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Sony CCDTRV87 Hi8 Camcorder

Sony CCDTRV87 Hi8 Camcorder

List Price: $699.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The Best value for Money (Rating 4 1/2 stars)
Review: Start with the amazing 2 and 1/2 inch LCD viewfinder,Nightshot, digital image stabilization, Hi8-XR - the standard SONY fare (ALL excellent and proven). Add Super LaserLink Wireless Transmitter and you have a winner. Have you ever been frustrated by connecting proper video and audio cables from the back of your TV and VCR to your camcorder? Have you had to go back and switch cables when you connected audio to video and vice versa? No more frustrations with super laser link which provides cable free communication to your TV/VCR. You can record in widescreen, you can record in 0 lux lighting and playback in stereo. Your battery life is an amazing 16 hours!

The only reason for not buying this camera - the rate at which SONY comes up with these great products, you will be drooling at a better model next year!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The Best value for Money (Rating 4 1/2 stars)
Review: Start with the amazing 2 and 1/2 inch LCD viewfinder,Nightshot, digital image stabilization, Hi8-XR - the standard SONY fare (ALL excellent and proven). Add Super LaserLink Wireless Transmitter and you have a winner. Have you ever been frustrated by connecting proper video and audio cables from the back of your TV and VCR to your camcorder? Have you had to go back and switch cables when you connected audio to video and vice versa? No more frustrations with super laser link which provides cable free communication to your TV/VCR. You can record in widescreen, you can record in 0 lux lighting and playback in stereo. Your battery life is an amazing 16 hours!

The only reason for not buying this camera - the rate at which SONY comes up with these great products, you will be drooling at a better model next year!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not too shabby
Review: The picture seemed pretty grainy when i first started using it. After fiddling with the exposure it got better. Otherwise I really dig it. Nightshot works really well. Menus are pretty usable too. Only other thing is the battery only lasts about an hour. The 16.5 hour battery they talk about is sold separately for over $100.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not too shabby
Review: The picture seemed pretty grainy when i first started using it. After fiddling with the exposure it got better. Otherwise I really dig it. Nightshot works really well. Menus are pretty usable too. Only other thing is the battery only lasts about an hour. The 16.5 hour battery they talk about is sold separately for over $100.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Wrong Image
Review: The TRV87 has 360x digital zoom. THe posted image shows a 330x zoom

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The last of the decent Sony pure analog camcorders
Review: This camcorder was introduced in 1999, which was in essence the "high water" mark year of the Sony analog camcorder line. Digital -- which had been introduced by Sony years earlier -- took over the "top of the line" position the following year, which led Sony to simultaneously begin "cheapening" the Hi8 analog machines (in an attempt to drive the "bells and whistles crowd" to the more profitable digital camcorders). This meant stereo sound disappeared from the Hi8s in 2000, as did flying erase heads, digital special effects and photo mode.

Being the Hi8 line leader the previous year -- before that cheapening began -- the TRV87 is therefore Sony consumer analog video at its best, crammed with every feature Sony ever put into that format. It's all here -- the Hi8XR format (440 lines of vertical resolution, which in side to side comparison with DV's 500 lines is almost impossible to differentiate), LCD viewing, digital special effects, on-board lighting, Super Nightshot, photo mode, full titling, a wide range of pre-programmed exposure modes, Laserlink...it goes on and on. Yes, granted, the chassis is that classic "handful" TRV size, so this Sony isn't quite as cute and sexy as those teeny current DV palmcorders - but it provides video that is just as good, and costs a lot, lot less. This machine is destined to be a classic, in the same category as the infamous Sony TR101 (their first serious Hi8 machine from almost a decade earlier).

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The last of the decent Sony pure analog camcorders
Review: This camcorder was introduced in 1999, which was in essence the "high water" mark year of the Sony analog camcorder line. Digital -- which had been introduced by Sony years earlier -- took over the "top of the line" position the following year, which led Sony to simultaneously begin "cheapening" the Hi8 analog machines (in an attempt to drive the "bells and whistles crowd" to the more profitable digital camcorders). This meant stereo sound disappeared from the Hi8s in 2000, as did flying erase heads, digital special effects and photo mode.

Being the Hi8 line leader the previous year -- before that cheapening began -- the TRV87 is therefore Sony consumer analog video at its best, crammed with every feature Sony ever put into that format. It's all here -- the Hi8XR format (440 lines of vertical resolution, which in side to side comparison with DV's 500 lines is almost impossible to differentiate), LCD viewing, digital special effects, on-board lighting, Super Nightshot, photo mode, full titling, a wide range of pre-programmed exposure modes, Laserlink...it goes on and on. Yes, granted, the chassis is that classic "handful" TRV size, so this Sony isn't quite as cute and sexy as those teeny current DV palmcorders - but it provides video that is just as good, and costs a lot, lot less. This machine is destined to be a classic, in the same category as the infamous Sony TR101 (their first serious Hi8 machine from almost a decade earlier).


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