I had always been a Sony fan. But no more.I only used this handycam 3 times.When I went to use it the 4th time the LCD malfunctioned and recorded jibberish. Of course it was just after the year warrantee expired.I contacted Sony and was told it was outside of the warrantee period so it was my problem.No more Sony products for our family.We were going to buy a Sony vaio laptop for our college freshman but bought a Dell instead after this experience.My husband wanted a Sony Bravia HDTV, but we bought an LG instead.If you buy this, make sure you buy an extended warrantee as Sony will not stand behind their product.