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Digital8 tape is court admissible with a robust recording. I have tried many other formats and the winner for archival storage has been from this camera, I own more than 10 DCR-TRV350 units. Other video cameras recording with DVD media or Memory storage, the playback can skip or err, but tape I thought was totally mangled was still able to drag over a playback head and produce an image. It has more features than most casual users ever use - like Memory Mix of Mattes, foregrounds, backgrounds, title-card fade, watermarks, and a wealth of cinematic possibilities. Digital and Program effects, exposure automatic and manual, manual focus, steady shot, IR night shot and more are default for instant use but fully accessible for the picky Director of Photography demanding discreet manual adjustments. For ghost-hunters and Cheater-catchers the Night-Shot is still amazing at full-in zoom. See my continuous recording of time-lapse for 15 day/night duration (using D-160 data tapes) to witness the amazing ability to capture and track exposure through day, twilight and night utilizing the Color Slow Shutter - daylight isn't over-blown and there are details in the nighttime shadows as well - astounding. Mechanical Drawbacks - twice during two-week time-lapse filming the camera was heard to hiss as it fried the tiny button fuses, both after several months of continuous 30 second power cycling of the time-lapse, The fuses are inexpensive but replacement requires a complete disassembly to access the motherboard behind the LCD flip panel. The most reported failure is tape transport load/eject - don't leave tapes loaded long term or during storage and keep all those tiny screws tight - and check the trv350 dot angelfire dot com site for the percussive maintenance of last resort to get this great HandyCam running again! Compared to other equipment I film with, the camera is robust, having stood up to touristy neck strap related collisions and trip/falls as well as lower cost of ownership, repair and maintenance, with the most rapid return to service. Recording Drawbacks - because of the nature of the digital processing, some features preempt others, such as recording in 16:9 720p uses the over-scan image area which steady-shot also samples to stabilize the image so the 16:9 setting temporarily overrides steady-shot. Other digital conflicts allow only one effect at a time, and exposure conflicts can preempt other exposure settings. Most settings are retained at power down while many manual menu settings can be reset by changing mode from tape camera to digital or VCR. The tape heads spinning more than five minutes will power them down which which helps prevent tape burn but also wipes the efforts of setting up a complex shot - to avoid that frustration just tap the red record button twice during set-up to reset the timer, 3D - Using the InfraRed Commander remote has allowed me to synchronize the cameras side by side for excellent snapshots and filming in 3D. Set both zoom out to wide and turn off auto focus helps to avoid image discrepancy. When the clock is properly set, the time-stamp and iris/exposure are digitally encoded in the data stream of the Digital8 tape recording, not on the image. This allows the playback viewer to toggle the time/date display on and off. Editing alters that time-stamp, so the recording can be admitted as evidence because edits are easily discernible. Relative to other formats, the Digital8 media can be both high quality and inexpensive. Entire movies captured with these cameras have been exhibited in theaters, and even fooled experts into believing the negative was on film by using the Flash digital effect or sepia and slim Picture effects. I like the 16:9 format through a letterbox matte with Slim Picture Effect which convinces folks I've used a Todd-AO anamorphic lens for Ultra-Wide Screen filming. I carry iPad and iPhone and this camera. iOS zooms by cropping which degrades the image, but zoom in to a planet at night with this camera and the crescent is sharp. My father was a cinematographer and taught me to always be handy to instantly capture the action, from the momentary mildly intresting to the firetruck approaching. With iOS I get the firetruck leaving, but with the TRV350 I zoom in as it approaches, zoom out to full frame as it passes and tighten in to a fade in the distance. This camera makes me a one-man pro news crew. I'll gift you plenty of mattes, frames and backgrounds as well as teach you to make them at trv350 dot angelfire dot com download over 200 individually or grab the .zip archive and load them onto your Memory Stick. For planned production and candid capture the TRV-DCR350 is my go-to workhorse. Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes
This camera is not WiFi compatible, so the remote accessory kit was not needed. It is a very basic GoPro camera and since this the first action camera I have owned, it was a major disappointment. It is difficult to program/read the settings due the LCD. The text is black on gray and nearly impossible to read in sunlight. The text is very small, so if your over 40, forget about reading this unless you have excellent vision. The reason it was purchased was for the time lapse function. That was another disappointment since it really is just taking a bunch of still pictures and then you use GoPro software to "stitch" the photos into a MOV file. My computer is no slouch (8 core intel) yet it took forever to get a 20 min video ready to view. The video; meh. I have been using an ipad4 with timelapse and have had wonderful results. I just wanted something a little more water proof and smaller. Finally, GoPro video edit software is horrible. All of this stuff should be simple and functional. Nope, not here. Price is too high for such a featureless product. I can get a knock-off for a 1/3 the price that is easier to use - and that is exactly what I did.Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
If you can get hold of a lightly used Sony Handycam DCR TRV350 for around $250, then as a consumer-level camcorder it's a definite buy. This model records MPEG1 motion and JPG stills on memory stick, and DV motion on Digital8 tape, and can playback and convert analog 8mm recordings to DV files. This is a very cool tool especially for those currently using older 8mm video equipment. Beware that to operate D8 cameras requires two hands. The two-and-a-half inch LCD monitor covers several controls including menu, display and manual exposure. The TRV350 compensates for small amounts of camera-shake. There is a small light to illuminate very dark areas to useable levels, but only at a distance of five feet. The excellent remote control is a standard accessory. A disappointing feature is that the CCD is very small and does not qualify as a solution for the professional or serious amateur. The pictures are grainy in low light. However the audio is quite acceptable. A couple of extra and larger batteries are necessary because of the insufficient one-hour capacity of the supplied one. Hi8 120 minute cassette tapes have a record time of 60 minutes in standard play mode and 90 minutes in long play mode. Note that the DV cable is not a supplied accessory. Sony doesn't sell this model anymore. If you are interested in upgrading to digital format on a budget, or if you want to insure that your collection of analog 8mm tapes can be played after your worn analog Handycam stops working, then find a gently used TRV350 to do the job. It performs camera/vcr functions admirably, and interfaces with the computer flawlessly.Read full review
I bought this to transfer 25 years of 8mm, HI8, and Digital 8 tapes to an external hard drive. Works good but be aware, the standard video streaming is not compatible with windows vista or windows 7. Luckily I have an old computer still running windows XP and it works great using the firewire connection. I am not sure how you would use it with more recent operating systems, probably would have to buy some type of editing software. I got the driver disk with the camera but the driver is not compatible with the newer operating systems. I researched it for a while but did not find an answer so I am working with the easy solution. I still have a lot of work to do but it is progressing well.
I purchased this camcorder for a very specific need: to transfer 15-year-old Hi8 wedding tapes to DVD and/or computer archive. The Sony Digital-8 system plays my Hi8 tapes with less interference or jitter than my original Hi8 camcorders did. (BTW, this camera can record on the older Hi8 tapes but the Digital-8 system records 60 min. on a 120 min. tape.) The camera has Sony's iLink (FireWire) so I've been able to capture the old tapes directly into 2 different computers without using any external capture or conversion devices. On a Mac, iMovie has no trouble importing and editing the movies. (This camera can also accept the analog audio/video input from another source--VHS, for example--and pass that through the iLink/FireWire into a computer for capture.) I also opted for this camcorder vs. a higher-end VCR/VTR unit so I could use it as a backup camera if I ever need it. In my brief experience with the Digital-8 format, the recorded footage from this camera is almost indistinguishable from consumer DV (miniDV) camcorders. Its 16x9 widescreen mode is comparable to any current, non-HiDef consumer camcorders. (Being non-HiDef, the footage from this camera would be ideal for small, web-based video uses.) Apple's iMovie automatically recognizes and captures either 4x3 or 16x9 footage from this camera, depending on what aspect the footage was shot in. (I would hope that Windows apps should respond the same way.) As a backup camcorder, this unit is very flexible, including manual (menu-selected) overrides and adjustments for focus & exposure. There is an external mic input but I haven't needed it yet. 20x optical zoom lens is great for 99% of situations. It has Sony's NightShot system so you can shoot greenish footage in totally dark environments. My one big gripe about this and many other Sony taped-based consumer camcorders is that the tape compartment is accessed and opened on the bottom of the unit. This makes it impossible to change a tape when it is secured to most tripods or camera mounts. I currently have it secured to my computer desk using a Bogen super-clamp, articulated arm & extended mounting stud. (The stud is narrow enough to screw into the tripod mount but not overlap the tape door; the arm allows me to swing the camera sideways or almost upside down to switch tapes. Hence the gripe!) I would recommend this camcorder to anyone who needs to digitize a library of--or even just a few--important videos on 8mm or Hi8 tape. Since this model is older and parts are probably rare, I suggest finding a seller that has multiple units or can repair/replace parts if needed.Read full review
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