Rating: 
Summary: ready to open up a can of worms?
Review: This review is more on justifying the higher price. Most professional reviews I read loved this line of camcorders and many Amazon reviews seemed to agree. Shortly after my son was born we realized that a camcorder was needed along with our trusty Nikon 4500 to capture the moments. I knew nothing about camcorders. I found that my wish to use the camcorder with a pc complicated the decision. After a month of researching I decided on the Sony DCRTRV19. After reading all the online opinions to get me here, I figured I owed one myself. Here's what I wanted in a camcorder:
1. Digital media for better archiving and future projects.
2. Great image quality but not professional.
3. Did not need still pictures or memory slots to capture them.
4. Did not need ability to archive old analog tapes.
5. I wanted good low light video quality.
6. I initially didn't want to spend more than $500.
7. Later I realized size was important. I initially found the Sony DCRTRV250 on Amazon that met all but the last criteria. I found the DCRTRV250's didn't use the miniDV format, but the Digital8 increasing it's bulk. Initially I felt I could live with the size and I would transfer everything to my pc anyways. I'd also save some money. I decided to look into some miniDV cameras at around the same price as the Sony DCRTRV250. I got excited about the Samsung SDC27, JVC GRD30, Panasonic PVDV53, and Sharp VLZ3U. In Consumer Reports and other references, I read that either their video quality was only good (Sony was very good) and/or their low light video quality was poor. While reading the reviews on the miniDV camcorders, I learned a lot about transferring video to a pc. I almost got fed up and got a Hi8 camera and a stack of tapes. There were many "this software sucks" complaints. Here's what I learned on the video to pc process: 1. Most the camcorders I looked at allow for video transfer via USB. Transfers via USB however are slower and result in poorer video quality on your pc.
2. Transfer via Firewire is the way to go for speed and higher video quality.
3. You need to have or get a Firewire card for your desktop or laptop.
4. You need software that recognizes your camcorder. If your operating system regularly retrieves automatic updates, this shouldn't be a problem. Most people had this issue related to video transfers, not still images.
5. Most video editing software bundled in with the camcorder is worthless.
6. I figured that my videos will take up lots of computer memory. So you can see what a can of worms you open by wanting to transfer your camcorder videos to a pc. For me I will need a Firewire, Firewire card, video editing software, dvd burner and bigger or external hard drive. For some reason the iMac kept popping in my head. I nearly went back to the bulky DCRTRV250. In the end I concluded that with a smaller camcorder, I'll more likely bring it along to random events and capture more of my son growing up. This justified spending a little more on the smaller Sony DCRTRV19. One more factor I like is that fewer people will notice me filming.
Rating:
Summary: Great Camcorder NOT a digital camera, but we knew that...
Review: we decided to buy this product instead of the more expensive trv22 or trv33 as we weren't particularly impressed with any of their digital camera capabilities. Initially, my wife and I were looking for the ideal digital camera-camcorder combo and came to the realization that such a product is impractical, expensive and technically limiting (still capability in camcorders is limited to 2 megapixels). So, we decided to spend our money wisely and opted for a camcorder that has great camcorder features (light, compact, records in near darkness, great lens, good battery life, miniDV format etc.) By saving $100-$150 on this model (vs. the trv 33), we were left with extra cash to buy a decent digital camera. The one complaint I have with this camera is that the LCD screen is a bit small. However, I've seen the 3.5'' LCD screens and they aren't all that better either. In the end, this wasn't a big factor for us and the features for the price was compelling enough for us to choose this model over the other Sony/JVC models.
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