Sony DCR-TRV330 Digital8 Camcorder with Built-in Digital Still Mode Camcorder Reviews

Sony DCR-TRV330 Digital8 Camcorder with Built-in Digital Still Mode

Great little camera 2002-11-30

I bought this cxamera while stationed in Korea. I own a Macintosh also. This camera allowed me to take video footage and import it to my computer. I would then edit it and re-record it back onto the camera. I would either send the movies out over e-mails or put them onto a DVD disk or record then onto a regular VHS. The camera has been in Korea then back to the US and then over to Afghanistan. Because it has held up to all of that I give it a 4 star review. This camera has had no problems what so ever. I did buy a larger battery for it. It now records forever before the battery dies. You may also want a larger memory stick if you want to buy one also. I have the 4MB and it holds 32 pictures. A 16MB would do fine for everday pictures. The resolution is only 640 x 480. It is not made for taking pictures but more for recording. I hope this review helps someone out.

Gonna Find Out.... 2002-10-17

Well...the DCR-TRV330 was purchased for company use, we purchased the demo-model from CompUSA and paid [money] + tax for it; This seemed to be a great bargain since the DCR-TRV340 was selling new for [money]and seemed to have the same features. The decision to purchase it came from the high quality appearance of the unit (not a single scratch or smudge) and everything seemed to be in great mechanical working order. It also has the full warranty from the mfg.
The sole intent of purchasing this unit is so that we can record video on our manufactured products, copy them onto our PC via the "fire-wire" and then burn the video onto CD-ROM media to be sent out to our prospective resellers and potential customers, to aid in the sell of our products. Thus far the unit seems to offer that capability but we still yet have to actually go through all the motions to see if it works out as we expect and intend.
I will add that this forum of customer input has been a huge help in aiding our decision on purchasing the unit, in addition we did not really want to spend more than [money] on a unit because it did not really seem necessary based on what we really needed it for. Therefore I'm giving it a 4-star based on our visual inspection, standard features, ergonomic design and suspected capabilities. A 5-star will follow if it meets our expectation and a lower star will appear if it does not.
Two notable things that I'm not particularly fond of its: #1 the zoom button is located on the top of the unit, making it sort-of-uncomfortable for a person with short index finger to manipulate the zoom comfortably. #2 I can't figure out where the 25x zoom will come in handy if it's going to display a grainy image when recording, but either it's not really that big of a deal.

A great camera! 2002-07-23

This is the best video camera that I have ever owned. Very versatile and stable. Has great add-ons that are widely available. Excellent Camera!

Caught in the Camera's Eye 2002-07-19

My review is for the Sony DCR-TRV340, but the picture and features of the 330 look awfully close. My wife and I were dragged kickin' and screamin' into the new and scary world of technology and I must say this Sony product has made it easy. We approached the camcorder counter with trepidation urged on with the primal need of expecting parents to capture a new life inside a TV box and I must say, Sony has made the experience rather pleasant.

We've had this camera for about 3 months and I think have only begun to scratch the surface for what it can do. This may mean that there are way too many features here for what the average camcorder user may need. Here are the features that I like...the 25X digital zoom works like a charm and allowed us to film El Capitan in Yosemite and zoom into the rock climbers on the wall that was absolutely indiscernible to the naked eye. I also like the stop-photo feature that allows the camcorder to double as a digital camera. If you need photo quality digital imaging the resolution may not be enough, but it serves our needs to e-mail stills and post them to the web. Which brings me to yet another thumbs up feature: it is USB and firewall 1394 cable capable which makes it a home video producing machine when matched up with our DVD writer (it scares me that I know what those terms mean).

Word of warning, with any digital camcorder purchase you have to buy a lot of accessories. Account for an extra couple hundred dollars to the cost of the camcorder alone. A salesman talked us into an extra memory stick, which I still haven't found a good use for it yet. I suppose the Sony memory stick is handy to save JPEG's directly to, but the firewall cable connection seems to be working just fine. If you don't need the memory stick, you may opt for another Sony model to keep the price down. This model could easily omit the memory stick and frankly at this point, I can't say I'd miss it.

Pretty phenomenal camera and has been reliable so far. Well worth the money spent. Now where's that slobbering poop-filled diaper wonder so I can get me some 25X zoomed in shots of his creative endeavors...ohhh I can even shoot it at night with the Sony Nightshot IR feature.

Great camera, just takes a little time 2002-04-09

I almost returend the camera but the salesman was helpfull(the owners manual could use some help though). He explained to me how to work the still feature. My still photos were comming out very grainy. Do not use the zoom feature on the stills, that was where my problem was. All in all the camera is easy to use and very light weight compared to the old dinosaur we previously owned(also a Sony 10yrs and still going strong). I am looking forward to using the camera this summer on all of our outings and sport events..... FUN, Fun, FUN

A decent camcorder 2002-02-06

I bought the Sony TRV330 camcorder after reading the various reviews. It is my first digital camcorder. I had owned two Panasonic VHS-Cs in the past. While I have not been totally disappointed, I have not been impressed either with the camcorder. I expected broadcast quality video but but so far, what I have got has only been marginally better that what I got with my old Panasonic VHS-C camcorder. Indoors and in low light, the pictures are grainy. Outdoors in full light, the pictures are washed out.

As noted by other reviewers, the the digital still feature is only good for e-mailing. The quality is too poor for printing. However, I did not buy the camcorder for that feature.

On the possitive side, the camcorder is really easy to operate and hooking it up to the computer is quite a breeze. The supplied software works very well (at least for the digital still). I am yet to try the downloading and editing the video on the computer.

My recommendation: A fairly decent camcorder for home and family use but if you are aiming for professional level work, look for something else.

What a Zoom! 2002-01-18

I recently took my brand new camera to a big trip to Europe and I had no trouble using it, very easy and very good. There are two things I would improve (1) It is a little heavy to be carried around for over a month, a little bulky also; (2) I specially did not liked the nightshoot, the pictures come out in B/W and with a type of sepia-green color, which is very bad in the case of museums and churches where what you want is living color. Nevertheless, I am very pleased with the delivery vs. price.

Awesome Camcorder 2001-12-31

Im 14 years old and I like to make little home movies with my brothers and friends. This camcorder changed everything. It is very user friendly and easy to use. i. Link is the greatest, and the camera supports it. Some people say it's grainy indoors but it's hard to notice it, even if it has that problem. It has stereo sound which sounds great. Get this camera outside the pictures are amazing. As for the still camera it is alright, but I have to sony DSC-P50 (see my review) so I don't use it much. I would recommend this camera to anyone looking for a good camcorder...

A decent camcorder, but a bad digital camera 2001-11-09

We purchased this camcorder specifically because of its dual function as a camcorder and digital camera. I'm not really going to comment on the camcorder aspects because I agree with most of the other positive comments that people have made.

As for the digital stills, pictures taken outdoors look fine, but indoor pictures are VERY grainy and pixelated, even in a very bright room. In my opinion, the quality is just unacceptable. The Memory Stick with USB output is an incredible technology that makes downloading pictures to your computer so EASY, but this benefit can not make up for the bad pictures that it takes. (I did not try to capture stills from the tape because I do not have the ieee adaptor needed to do this, so I do not know if stills taken in this way may look better than those taken on the memory stick)

If you are just looking to take video, then this camcorder is probably fine, but I see no need to pay for the extra memory stick capabilities because they are not worth it.

1 Decent Camera 2001-11-04

I must say its a decent camcorder. It has a easy user interface for downloading into my computer. Video quality was excellent . Unlike other people who bitched that under low light conditions that the picture was more grainier then earlier versions of Sony camcorders I found this to be not the case. This has been my 3rd Sony camcorder that I have purchased in the last 12 years and as usual I found it to be an excellent product. BE SURE TO FILL OUT THE ONLINE REGISTRATION AS YOU WILL BE REWARDED WITH AN 12 MONTH FREE LABOR EXTENSION OF YOUR WARRENTY! Oh yeah the only bad thing was that the mike is too sensitive for me.....

EXCELLENT, VERSATILE 2001-10-10

I was a little dissapointed reading the Technical Specifications knowing that the CCD size is only 1/6", then I decided to do an special test: shoot a full size moon (very clear where I live) and the result was fantastic,the images looks like a photo shooting from an telescopic. A little camcorder with a high resolution. Now I am very happy with my camcorder and I hope to get the best perfomance and results from it.

EXCELLENT, VERSATILE 2001-10-10

A powerful multimedia tool: 2001-09-26

The product comes with a starter package complete with a battery, charger, memory stick, cables, tripod, and various cables neatly tucked into a carrier the size of a shaving kit. The plug and play features and the MGI software provide easy installation via the VCR, computer, or still photos. Unfortunately, you'll have lots of fun exploring images but then your battery dies during the 4th quarter of your son's football game, and you miss the winning play! Buy a backup battery and a 32MB memory stick to catch all of the action! Great product.

Good product, room for improvement within the price range 2001-08-26

Its a great camera for the money. However, I was surprised that there is no carry-case with it. The auto power off is a good feature to save battery, but if you have a tape inserted and you wanted to use it as a PC camera ... its bit annoying that it shuts itself off after few minutes! If a power cord is plugged in, and the camera definitely can sense that, then why not keep an option of deactivating auto power off! And the 700X digital zoom, sounds great, but I haven't been able to use it properly yet.

Trv 330 RULZ 2001-08-10

this is truly remarkable product, it definatly rocks, as it has BEST! " picture (at least better then jvc (wont say wich model) - same class)... its easy to understand... and zoom is just greit...

Love it! 2001-07-20

I love my sony dcrtrv330! i have taken it everywhere with me this summer. It is small and compact enough to carry around and gets the job done very well. The digital still camera function isn't the best. But i suggest just exporting frames from your actual video tape for that. Its very easy to do and you can get it in higher quality as well. You can also avoid closed eyes and the like b/c you can choose frame by frame what to do. i definitely recommend you get a ieee 1394 firewire adapter card to get better connectivity with your computer. The usb is fairly useless! Works better in brighter lights but does fine even with no light at all! I love mine and will never own anything else but a sony in the future!

Great Camera 2001-05-16

My fiance and I just purchased this camera and boy was I impressed! This is our first camcorder but not the first one I have used. It's light weight make it easy to handle. And the steadyshot works quite well. My hands are quite shaky but you could never tell by watching something I taped! The picture quality is good, but I am only using the standard A/V cables. Once I get the S-video cables I should see a dramatic upgrade in picture quality. The battery it comes with isn't the best, only about 90 minutes fully charged. I particularly liked the nightshot feature. Although the images come out in a green tone the picture quality is outstanding. I was fooling around with it in a pitch black room and you could see everything clear as day(green of coarse). The LCD is exceptionally smaller than the 530 but it is still big enough to fit most people's needs. Of coarse if you want to save battery power just don't use the LCD. The only thing I can't comment about is the still picture option. I just spent a large sum of money on a straight up digital camera so I don't need to use that option. So I am sorry I can't help you out there! Overall the camera is excellent and I would suggest it to anybody looking for a new camcorder.

A step down in video quality 2001-04-10

I bought a TRV330 as a replacement for a 1st-generation Sony Digital8 camera. I expected improvements, and indeed there were some. The smaller 1/6" CCD on the 330 allows Sony to provide a higher-power optical zoom in a smaller camera. And this new model *is* considerably smaller and a bit lighter.

Video quality is another story altogether. Compared to the original, video made with the TRV330 is in my opinion washed-out, with poor color saturation and a distinct blue tint. And the version of Steady Shot in this camera, while it does compensate for a lot of shake, also seems to ensure that all video shot with it lacks sharp, crisp detail. I tested this by mounting on a tripod and turning Steady Shot on and off - to me it looked as if the camera would not quite focus when Steady Shot was on. Note that was just a test - you cannot possibly make decent video with this camera (hand held) if you turn Steady Shot off and leave it off.

Compared to any consumer-grade analog format, this model is indeed far superior. But if you are fussy about color and sharpness, look elsewhere. I for one have gone back to my 1st gen D8 cam.

Just the hard facts 2001-04-07

This camera was a birthday gift from my sweetheart and isundoubtedly the best there can be for ME ! But for all you guys outthere - here's what I found out.

1. Being digital hasadvantages... better resolution, color's great etc. Editing, however,is not so easy - takes time and the right tools (e.g. 'AdobePremiere') - so consider tapes being your primary storage medium. I'vemade VCDs and they're worth it but the quality is significantly lesserthan on tape.

2. Requires lots of light - outside it'sbeautiful... inside - JPG-like artifacts appear (also, colored dots ona perfectly white wall) But this is acceptable if you're *not* lookingfor professional quality.

3. Optical Zoom is great - 25X - one ofthe highest and definitely comes in handy. I've turned off digitalzoom (MoreThanYou'llEverNeed X) since it reduces picture quality and Ican anyway do it on the computer while editing. 25X optical is enoughfor most needs.

4. Picture stability (steady shot technology) isgreat - shots from a moving car are stable.

5. Buttons are a bit tooclose to each other - in my first exp., at a friend's party, I must'vemissed a cycle of on/off so, we got to see shots of table tops, walls;) and cleanly missed the action ;) fortunately this lasted for onlyabout 5 mins before i realized. The recording indicator is easy tomiss when you're concentrating on the subject (and if you've had ali'l too many beers ;))...

6. Memory stick stills taken in mediumlight again have JPEG artifacts and paying extra $... (over DCR-TRV230with no memory stick - you *can* take stills on tape) for this is notworth it if you have a digital camera already. However, your cameramight not have 25X optical zoom so think about it. This camera usesthe same chipset for video and stills. In more expensive models, thereare two chipsets.

7. Night shot (shooting in darkness) sounds greatand works great - if you don't mind loss of almost all color and agreenish tinge to everything. To our party, however, it gave a 'BlairWitch' effect - everyone loved it. It's better to have some normal(intruding) light source attached to the CAM.

8. MIC is verysensitive and sound has been amazing throughout.

9. LCD is great -less dotty than DCR-TRV530 and uses less battery (1"smaller).

10. The bundled battery lasts for about 75 mins on an avg- so you want to buy a backup for trips. Charging to FULL was somewhatslower than I expected.

This camera has some built-in editingfeatures which I am yet to explore fully.

To transfer the video tomy computer for editing, I had to shell out an extra $... for aFireWire kit. The installation on Windows 2000 was quite painless - itdid everything for me except plug in the card physically.

Overall a4 rating - a great camera and worth the money you put in - even inthis recession.

Good choice for a home camcorder 2001-03-13

This is a very good camcorder for a home user, that is, for recording birthday parties, football games, general family activites, etc. Its easy to use and has lots of features. It is also easy for my wife (who is not a gadget person) to use, and is well featured for me (I am a gadget freak). Video quality is excellent if you have good lighting - it does get a little grainy if the light is particularly low. Both the low-lux feature and the nightshot feature help, but at a price (frame rate and color quality respectively). I did find that this camera is much LESS susceptible than my old video cam, but it was ancient technology. I have since added a 3.3 megapixel Sony DCR S70 digital camera to the collection - and if you want both, Sony makes the partnership a good one. Both cameras share the same battery (M series), Memory Stick media, and charger. This makes traveling with them rather nice, as well as savings on accessories. Overall, Im impressed with the 330, although I question whether the additional ,,,($$$) I paid for it in excess of the 320 price was worth the feature differential. As the price comes down, this will be an even better deal.