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Reviewed by UK Guest, 21st Apr 2004. |
| Review Summary: Can't go wrong with this great value entry level Camcorder |
Overall Score: 5/5
 
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Review: In short, I'm very happy with this Sony DCR-TRV265E camcorder, Would recommend to a friend.
Pros:
20X zoom gives an impressive result, and "Steadyshot" helps a lot whenzoomed in, though a tripod is still a must for a truly steady shot at thatmagnification.
DV in/out (firewire) allows use of third party software (cost varies) suchas Ulead MediaStudio, or Pinnacle Studio. Only after I had triedMediaStudio Pro did I get really excited about capturing, editing andburning to VCD or DVD or even back to tape. The camera can be controlledby the PC, allowing it to speed up the capture process, or even slow itdown to avoid frame drops on slower PCs. Needless to say, if you want toget serious with digital editing, a reasonable spec PC is a must, and lotsof disk space. A 10 min clip captured as an AVI was nearly 2GB, but ofcourse the file can be mpeg compressed after capture.
Has a built in visible light (LEDs) for up to 1.5 m, as well as infra rednightshot.
Has some digital effects built in such as fades -black, white, mosaic,monotone. Effects - negative, B&W, Sepia, Solarize, slim, stretch, pastel,mosaic. There are also a few text & title functions.
Cons:
The camera was slightly bulkier than I expected, and the main controls(zoom, power & record) a little awkward. Not enough to sway my opinionthough.
The supplied software is very basic, and it crashed one of my PCs(a rarleyseen blue screen memory dump on Windows 2000), though this could have beena problem with the PC. The quality of the VCD created with the bundledsoftware, using a USB cable and the "Burn DVD /VCD" button was poor, and Idon't think I'd bother with it, but it might be OK for some purposes. I ammore interested in being able to archive at a higher quality format suchas DVD or sVCD. According to the manual the "Burn DVD" function is onlycompatible with Sony Viao machines with a DVD burner and a Sony add-insoftware component. I uninstalled the bundled software shortly afterinstalling it. See my comments in "Pros" about third party software-Digital editing too good to ignore!
Some search functionality in playback mode is only available on the remote control which is an annoying feature of this Sony DCR-TRV265E camcorder |
Ratings
| Value For Money: |
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5 |
| Review Score: |
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5 |
| Recommended? | |
Yes |
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Digital Cameras