Sony Digtial 8 DCR-TRV250 - A Good Beginner Camcorder
Written: Jan 29 '04 (Updated Oct 08 '04)
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Pros: Good video quality, cheap price, good features, easy to use, fantastic zoom!
Cons: Lower pixel count than MiniDV, bigger, big digital zoom, bottom loading cassestes.
The Bottom Line: This camcorder gives you good quality video and sound, as well as easy to use features. You can't beat the Price of this entry digital camcorder. RATED 3.5 STARS
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| ellesboro's Full Review: Sony Handycam DCR-TRV250 Digital-8 Camcorder |
I currently own 2 camcorders, a Sony DCR-TRV38 MiniDV camcorder and a Sony DSR-PD170 professional camcorder. I do not own a DCR-TRV250, however, I am currently in Grade 12 and am taking quite a few art/media/advertising courses and have used the DCR-TRV250 extensivly, so I thought I'd better write a review on it. In fact, almost all schools who recieve new camcorders purchase the DCR-TRV250 because of its quality and price (it's now only $529.99 Cnd at Best Buy) Although it is being discountinued soon for the new Digital 8 camcorders, I thought it's still a good camcorder. I am trying a new scoring technique to go along with the epinions.com socre....My score will be out of 120, and then changed into something out of 5. You will see what each section is worth, and the score I gave it. At the bottom, you will see final score. Things like video quality and sound are rated heavily, and things like still quality, ports etc...are worth less. I will take into account if I'm reviewing a professional or consumer model, and will change accordingly. Here it goes....
DIGITAL 8 - THE HYBRID
This section is on Digital 8 in general. Digital 8 was invented in 1998 by Sony electronics to bridge the gap in the camcorder marketplace. Before digital 8, consumers had 2 choices. Either they buy Anaolgue, which gives lower quality, and most recently, mono sound. It also doesn't offer any computer connectivity. Consumers were starting to want computer connectivity or digital quality, so they were forced to go MiniDV, even though now MiniDV is the best system to go with (NOT DVD!!!....yet) back in 1998 they cost an arm and a leg. So, Sony made a new hybrid system called Digital8. This system allowed users to record with Digital quality, have stereo sound, computer connectivity with firewire (I get into that later) and record on cheaper High8 cassettes. They also had a smaller price tag compared to MiniDV. Many people don't know this, but the difference between MiniDV and digital 8 is.....the size of the tape. There is very little difference in terms of quality. Since it is digital, it has a minimum lines of resoultion at 500 lines. With a digital 8 camcorder, you use a High8, like I mentioned. Instead of getting the standard 2 hours on a high8 tape, you get 1 hour with digital 8, since it has to record twice as fast to get higher quality. Now onto the TRV250
THE CAMCORDER BODY ( 11.5 / 15 )
Well, the TRV250 isn't the smallest camcorder out there, actually, it's almost twice the size of my TRV38. But, that is because it uses a bigger tape. The shape of the TRV250 is more smooth and allows for easy grip with its adjustable hand strap. Actually, the body on the TRV250 is the same as the body on its big brother the TRV350 and it's 2 little sisters, the Anaolgue High8 camcorders. Sony is always finding ways to cut costs. I've used the TRV240 as well, which was last years model and I found it to be more solid, more durable than the TRV250. The TRV250, although still well constructed, uses cheaper plastic, same as any other camcorder. I like that Sony still uses an all-metal tape compartment, which is located on the bottom of the camcorder. I do not like the bottom loading camcorders because you can't remove the tape when its on a Tripod! If you read my review on my TRV38, I say the same thing. The mode switches of the camcorder are located on the back, they allow you to turn to camera mode, to record video and to VTR mode to play back your video on the LCD, TV or computer. The red record button is also on the back of the camcorder, located beside the battery and/or battery compartment. On the top of the camcorder is the well placed zoom control which allows you to control it at different speeds. There is also a photo button (I've talk about that later) Near the front of the camcorder is the nightshot button and on the top is the Playback buttons (Rewind, Fastforward, play, etc...) There is also a button to activate the built in light, to illuminate your subject. I find this light to be pretty useless, since it doesn't really light up anything. Unfortunatly, in the 2003 models, Sony removed the accessory shoe, meaning you can't attach additional lights or mic's to the TRV250. at the front of the camcorder there is the built in stereo mic, which actually does a good job with picking up sound and not picking up lots of motor noise from the tape heads. There is also the IR port for the remote and the Nightshot sensor. The TRV250 features a 2.5 123,000 pixel LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) screen. This allows for easier recording and viewing. I found that this LCD was sometimes washed out in bright sunlight, just like lots of other camcorders and had to use the black and white viewfinder. Behind the LCD are some buttons, things like playback volume control, exposure, end search, etc... (I'll explain some of those later)
THE IMAGING DEVICE and ZOOOOOOOM!! ( 12 / 15 )
The DCR-TRV250 features a 1/6'' CCD with 460,000 pixels gross and 290,000 pixels effective. Wow! Lots of info, let me explain. With a camcorder, the CCD or Charged Couple Device takes the light that enters the lens and turns it into a video signal and put onto the tape with audio. The bigger that CCD is the better. The Sony TRV250 features a CCD at 1/6 of an inch size, which is standard for most camcorders now. The TRV250 has 460,000 gross (total) pixels (picture elements) packed into that CCD. However, only 290,000 of thse pixels are recorded to tape. Why waste all those pixels? Well, it has to do with the image stabilizer. That prevents camera shake when you zoom in or don't have a steady hand. Sony calls it steadyshot, and, like on the TRV250, does a good job at compinsates for camera shake. Anyway, the way it works is the steadyshot compensates for movement by shifting the image around in the CCD. So the camcorder uses those extra pixels, 170,000 to be exact, for the steadyshot feature. That's why they call it electronic image stabilization. The Sony TRV250 also features a whopping 20x optical zoom lens, one of the biggest, which is great because sometimes you really need to zoom in. it also features a 700x digital zoom. DON'T BE FOOLED BY THAT NUMBER! What digital zoom does is it crops the image and zooms it in electroniclly. Just like when you zoom a picture on your computer, it gets all pixely, that's just like digtial zoom. Once you pass the 40x mark on the digital zoom, your video turns ugly. It's just a gimmick feature, and I turn mine off. The focusing on the TRV250 is good, and it was able to quickly adjust focus when the lighting changed indoors or outside.
PORTS ( 3 / 5 )
The Sony DCR-TRV250 features several ports, one is the Audio/video Mini jack out to connect to the television, it also features an S-Video out for better quality, if you have a higher definition TV. It also has a USB and Firewire In/out which are used to connect to the Computer. The USB is used for the webcam feature and the firewire is used for the transfer of video to the computer. This camcorder does not feature an analouge in, meaning you can't convert old analouge footage to digital, like my camcorder, the TRV38 or the big brother, the TRV350. The analouge in would be something I would definatly need, but that's just me. I was disapointed to see that there was no headphone jack so attach headphones so you can hear what the camcorder is hearing. That is a vital feature, and it was left out. An external Mic jack was also left out, so you will not be able to attach external mic's to achieve better quality audio.
VIDEO QUALITY and LOWLIGHT/INDOOR SHOOTING ( 16 / 20 )
Now we get down to the nitty gritty part of the review. I have found that the video quality of the TRV250 to be quite good, with very little or no artifacts (blocks or lines) in the video. The video produced good colours, so everything looked like it should. That means the camcorder has a pretty good lens. One thing I did notice on the TRV250 was purple fringing. This means purple glows or outlines around bright objects. In some cases it was quite annoying, because you can clearly notice it. The good thing was after the camcorder adjusted to the lighting enviroment, most of it would go away. Another thing I noticed was the crispness of the video, although the video was clear, it did smudge some things. One of my camcorders, the TRV38, has 690,000 pixels effective, while the TRV250 only has 290,000 pixels effecitve so the image is not as crisp. The lower pixel count brings me to my next point, indoor shooting. Many camcorders have problems filming indoors because their CCD's are too small for the amount of pixels that they have. For example, the Canon ZR60 has 680,000 pixels gross and a 1/6'' CCD. It doesn't perform well indoors or in low light. The TRV250 has the same size CCD but features less pixels, meaning it performs better indoors which is a big plus, because half your footage will probably be indoors.
SOUND ( 16 / 20 )
The DCR-TRV250 features good quality sound, just like all other Sony digital camcorders. You can record in 12bit or 16bit audio. I recommend always switching to 16bit audio because it gives you CD quality sound, or for those tech people, 48khz sampling. 12 bit sound is used if you want to dub over music or narration, but it's a very crude process and I'd leave it that for the computer. Plus, 12 bit only has 32khz sampling. The built in mic is pretty good, but it does pick up noise from the video heads in quieter conditions.
MANUAL CONTROL ( 6 / 10 )
I'm going to be brief on this, seeing as the TRV250 has very little manual control. It does not offer manual white balance (to give correct colouring in different lighting conditions) meaning it takes the camcorder a while to get the correct colour. None of the digital 8 camcorders featured white balance, and I'm not sure why. It doesn't offer manual shutter speed, iris, or gain, but that's to be expected with a camcorder of this price. Its does offer manual exposure control though, which helps in darkening or brightning the image. It also features a Backlight control which over-exposes the backround to make the subject brighter (this is usual if the subject is standing infront of something bright.
PLAYBACK ( 4 / 5 )
The TRV250 plays back your video by using the buttons on the camcorder body or by using the handy-dandy remote control. You simply put the camcorder into VTR mode, connect your camcorder to the TV or VCR using the supplied cable and you're ready to go. You can also use an S-video cable (purchased seperatly) to achieve greater looking video on the television because, like mentioned above, the TRV250 features an S-video jack.
STILL QUALITY ( 2 / 5 )
The DCR-TRV250 does not take still pictures and store them on a memory card, not for this price. It does have a photo button on the top of the camcorder, but don't be fooled, it records a "still" with audio for 7 seconds onto the tape. These "stills" are NOT meant to printed or meant to replace a digital camera. In fact, this feature is really a gimmick because you're basically doing a frame grab, which is what you can do if you connect to the computer. Overall, the TRV250 has very limited still capabilities. As well, don't buy something expensive just for the stills. Camcorder stills are mediocore at best, buy a seperate digital camera. The only reason I bought my TRV38 was for the big LCD screen, not the 1 Megapixel stills.
USB STREAMING/SOFTWARE/COMPUTER CONNECTIVITY ( 4 / 5 )
The DCR-TRV250 can be used as a webcam as well, since it has a feature called USB streaming. You can use this feature with MSN Messenger or Windows Netmeeting. I use my TRV38 with MSN messenger all the time and it works great. You must have at least a Pentium 3 500mhz for it to work. The TRV250 comes with software called Pixela Imagemixer. It isn't very good. It is used to send video through the USB port on your camcorder into your computer. The problem is USB is slow and gives you very poor quality. Bascially, don't use USB for video. Instead, invest in a FireWire (IEEE1394) card and software to capture your video. I recommend the Pinnacle Studio 8 DV Kit, it comes with a Firewire Card, cable and the easy to use Pinnacle Studio 8 which allows you to edit, add transitions, audio, titles, soundeffects etc... to your movies. You can then burn them to a DVD or VCD or to the internet, save on the PC or back on the camcorders tape. Firewire transfers at a much higher rate and gives you the full digital quality. Be careful though, your hard drive has to big enough. You need 13 gigs for one hour of video. I recommend having 30 gigs free for video editing, capturing and rendering. For more advanced users, try Adobe Premiere, which is what I use. It has a very steep learning curve, but you get fantastic results.
8mm BACKWARDS CAPABILITY ( not applicable in score )
Digital 8 was also designed to be compatible with your old anaolgue 8mm tapes. It would allow you to play them back on the digital 8 camcorder and/or connect to the computer using firewire. The TRV250 does not have this function, hense the lower price. If you have a bunch of old 8mm tapes, this camcorder is not for you. I'd go with the big brother, the TRV350.
BATTERY LIFE ( 3 / 5 )
The included battery with the TRV250, the Li-Ion NP-FM30 is just a thrown by Sony saying, "Here, we threw in a battery" The life isn't very good, only about 1 hour with the LCD screen. I recommend picking up the 6-hour NP-QM71D battery as you will need it. It's not very big either, which is a good thing. You should always have a backup battery with you. The battery also has Sony's Infolithum system which is a very cool feature because it tells you remaining battery time in minutes and shuts down camcorder features when not in use to save battery life.
IMPORTANT FEATURES/MY FAVOURITES ( 4 / 5 )
The TRV250 features Nightshot, and Infrared system that allows you to see in complete darkness, and really comes in handy sometimes. Although it gives your video a greenish tent, it is a cool feature. It also features a battery info button which, when pressed, gives you a line graph of remaining battery life, plus remaining time in minutes for the LCD and the viewfinder. I find I always use this feature before I set off to film. One of favourites is steadyshot, as well as the amazing zoom. I also love the interval recording for creating time-lapse images as well as the frame-recording feature to create fun stop motion animations.
COMPARISONS ( 4.5 / 5 )
The Sony DCR-TRV250 is one of the best budget camcorders out there, and for a price of $500 Cnd now, you can't beat it's value. The only camcorders you could really compare to would be the Samsung D21 MiniDV camcorder which is similar in price but lacks in durability that the Sony digital line has. I would also compare to the Canon ZR60, but that Canon really lacks in indoor/low light shooting. The TRV250 is definitly a winner in this area
INCLUDED ACCESSORIES ( 3 / 5 )
The Sony DCR-TRV250 comes with the following accessories:
-AC adaptor (multi-voltage compatible)
-Stereo A/V cable
-USB cable
-Remote
-One Li-Ion NP-FM30 battery
-Shoulder strap
-Lens cap
-Remote control batteries
I recommend the following accessories:
-Tapes (duh!)
-Carry bag
-Extra battery (6-hour NP-QM71D)
-Lens protector ($15 - to protect lens from dust and scratches)
-S-Video Cable (for better video on the TV)
FINAL THOUGHTS
Well, The Sony DCR-TRV250 is a good camcorder, filled with lots of features and is very easy to use. This review can also be used with the DCR-TRV350, since, many of the features are similar. I recommend this camcorder to any beginner or first time user. This is not a camcorder for the professional. I personally would not by this camcorder, but I do recommend it to many of my customers. As well, go check out the camcorders for yourself. I recommend Best Buy, they don't work on Commission, so they won't hassle you. If your ever in the Heartland area in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, drop me a line at Best Buy. I'd be glad to help you out. As well, if you have any further questions, just e-mail me at jamesporemba@gmail.com
TOTAL SCORE : 89 / 120 = 75 %
Converted to a score out of five: 3.7 / 5
HAPPY FILMING!!!!!
James (DI DOCTOR)
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): Loaned
Recommended for: Budget Buyers - Best Values to Fit the Budget
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Epinions.com ID:
ellesboro
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Member: James Poremba
Location: Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
Reviews written: 13
Trusted by: 4 members
About Me:
I'm 20, love photography, cinematography, and post -production. Currently attending RyersonU for film studies.
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