Topic: HELP with DV Digital Camera???

[Shamb]

So i'm clueless and about ready to break this thing in a million pieces. Here's my situation

So I just purchased a Sony DCR-HC26 DV mini cam/Camera. I've figured out how to take 7 second pictures with sound which is basically a slideshow VIDEO but I CAN NOT figure out how to take a regular PICTURE (jpg,bmp,gif.. whatever!)

Am I missing something here? it seems so simple yet so ignorant.. I can't figure it out.

Does the camera only take slidshow video footage since its on a tape and wont actually hold an image like a regular digital camera? I would think it would have the capability of doing both. Main reason I bought it is for dual functionality of a Camera and Film all in one. Was I wrong in assuming it could do both?

Please inform me of either my ignorance of not knowing how to properly use the product OR was I informed of false information when I purchased it?

Plain and simple, Does this take regular .jpg (or any other format) style pictures?

Thanks

[Willy Mammoth]

Is this a tape type camcorder? and does it also use a memory stick? Check to make sure the mode switch is not set the memory or it will make mpegs to the memory stick and not record to the tape. 

Just a thought

[Willy Mammoth]

The power switch on mine has vcr, off ,camera , memmory.

Next to that switch there is a button that starts and stops the record. There is also a button on top next to the zoom that says photo.

If the switch is set to tape and you hit the photo button it will take a still shot to tape with sound. If it is set to tape and you hit the record button it will record video to tape.

If you set it to memmory it will do the same to memmory except the photos are only a single frame without sound.

Mine is a DCR-TRV730.

Hope this helps

[Shamb [OP]]

Found out that it wasn't capable of a memory stick (which is what a camcorder needs to take still pictures)  after doing some more research. So I took it back and purchased a Hitachi with a tripod, bag, 2 chargers/battery, 4 discs (its one of those mini dvd's) and also came with a 128 mb SD card (which i'll upgrade soon)

I took a few pics and plugged it into the comp just to make sure it was going to work and liked the functionality alot more then the Sony, that thing's got 100 different programs to do a 100 different things. This Hitachi just plugs in and you can easly drag/drop your images or video directly to the hard drive (I love simple!)

This one was also $50 less then the Sony

Thanks for the input WM