| Sony DCRTRV460 Digital8 Handycam Camcorder w/20x Optical Zoom | 
| Brand: Sony
Buy Used: $319.95
as of 9/8/2010 09:06 MDT details
Used (3) from $319.95
Seller: Karlin Electronics
Rating:  46 reviews
Media: Electronics
Floppy Disk Drive: None
Monitor Size: 250
Includes Software: Yes
Optical Zoom: 20
Digital Zoom: 50
Connectivity: IEEE 1394 (FireWire)
Display Size: 2.5
Maximum Focal Length: 50
Minimum Focal Length: 2.5
Maximum Resolution: 290000
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0
Dimensions (in): 8.7 x 7.8 x 7
Warranty: 1 year warranty
MPN: DCR-TRV460
Model: TRV460
UPC: 027242643116
EAN: 0027242643116
| |
| Features:
| • | Digital8 Handycam camcorder and digital still camera with 460,000-pixel CCD | | • | 20x optical zoom lens (digital zoom to 990x) with Super SteadyShot image stabilizer | | • | 2.5-inch rotating LCD and black-and-white viewfinder | | • | Low-light recording settings, Memory Stick Pro slot, and analog-to-digital conversion ability | | • | NP-FM30 InfoLithium Rechargeable Battery |
|
| Accessories:
|
| Similar Items:
| |
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Digital8 record/play, Hi8/8mm play only * digital photo mode * MPEG Movie EX mode * 460,000-pixel CCD * 2-1/2" color touchpanel *
|
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 46
 Great Quality Picture August 2, 2004
G. CALICO (PELHAM, AL USA)
114 out of 115 found this review helpful
Purchased this camcorder about a week ago. Ease of operation and a great operators manual help sort out technical items. Picture quality utilizing only standard grade 8mm tape is excellent. I can only imagine the more expensive metal particle or metal evaporated tapes may have even higher quality pictures. Have not had time to check out the camera picture quality using the memory stick. I do not expect any disappointments. Sony make a terrific camcorder product. Consumers reports recommends this as one of their "Best Buys" for digital camcorders. Sony & Panasonic both continually excell in the catagory as "Models requiring the least amount of repairs" or "Most trouble-free manufacturers". The battery that comes with the unit gives approximately 67 minutes of recording time on a normal charge. A full charge will give approximately 74 minutes. Recommend purchasing the FM-50 battery for extended recording/playing time and for nothing else, simply to have a back-up. I own a DVD recorder that allows me to transfer audio & video from my camcorder to DVD's . The camcorder has an A/V output for the consumer interested in transfering their home movies/digital images to DVD's. It also features an S-Video output for capturing even higher quality video.
Some of the bad things:
- The camcorder does not come with a portable/cordless charger. You have to plug the batteries into the camcorder and plug the adapter/charger into the camcorder to charge. Purchase an additional external charger for simplicity.
- The camcorder does not come supplied with a memory stick. Consider purchasing at least 128 M. That way you can get approximately 80 minutes of recording time.
- The battery supplied FM-30 (see above) is not adequate.
Some of the good things:
- Quality product
- Image & sound quality excellent
- Auto focus & stabilization also excellent
- Great zoom feature
All in all, a fantastic product with great performance and features at a very reasonable price. If you want to get into digital video recording for less that $ 500.00, try this one.
GAC
Perfect transition camcorder January 22, 2005
Jonno (Sandy Spring, MD)
81 out of 81 found this review helpful
My old 8mm camcorder died around Thanksgiving leaving me with 15 years worth of home movies and no way to view them. The TRV460 was at a great price point and perfectly bridges the gulf between analog and digital. I wanted to transfer the keepers stuff to DVDs and edit the really good stuff in to movies. I'm far from done, but I've worked with this camcorder enough to pass on some tips.
CAMCORDER: Easy to use. Pictures are so much sharper than my analog camera (I know, no surprise here, but it had a wow factor for me). The camera is smaller than my old one, a little bigger than my two hands wrapped together. The touchscreen is easy to use - plan on studying the manual though. It's all in there and it's easy to read, but you have to approach it like a text book. It powers up quickly. Two things to beware of -- (1) the tape inserts through the bottom and this that if you use a screw tripod adapter you have to take it off the to insert a tape, (2) there are some features that only work on movies recorded to DV tape vs. recording straight to the memorystick - for example when you record to the memory stick it only records in mono.
SOFTWARE: Other reviews are correct when they pan the software that comes with the camera. I bought Adobe Premiere Elements and it is great. I bought the adobe software from amazon - they were offering a Photoshop Elements/Premiere Elements combo that I opted for after reading numerous reviews. I've used the full version of photoshop for years and the user interface of elements is dumbed-down but still has a familiar touch and enough features to do everything I want. Wait a minute - this is a camcorder review, sorry for the tangent.
FIREWIRE/USB2.0: Elements will capture movies recorded to the memorystick via the USB2.0, but to do the same for movies recorded to tape you need a firewire cable. If your PC does not have a firewire port, you can just add a PCI firewire/usb2.0 card onto your motherboard (costs less than $20 for the card). I had bought the card at retail a year ago. But camcorders need a firewire cable with a 6 pin to 4 pin configuration. Found one on line recently (listing: 6ft IEEE 1394 FireWire Cable 6pin-4 DV ILINK IPOD SONY) for less than a buck. Once you plug the firewire cable into the TRV460, you control the camera from the computer through the premiere software - no special settings or adjustments needed. By the way, you can do some camcorder to PC transfers using the USB2.0 cable and the Sony Picture Package software - but "clunky" is too kind.
Along with the camcorder, there are some necessary accessories. I looked for low-cost options on all of these and was pretty successful. I'll pass them on here - for what they're worth.
DIGITAL TAPES: Sony makes many different types of tapes that are good for recording digital. The Sony Digital8 Camcorder Tapes (at first I thought these were the only ones that would work) costs $20 a pair at retail. There are many other 8mm tapes that are compatible for less than half this cost (check out Sony's website for compatibility).
MEMORY STICK: Again I went online to find a good price on a memory stick. But the stick I bought was not compatible with this camcorder (listing: SanDisk 256MB Memory Stick PRO Duo Sony 256 MB DSC-T1 +). The camcorder would only intermittently recognize the stick (mostly it wouldn't). Searches on the web showed that many people had this problem. The kind customer service dept at SanDisk agreed to check it out and said they would probably replace it. They did and the newer version of the same memorystick works fine. While I was waiting I bought a Sony 256MB memory stick at a retail store and, of course, it works fine. I got a memory card reader to plug into my USB port (listing: USB MS/MEMORY STICK CARD READER) so I could transfer movies to the PC without involving the camcorder.
ANALOG TAPE TO MEMBORY STICK TRANSFER: One cool thing I learned about the camera is you can copy scenes from an analog tape to the memory stick all from within the camcorder. With the touch screen monitor, it is very easy to do. This is great if you want to compile selected scenes (from the huge pile of old 8mm tapes) without sitting at the computer. I did a lot of this analog tape-to-memorystick xfer (using just the camera) while sitting around the fire with my family - it made me a little more sociable with the family than if I were staring at the computer.
BATTERY: Another reviewer posted some tips on non-Sony batteries. I took an even cheaper approach that worked great. On line I bought a charger (listing: CHARGER for SONY NP-F550 NP-FM50 NP-QM71 QM91 BATTERY) for less than a fiver and a high capacity battery (listing: SONY NP-QM71 NP-FM70 DCR-TRV950 2800mAh BATTERY NEW) for less than fifteen bucks.
So that's it. I feel like the only splurge was on the tape editing software. I could have stayed with the free Sony Picture Package - but the Adobe is so much easier and does tons more. If you amortize it over the hours you spend on editing, the $100 bucks or so is not that much.
My PC is a off-brand clone with a AMD Athlon 2800+ CPU running at 2.07 MHz, wtih 512MB ram, running XP Home Edition SP2 and a ATI AIW 8500DV videocard. I like this camcorder a lot!
TRV460 Great Camera - don't let new battery type scare you April 12, 2004
45 out of 45 found this review helpful
An Earlier Post stated that "Only sony batteries can be used" in the TRV460. Wrong, only infolithium batteries can be used. No more NiCads but plenty of non-sony brand batteries will work just fine in the camera.I purchase CE brand infolithiums "NP-QM71 battery for Sony Li-Ion 7.2V 2400mAh (kq)", the cost is $25 compared to $75 to $100 for the Sony, and they work great. The camera is fantastic, my only complaint would be the small hard to reach zoom control on top, but other than that a great camera. Don't let the battery issue scare you off, just have to use infolithiums, Sony or Generic is up to you. This is the perfect Camera to go digital and still be backward compatible with all those 8mm and Hi-8mm tapes.
Great Product, Easy to use, not expensive, and it's a SONY!! April 12, 2004
40 out of 40 found this review helpful
First off, I can state without hesitation that while the name SONY typically equates with expensive, it always equals QUALITY. What's great about this camcorder is that you have the QUALITY without the expensive price tag. I paid $399 at Circuit City.I almost bought a JVC MiniDV which was a few bucks cheaper, but since I have never had a problem with any SONY product I have ever owned (cd players, TV's, etc), I went with the Sony. Plus, I am by no means a video buff, so the reality is IF there truly is a difference between MiniDV and Digital 8 picture quality, I am sure I would not be able to notice. A plus for 8mm camcorder owners, you can use/view those tapes on this model!! That being said, the beauty of the product is it's ease of use. My wife is completely confused by technical gadgets, and she was able to use the camcorder using the EasyCam setting out of the box. There are enough video tricks and editing features to satisfy the most creative amateur videographers. Also, contrary to what other reviewers have stated here, the battery life of the InfoLithium battery has been pretty good for me. I get about 1hr on a full charge, though I have not filmed for 1 continuous hour, just a few minutes here and there. So allow me to move on to my only CONS:
- SIZE - if this is an issue for you, go with MiniDV, however the smaller you go, the more hand shakiness becomes an issue, even with image stabilizing technology. The size of the TRV460 is a tad large for today's camcorder, but definitely not bulky or too heavy. Mainly due to tape size. - MOTOR HUM - When recording or playback, there is a distinct hum that comes from the camcorder. I hadn't noticed in Circuit City, so I went back, checked a few other models and soon realized most camcorders make a slight hum when the tape is active. I learned to live with it as the "hum" sound does not get picked up by the microphone when recording. Overall, I highly recommend this VERY affordable QUALITY Sony camcorder as it more than capabale of fulfilling any family's video needs. I am very happy with my purchase!
Great First Camcorder March 23, 2004
Rick Watson (Pflugerville, TX USA)
31 out of 31 found this review helpful
Referred to by some salesmen as a "dinosaur" this 1.5-pound marvel is a great beginner's camcorder with an easy to read and follow owner's manual. With the unit's "Easy" button, everything becomes automatic and the first movies are really great. The 2.5-inch LCD touch screen contains all the menus for setting up the camera, instead of numerous mechanical buttons. The camera has 4 methods of video transfer: An A/V cable that will plug directly in to a VCR or the front panel of your TV for viewing directly from the camera, "S" video transfer, USB and Firewire. I highly recommend using a firewire port as the preferred method of video transfer into your PC as the USB transfer has too many frame dropouts, resulting in jerky video. The still picture resolution is around 1 mega pixel (MP) and is stored on a memory stick, so if you currently use a digital still camera at 2 MP or above, you might be a bit disappointed. The viewfinder has it's own focus adjustment which is really good if you wear glasses. Some hints-Don't bother to purchase a separate battery charger if you purchase a spare battery, the camera does a fine job of charging the battery and the charge indicator light goes out after a full charge. A 64MB memory stick will store 980 pictures at standard resolution and 390 at fine resolution so resist the temptation to go with a more expensive 128 MB or larger stick. One last note, Windows XP along with Windows Movie Maker V2.0 (which is free from Microsoft) has the capability to capture and edit the video from this camera.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 46
|
|
|
CERTAIN CONTENT THAT APPEARS ON THIS SITE COMES FROM AMAZON SERVICES LLC. THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED ‘AS IS’ AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE OR REMOVAL AT ANY TIME.
| |
