Sony Handycam DCR-TRV310E Digital-8 Camcorder

Sony DCR-TRV310 Digital8 Camcorder


The DCR-TRV310 is the second model from the top in Sony's debut line of Digital8 camcorders which the company brought to the market in1998. This line of Digital8 camcorders starts with the DCR-TR7000, which has no LCD screen, goes to the TRV103, with a 2.5-inch LCD screen, then to the TRV310, with a 3.5-inch LCD screen, and tops out at the TRV510, with a 4.0-inch LCD screen. Other than the LCD screens, all these models are almost identical (actually, the only difference is that the TRV510 has 2 Megs of built-in flash memory which can store still images; plus, it has an RS-232 jack to feed these images to a computer).

This line of camcorders is now discontinued and you won't find any of them for sale new (the TRV103 was last sold as a closeout model in early-2000) but you'll probably see them fairly frequently on e-bay since they're only a year or two old. Sony has replaced this line with newer, though fairly similar models, starting with the TRV120 and topping out at the TRV820.


Is it Worthwhile to Have an LCD Screen?

That's a question that's fairly open to debate. Professional videographers view these little LCD screens as gadgets, though they also view any camcorder that costs less than $5,000 or so as a gadget.

If you're seriously interested in videography, you certainly shouldn't feel like an LCD screen is something important to have. You can frame shots just as well with the regular viewfinder, and an LCD screen is a powerhog which will probably come close to halving the running time you get on a single battery.

On the other hand, the LCD screen, like any good gadget, is fun to have. If you're really creative about your shooting angles, it might even open up new vistas for you, since it will allow you to hold the camera in unusual positions (such as very low to the ground) and still keep your shot framed. You also might use it as a way to get family members to relax, since, on the TRV310 and all the other Sony Digital8 models with LCD screens, you can turn the screen so it faces toward the subject you're shooting, thus distracting people with the fascinating image of themselves on a tiny TV set. Then again, if they're extremely self-conscious this ploy might backfire. You'll have to try it out yourself.

Keep in mind that indoors, or outdoors in overcast light, or at night, you'll be able to see the image on the LCD screen just fine. However, as with most LCD screens, you'll find that the image on the TRV310's will wash out in direct sunlight. Also, at 3.5-inches, this is a fairly large LCD screen, and it'll consume batteries even faster than the 2.5-inch screen on Sony's next model down in this line of camcorders, the TRV103.

If you're traveling, the LCD screen will probably come in handy, since you can employ it as a miniature monitor on which to preview your recently-shot trip video. The 3.5-inch monitor on the TRV310, which is quite a jump in square-inch screen size, provides a large enough viewing that it would really provide you with a practical substitute for a monitor on which to view your newly-shot vacation footage. Please note that the TRV310, like the other LCD-screen models in this line (the TRV103 and the TRV510), has a small built-in speaker, so you won't need to use headphones to monitor the audio when playing back video footage with the camcorder's screen.

Using the TRV310's LCD screen as a field monitor will be especially useful in Europe, or any other part of the world which uses a different television standard than the good old U.S.A.'s NTSC specification. In such places, even if you had the right kind of input jack on a local television (and most hotel TV's don't), the video output from your U.S. camcorder wouldn't play over it.

In fact, since you've got a good-sized LCD screen, and a built-in speaker, you might even use the TRV310 to view pre-recorded movies (or any other video footage) on the go. Since the Hi8 tapes which the TRV310 uses will record for a maximum of one hour (on a two-hour Hi8 tape) in the Digital8 mode, you couldn't get an entire 90-minute movie to fit onto one tape. However, if you have a movie which you recorded onto a Hi8 tape with a Hi8 camcorder, this will give you up to two-hours (with the largest size Hi8 tape generally available) of recording time, and the TRV310, since it's backward-compatible with the Hi8 format, will be able to play it back.


Savings on Tape Stock

Sony's Digital8 format uses a recording method similar to that employed with MiniDV, except instead of recording the digital stream onto MiniDV tapes, it records onto Hi8 tapes. However, the Hi8 tapes have to run at double-speed in this configuration and, thus, you'll only get one hour of recording time on a two-hour Hi8 tape. Since these tapes sell for about $5.00 (or more, if you get a "premium" tape), and the one-hour MiniDV tapes start at about $8.00, there is a significant, but not massive savings in tape cost with Digital8 versus MiniDV.

Although the Hi8 tapes are designed for an analog format, there's no disadvantage in using them to record digital information. The MiniDV tapes, which are purpose-built for use in the new MiniDV camcorders, operate in exactly the same way as Hi8 tapes (the magnetic tape winds onto two spools in the cassette and is rolled past the recording head, which impresses onto the tape either the electrical pulses which represent an analog video signal or the electrical pulses which represent digital information) . The two main differences of MiniDV tapes as compared to Hi8 tapes are that they are smaller and more expensive (and the MiniDV tape has more discrete tracks than the Hi8 tape).

Since the Digital8 camcorders take the Hi8 tapes, Sony designed them with the capability of playing back analog Hi8 and 8mm tapes. Sony claims this as a plus, saying these camcorders will play back your current library of 8mm and Hi8 tapes. I fail to see the appeal in this since, if you already had a library of 8mm and Hi8 tapes, you'd also, most likely, own an 8mm or Hi8 camcorder and, thus, already have a machine which could play back your tapes.


There Is an Advantage!

However, if you have a Firewire (see explanation below) input jack on your computer, either via an expansion card on a PC, or via the built-in Firewire jack on the iMac's or on one of the Sony Vaio PC's, you could play your 8mm and Hi8 tapes on your Digital8 camcorder and then feed the live digital output, via the Digital camcorder's Firewire jack, into your computer and onto your hard drive, where you can manipulate the video with non-linear editing software.


Firewire Revealed

At this point, I should quickly explain the Firewire jack on the TRV310. Firewire played a large part in launching the DV revolution. From the Sony VX1000 onward, virtually every good-quality DV camcorder has included a Firewire jack. This jack, which is either a four- or six-line connection, provides two-way digital communication between a camcorder and a computer.

Thus, if you have a video-editing expansion card installed in your PC, and the appropriate software, you can not only feed the digital video stream into the computer, but you can also control the functions of the camcorder from the computer, allowing you to specify in and out points for editing and then set the software to command the camcorder to feed the appropriate scenes, in the proper order, from the DV tape in the camcorder to the hard drive in your computer. Once "captured" to your hard drive, you can manipulate the scenes in your computer with your editing software, just as you cut and paste sentences and paragraphs with word processing software. So, you can manipulate the audio track, add music and narration, modify the video with various types of effects, and add titles and transitions.

One of the drawbacks to this kind of video manipulation, known as non-linear editing, is that it takes a large amount of hard drive space to store video (for a good quality image, you need about 13 Gigabytes of storage space per hour of digital video). However, with prices of large, high-performance IDE drives dropping precipitously, non-linear editing of digital video will continue to increase in popularity.

In the Mac world, the new iMac's have provided quite a boost to digital video editing, since these machines come with integral Firewire ports. Some of the all-in-one iMac's, the DV models, are bundled with basic video editing software. Apple has also introduced its own contender in the high-end digital video editing software marketplace with their Final Cut Pro ($1,000).


The Cam in Camcorder

A camcorder is only as good as its camera section (the lens and the CCD's ? charge-coupled devices ? which turn the optical image into an analog electrical signal) and the camera section on the TRV310 features a 20x variable-speed zoom lens which goes from the equivalent, in a 35mm lens, of 39mm (slight wide-angle) to 780mm (extreme telephoto). In real-world shooting situations, you'd much rather have more wide-angle and less zoom, but zoom gets camcorder buyers' attention and Sony, and all the other manufacturers, oblige. At the extreme telephoto setting, you'd have to shoot on a tripod since the telephoto would magnify even the slightest hand shakiness into a high amount of frame jitter. The TRV310 has a digital zoom which will let it go to an even more extreme telephoto, but it's not particularly useful since, with such an extreme amount of zoom, the image begins to pixilate.

The TRV310 has a single, 1/4-inch, 460,000-pixel CCD. This is a typical size for single-chip camcorders. Ideally, you'd want to get a three-chip camcorder, which has a separate CCD chip for each of the primary colors, but you don't start to find this until you get into the above-$2,000 price range. The pixel count of the TRV310's CCD is a bit higher than you'll find in other consumer-level camcorders. These small CCD's do a perfectly adequate job and will provide more than enough quality for home videography and semi-professional shooting. Many a cable-access television show has been shot with a single-chip camcorder.

Judging by the sales success of the LCD-screen Digital8 models, consumers find these very attractive. However, professional video shooters do all their work through a viewfinder and there's no reason that you won't get perfectly good results doing your videography through the TRV310's color viewfinder, which has excellent resolution with its 113,000 pixels (to give you an idea of how finely detailed an image this provides, a typical 2.5-inch LCD screen, while it's five times the size of the viewfinder in the TRV310, only has about twice as many pixels).

The TRV310 employs Sony's Steady Shot image stabilization. This digital system (optical image stabilization is better, but nothing will replace a Steadicam) will provide a moderate amount of jitter reduction, but it's not magic. You'll still need to practice the fundamentals of camera handling and, when you need a really steady shot, you can get it with a very dependable piece of technology: a tripod.

The TRV310 boasts exceptional sensitivity in low-light shooting situations, going down to 0.4 lux in regular video mode and 0.0 lux in Nightshot mode. Does this mean you'll actually get a picture with 0.4 lux? No, these ratings are very competitive between the various camcorder makers and should only be taken serious as a relative measure. Good video, more than motion picture photography, depends heavily on good lighting. As for the Nightshot mode, it can produce an image in low light, but it's a monochrome image. I'm sure you could have plenty of fun with this effect, but don't expect to record your wedding dinner by candle light.


Super Radar-Vision Spy Scope? Send 50-cents NOW!!

Since the Nightshot mode picks up the infrared (heat) part of the spectrum, it might appear to see through lightly-colored clothing. This is because, with lightly-colored clothes, the wearer's body heat will create certain zones of higher infrared energy, causing certain body parts to appear in outline. I've heard different things about this feature. Some say that Sony has eliminated it. I'm not really sure how it could be eliminated. Sony might have reduced the sensitivity of the infrared detector or limited it to working with certain exposure, as it were, settings. Your mileage, with the Nightshot feature, may vary.


Bad News for Control Freaks

People who are really into videography prefer to have as much manual control of their camcorders as possible. However, the TRV310 has several automatic shooting modes which adjust exposure, shutter speed, and depth of field for various situations: Portrait, Beach & Ski, Sports, Landscape, Spotlight, Sunset & Moon. A beginning camcorder user will be able to start shooting right away with one of these modes.

However, as you get more involved in video, especially if you, like me, are coming from a still photography background where you were used to having a lot of manual control over your camera, you'll appreciate that the TRV310 has manual focus and manual exposure control. Unfortunately, this is a rather minimal level of manual control. You might also want to control shutter speed, gain, and audio recording level (to be fair, manual audio level controls are practically never found on camcorders at this price level, but shutter speed can be found on models such as Canon's ES-4000 Hi8 model).


White Balance, Not Just South Africa Before Mandela

One manual control that's missing on the TRV310 and really can't adequately be replaced by an automatic mechanism is the white balance control. In every shooting situation, the light temperature will vary. Manual white balance control is the only way to overcome this. The way it works is, you hold a white paper or board in front of the lens, so it fills the entire frame, and press the white balance button. Without this ability to manually set the camera's white balance, you have to depend on the camera's ability to set it automatically. However, even the auto-white balance on a pro-level camcorder can't set is accurately as you can manually. This drawback is not unique to the TRV310 ? it's true of all the Sony Digital8 camcorders, both in the first line and in the current line.

You'll have to decide for yourself if the color accuracy with the auto-white balance is good enough for you. The only way to really know is by testing. I haven't heard massive complaints from people about the Sony Digital8 camcorders, and they seem to sell pretty well, so maybe the accuracy is sufficient for home videography. If you have video manipulation hardware and software, you'll be able to adjust the white balance on your computer after you've shot your video. Otherwise, you'll be stuck with the camcorder's idea of good white balance.


Francis Ford Coppola Would LOVE this Camcorder

As I like to mention in all my camcorder reviews, Francis Ford Coppola once said that, someday, young film makers would carry an entire studio in the palm of their hands. He might have had a camcorder like the TRV310 in mind since it includes quite a few expressive video effects. The transitions included in the camcorder include fade to black, mosaic (the image slowly turns into a grid of colored squares representing the underlying colors of the image), bounce, monotone, and overlap. Other digital effects include still, flash motion, luminance key (an image is frozen, then superimposed on the current, live video), slow shutter, motion trails, and "Old Movie." Picture effects include slim, stretch, 16:9, mosaic, solarization, monochrome, sepia, negative art, and pastel. Overusing these features will make your videos tiresome, but carefully and judiciously applying them, along with a good variety of camera angles, will let you keep things interesting.

The TRV310, like most camcorders, comes with a full-featured remote control. This can be very handy when you have the camcorder on a tripod, allowing you to stop and start recording with yourself in the frame and without having to touch the camera and upset the shot you've framed. A remote also allows you to do a simple form of editing, which I call "Two-Handed Editing," where you hold the camcorder in one hand, your VCR remote in the other, and you selectively copy scenes from the camcorder to the tape in the VCR.


A Remote, for more than Just a Couch CousCous Like You

The TRV310's Info-Lithium batteries, besides avoiding the memory effect found with Ni-Cad's, allows you to see on the viewfinder screen, in minutes, how much battery time you have left. With the optional NP-F950 battery, you can shoot for up to 10 hours, well in excess of the one-hour recording time you'll get with a single Hi8 tape.


Conclusion (Skip Right to Here if You're in a Hurry)

All-in-all, the TRV310 is a nice little camcorder for home videography and semi-professional shooting. In fact, it's the least expensive camcorder, from Sony's first Digital8 line, which includes an LCD screen. The styling mainly sticks to Sony's standard, somewhat-conservative camcorder look. If you like the way Sony camcorders have looked over the past few years, you'll probably like the TRV310. This camcorder's biggest drawback is its lack of manual white balance setting. If you want the best possible color accuracy, you'll have to look at another model (in fact, you'll have to rule out the entire Sony Digital8 line). On the other hand, plenty of people seem happy with the color accuracy of these camcorders so, at the risk of not sounding very helpful, I'll have to say that this is your call.