Allan, have you had a chance to look one over and try it with a widescreen TV? Much appreciated.

Frank do you know where I can get more information on this camcorder?

I see you made it here. There's no news yet about this cam. I'm still waiting and keeping my eyes peeled.

Frank should I wait for this camcorder or should I look at something else to replace my zr20? I can wait if I have to. Do you have another suggestions? How is Samsung?

With buying a lower end cam know, you have a choice: buy last year's model now, wait a few months and buy a new model. That Sharp seems to have good specs for a lower-end cam. That's why I suggested that it might be a good buy. If I were to buy a low-end cam today, I wouldn't. I'd wait.

Vincent is trying to find the Japanese link and will be posting a pic with its basic specs here:

http://www.grandeye.com.hk/etx/900/index.html

I'll save my impressions on the video quality of this Sharp but there are 2 things so far that I didn't find so pleasing.

1. Body is nice, weight distribution is great, the rotating grip is cool, but the cam feels "cheap" on hand. I could only wish that Sharp used something to "mask" the plastic feel and look of this cam all over, the way Pany and Sony do.

2. The multi-purpose control button (for manual operations) is TOO small, TOO hard and NOT EASY to use. The jog-wheel of old Panys and new Canons or the new cross-buttons of Pany are much better to use and navigate. Of course if you shoot in full auto all the time, this won't be much of an issue at all.

In fairness, nice features of this cam are:

1. GREAT looking CG LCD.
2. HQ Widescreen - Increase in horizontal angle of view is quite significant with very little decrease in vertical angle, but I have yet to compare if it shows a wider shot than Canon FVM100 (which uses a similar 1.33MP CCD)
3. Multi-language support (for the menu) even for the Jap version.


This cam sells for almost the same price as Canon FVM100 (Elura 70 in the US), Sony HC40 and Pany GS200 in Japan. Although the Canon does not have the same quality LCD as Sharp and lacks the manual focus ring and some other manual features of the GS200, this cam, IMO, exhibits the best looking video in its class right now both in 4:3 and widescreen. Please check it out. The GS200 CANNOT compare with this cam in sharpness and detail. Sony is quite close in those aspects but as usual (subjective), color is "off" especially indoors or under fluorescent lights (because of the color saturation of the Sony, the overall picture tends to look brighter -you might like it - compared to Canon, Pany and Sharp). GS200 is without question the best in terms of color (very rich and accurate), but again, lacks sharpness and detail. Previous Sharps tend to be a little dark and noisy, but I have yet to closely examine this particular one, and based on specs, Sharp added a new feature to improve the brightness of image - lux requirement is still the same though.

Maybe Matsushita should take notes from Sharp. :)

<<<-- Originally posted by Tommy Haupfear : Maybe Matsushita should take notes from Sharp. :) -->>>

The new Canons have multi-lingual menu as well.

Time for a "firmware" upgrade for your GS100, Tommy. :-))

Thanks for your review, Allan. I thought this Sharp would be a little cheaper, though, because it's a Sharp. At least in Canada Sharp and Samsung are considered the low end. Too bad about the plastic feel---at least they didn't hide anything! So the multi-purpose control button is useless, eh? Kink of like the MX3000 mode switch? That's the worst part of that cam---afraid it's going to break one of these days. :-))

MX3000 control buttons are much more accessible and easier to press.

Sharp wanted to make this cam look cool and smaller by putting the battery bay inside the LCD panel so there is no space for better placement and sizes of buttons

Oh. If it's that cute, it may just be the one for my wife...depending on its North American price.

It is a fair buy for around $600.

Great info. in Korean

http://www.sharp-korea.co.kr/04produ...tm.asp?pid=239