SONY DCR-TRV38, One of The Best Camcorders of 2003
Written: May 24 '03 (Updated Oct 08 '04)
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Pros: Excellent build quality, great video, 3.5 inch LCD, quiet, Carl Zeiss lens
Cons: Supplied Battery life short, can't eject tape when on a tripod
The Bottom Line: Even though the supplied battery life is short, this camcorder exceeds expectations with excellent video, stills, sound, durability, touch-LCD, size, lens, and ease of use. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!
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| ellesboro's Full Review: Sony DCR-TRV38 Mini DV Digital Camcorder |
Well, I've owned several camcorders in the last 2 years. It was first a Hi8 Sony, than a Digital 8 Sony TRV740, than a MiniDV Sony (The DCR-TRV25), and now the DCR-TRV38, one of the newest in Sony's excellent line of MiniDV camcorders. I work at the Best Buy in Toronto in the digital imaging section and when we recieved the TRV38, I knew I had to get it. Although my TRV25 was fantastic, it only had a 2.5 inch screen and the 3.5 inch touch screen on the TRV38 was calling out to me. So, I sold the TRV25 and am now a proud owner of the Sony DCR-TRV38 for a cost of $1299.99 Cnd (even though I purchased the camcorder on my staff purchase, so it was less than that :) ), one of the best camcorders of 2003! After using the TRV38 for about 5 days now, hear's what I have to say:
MINI DV FORMAT - THE BEST IN DIGITAL
The DCR-TRV38 is a MiniDV camcorder. MiniDV means Mini Digital Video, it couldn't be more obvious :) MiniDV was first introduced in 1995 by, who else, Sony. This new type of digital media was designed so users could get the excellent video, sound, and computer connectivity at a much lower price than the professional video machines. Since then MiniDV has progressed a lot, introducing many neat features and very high resolution video. This MiniDV format on the DCR-TRV38 gives the camcorder the high-res video, computer connectivity, and hifi stereo sound. Right now, it is truly the best in digital video.
THE CAMCORDER BODY
The DCR-TRV38 not only has a nice screen, but a very nice design. It is actually very, very close in shape to my previous DCR-TRV25 (2002 model) The TRV38 replaces the TRV25 by the way. The shape of the camcorder makes it easy to hold and allows the user to hold it for a long time. The feel is very smooth and polished. It's silver and blue in colour, with exception to the LCD which is a purple-blue colour. Very nice design Sony. It's difficult to talk about the buttons since there are so few on the camcorder body itself. On the body are the nightshot, the focus, the backlight, the edit-seach, the photo, the record, and the mode buttons. Don't worry, I'll explain those to you later in the review. Now to my favourite part of this camcorder, the LCD. This camcorder features a 3.5 inch touch screen LCD. That's right, touch screen, like a Palm Handheld or Pocket PC. The LCD is a Precision LCD Monitor meaning that it has 184,000 pixels instead of the usual 123,000 or 61,000 pixels. Upon opening the LCD and turning the cam on, the quality of the screen is beautiful. Very crisp and clear. The MiniDV tape on the camcorder loads in the bottom. Although this reduces the size of the cam, you can't remove a tape when attached to a tripod. Since I use a tripod a lot, this bottom loading feature did not appeal to me, nor did it on my old TRV25, which was also bottom loading. The camcorder also has a manual focus ring to adjust the focus much easier.
THE MODE BUTTON
On the mode button, or dial, there are four modes. VCR mode is to playback your video, OFF (CHG) turns your camera off, and if the AC adapter is plugged in, charges your battery. CAMERA mode allows you to record video, and MEMORY mode allows you to take still pictures.
THE IMAGING DEVICE, ZOOM, VIDEO
The other great feature on this camcorder, as well as every other Sony MiniDV camcorder, is the lens. Sony uses a special lens called a Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar lens. This is actually a German lens developed by the famous Carl Zeiss. This lens allows the user to get a much crisper and clearer picture as well as great focusing opposed to a standard camcorder lens. The Camcorder sports a 1/4.7 inch CCD (charged coupled device) with 1,070,000 pixels. This CCD is supported by an excellent image stabilizer called Super Steadyshot which steadies your image when zooming in or when the camera is shaking. The CCD is a chip that converts the light taken in by the lens into a video signal which is then recorded onto the tape. This megapixel CCD allows the user to get excellent quality video. Outdoors, or in good lighting conditions, the TRV38 preforms with excellence. The colours are crisp, there is very little purple fringing, (an annoying purple outline around objects, mostly lights, due to the CCD and lighting conditions), and the resolution of the video is superb. Like mentioned above, there is a gross CCD of 1,070,000 pixels in the CCD, but the camcorder effectively uses 690,000 of those pixels. This pixel count is a lot higher when compared to the Canon ZR70 which has a gross CCD of 680,000 pixels and effectively uses only 390,000 pixels. The zoom on the TRV38 is a 10x optical, and 120x digital zoom. 10x is standard on a camcorder, and is the minimum on any camcorder at this time. The reason Sony can't put more optical zoom is because the Carl Zeiss lens can't handle anymore than 10x optical. The zoom control is very smooth and has different speeds. Sony's digital zoom is specially designed so even though it still gets pixely when used, it's clear than the competition.
PORTS
The TRV38 has many ports to connect to various devices. It has a Mini A/V jack that's in/out to watch movies on your TV, and USB in/out connection to transfer still pictures to the computer with the supplied USB cable, a Firewire/IEEE1934/i.link (whew! lots of names!) in/out connection to transfer video to the PC, an S-video in/out port, a headphone jack, a microphone jack, and a LANC jack. The camcorder also has an intelligent accessory shoe where you can attach accessories like a light or a zoom microphone to. Usually, accessories for the intelligent accessory shoe are powered by the camcorder.
SOUND
What I noticed right away, like any of the Sony camcorders, is the great sound quality. There is very little motor noise generated by the video heads so your video sounds great. There are two different sound modes, 12 bit and 16 bit. 12 bit allows you to have two audio tracks. For example, you could have the original sound and also add a narration later. There is also 16 bit sound, which is what I record in because I edit my video on the computer. 16 bit doesn't allow you to audio dub, but you get a much better sound quality.
SPECIAL FEATURES
The TRV38 has many features, and many of them come in handy. The touch LCD screen houses the menu functions and features. You can access them with a touch of a button. Sony includes many features that make filming more fun. With the new touch screen, Sony has introduced Spot Focus and Spot Metering. Spot focus allows you to touch a spot anywhere on the LCD and the camcorder will focus on that spot. For example, if you were trying to film around a wall to film something in the distance but the camcorder was focusing on the wall, you could press on that spot in the distance past the wall, and the camcorder will adjust to that. I find it to be one of the most useful features on the TRV38. In conjuction with the Spot Focus, there is also manual focus using the Focus Ring around the lens. Like I mentioned before, it makes it easier to manually adjust the focus. Spot Meter adjusts the exposure of the camcorder. For example, if someone was standing in front of a window and they became dark against it, you press on the touch screen where the person is located and the camcorder adjusts the exposure to make him/her visible. It a very usual feature. The Back Light button on the camcorder does the same thing as well. There are also other features, like faders so you can put transistions between scenes, digital effects, picture effects and Program auto exposure modes. Night Shot is also a great feature. It allows you to shoot video in complete darkness. It sends out a infrared beam so objects are visible in complete darkness. It's the same thing that the army uses. It will give your video a slight green tint, but I find it to be a useful feature.
STILL IMAGES, MPEG EX, USB STREAMING
That's right, the TRV38 not only acts a video camera, but is also a digital still camera, and a web camera. It's a three in one! The built in still camera has a resolution of 1 megapixel, so a 4x6 will look nice if printed out. I have the the HP Photosmart 7150 printer and 4x6 with the TRV38 came out better than I thought it would. I have a dedicated Sony digtial camera, the Sony DSC-P8, but the combo function on the TRV38 is great if I want to take quick stills. There are two different settings for quality, 640x480 mode which is perfect for web pics or for e-mail and there is also 1152x860 mode which is good for printing. These stills are stored a digital media card called Memory Stick. The card is inserted into the cam and when a picture is taken, it is stored on the memory card. An 8 mb card is included. That's not alot. In low res mode it will hold about 60 pics but in hi-res mode, it can only hold about 25 pics. There is also the MPEG Movie EX function. This allows the user to store MPEG movies, which are about 11 frames per second to the memory card. This type of movie is perfect for e-mail because it has a small file size. There are also two different setting for MPEG movie, low-res and high-res. The EX means extended which means you can make a MPEG movie until the memory card is filled up. USB streaming on the camcorder allows you to use the TRV38 as a web camera or to transfer video to the computer using the USB cable and the supplied software. I'll get more into that later.
COMPUTER CONNECTIVITY AND INCLUDED SOFTWARE
There are two different digital methods of connecting to the computer with the TRV38. The Mini USB port, as mentioned before, is used for USB streaming and to transfer your still imaging to the computer. The Firewire port is used to transfer digital video to the computer for editing. I do a lot of editing and use the firewire port frequently. I purchased a firewire kit from Best Buy called Pinnacle Studio DV kit. It came with a firewire card and cable, as well as the Pinnacle Studio 8 software to edit my video. The Included computer bundle with the camcorder includes the USB cable, 8mb memory card, and the Software: Pixela Imagemixer Version 1.5. This software allows you to capture you pictures from the camcorder to your computer to view, edit and print off. You can create different albums to store your images and videos as well. It can also be used to get video from the camcorder using the USB. Although the quality of the video is much better when captured using firewire, the USB connection can capture video to be edited with Pixela Imagemixer. You can then burn the captured video and/or stills to a Video CD. The software is very straight forward and easy to use but doesn't possess the editing features you get with Firewire software like Pinnacle Studio 8.
BATTERY LIFE
Ok, so far all I've been saying is good things about this camcorder and you knew something has to be wrong with it. Well, it's not the actual camcorder, its the included battery. It stinks. It comes with a battery called the NP-FM30. I got a max of 50 min using the LCD! 50 min! terrible. This battery isn't even sold on the consumer market. It's strictly designed to throw into the camcorder bundle. But don't worry, there's light at the end of this tunnel! Better batteries! I own 2 NP-QM71 batteries from my TRV25 and they give me 5 hours each on my new TRV38. I also have the QM91 battery which gives me 7 hours (I also did a review for the QM91 battery). The QM71 cost me $129 Cnd and the QM91 costs $214 Cnd. There is also the NP-FM50 battery which is $79.99 Cnd and it gives 2 hours of life. I would definatly get an extra battery(s) when purchasing the camcorder.
LOW LIGHT
Well, there have been some compliants about the Low Light functionality of this camcorder. The light rating is measured in Lux. The lower the Lux, the better it preforms in low light. A good lux rating is 2 to 4. The TRV38 has a rating of 7 lux. Now, that's not bad considering the camcorder itself. Since it is a 1 megapixel camcorder, less light can reach each pixel in the CCD so it doesn't preform as well in low light. However, this would be the same in any other camcorder with a single 1 megapixel CCD. You have to sacrifice a little low light quality for the better video quality. The way to solve this low light problem is to get a video light for the intelligent accessory shoe.
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, even before editing on the computer! I also like memory mix function where 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. The Spot Focus and Spot Metering are also one of my favourites. Last but not Least, the touch LCD screen also really makes the TRV38 so cool.
SUPPLIED ACCESSORIES
There is actually a pretty good bundle included with the camcorder, with exception to the battery.
-Remote control (for operating the CAMERA or VCR modes)
-AA batteries for remote
-USB Cable
-Stereo A/V Cable
-Shoulder strap
-Lens Cap
-8mb Memory Card
-Power Adapter and power cord
-Manuals
-One NP-FM30 Battery pack
-Software and USB Drivers on CD-ROM
There are several accessories I also recommend that I know will come in handy
-Extra memory card (ex- 32mb)
-Extra Battery (you will need this, get the FM50 or the QM71)
-Bag
-Tapes (no brainer)
-Lens protector, 30 mm size (this is a must, because if the Carl Zeiss lens gets scratched, it will be ruined)
-Tripod
FINAL THOUGHTS
I hope this review has helped you in picking a camcorder, but I recommend going down to a local retailer and checking one out, to see if you like it. Try Best Buy, it's a non-commission company. So far, this camcorder has surpassed my previous camcorders, even the TRV25, again, with exception to the included battery. The only reason I gave this camcorder 4 four stars instead of 5 stars is because of the supplied battery. If you ever have any questions or comments just e-mail me at my new address, jamesporemba@gmail.com and I would be happy to answer them for you.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): $899.99
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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