To help ensure you get the shot you want in any situation, there are seven program AE modes, including portrait, beach and ski, sport lesson, etc. To give your footage a little bit more polish, Sony's built in seven fader modes, eight picture effects, and six digital effects. Included with the DCR-TRV230 are a battery, wireless remote, InfoLithium battery, stereo A/V cable, lens cap, and shoulder strap.

The image quality is wonderful! It has natural looking colours, excellent sound reproduction for a built in microphone and is razor sharp. While it is true that indoors you may have a bit of grain, it isn't a detriment like the people here would make it out like. I lit my subjects evenly and brightly, and the grain disappeared. Scratch one problem. If you have good lighting, there's no grain. Very simple. But, if you do not have even, bright lighting, it can become very grainy indeed.

The camera has a mind-boggling array of effects, all of which can have a nice effect if used in moderation. The effect I particularly like is the "flash" effect. If you crank it down to one bar, you get a nice cinematic look that is very similar in look to 35mm film at 26fps. The lens is very good, but in very bright situations some glare can appear on subjects. However, all cameras do that in some respect so if you're doing a lot of outdoor shooting, Sony has some lens filters that you can screw on. Scratch another complaint.

I especially liked how virtually everything is near your thumb. Record mode, play mode, zoom. The zoom is amazing, but you can forget a 700x zoom. It gets blurry around 400 or 500x, but as someone else at Amazon put it, who needs that much zoom anyways? If you really want to shoot something, then get off your [behind] and shoot it.

The remote is also handy, as well, especially if you are doing stop-motion/steadycam work. It may seem like a toy, but when it's on a tripod, you don't want to jolt the camera when you're doing stop-mo. It has most of the functions of the camera itself.

One complaint that I have is the tape loading mechanism. Most 8mm camcorders have a simple door, shove in the tape and slam the door shut --- just like a cassette deck. Not this one. It has a fancy little motor that wheels out the cassette like some kind of science fiction movie. It definitely looks cool but if it breaks down, how are you supposed to get the tape in? demerit point for Sony there. I did like the bottom tape loading mechanism, though, because most 8mms have the door where your palm is, so you have to slip your hand out. Not so here. Tripod could be a problem, but a display tells you how much tape you're used and how much tape is left, so it doesn't reall matter because you have more than enough notice to change the tape anyhow.

It is a simple point and shoot camcorder which does a good job. It also suits me well in professional ways, as it runs circles around all the other broadcast cameras at Cogeco. This camera exceeds quality than any of the other cameras at the Cogeco studio, before or since. It takes some photography know how and a true artistic eye to get professional quality out of this camera, but it can certainly be accomplished.


TRV230 is a very good camera: Read your manual!   March 24, 2002
I bought this camera in November of 2001 and am very happy with its performance and features.
For all those that complain about the grainy picture: read your manual that came with the camcorder! With this camera you have the option of different exposure settings. I have found that the AE(automatic exposure) setting tends to make the picture look grainy, especially when filming indoors. This can be corrected by using the 'sun and moon' exposure or one of the others. Take the time to try each setting in different lighting and surroundings and view them on your television to see which ones you like best.

Some pros about this camera
* light-weight
* very good lcd color screen
* excellent image stabilization
* very good color representation (with right exposure)
* excellent compatibility with computer OS's & programs
* great stero sound
* excellent remote control

Some cons to consider
* changing tapes is awkward, tape loaded from bottom
* camera hum audible on tape if shooting quiet scene
* digital zoom is not focused (keep on analog zoom)
* battery does not last long when using the lcd screen
(about 1/2 hour)

This cam does not have a digital media storage card for photo stills but I don't consider this a con. High cost models are beginning to come out with decent resolution photo still capability integrated into the camcorder and until the price falls, buy a seperate digital photo cam.
Very good camera overall!


DCR-TRV230 Camcorder   March 12, 2002
This is junk. It has not worked since the day I got it. Have returned it for service three times. Has never been fixed. Sony refuses to replace the camera. If I did not have so much invested in accessories I would just throw it away and buy a Canon.