Best at it's price point - but it annoys me regularly.
Written: Aug 22 '03
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Pros: Great picture quality/features
Cons: Ergonomics lack - poor industrial design
The Bottom Line: Good camera, great price, nice features and quality. Poor ergonomics. You'll like this camera if it's your first.
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| spdorsey's Full Review: Sony Handycam DCR-TRV18 Mini DV Camcorder |
I love this camera.
It's easy to use, it has fantastic picture quality, and it's small and light. The camera's small size allows me to bolt it to the top of my bike helmet for downhill rides.
It also plugs in effortlessly to my Mac and Windows box using Final Cut Pro and Avid Express DV. I have easy transfer of video and images, and I have full camera control through the DV port.
I do not, however, have DV throughput for using the camera as a pass-through to my TV (used primarily for previewing my FCP comps on my NTSC TV).
Also, this camera has some very annoying drawbacks:
- It bottom-loads tapes. This makes it almost impossible to load tapes if the camera is on a tripod.
- The power switch is also a settings switch located in a hard-to-see spot on the right side of the camera. I often switch the camera to "VCR" mode accidentally when trying to turn it off.
- The memory stick option is nice, but a bit pointless in that the still images that it captures are 640x480. Images of this size are completely useless as they do not even meet the 720x480 size requirement of DV!
- The camera focuses poorly in low light conditions.
Overall, it's a great camera for my uses. Outdoors with lots of light. If I were to do more professional DV video, I'd probably purchase a nicer camera in the $1500-2000 range.
Enjoy!
----------------S
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 650
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Epinions.com ID:
spdorsey
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Reviews written: 11
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