Sony DSR PD170

This is a somewhat large camera, but which films easily from tripod. The manual control is excellent. This camera can operate in low light settings; and as I am filming dance performances, that is a help. The spotlight feature turns out to be very useful for a stage performance so highlights are not bleached out. With colored lights changing the white balance works best on auto. If lighting stays consistent you can get a good reading focussing on a page of white paper. The batteries last a long time; but the cassettes are relatively short, so you need to be prepared to switch cassettes. Sound is excellent.
The paricular auction had a relatively new camera, a wide angle lens, a tripod and a solid carrying case which were the accessories I wanted. As mentioned I needed the low light capability and manual control.

The Sony PD170 is a public access favorite because it is easy to handle, sturdy and only as complicated as it really needs to be to give you the control you need. I took footage from a public access camera to a local tv station and the engineer checked it and said the quality was good enough for their broadcast, so I bought the camera.
It has good manual focus which I really like, being able to manually zoom in quick, as well as creatively zoom in at the speed you like. And I like that the lens can be grabbed and zoomed by one ring and focused by an adjacent ring just like my film and old fashioned video cameras were before everything got automatic.
The audio setting and microphone plug ins and settings are not for the stupid; you should have someone explain it to you. I haven't seen the manual so I have no idea how clear it explains things. It has two audio inputs with good sturdy XLR jacks, and you can set Input one to record to one or both tracks. You can set the audio sensitivity. But if you set your mics or audio wrong you won't have sound. It does have its own speaker so you can play it back after a test recording.
If your local public access channel uses these cameras you can take their training course on how to use them and then do some volunteer work for them.
It has three, count 'em, three record buttons, conveniently placed for the different ways you might hand hold a camera. The viewfinder and fold out view screen are clear.

What I don't like is the tiny finger switch to turn it on to VCR/Camera/Memory. It is hard to press a finger to compress the little center button and twist it to just the right position. If I had a man's large fingers or were in dim light and could not see the tiny lettering it would be easy to mis-position it or not be able to move it at all. It does have a nice little, though unmarked, blocking lever to prevent yourself from going to memory instead of camera.
And the power jack it hidden at the lower rear of the camera behind a smooth rubber flap just the same color as the camera body. I searched for 10 minutes before I found it even though I knew it was at the back rear.
I'm not too familiar with the menu so I can't talk on that or its special effects. I am a simple operator, interested more in good signal and camerawork. But I recommend it.