I bought this camera and after 40 days it developed a fault. I contacted Sony Service Centre in London, who after keeping it for 5 weeks explained that they could not repair NTSC Models in the UK and I would have to send it to the US for repair. I suggested that they should do that but no. I returned to the US and took the camera to one of their service centres who said that I would have to pay $216 labour charges as it was now over 90 days old.
After a great deal of hassle they eventually agreed to give me a work order to have this charge waived. I then sent it to Sony in PA and although I have been informed that it has been repaired I still am awaiting its return over 6 months after purchase. Just be sure you realise that the 12 month warranty only applies to parts, the labour warranty is 90 days, it is in the small print but easily overlooked. This review may not be helpful to everyone but if one person is helped then great.

This is a great camcorder, but it is impossible to use because you cannot get the video onto your Mac. For those of you that use a PC for video editing (yeah, right...) and dont mind using Sonys proprietary Movie Shaker program to do your editing instead of something like Premier (again, yeah, right), you will find this camera wonderful. But for the rest of us, Sony needs to take steps to open up this format or support the camcorder on the most popular digital video platform (Mac).

Apart from this issue, I guess it is a great buy. If I would use a PC, it would be on the top of my wishlist.

Cons: Limited choice in editing apps for MicroMV video format; lens has fairly narrow angle of view; no accessory shoe or external microphone jack.

It has been a week after I bought this camcorder and so far it is great. The super night vision comes really handy if you go on camping or some other interesting dark places. The controls are very easy to reach and the picture quality is really good. Some people say that they do not like the cassette to be ejected from bottom, but I have no problems with it. I think it is fine. The movie shaker software that comes with the camcorder is not a very professional one. It can handle basic editing and it has great effects. Very easy to use and to set up. You can export the movies you capture in different formats such as real audio, quicktime, etc. It really takes a long time to export though. It is the same with other digital cameras. So, it shouldnt be a concern for you to decide if you should buy the camera or not. You can use the network function to email the photos to a website.If you have a bluetooth cell phone, it is very easy. But if you dont have one, you will have to buy the sony bluetooth adapter for the camcorder which costs about $199. It is better to buy a new cell phone than buying the adapter. This little device is top of the line. It has manual focus for better capturing. It has a smart flash which pops-up automatically when you hit the photo shoot button half-way down. One downside of the camera is that it does not have an input for external microphone. But the built in one does a good very good job. All in all, you should not miss this camcorder. It is affordable, small, cute, and it is SONY. You would never mind carrying it to everywhere you go. And if you are a guy, youll make a lot of "female" friends. Youll become the center of attention. GRAB ONE! HAVE FUN!

Mind you, youre getting by far one of the smallest video cameras on the market, with all the camcorder features youd expect in a larger model. However, its only major limitation in my eyes is the video quality.

Regardless, its still very impressive. In all my use of it, the only thing that bugs me is the slow autofocus. Thats it. I can only tell the video quality issues when compared side by side with the TRV50, but after converting to DVD theres little difference between the two.

MicroMV isnt a hard format to handle once you get it converted to the MOV format. To do this you need Quicktime Pro 5 (Quicktime Pro 6 doesnt work), which Sony shouldve bundled with it. Simply open your MMV file in Quicktime, select Save As, and save it as a MOV. Load it into Premiere or whatever video editing software you like and away you go, no other issues to speak of. Ive successfully edited my videos using a variety of programs, so dont let the MicroMV format put you off.

Quibbles aside, the best bit of owning the IP55 is when you pull it out of the case (which, incidently, is the size of a regular camera case, not a camcorder). You cant beat the wow factor.

The bottom line: The DCRIP55 is all its cracked up to be.

Ive taken stills and movies, both interior and exterior shots and found the quality of the video to be exceptional and the sound to be crisp and clear. That being said, here are the pros and cons based on 10 or so filming sessions including full use of MovieShaker to download and edit films:

Pros:

- Way smaller than the web pics make it appear
- High quality video and sound
- Very solid construction, everything is quite sturdy
- The touch screen makes using most features a breeze
- Incredibly convenient handle and good access to key controls near handle
- Virtually no compromise on standard camcorder features (steadyshot, nightshot, megapixel, etc.)
- LCD is very crisp and clear even in bright light
- Taking still pictures and making videos is easy and straightforward

Cons:

- No FireWire cable included so you have to spend [money] if you want that
- MovieShaker and one commercial product from Pinnacle are your only options for actually downloading. And no editing in other products *until* you convert the MMV files to something standard.
- Native MMV tape format is not in actual DVD MPEG format (its actually higher quality!) but its still MPEG. My QuickTime player had no problem playing the files directly downloaded from the camcorder.
- Conversion to regular MPEG files had minor quality and artifact issues, I was NOT pleased with this but it was acceptable.
- Bluetooth capabilities appear only to work with Sony Bluetooth hardware, could not find my laptop using two different Bluetooth transceivers
- LCD seems small, but what can you expect when the whole camcorder will fit in your pocket (pants pocket not shirt pocket).
- Sony put no money into the remote control, its huge, bulky, and... . But so are they on all Sony models is what I find.

The bottom line is that this camcorder works as advertised. The biggest problem for most folks will be that the Firewire/i.Link port does not put out the standard Sony MiniDV format, it is a new proprietary format but I had no problems getting it to work.