefer. On the side of the camera is a button which says 'easy'. You press this before starting and then most of the camera settings are adjusted optimally and automatically. It's possible to fairly easily do it all manually via the touch screen on the LCD. but for beginners like me you can get started easily without this. The results are excellent. So far I've only used the optical zoom which is x20. With digital zoom you can actually get x800 but this reduces quality whereas optical zoom doesn't.

What I had been worried about was the ease of transfer to my computer & I took the advice of others on here to purchase a firewire cable which only cost a few pounds. This has proved to be a very good move. I have not even bothered to load the supplied software from Sony. When I connected the camera to my computer via the firewire cable a box appeared on my computer screen asking which program I wanted to use to 'capture video'. I could use Windows Movie Maker or Nero Vision Express which I also have on my computer. I opted for Nero Vision Express because I have greater familiarity with it & it couldn't have been much easier. I pressed 'play' on the camera & 'record' on Nero Vision Express and it produced a Mpeg file on my hard drive & then asked if I wanted to make a DVD which I did. So at the end I have a mpeg file on the computer which I can watch or play the DVD disc on my DVD player and watch it on my TV. I should add that if you want you can simply plug your camera into the TV using the supplied AV cable and watch it on the TV without even bothering with the computer if that is what you want. Doing it this way you would have to keep buying supplies of the cassette tapes that the camera records onto if you wanted to keep what you have done. Doing it my way you can keep recording over the top of the cassette knowing you already have a permanent record on the computer and/or DVD disc.

In the handbook it says something about needing a Sony computer to copy to DVD. Didn't really understand this but as I have described you can make a DVD on any computer if you have software like Nero or Windows Movie Maker.

The HC22E model comes with something described as a Handycam Station. It is a docking station which the camera sits in. Essentially it means that the various connecting cables, mains leads etc. are attached to the docking station rather than the camera itself. I notice some have said this isn't really worth having (you can buy a cheaper model without it) but I don't really agree. I have got my Handycam station set up near my computer already connected to the mains supply and to the computer via the firewire cable. So when I am not using the camera it just sits in the station and the battery is automatically recharging. Also I just switch the camera on and the Nero program starts up for me to capture what I have recorded. So although the Handycam station is not essential it does add a good measure of ease and convenience. You are not messing about with wires & cables everytime you want to charge the battery or capture to the computer. Instead you just sit the camera in the Handycam station.

By the way I almost forgot - the quality of what you record is really really good!

I must stress I know nothing about other similar products so I can't make comparisons I can only talk about this one. If you are like me and don't know much about these things I do not think you will be disappointed if you buy this camera in fact I think you will be delighted. Do what I did and order a firewire cable at the same time and also some mini DV casettes which are what the camera records onto. Surprisingly these are not included with the camera, not even one, and that is my only, very minor complaint.

3 out of 5 because of the cradle

This is accidentally untrue. The HC22 also offers DV in and fading effects.

Some view the former as critical.

Admittedly, the latter (fading effects) can be added on your computer when editing, but I do not consider this to be the same - personally I like to fade in & out on the camera itself when making each and every recording.

(There may be other differences too - I have written this having compared the HC19 & 22, and having just ordered the HC22. In other words, I comment having simply researched the difference, not yet as an owner).

Unfortunately I was mistaken. There are numerous problems with this camera that, even for a novice like me, I noticed straight away. First the recording quality is quite poor (haven’t got any other digital product to compare it with, but it is no comparison to my old Panasonic) and blurs and stutters on-screen (both on telly and the PC). Secondly the software provided is completely useless – unless you want to forward your video straight to VCD without editing. The software is also highly limited – very little in the way of editing sound/picture/movie etc on a timeline and hunger on hard-disk memory. Thirdly, the shoe on top of the camera does not provide support for anything. I bought an external microphone for the camera only to find that there was nowhere to plug it in or draw power from the Unit! This leads me on to the fourth point… the internal microphone is so poor it sounds as if it is recording underwater. Fifthly, the stand-type contraption it comes with is highly annoying as the camera doesn’t fit in it properly and in order to download video from the camera to PC it must be used (you cannot plug a wire direct from the PC into the camera). And by no means least… sixthly... you cannot use the HC22 with a tripod as the tripod will block the opening and closing of the HC22’s DV draw!

All in all a disastrous experience. I’m glad others have found this machine to be more than pleasing; unfortunately I do not share the optimism.