Product Name: Sony Handycam DCR-TRV280
Submitted by: Genesis Davies; San Juan del Obispo, Saq.
Rating: 8
Where to buy: Amazon.com
Description: Digital Camcorder
We bought this camcorder mainly for taking family videos, but the quality was good enough that we actually ended up taping events and selling the videos to other families!
Although it is slightly inconvenient to use tapes, at least you can buy several and keep shooting even if you don’t have time to download all the video. We quickly ended up filling up our hard drive with shots of the kids!
I like that the camera is easy to use and the battery lasts a good long time, unlike some other camcorders that I have used before. This one makes it for a couple of hours, and the cables are small enough to carry with you if you are shooting somewhere else, like in a school gym.
Another nice feature is that you can use it for taking digital photos. Very handy when you are filming a cute moment with the baby and don’t want to stop and go looking for the still camera! You can just switch over and start snapping photos. We used this feature quite often to get photos for long-distance relatives, while saving the videos for ourselves.
It comes with its own fun software for downloading and making funky music videos. Not necessary, but very entertaining! Make your own Discovery Channel videos of the pet cat!
A couple of other good points, steady cam feature that helps keep the picture from wobbling too much and night vision which is really a lot of fun when shooting without light.
Criticism: It isn’t the perfect camera, though. It is very difficult to zoom evenly while shooting because the steady zoom is located in an awkward place, on the view screen.
I found the roller zoom to be very unstable, although it was located in a better position. Also, the weight is awkward to carry, so for longer shoots (like school plays) you really need a tripod or other form of support.
