Sony Handycam DCR-TRV240 - Camcorder - 460 Kpix - optical zoom: 25 x - Digital8 - black, silver

Make a memory last forever with a Digital8 camcorder from Sony. The 2.5" Swivelscreen LCD is easy to use and captures events in true-to-life detail. Steadyshot Picture Stabilization will hold true to its name by reducing the effects of a shaky hand or movements. With Super NightShot you can record in complete darkness. and the 20x optical/560 digital zoom gets you up close and personal. The built-in light will brighten up all your shots!

The Sony DCR-TRV240 Digital8 camcorder is a well-specified model with both DV in and out connections, making it ideal for those wishing to edit digital footage on a PC. Sony's new Digital8 cameras are more compact than previous models. The TRV240 sits neatly in the hand and is light enough to use without effort. Digital8 has the added advantage of being able to play your old analog Hi8 tapes. It's also a less expensive way into digital video than MiniDV camcorders, both in respect of the cameras themselves and tapes.

Digital video comes as a real surprise after analog systems, the image quality is superb and free of all the noise associated with analog systems. Digital8 offers a resolution of 500 lines, over twice that of VHS. The superb Super SteadyShot picture stabilization system means you can produce good, shake-free shots. Sound is also digital, and the built-in microphone is adequate--as long as you remember to keep quiet yourself--but an external one is an idea for more serious work.

There are a wealth of features, many controlled by a menu system on the LCD screen. This helps keep the number of buttons down, but can be tiresome to navigate. Getting started is easy, as everything comes set at automatic. Just pop in a tape and away you go.

The camera boasts a remarkable level of zoom: a healthy 25x optical backed by digital zoom that extends this to 700x. At higher levels, however, the picture degrades considerably and you are advised to keep the digital zoom within reasonable levels. Usefully, the display indicates when you've exhausted the power of the optical zoom and are about to move to digital zoom. The zoom control reacts to pressure, right down to a gentle creep.

There's little else to do for easy shooting. There's a manual backlight button and exposure control. It has 16:9 support, which simply cuts strips off the top and bottom of the image so that, when replayed on a wide-screen television, the image fills the screen. This does of course cut back the image resolution a little. It can also take stills, fitting over 500 on a tape, though the quality of these do not make it a sufficient replacement for a high-quality digital camera.

Battery life is enough for a day trip, but spare or better high-capacity batteries are a wise investment. A full charge takes an hour and a quarter and is good for about an hour's continuous use. If you can resist using the LCD, you might get an extra half an hour. High-capacity batteries that can provide up to 10 hours use are available separately.

Another interesting feature is the time-lapse function, enabling you to film flowers opening and so forth. The Super NightShot mode offers a green-hued recording in darkness thanks to an infrared lamp below the lens. The multitude of buttons can be daunting, but after a while you begin to wish the camera had more to offer direct access to some of these features.

The edit modes include the ability to select scenes, which is excellent if a little fiddly to use. It outputs and inputs analog video either in composite or S-VHS and comes supplied with a composite lead and SCART converter, but includes no S-VHS lead. Digital input and output is via iLink, also known as FireWire or DV-in/out. There's also the ability to output video directly to a PC using a USB cable, enabling you to view them on your PC screen. It can even act as an analog to digital converter, feeding the signal through the camera to another device.

The TRV240 is a sophisticated and capable camera with an impressive feature list that'll take considerable time to explore fully. Having tasted what can be done with a digital camcorder, you won't ever want to go back to analog. --Miles Berkeley

Pros:

• Sophisticated digital camcorder, yet easy to get started shooting
• Impressive feature list: time-lapse function, digital still capability
• 25x optical zoom lens

Cons:

• Will need to invest in extra batteries to shoot comfortably all day

The Digital8 line was conceived to provide a path to digital for current owners of 8mm or Hi8 camcorders. The DCR-TRV240 succeeds in that regard, playing back both 8mm and Hi8 tapes.

Sony put in a 25x optical zoom and paired it with Super SteadyShot image stabilization. Image stabilization is a handy technology that helps to eliminate the shakiness associated with high zoom levels. The only way to avoid shakiness completely is to utilize a tripod, table, or other stable surface. The 2.5-inch LCD is the best way to frame your shots, although you can use the black-and-white EVF to preserve battery life.

In addition to the normal slew of ports (IEEE 1394, S-video, Mini AV) that have made their way onto the TRV240, there's also a USB port, which, with some included software, offers some interesting functions. Specifically, it allows you to use the camcorder to capture stills, or "broadcast live video with audio," according to Sony, which seems to indicate you can use the TRV240 as a Webcam. There is also one very important port on the TRV240: a mic input. Not only do most camcorders have poor built-in microphones, but also they are often situated too near the tape mechanism, meaning you get the annoying throbbing sound of the tape pulled through the heads.

The DCR-TRV240 comes with a power adapter, InfoLithium battery, remote control, two AA batteries, AV cable, lens cap, shoulder strap, USB cable, and software CD-ROM.