On Tue, 25 Dec 2001 23:00:20 -0800 (PST), bigrocketman3@webtv.net (Steve McDonald) wrote:

> Your first mistake was reading the manual.
>The first thing I do when buying a new Sony is to burn it, lest I become
>hopelessly confused.

You are right! With the VX2000, I looked at the (sizeable) half of the thick manual devoted to 640x480
stills, and
said, "Why bother!?" But, ignoring the manual, one day
I tried connecting the MS reader gizmo to the computer
with the USB cable, stuck a stick in I had tried a couple
of shots on with the VX2000 (pretty obvious how to do it,
using info on the camera...;-), and there they were, on the
computer - and they looked GOOD (for 640x480...;-)!
FAR easier than wading through the manual...! ;-)

>If you really want to tangle your brain, trying wriggling through the
>inscrutable wormholes of their website.

Ah, read TM's comments in this thread...;-)
I have followed the many and various versions of
the Sony web site since the VX700/1000 were first
announced - and have marvelled at their consistency
(bad, always bad!) in selection of designers. It is
difficult to navigate to where you want to go - or
back again another time if you actually succeeded
in finding once what you were looking for (sounds
like a description of the manuals, too...;-).

>Darn good camcorders, though.

Yes - generally the best performance around, and
fairly easy to use, but best if you come with some
operational knowledge of camcorders ahead of time...;-)

>I'll bet no one connected to manual and website
>writing is allowed to even talk to their video engineers.

Mebbe...;-)