Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:  
Summary: Concurr with the last few reviews before me
Comment: this camcorder is pretty long in the tooth & I doubt many are still buying it, but in case you are thinking about becoming a new owner -- add my experience to the last few who posted reviews prior to mine. This machine was great on paper, and worked pretty well the first year or so (during which I wasn't using it that often -- maybe once or twice a month). But after a year it got to the point where it wouldn't load a new cassette right away, then only after trying repeatedly, and then, finally ... it wouldn't load a cassette at all.
Great product on paper that I thought I got for a good price here at amazon, but ended up costing me a lot when you figure how little use I got out of it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Dew Indicator Light
Comment: After a year and a half the dew indicator has stopped the camera from working completely. When this first started happening I had to let the camera sit open for 2 hours, I missed some pretty important events for that reason. Now--even though it has been indoors in low humidity for a month the dew light is on and the camera won't work at all. I am very dissapointed as I shouldn't have to buy another camera in such a short time. I won't buy a sharp product again.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Avoid Sharp DigiCams! Production DISCONTINUED/DEW problems
Comment: I am appalled that others have experienced the horrible DEW problem with this camera. When the temperature and humidity changes, the digicam provides a warning and shuts down. This is outlined in the user manual, but I was very disappointed that the camera would shut down for days on end. We missed great moments of our toddler and family events because of this camera, which was a fairly expensive purchase.
Upon calling 1800-BE SHARP, their customer service line, I was informed that Sharp no longer produces these digicams anyways!! Since the warranty had expired, the only service centre they could recommend is in Los Angeles whereas we live in Northern California. Our solution is to buy another, much better, non-Sharp product.
Avoid this product if you want a satisfactory/happy filming experience
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great when it works; but frustrating overall
Comment: I have had this camera for almost two years now...just after the one-year mark (when warranty expired!) it started having problems. Before then it was great. Small, nice LCD, strong zoom, easy to use, nice video. I never tried it for digital snapshots, though.
Problems started at the worst possible time...trip to Brazil half for vacation and half to document my wife philanthropic work that she is doing (and starting a nonprofit org). For no apparent reason, as we were in a drought, the "DEW" warning kept going off and not allowing any use of camera. After days of frustration, we just gave up on it.
Back in the states, weeks later the DEW problem seemed to have gone away but then the camera started eating the video-tape!!
So, I bought a new tape....and, guess, what? The "DEW" indicator goes off again -- at my kids TaeKwonDo testing for Black Belt!
Ironic how you save a couple bucks shopping around for a value product and then realize you have lost priceless memories due to poor engineering/manufacturing....I am now using our 10-year old Sony videotape camcorder...big but RELIABLE.
I'm going to try soldering the DEW problem per other review...pathetic that consumers are soldering Japanese camcorders!
update: GUESS WHAT? I called Sharp USA and complained to Tech Support and they transferred me to Customer Service who knew immediately about this issue and they told me to send it in to the repair facility and they would issue a special approval for a free repair even though i have owned it beyond the 1-year warrany period...they said they'd pay for labor & materials,..i only have to pay for shipping. I am satisfied.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good video and fair snapshots 4.5 stars
Comment: I just returned from a trip to Nepal and India and found the VLZ3U to be just the ticket. It takes great video of a quality that enabled me to extract pictures of Everest and a tiger in the wild equal to most digital still cameras. The still pictures taken with the camera to the card were great for snapshots but are of too low a quality to alow much of a blow up. I did, however, take over 1500 picture that are just fine if I don't try to make them much bigger than 5x6. The "DEW" problem has cropped up 3 times in two months with no cause that I could determine as the humidity was not high at any point. I did find that I could remove the "DEW" hangup by removing the battery and immediately replacing. When I did this the "DEW" disappeared and I was able to take both still and video.
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