Before I purchased this camera I read the reviews on Amazon. I was pretty skeptical about buying this video camera after reading the reviews about the motor noise and somewhat cheap product. After ordering from Amazon, the video camera came in less than a week from Beach Camera. I paid $147.00 with free shipping. I am completely amazed that a Japanese company can ship a camera of this high quality to the US with such a devalued dollar and still make money on the product. I am very happy with my purchase! This is my fourth video camera. The camera has above average optics. Has features found only on more expensive cameras, like an external mike input. Has decent special effects. The one disappointing quality is that the camera does not have a hotshoe for a video light. The camera does not do well in low light situations. But I did not buy it to shoot in darkness! It has both a viewfinder and and a decent viewing screen. It is hard to find a viewfinder on a $500.00 video camera these days. I wanted a hard-drive camera but they are still costly and are still not of mini-dv quality (That is why the professional video cameras are still mini-dv and not dvd or hard-drive). Overall I am very satisfied with this camera and would highly recommend this camera to anyone.