A Good Consumer Camcorder

Author's Rating:

Pros: easy to use, compact size, picture quality, great features

Cons: bottom tape compartment, some low light issues, microphone wind noise

The Bottom Line: 
This is a great camcorder for home videographer wanting to upgrade to mini-DV format. It will go anywhere and take great video.

Author's Review
I purchased my Sony DCR-TRV18 in August of 2002 from an online vendor. I had researched millions of other mini-DV camcorders online and finally came to the decision of the TRV18. Some of its features include a microphone input, super night shot, steady shot, a 10x optical zoom, and tons of internal digital effects (which are a lot of fun to play with).

Everything is easy to use at the touch of a button. Picture quality is great outdoors and indoors during the day. The only picture issue I had was in low light conditions, the picture was somewhat grainy and not as sharp... but that's to be expected with any consumer camcorder. If you do a lot of shooting indoors at night or in low light conditions, I would recommend getting a video light.

Night Shot is ok... but only works within about 10-15 feet. When you switch to Super Night Shot you get a much wider range, but the picture is much shakier if you move around.

The camcorder microphone is somewhat sensitive to wind and you have to strain a little to hear what is being heard, but a light breeze isn't a problem. Indoors it delivers excellent sound.

My only real problem with this camcorder is that the tape compartment is on the bottom. This is no big deal if you're shooting hand-held. But if you're like me, and use a tripod a lot, it gets to be a pain having to take the camcorder off of the tripod to change tapes.

The included battery (NP-FM30) is not bad, it will last for an hour of recording... you may want to purchase another battery if you are going on a vacation or doing something that requires a lot of recording. However, Sony's accessories are pretty expensive. I recently purchased the NP-QM91 battery. It's a great battery and lasts for six hours of recording, but cost $60.

The memory stick is an ok feature if you're wanting to email your movies or still pictures taken from video to family and friends, but do not buy this camcorder with the intent of using it as a digital camera as well as a video camera. Still photo quality is not good (640x480 resolution) and mpeg movie quality is about the same as streaming video on the internet for a 56k modem. But it's handy if you want a quick still photo and you don't have a digital camera with you at the moment.

Mini-DV is a great format. It's easy to edit with and it gives you an hour of high quality recording on a very compact tape. Mini-DV tapes are a little bit pricey (about $4.50 for a 60 min tape), I would buy in bulk if you're using this primarily for home video. But mini-DV certainly beats 8mm and Hi8 by a mile.