Features of the DCR-DVD850

No flash, no video light. You can see that plainly on pictures here.

Specs: Still Actual : 250K pixels (16:9), 340K pixels (4:3). Still Picture Resolution : 680K

That's pretty pathetic, IMHO. But that's the least of the camera's problems. The problem, as with any DVD camcorder is the format. DVD. They may be convenient in a shoot and play sort of fashion, but if you want to shoot video and then edit it to take out wasted scenes, add titles and music, etc., you're taking a hit in video quality by shooting native with a DVD camera. And for DVDs, you'll need to take that DVD and "rip" it to your PC and then encode it into a more editable format if your editing program doesn't support the format. I recommend DVD Decrypter or DVD Shrink. They will get your footage off the dvd and onto your PC. You can then use something like MPEG STREAMCLIP to encode it to a more editable format. Depending on what editing software you use, you may be able to import mpeg2 and even VOB files directly. But understand that you're already starting with compressed footage, so the resolution quality will not be as good as if you had shot native with MiniDV tape and captured to your PC.

However, for DVDs, you'll need to take that DVD and "rip" it to your PC and then encode it into a more editible format. I recommend DVD Decrypter or DVD Shrink. They will get your footage off the dvd and onto your PC. You can then use something like Videoera (PC) or Handbrake (Mac) to encode it to a more editable format. Depending on what editing software you use, you may be able to import mpeg2 and even VOB files directly. But understand that you're already starting with compressed footage, so the resolution quality will not be as good as if you had shot native with MiniDV tape and captured to your PC.