Pros: High video quality, Large LCD monitor, good size, Hi8 Tape
Cons: No white balance ability, no microphone volume control
The Bottom Line: An excellent buy for both home video enthusiasts and amateur filmmakers. Excellent picture quality combined with a good camera size and LCD make this very close to "Prosumer" quality.
ooner's Full Review: Sony Handycam DCR-TRV530 Digital-8 Camcorder
The Sony TRV530 is a great digital camcorder for both home video and amateur filmmaking.
I am a film student and have found that in general, digital 8 cameras are much easier to use than the smaller miniDV models. The greater size and weight makes it more comfortable to hold and keep steady both for static shots and panning or dolly moves. It also mounts easily to a tripod for smooth tracking shots. The small miniDV cameras seem much less stable.
The LCD monitor is excellent, and at 3" is much larger than most. Color reproduction in the monitor is good, very similar to the actual recorded image. The viewfinder is only black and white, but you'll find that you won't use it very often.
The only major downside is that there is no manual white balance ability. In changing lighting and shooting locations, I like to white balance my camera for the best color quality, but this model has an automatic white balance that does not work as well as manual. For home video, this doesn't matter very much, but for filmmaking it's a feature I really miss.
Also, the camera is fairly quiet, so there is little background camera noise. Using an external microphone helps, but I wish that the volume was adjustable. It would be nice to have a volume control knob and display to avoid having to clean up the audio in editing.
Overall, this camera is very high quality. Many people prefer the miniDV format, but I have found the picture quality to be just as excellent and the larger size to be more stable and comfortable. This camera is just a small step below the 3-CCD "Prosumer" models by Sony and Canon.
Digital8 camcorder 25x optical and 28x digital zoom with image stabilization 3.5 inch color LCD monitor with black and white EVF Records 640 x 480 dig...More at Amazon Marketplace
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