I have a Sharp VL NZ50 Digital Viewcam. It uses mini DV tapes and came with a manual, fire-wire cable and A/V cables. I have had mine for about 2 - 21/2 years and I got it used at Wal-Mart. Till this day it works great. Pros Nice and small10X optical zoom, 300x digital zoom.Ability to transfer video to computer and transfer back from computer to Camcorder via fire-wireAbility to record onto VHS or DVD's using AV cablesEasy to record movies basically a point and shoot function ConsDigital zoom can get a little fuzzyI am an amateur videographer. I basically make home movies and edit them on my computer and then burn them onto my DVD recorder just for personal use. One feature I like about the Viewcam is the Zoom, with the 10x optical zoom and 100x digital zoom I can make a movie of Shamu while I am on the top bleachers and still make out the faces of the trainers. But in digital zoom the view is not crystal clear. It looks like watching tv on broadcast channel, not in HD or anything.Another thing I like it that it will play back the video on the DV tapes with sound. And the LCD View is actually pretty large for a size of the camcorder. I think its about 3inches in size. I also like that it is so small not much larger than a digital camera. I usually just put the view cam in the camera bag (which is small) with an extra battery and an extra tape and I am off shooting video.I give it a thumbs up

anthro79

Round Rock, TX