Sony CCD-TRV87
Oct 03 '00
This is a high quality video camera with many nice features. We have a new baby so it was time to get a video camera and after much research this is the one we selected.
It has been easy to use, very full of features, and we are able to make great videos even with no prior experience. The picture clarity and sound are excellent. There are so many buttons and features that it is a bit cluttered, but overall it is easy to use. The LCD screen is really nice and you can immediately watch what you have recorded.
Some of the nice features:
- It comes with everything you need including all the cables.
- It has a build in light, and a built in lens cap (there is a switch on the side which opens and closes an iris-like lens cap). I put a $10 UV filter on over the lens as well, so if it gets dropped, the $10 filter will break instead of the $$$ lens.
- It comes with a little remote control so when you are playing video back on your TV you can control the camera with the remote control. You can even start recording via the remote if you want to tape yourself.
- It has Super LaserLink which means you can buy a $50 receiver that plugs into your TV or VCR and your camcorder can beam a signal to it for playback - you don't need to plug in the camcorder each time.
- It has NightShot so you can shoot in total darkness up to 10 feet away. It uses an infrared light to illuminate the scene (just like the blue shots from the bedrooms in Big Brother). This is really neat and it works!
- It has S-Video outputs in addition to the RCA outputs for getting the best quality out.
- It has stereo sound - I believe the TRV87 is the first one in this product line that adds stereo.
Things to consider:
- The battery that comes with it is VERY limited - it lasts less than an hour and using the LCD screen really chews through the battery. The box says something like "up to 16 hours recording" with an optional battery, and buying a bigger battery is expensive - > $100 for the biggest ones.
- In order to get better battery life, you need to use the view finder instead of the LCD screen, and the view finder is black and white, not color.
- It has a photo mode, but it lays the still photo onto the video tape and there is no way to get the pictures off unless you have video capture hardware on your PC.
Disclaimer: I looked briefly at other brands but decided on Sony pretty early on, so this is all geared towards Sony's offerings.
Comparison v.s. Digital8:
The TRV87 is Sony's top of the line analog camera. The next step up is going to the digital series starting with the DCR-TRV120.
I liked the idea of digital recording, but ended up with the TRV87 for the following reasons:
1) The quality of High8 is better than your TV or VCR can recreate. It is 400 lines of resolution. Digital is a bit better, but you can't notice it if you are just using it for replay on a TV.
2) The low end digital cameras lose some features of the TRV87 - no built in light, the lens cap is separate and not built in, etc.
3) While the digital cameras add firewire outputs for transfer to a PC, if your PC does not have firewire ports (like mine), the cost of a firewire card is about the same as an analog video capture card.
4) Other features are the same or similar - zoom is 20x v.s. 25x, photo effects are almost the same, both have the Super LaserLink and NightShot, etc.
5) The digital8 records more information, so you get much shorter record times than with the same tape in a High8 camera.
One other note - if you are looking at digital cameras, the DCR-TRV320 is the first camera that adds memory stick photo capability. This means you can take still pictures and record them onto a memory stick which can be transferred easily to your computer.
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