highqulity digital8 (Sony Handycam DCR-TRV140)

Member Name: chris454660

Product:	Sony Handycam DCR-TRV140
Date:	17/06/03 (706 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: east to use, compact

Disadvantages: battery life

I bought this camera about a year and a half ago and am still very pleased with it.

The camera is very easy to use and the buttons are (in my opinion) easy to use and reach from the recording position. I have taken several hours worth of video and haven't run into any sort of mechanical or electrical problems yet.

The biggest problems I have with my purchase don't even involve the camera.

The USB Cable is extremely short at maybe two feet in length. Sony claims the camera can capture and broadcast live video and audio, but with the USB cable being so short, it really limits the possibilities. I have to move my CPU from under the desk in order to get the cable to reach the desk surface, and barely reaches then.

The PIXELA software that comes with the camera is horrid. It's "user friendly" interface is such a pain to deal with and doesn't offer the customization that I would expect. When capturing stills from the video, each still is saved as a .BMP which makes them INCREADIBLY large. To save it as a .JPG you have to export it to another folder and the program limits your exporting to one image at a time. When you have hundreds of images, the process can be very tideous. I'd rather have a function where I can capture them as .JPG and not even have to deal with the .BMP that are on average 225kb a piece. For the file size being that large, I would expect better clarity in the 320x240 pixel images, but I am extremely disappointed. There is no option in the PIXELA program to change either the resolution or image size.

Overall I am very pleased with the camera, but very unsatisfied with the PIXELA program and the short USB cable.

Summary: