The lowest end of Sony's Hi-8 line, the TRV108 contains some excellent features for the price. Its NightShot infrared capability lets you film in total darkness--a feature missing on some more expensive competitor cameras.

The swiveling 2.5-inch color LCD makes it easy to frame your shots, and the 20x optical zoom (with 460x digital zoom) lets you bring the action in close. The rechargeable lithium-ion battery allows for a decent recording time of up to 160 minutes. For the long haul, the optional NP-FM91 battery pack promises over 15 hours of life on a charge.

Sony also includes a variety of basic effects tools, so you can slim or stretch the image, add fade-in and fade-out effects, and insert titles directly into your videos. The camera's dubbing feature controls 59 different brands of VCRs for fast and simple transfer of the video to VHS tape.

While analog quality can't compare to digital, the TRV108 still captures sharp video. The average user will be pleased with the picture for scenes such as a family reunion, but for more detailed subjects like distant nature shots, or if you plan to edit video on a PC, digital would serve you better but cost you more.

This camcorder would make a great gift for parents or other users simply wanting a way to record their memories in respectable quality. --J. Curtis

Pros:

• Good quality for analog.
• Very inexpensive
• NightShot mode

Cons:

• No light or accessory shoe
• A bit bulky

The CCD-TRV108 is Sony's introductory level Hi8 camcorder, and it offers an assortment of features that make it great for the average home videographer. With its 2.5-inch color LCD and 20x optical zoom, there's really no situation that the TRV108 won't shoot well. Especially when you add in the NightShot mode, which switches the camera to an infrared shooting mode.

In addition, the CCD-TRV108 offers a few fader and picture effects, as well as some titling options.

Pedro Sueros


Great camera for the price   January 9, 2003
9 out of 9 found this review helpful

Wanted a camera for Christmas and got this one because of the price, and needless to say it's a great camera. Just got back from DisneyWorld and the 108 performed extremely well. The nightshot proved handy in those dark rides, and the quality of picture was well for the Festival of the Lion King performance. The only problem I saw was that the autofocus was slow to adapt at times during those fireworks and laser shows. I didn't expect it to keep up, but it did better than I expected. Talk about impact resistant, I had a hissy when it fell out of the bag into the boat on the pirates of the carribean, but it took a lickin and it's still ticking. Once home, I just connected it to my TV and watched my vacation replay. Great camera for the price, definately worth more. Only thing better is digital. Sony has a winner here.