old is better than new?
Written: Jan 03 '02
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
| Durability: |
 |
|
| Battery Life: |
|
|
| Movie Quality: |
 |
|
|
Pros: small size. flip out LCD. lithium batteries.
Cons: mono audio and questionable lens quality.
The Bottom Line: Wait for digital to standardize a bit and for high-end (600K+ pixels) models to become reasonably priced.
|
|
|
| ptrun's Full Review: Sony Handycam CCD-TRV68 Hi-8 Analog Camcorder |
This will be a short review that mainly just makes one point:
This 2001 HandyCam from Sony (and the entire line from the 58 to the 98) seems to have lost a couple of notable features of the old 10-year old models (e.g., the Sony CCD-V101 which I have owned). That model was having troubles, and before upgrading to digital video (I have hi-8 VCR's and editing equipment) I wanted to have a few years with a new hi-8 camcorder.
Here are my results comparing the two.
The good: the added features of the new TRV line of camcorders are notable. Flip-out LCD monitor is nice, SteadyShot is nice though doesn't seem to be too much of an aid, and the Lithium batteries are not prone to the same memory problems as the NiCd's.
The bad: all the Hi-8 models have been downgraded to mono audio. This I don't understand at all. The difference in quality between the audio from the 1992 CCD-V101 model versus the audio from the 2001 TRV-xx model is quite amazing. The NEW model sounds "OLD" and the OLD model sounds "NEW". Can anyone tell me why Sony would downgrade the audio?
Also bad, the image appears much more contrasty on the OLD camera when compared to the new camera. Again, there is quite a difference. My only guess would be that the lens quality is cheaper in the new model.
So, all in all, I am disappointed. the new features are merely window dressing because the "basic" elements of the camera (audio and video) are certainly less good now than they were 10 years ago.
Took mine back, will fix the V101 and wait for digital to become standardized.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 379
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
ptrun
|
|
Location: Boston (W. Roxbury), MA USA
Reviews written: 2
Trusted by: 0 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.