Rating: 
Summary: Best available for your average user
Review: Buying a camcorder can be difficult. Do you want VHC? 8mm? Hi-8? Digital 8? Mini-DV? Then there's whether or not you want to be able to take stills, have firewire output to a computer, image stabilization, etc.
One can easily find themselves saying, "All I wan't is a basic camcorder to record random things." If that's you, this is your camcorder.
Though the picture is not digital, Hi-8 offers a nice clean picture that gets the job done. And since you can plug right into your TV or VCR, transfer to video is simple without having to store all your old tapes like you did in the VHC and VHS days. Being a Sony, you can expect a great zoom that let's you get nice detail from a good distance away. Add Steadyshot, probably the best image stabilizer out there, the ability to manually adjust your lighting, nightshot, and you have the ability to record in any situation.
Having sold Sony's for over a year, I can tell you the number returned due to dissatisfaction was minimal. Same for broken or damaged camcorders.
Bottom line is this. In the TRV-318, Sony makes a great camcorder that's not only easy to use, but able to take a nice clean video. And as long as you don't care about capturing the light flicker off a snowflake, you'll love it too.
Rating:
Summary: Great Basic Camcorder
Review: I bought htis for my finacee for xmas and I can't stop playing with it! Besides being uder friendly and not needing a book to understand it, it is the best camera I have ever seen. Youc an add effects, change colors, add titles and much more. It has a nice big screen for viewing and I love the battery life. It is light and so fun to use. I reccomend this camera also because of the infared it has for night shots and it amazing picture quality. This is a winner hands down!
Rating:
Summary: What an aweosme camera!
Review: I bought htis for my finacee for xmas and I can't stop playing with it! Besides being uder friendly and not needing a book to understand it, it is the best camera I have ever seen. Youc an add effects, change colors, add titles and much more. It has a nice big screen for viewing and I love the battery life. It is light and so fun to use. I reccomend this camera also because of the infared it has for night shots and it amazing picture quality. This is a winner hands down!
Rating: 
Summary: A great buy
Review: I got this camera because the moment i saw it, i knew it would rock
........ I WAS RIGHT!!!
it is such an awesum camcorder with great quality and wonderful zoom.
The sound does not go up very high when you listen to recordings strait from the camcorder and it is a PAIN to try to plug it into the television BUT... other than those 2 minor problems this camcorder is THE BEST!!!
it rox (<:
if i could have given it 4.5 stars i would have.
Rating:
Summary: AWESOME CAMCORDER!!!!!!!
Review: I really believe this is the best camcorder.It is very cheap and really easy to use. I'm 14 and I just used it to film my spring break and I still haven't even touched the instructions, if I can use this camcorder anybody can. I highly recommend buying this camera it has so many features like nightshot, steadyshot,a really powerful zoom, a really long battery life, and many more. It can even play back those old 8mm tapes you have lying in your closet. So if your looking for your 1st video camera or a camera to bring on all of family vacations this is the camera for you.
Rating:
Summary: Good camera
Review: I've had the camera for 5 hours and I've recorded several scenes and already transferred some to VHS. No problems! The power of the zoom is very good and the quality is average to above average. The best part of this model is the steady shot -it's a life saver for shaky people like me. :-)I highly recommend this camera to someone who just wants to play around with it or use it every once in awhile. If you are a major camera user then you will want to go to a higher end model with controls that are slightly more user friendly and even better picture quality.
Rating: 
Summary: Twice burned
Review: My Daughter saved up for this camcorder for a long time, so it was a big deal when we finally picked up a new unit. The first unit was junk right out of the box as it would not play back on the lcd screen. I exchanged it for another unit which worked for less than 8 hours before it to quit. Very disappointed in the quality of this unit. I would imagine that I ran into a quality batch problem but it was a bummer and has caused me to have to reconsider going back to Sony for this next unit.
Rating:
Summary: Best Hi8 (or 8mm) camcorder
Review: Personally I think you should get a MiniDV digital camcorder. Namebrands like Sharp and JVC now have very inexpensive MiniDV models, so it's time to move to that format. If you really need an 8mm/Hi8 camcorder -- for example, in my case I needed one to play back my large library of 8mm tapes -- then this Sony is simply the best. It costs a bit more than a couple other Sony models as well as some offerings from lesser companies, but you get what you pay for. This Sony is not only high quality but has tons of features, such as image stabilization, NightShot, and 20x optical zoom. You can hook it up to your PC as well. You should also know that its CCD sensor is 460k pixels, more than any other model in this price range. The result is vibrant images.
Rating:
Summary: Best Hi8 (or 8mm) camcorder
Review: Personally I think you should get a MiniDV digital camcorder. Namebrands like Sharp and JVC now have very inexpensive MiniDV models, so it's time to move to that format. If you really need an 8mm/Hi8 camcorder -- for example, in my case I needed one to play back my large library of 8mm tapes -- then this Sony is simply the best. It costs a bit more than a couple other Sony models as well as some offerings from lesser companies, but you get what you pay for. This Sony is not only high quality but has tons of features, such as image stabilization, NightShot, and 20x optical zoom. You can hook it up to your PC as well. You should also know that its CCD sensor is 460k pixels, more than any other model in this price range. The result is vibrant images.
Rating: 
Summary: Problems just out of the box!
Review: Problems just out of the box! 1st camera we received did not charge the battery. We returned and got another one that after 5 months of storage and perhaps 2-3 hours of TOTAL use (recording time), it went back to "Not charging the battery" since it is out of warranty (30 days - Amazon will not exchange it) and under the (1 year Sony warranty), we called, they said the camera needs to be repaired and it is $166 plus shipping which is about $190, for a camera that we purchased for $260 JUNK!! It is all I have to say about this camera, I got to use the camera for a total of 3 hours.
I paid about $90/Hour to use this junk, went for the name brand and GOT Burned. I do not know why I was talked into buying a Sony it is overpriced and now the quality is JUNK, we have had Panasonic electronics all our lives, and they just get old and outdated, but they keep in working! Guess what my next camera will be? - Panasonic-
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