Sony DCR TRV320 Digital8 Camcorder -- Does Stills Too
Written: Nov 30 '00
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Pros: Nice Design, Good Quality Camera Section, Digital, Firewire Jack
Cons: Somewhat Overpriced
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| radioguy's Full Review: Sony Handycam DCR-TRV320 Digital-8 Digital Camcord... |
With a list price of $999 and a street price around $850, the Sony DCR-TRV320 is quite pricey for a basic digital camcorder. However, since all the other manufacturers have similarly high prices, and their camcorders are nowhere-near as well designed as Sony's entry-level digital camcorders, these are the ones you want to look at, if you've decided to go digital.
If you just want a camcorder for basic family events, just something that can get a fairly decent image on tape, you can find 8mm and VHS-C camcorders for about half the price of the TRV320. However, the extra expense of the TRV320 is somewhat merited. You do get something for the extra money you spend.
The TRV320 is the second camcorder from the bottom of Sony's line of Digital8 camcorders. The Digital8 format, invented and marketed by Sony (with Hitachi also selling Digital8 camcorders), records video in a digital format using Hi8 tapes as the storage medium. Because the tape is run twice as fast as in Hi8 recording, the most recording time you can get, using a two-hour Hi8 tape, will be one hour. This format also saves a bit of money, since a two-hour Hi8 tape costs about $5.00 while a one-hour MiniDV (the standard digital video tape format used in the more expensive Sony's and in the camcorders of the other digital video camcorder makers) tape will run at least $8.00.
Since the Digital8 camcorders take Hi8-size tapes, they can also play back Hi8 and 8mm analog tapes. Also, you can play back your old 8mm analog tapes on a Digital8 camcorder and then output them in the digital formatting. This will allow you to feed your old analog tapes into a computer and edit them with non-linear editing software.
In terms of the quality of the recording format, you don't lose anything by going with Digital8 versus MiniDV. The two formats are virtually identical, differing only in the kind of tape they use for storing the footage.
All the camcorders in Sony's Digital8 line (except the top-of-the-line, gadget-infested TRV820) are physically identical and vary little in terms of features, except that as you go up the line the LCD monitor screens get bigger.
Because of this, I generally recommend the entry-level TRV120 for anybody who wants a Digital8 camcorder. In fact, even compared to entire field of digital camcorders (Digital8 and MiniDV), the TRV120 is one of the best choices. Actually, the TRV120 and the TRV320 have the same size, 2.5-inch, LCD screens. If you'd prefer not to monitor what you're shooting with the LCD screen, the TRV320 has a regular, black & white viewfinder (this will give you much more battery running time). The LCD screen is handy as it will work as a monitor to view recently-shot footage in the field (a headphone jack allows you to monitor the audio).
The big difference between the TRV120 and the TRV320 is that the TRV320 has several features which allow you to use it as a still camera, including Digital Camera Mode and the ability to take the Memory Stick RAM units to store digital stills.
The Digital Camera Mode lets you take digital stills, at up to VGA (640 by 480) resolution. The Memory Stick units, which are about the size of a stick of gum, retain the digital stills in non-volatile RAM. There's a small opening on the back face of the TRV320 into which you insert the Memory Stick unit.
A camcorder is only as good as its camera section, meaning the lens, which takes in the light image, and the charge-coupled-device, or CCD, the chip onto which this light image is projected by the lens and which then turns the light image into an analog video signal. While the camera section in the TRV320 will never be confused with pro quality, or even with the lens in a prosumer-level camcorder like Sony's TRV900, it's of decent quality and compares favorably with the camera sections of other, similarly-priced camcorders. With its relatively-small 37mm filter size, the lens on the TRV320 runs from 3.7 to 92.5 mm, the 35mm camera equivalent of about 40mm to 600mm. A digital zoom feature can take that optical zoom factor of 25 and increase it to 450 (though you'll probably never want to use that much zoom, as it degrades picture quality significantly). The 1/4-inch CCD in the TRV320 has a total of 460,000, with an effective pixel rating of 290,000 which, again, compares well with other, similarly priced cameras. For home video recording purposes, the TRV320 should provide more than adequate image quality.
The TRV320's built-in stereo mic does a fine job, although, like any built-in mic on a camcorder, it will pick up motor noises if you zoom while shooting. The best solution for this is to use an external microphone, which you can connect to the TRV320's mic input 3.5-mm stereo mini-jack. As with any consumer-level digital camcorder (Digital8 or MiniDV), you have a choice of recording your audio as either four 12-bit tracks or two 16-bit tracks. While the 16-bit tracks give you better-than CD sound quality, the 12-bit option (a bit less than CD quality, but still very good) puts down two tracks of live audio while leaving two blank for you to dub to later.
If you like the shoot video in the dark, you'll be happy to note that the TRV320's NightShot infrared system lets you get an image, albeit monochrome only, of an object up to 10 feet away in zero light. In its standard video mode, the camcorder can get an image down to a lux level of 0.4. Keep in mind that this is something that probably only works in a lab (the low-light in regular video mode, that is -- the infrared mode is a different story). Video is a medium which, as opposed to film, thrives on plenty of light. Your aim should really not be to see how little light you can get away with shooting in. Good video generally requires at least 100 lux illumination.
Those of you who like to exercise manual control of your video, thus ensuring the highest quality image possible, will be pleased to note that this camcorder has manual focus and manual exposure. Unfortunately, this camcorder, and all its siblings in the Digital8 line, lack manual white balance control, meaning that your color accuracy will only be as good as what the camcorder can achieve through its automatic white balance mechanism. Basically, this means you're not going to get really accurate color rendition. However, this isn't a terrible drawback, especially for home video production (where nobody's likely to scream at you "Hey, those New York Police Department cars are painted in a light-blue color scheme, not mint green!"). The eye can quickly adjust to differences in color shading.
If you prefer to have the camera set exposure for you, the TRV320 will be happy to oblige, with its seven auto exposure modes, including portrait, beach & ski, sports, landscape, spotlight, and sunset & moon. To fade from scene to scene, the camcorder has the following built-in transitions which you can activate to start or end your shots: fade-to-black, mosaic (goes to colored squares), bounce, monotone, and overlap. Digital effects include still (freeze frame), flash motion, luminance key, motion trails, "old movie," and slow shutter. The slow shutter effect, which lets you bring the shutter speed down to as slow as 1/4-second, is an excellent effect which will let you get those zoom shots with flashing light trails. Slow shutter will also make objects which pass before the camera appear to pulse and strobe. This would be a great effect for any home music-video producers.
Picture-altering effects include 16:9 (the camcorder records in widescreen ratio), slim, stretch, mosaic, solarization, monochrome, sepia, negative art, and pastel.
The TRV320 has A/V inputs, with jacks for stereo audio, composite video, and S-Video. These inputs allow you to take an analog input, such as the output from your old Hi8 or 8mm camcorder, and transfer it to the digital format. Anything in the digital format, such as the tapes in your TRV320, can be output to a computer via the camcorder's IEEE-1394 Firewire (a.k.a. iLink, in Sony marketing lingo) jack. The Firewire interface not only lets you send digital video out of the camcorder, but also lets you input digital video and control signals, such as play start/stop. Thus, if you have a Firewire jack on your computer, and the appropriate software, you can control the output from the camcorder and then digitally manipulate that video output in your computer, just as you cut and paste sentences with word processing software. The TRV320 also has a Control-L, or LANC, jack, allowing you to control the camcorder's functions (play/record start/stop and zoom) from an external editing controller of from one of those tripods with controls built into the handle (Sony sells these).
Other features include SuperSteady Shot image stabilization (supposed to reduce camera shake, but has a minimal ability to do so) and the SuperLaser Link. To use the SuperLaser Link, you have to purchase, separately, a receiver which you connect to your TV and which picks up the LaserLink signal. The LaserLink passes the video and audio output from your camcorder to the LaserLink receiver. Since many TV's these days have front-panel A/V inputs, you don't really need to use the LaserLink. You can just plug the camcorder right into the front of the TV. But if you like gadgets, you might get a kick out of the LaserLink.
The TRV320 weighs 2 pounds with its standard battery. The supplied info-lithium (you can see, in the viewfinder, how many minutes of running time are left on the battery) will keep the camcorder running for about 40 minutes, while optional batteries give it up to 12.5 hours of running time.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 850
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