A great Camcorder LOADED with features!
Written: Aug 06 '02 (Updated Oct 08 '04)
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Pros: Small, light, quiet, Mega Pixel CCD, digital camera built in, MPEG movie EX, colour viewfinder
Cons: Can't eject tape when on tripod, DV tapes expensive, not good in low light
The Bottom Line: This is a great camcorder, it's loaded with features and is small, light weight, and quiet. It's a high quality and durable of the camcorder. Sony has done it again!
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| ellesboro's Full Review: Sony Handycam DCR-TRV25 Mini DV Camcorder |
Well, Some of you may have read my other review, on the DCR-TRV730. I sold it and just purchased the DCR-TRV25 MiniDV camcorder. When I saw it at the Sony Store, I knew I had to have it.
MINI DV FORMAT
Well, I would have to say MiniDV produces some of the best quality video I have ever seen. The pictures are so crisp and have excellent colour. At a resolution of 520 lines, it can't be beat! MiniDV tapes are also much smaller, and easier to store. This, in turn, makes the camcorder considerably smaller than a Digital 8 camcorder. The only downside I have with MiniDV is the price of tapes. They are expensive compared to 8mm or High 8mm.
THE CAMCORDER BODY
The MiniDV DCR-TRV25 is a great camcorder. It's small and easy to hold, the buttons are placed nicely so you can operate the basic functions of the camcorder with one hand. There are 4 settings on the camcorder, Camera for recording film, Memory for taking pictures and MPEG movies, VCR to preview your movies and OFF to shut off the Camcorder. The camcorder is silvery and blue in colour. It is a bottom loading camcorder which I don't like because you can't remove tapes when on a tripod. This cam offers a 2.5 inch, 123,000 pixel LCD screen and a 113,000 pixel colour viewfinder. Believe me, the colour viewfinder is one of the best features! It uses M-series batteries and has a memory stick slot. It also has a manual focus ring around the lens.
THE IMAGING DEVICE AND ZOOM
This camcorder has an Advanced HAD 1/4.7'' Mega Pixel CCD (1,070,000 pixels). With video, 690,000 pixels are effective. This camcorder also has a built in digital still camera, which produces 1,000,000 pixel shots. The one thing that is great about this camcorder is the lens. It has a special photographic lens called a Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar lens. It greatly improves the resolution and clarity of your video and still images. The TRV25 has a 10x optical zoom and a 120x digital zoom. The reason it is less than most camcorders is because of the lens. 10x optical zoom is the max you can get on a Carl Zeiss lens. What I found to be amazing is how fast the camcorder can zoom in or out. It takes about 1.5 seconds to zoom from zero to 120x digital zoom! If you don't like fast zooms, you can get a very nice slow zoom as well. The zoom rocker is very well made and responds well to commands.
CAMCORDER FEATURES, BASIC AND SPECIAL
This camcorder has all the basic features like picture 8 effects such as Solorize, Mosaic, b & w, and pastel. There are also digital 6 effects like Old movie, Lumi, trail, and frame. There are also 6 AE modes, a couple of theses are landscape, ski/snow, and sunset/sunrise. It has super nightshot and colour slow shutter mode. There is also backlight and manual exposure controls. These features are found in all Sony Digital 8 and MiniDV camcorders. There are also 7 different fades like fader, mosaic fader, bounce, wipe, dot, overlap, and monotone. Some special features include frame-recording to make stop-animation films, Memory Mix to superimpose images, and Audio Dubing. It also has an Intelligent Accessory Shoe, which is where you can connect external lights and mics. I have a light and a boom mic and the shoe has been extremely helpful, the devices just run off the battery. I found that this camcorder had more manual control than it's Digital 8 cousins. MiniDV cams have manual white balance which is a very nice feature when you're trying to take pictures or when shooting in low light. As well, I also like how you can control the shutter speed to brighten the image in low light.
SOUND
This cam has two different sound settings. You can record one sound track on 16 bit recording, this produces the highest quality sound or you can record on two sound tracks with 12-bit stereo. When you record in 12 bit you can use the audio dub feature to dub new sounds in because there are two different sound tracks. Since you don't need to use the audio dub version a lot, it's better to record in 16-bit stereo. The built-in microphone on the camcorder is very good, and it picks up a lot. It could pick up my voice when I was over 30 meters away, and I wasn't yelling. The cam also has a speaker so you can hear your videos as you watch them on the LCD. It is very loud for such a small speaker. This camcorder records in Hi-Fi Stereo sound, not mono sound like hi8 or 8mm models
MPEG EX
This is a function you use with the Memory setting on the camcorder. MPEG EX stands for MPEG movies EXtended. Last years models only had MPEG movie so you could only record 15 seconds in the 320x240 and 60 in 160x112. Not anymore. With MPEG movie EX, you can record as many minutes as your Memory stick can hold. So, with the included 8mg stick, you can get about 1min, 40sec on 320x240 size and 5min, 20sec on 160x112 size. It records MPEG1 which is about 10 frames per second and is great for sending over e-mail because they are so compressed so they have a small data size.
COMPUTER CONNECTIVITY
This cam has two different ways in connecting to the computer. There is the USB port to transfer pictures and MPEG movies to the computer. You can then use the supplied software Called Pixela Imagemixer specially designed for Sony Camcorders to sort them and place them in albums. To transfer video you can use the Firewire/IEEE1394/i.link port (whew! so many different names!) Just make sure your computer has a firewire port on it. You can then edit your video on the PC and make a DVD, VCD, or you can send it back to the camcorder to be copied over to VHS.
PORTS
This camcorder has many different ports and the best thing is that they are all in/out. It has a A/V port, S-video, Firewire and USB. There are also secondary connections like headphones, mic with plug in power, and a LANC jack.
BATTERY LIFE
Included with the camcorder is the NP-FM50. It will give you about 2 hours using the viewfinder and 1h 15min using the LCD. These battery times include zooming in and out, recording start/stop and turning the camcorder on and off.
You charge the battery right on the camcorder. When you attach a light though, it cuts the battery life in half! I have 2 FM50 batteries right now but sometimes it's not enough. I'm going to need a better battery like the FM91, it gives you about 8 hours of life.
MY PERSONAL FAVOURITES
I love how you can watch TV or videos on the camcorder and then record them onto the MiniDV tape. All you do is connect the A/V cable into the outputs of your TV or VCR and switch the camcorder to the VCR setting. The picture will appear in the camcorder LCD and then you can record the show or movie onto the camcorder tape. I also love the frame-recording. You can make stop animation films with clay or lego. I have made several and they have turned out great! I also like memory mix, you can superimpose images onto a blue screen, like on the weather channel and when you watch the video later, you don't see a person in front of a blue screen, you see them standing infront of whatever picture you superimposed, like the Grand Canyon for example. It's really cool.
LOW LIGHT
The one thing I didn't like about this camcorder is how it preforms in low light. It has a lux rating of 7, which isn't too good compared to my 3 year old Samsung which has a rating of 0.3 lux. Therefore, the lower the lux rating, the better the cam preforms in low light. The reason is the CCD. My old Samsung has 1/6'' CCD with 270,000 pixels. The TRV25 has a smaller CCD and more pixels, that means less light gets in the CCD and less light gets to each pixel. To improve the low light problem, get a light for the shoe, it helps a lot.
SUPPLIED ACCESSORIES
-Remote
-Power adapter and cord
-AA batteries for remote
-One NP-FM50 Li-ion battery
-Stereo A/V connecting cable
-Shoulder strap
-Lens cap
-8meg Memory stick
-USB cable
-Software CD and USB drivers
I highly recommend getting a 30mm filter to protect the lens from chips and scratches. Also a camcorder bag, and another battery so you can film longer.
Overall, this is a great camcorder. It's perfect for beginners who just want to film and for advanced users who like to take advantage of the manual controls and extra features. I would recommend it to anyone. If anyone has any questions or info about this camcorder and other camcorders, e-mail me at my new address, jamesporemba@gmail.com
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 899
Recommended for: Home and Families - Keep Memories of Family Vacations
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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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