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Rating:  - Lost memories and no help from Panasonic
I have had this camera for about two years. I have gone through about 20 CDs and today the second one errored out and lost the data. No more video of my son's birthday. Just like that. The discs are working fine and then they come up with an error and that's it. Throw away your disc and your memories. I have used two kinds of media and both have had the same problem. Go to Panasonic's support web and site and there is NOTHING. Their FAQ on camcorders is a short marketing piece, so you're basically on your own. There must be a thousand better products than this one. Don't buy it unless you don't mind losing your video.
Rating:  - Average camera in its day but now obsolete
The VDR-M50 was an average camera around 2005, but is now obsolete. If you are buying this second hand then be warned that Panasonic supply no drivers or tools for Vista, so you need third party tools such as Roxio Creator to extract your movies from the DVD-RAM disks - probably not worth the trouble. Picture quality is just OK even on the highest quality setting. The VDR-M50 has some nice features including in-camera editing facilities but these are not enough to redeem it.
Rating: - Not what I hoped for
I bought this camcorder back in September of 2004 for the birth of my daughter and this is one technology that just didn't pay to be an early adopter. Here's a quick summary of my experience
Pros:
1. Navigating thru recordings is significantly easier (and timelier) than MiniDv or tape.
2. Camera size is nice
3. Outdoor recordings have good quality (not great)
Cons:
1. Have to use Panasonic DVDs for recording. We tried buying other brands which were significantly cheaper and the camera started rattling. Customer service thru Panasonic was horrible and after sending in the unit for repair, they sent it back saying nothing was wrong and we just have to use Panasonic DVDs (why didn't they just say that on the phone????)
2. Inside recordings are poor quality due to low light limitations. We purchased an external light which helps, but adds to the cost and also makes it more of a hassle to use
3. DVD-ROM software is proprietary and not readable on most DVD drives. We actually had to purchase an external DVD-Rom burner
4. Actual time to create a DVD can be as long as 4 or 5 hours for a 1-hour DVD. It only takes about 10 minutes if you record with a DVD-r disk but that also comes with problems (many of my files didn't transfer properly and you have to deal with the format and finalize process).
Overall not a total disaster but definitely not a good technology experience. Hopefully Hard Drive based units will be better but I'll wait it out a little while to let them work out the kinks.
Rating: - Unable to intergrate with Vista (NEW PC)
The camera functioned well, but is in no way compatiable with Vista or and newer systems. Drivers are not available, so thusly this camera is an peice of junk. Would never recommend it or Panasonic to any one.
Rating:  - Not bad at all if you know what you're doing
PROs: Very easy to operate, even my wife handled it well :). Using DVD-RAM disks saved my budget since I've used a single DVD-RAM disk (app 20CAD$) for the last three years. Software that came bundled ('DVD Movie Album SE' and 'My DVD') is easy to install and easy to learn. Battery life could be better, but it works fine for me (about 1-1.5 hours, screen was on all the time). All cables (TV connection, PC connection, charger) are nicely marked, no confusion here. They even included an S-video cable for TV, so you have a choice of composite or S-video connection. Neat. I like that I can put the small DVD-RAM disk in my laptop, and do all the editing, I don't need to daisy-chain the camera itself to my laptop.
CONs: As you know, DVD-Ram disks need cartridges. For many people this is a hassle, but I'm used to it. I love the additional protection that cartridge offers. Original recordings are in 'raw' DVD format: .vro and they need to be reformated to .mpg. Not a big deal with DVD Movie Album SE, BUT: the size of finished movie in MB is huge. A 2-minute movie takes well above 100MB if you keep the default settings in the software. The price of recordable DVDs keeps dropping, but anyway, the movies could be smaller in size.
Overall, this is an excellent camera if you are an average computer user and know how to get around with movie encoding/decoding.
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