Nice and Compact - should be on your shopping list

Author's Rating:

Pros: Good picture, well built, reliable. Compact.

Cons: Camera noise in quiet scenes, menu system on LCD only. Software sparse.

The Bottom Line: 
If you want a compact, good quality camcorder, put this one on your short list!

Author's Review
I've owned my Sony TRV-22 camcorder for about a year now - time for a review.

Introduction:
I bought my Sony DVR-TRV22 about a year ago, and I've been very happy with it. I was looking for a compact camcorder to replace my old Sony 8mm handicam - it finally bit the dust, 8 years later. I'll admit, I was a bit biased in my search - I liked my old Sony; it was a good camera, albeit a bit heavy at over 2 lbs. I needed good low-light capability (for birthday parties!), so I discarded all the 1+ megapixel cameras; I also wanted it to cost under $500. I did a bit of research, and was looking at the TRV-22, Panasonic's PVD203 and Canon's ZR65MC. I chose the TRV-22 because of better optics, and also the numerous pseudo-prosumer features - manual white balance, spot focus and spot exposure, and analog-to-digital pass-through capability, to name a few.

Specifications:
You can find the specifications of this camera at www.sonystyle.com; the highlights are:

- MiniDV camcorder, 530g (1 lb, 2 oz), 71 X 90 X 112 mm (about 3" X 3-1/2" X 4-1/2")
- 10X optical zoom (42-420mm F1.7-2.2), Carl Zeiss optics
- 1/4" CCD 680 Kpixels
- SP/LP modes, MiniDV; also MPEG video capture (320X240 max)
- Still capture mode; 360Kpixels (~640X480)
- 2.5" color Touchscreen LCD; color viewfinder
- FM30 7.4 V 5.0 Watt-hour battery - lasts about 1-1/4 hour with LCD screen open
- 5.1 lux minimum color recording; 0.1 lux B&W with Nightshot (infrared) on

Quality:
The camera was well manufactured with a thick plastic shell, well put together with no gaps or loose parts; the camera feels solid in your hands, not flimsy at all. The lens cap is unique - it snaps on to the outer lens ring and folds back on a hinge, rather than hanging loose; it works well. A variety of covers and doors are fine, and cover the connectors firmly; but they feel like they may be a bit flimsy over time with repeated use. No technical problems have arisen since the camera was put into use a year ago; approximately 50 hours of video have been taken so far.

Picture quality is very good, comparable to cameras with similar specs. The picture quality is clearly superior to the old 8mm camera it replaced; edges are sharp, and motion is captured well with little blurring. The zoom works well; the control is touchy but usable, and can give anything from an imperceptable-slow to a headspinning-fast zoom.

Sound quality is average, with a small amount of camera motor noise only heard in very quiet shots. The microphones are on the front of the camera, with very little physical separation.

Use:
This camcorder is comfortable to use; it feels good in your hand and the basic controls are easy to access with one hand. I have much less trouble with arm fatigue than I used to have with my old camcorder; I can film with this one along as I walk along a trail and I hardly even notice it.

The camera can be used in full automatic mode (autofocus, auto white balance, auto aperture) and you'll get great video - clean, sharp, and (for the most part) properly exposed. If you want a little bit of control (for instance, filming in front of a window) the touchscreen gives you a very complete menu system, allowing adjustment of all the camera's variables. I've found "spot" focus and "spot" exposure to be particularly useful. "Steadycam" is the typical digital method; it works about as well as any I've seen.

Battery performance is average - the battery included lasts a little over an hour. I bought a generic aftermarket NP-FM50 battery rated at 8.5 watt-hours; it lasts about 2 hours with the LCD open. Power savings with the LCD closed are considerable, increasing filming time by about 40% - 2 hours with the FM30 battery, and 3+ hours with the FM50 clone. Generic batteries for this camera are inexpensive and very common - I found mine at the photo counter at the local Walmart for under US$40.

Low-light performance is very good - at least on par with my old 8mm Handicam with twice the lens diameter and ~4 times the CCD area. Nightshot is a bit gimmicky, but it works - I've taken pictures in total darkness (in caves) and the (greenish-tinted B&W) pictures were quite clear.

The analog-to-digital passthrough has also been useful; it converts analog input to digital output, for DV capture and editing. The quality of the output, of course, is dependant on the quality of the input - usually inferior to the native DV-captured frames. I get about the same picture quality with direct analog capture and conversion with a capture card.

Other capabilities include photo capture - like most of these camcorders, you definitely wouldn't want to depend on it as a still camera. Capture is very simple, if you have a memory stick in the camera; you push the button half way to capture the scene; if you like it, you push the button the rest of the way to store the picture. The files are very small (640X480, ~80-120Kb); I can fit about 750 of them (at lowest compression) on a 64 MB memory stick. They're far too low-resolution to be printed on photo paper, but I've found them useful as backgrounds for DVD menus when I'm putting my films on disks; they're also OK (but small) for desktop wallpaper. At computer resolutions, they're sharp and the color is good.

Accessories included a USB cable (for downloading the photos to computer), a neck strap, and a charger/power cord (the battery charges through the camera, not separately). A firewire cable for video capture would have been nice, but wasn't included.

Software was minimal, with a DV capture utility, and a couple of "lite" editing and VCD burning programs. Other than the capture utility, you won't use the programs included.

Conclusions:

Upside:
1. Good video quality; very good low-light performance.
2. small, compact, built like a brick (which it resembles)
3. Good battery life.

Downside:
My only real complaints are:
1. The bit of camera noise - but I realize that most cameras produce at least some noise.
2. The menu system is only available through the LCD. The LCD can be folded backwards, so that you can compose your shot with the viewfinder and use the LCD for camera control, but then you don't get the power savings that the viewfinder affords.
3. The LCD screen can be VERY hard to see in direct bright sunlight - a problem when you're trying to use the menu system.
4. Sparse software - you'll need to get proper editing/authoring software to put your films on disk.

There are many more features that I've skipped or glossed over, but these are the ones that were important to me. It's been a very good camera; I don't regret my purchase at all. I got all of the features I wanted, in a nice compact package. You should research and try to find a camcorder that meets your specific requirements, however, I think that this Sony will fit almost anyone's needs.