| Product: |
Sony Handycam DCR TRV245 |
| Date: |
27.02.08 (71 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Looks modern, good for it's age, many features, good battery life
Disadvantages: Can now get much better for much less! A bit big in todays world
I brought this about 4 or 5 years ago, so it is getting fairly old now. I brought it from Agros, at £300, which, at the time, was a good deal, however, you now see camcorders 10 times better, smaller, and lighter, for a much lower price. Damn, if only they were that cheap back then... But oh well.
The camcorder's looks is pretty nice, looks modern (even though now fairly old), and quite stylish. In it's time, it was fairly small and light, but obviously now you'll get lighter and smaller, but it is fine to take around anyway, and in the package I brought it with, I got a case I can take it around in.
Overall picture quality is fairly good, better than VHS, not quite DVD though! You can use you computer to put the video onto DVD, or use a DVD recorder, and you'll get a fair image quality. The picture you'll get on the LCD screen (2.5" Colour LCD (123,200 pixels)) built onto the camera has a pretty decent image. The view finder has a fair image quality, although it is in black and white. Not that important though.
You get plenty of features with this camera. The NightShot function and built in light is really useful for when it's dark, you can record anything in any lighting conditions what so ever. There is a exposure contol also, so it won't be too light!
It has 20X optical zoom, 700 times digital zoom, which wasn't bad for when it was new.
It has a stereo microphone built into it, which does work well, though not too good in a lot of wind. Needs to face the oposite direction to the wind really. Strangly, you can not add a external microphone, which would be useful, but oh well, it does the trick.
It has 8 Picture Effects and 6 Programme AE, which aren't all that useful, just to make the video look old fashioned or whatever.
You can select between using standard or widescreen, which is useful.
The battery life is pretty good. With the package I got, it came with an extra battery, so you can easily get 10 hours battery life using both.
This has a "SteadyShot" feature built in, however, it doesn't seem to do anything.
The camera size measures: (D)199.0mm (H)101.0mm (W)89.0mm
The camera weighs 810g.
All in all, not a bad camera. Can't fault it for it's age.
Summary: A good camera, Bit old now. Doesn't compare to new camera's, but if you can get hold of one cheap,do
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