Sony Handycam DCR-TRV310E Digital-8 Camcorder

This is the camera that really does make you look good. It is loaded with features, and the sound and image quality are awesome.

We got this camera because we were expecting a new baby in the next few months and we wanted to record all of his "firsts" and many memories that would accumulate over the years. So far, we haven?t been disappointed.

Prior to buying our Sony, I researched all possible types of camcorders and I came to these conclusions:

VHS-C
It's okay if you don't want to bother with hooking up to your VCR to play videos. Otherwise the picture quality is okay and to get the most time out of a tape, the picture quality becomes poor. Prices are relatively cheap for this type of camera.

8mm
The picture quality is okay to good and the tapes can record for a decent amount of time. The price for these types of cameras are also relatively cheap bordering on moderate, depending on the features you get. The only thing I wanted that this type of camera didn't have is excellent picture quality and ability to directly hook up with your computer.

Pure Digital:
This would be an excellent choice if you have a lot of spare money. The picture quality is excellent. You have the ability to hook up to your computer as well as a VCR. The downfall again is price. Not only are these camcorders expensive, the tapes to record your videos are very expensive, $15 and up for a 60 minute high quality recording. I wasn?t willing to worry that every time I pushed the record button on my camcorder, dollars would be coming out of my wallet.

Digital8:
Then there?s Digital8 which brings me to my review. These camcorders (exclusively made by Sony) are also expensive, although mainly cheaper than straight digital. But they use existing 8mm tapes as their recording format and give excellent quality.

When I recorded my first video and played it back on my TV, I was amazed at how rich the colors were, they were true to life. It also looked very professional (at least the quality did, maybe not my filming style!) with no noise or distractions from the picture.

The Sony DCR-TRV310 also has a ton of features too. One feature it has that I enjoy is Night Shot. During the December eclipse of the moon, I took out my camcorder and was filming the moon as it became darker. Since my camcorder had an option of using manual exposure, along with the 360x zoom, I got great shots as the moon was succumbing to darkness without using Nigh Shot. But I also tried just filming the odd looking clouds in the dark sky that happened to be there that night. For that I used the Night Shot and got excellent results. The only bad thing about Night Shot is that it does take away any color and replaces it with green. There are many other features I enjoy that this camcorder has such as the many special effects and the Intelligent accessory shoe which allows you to hook up extras like a video light.

Battery life is another plus for this Sony. I can get many hours of use out of the camcorder before having to recharge. It will also tell me how many minutes are left before the battery dies, an excellent feature.

I did purchase the extra FireWire card (about $120 at Best Buy) so I could download to my computer. I am glad I did because now I can e-mail friends videos of our son! Although non-moving pictures are great for most of the time, videos can give action that you can?t see in photos. For a lot of my relatives who haven?t seen our son yet, they enjoy this feature very much. Even the relatives who have seen our son, are excited to view the movies. There is a warning I will give about e-mailing people your videos. It will take a long time for you to upload the video and a long time for your friends to download, especially if all you have is a 56k modem. If you have a CD recorder, you also have the option of sending your relatives CD?s that are filled up with videos. I figured that you could probably get an hours worth of decent (not high quality) video on a CD.

Another thing I would like to add is that I was originally going to get the TRV110. The TRV110 would have also been an excellent choice, but I got lucky purchasing the TRV310 because it was an open item and the store was willing to give me a steep discount. The only difference between the 310 and the 110 is that the 310 has a bigger flip out display. So if you can?t afford the 310 but you can the 110, there should be no problem going for the 110.

One thing I don?t like about my camcorder is that you are limited to half of the advertised recording time of a 8mm tape. So if you buy a 120 minute 8mm tape, you can record only 60 minutes. I wish there was an option were you could record at a lower quality for an extended time, but this camcorder doesn?t have that option.

Another thing I dislike, but isn?t as important to me is that the size of this camcorder is larger than most straight digital camcorders. But compared to all other camcorders, it is about the same size.

Overall, a very good choice for people who want near perfection in their videos and also for people who like to share videos over the internet. But if all you want is a decent camcorder that records average quality videos, you also can?t go wrong with a standard 8mm.

One note: You can still hook up any old camcorder to your Computer but you have to use analog inputs which can degrade the quality of your recording. With a Firewire input, you get exactly what is on the tape, with no loss.