Sony DCR-TRV740

Bulky compared to miniDV, but looks & feels as well built. Very good video quality. No noticable difference in LP. Good zoom range (15x), but as usual the "wide" end is not wide enough. I use Sony's wide converter lens. It is OK for video, but produces noticably soft edges in photo mode. Still image quality however is below a 1.3Mp digital camera - very noticable color noise, especially if light intensity is not optimal. Images nevertheless look good on TV but are acceptable only monitor viewing/printing. Tons of useful features but also many gimmicks. It takes time to sort out the real useful features. Plays back all my 8mm and Hi8 tapes in a very good quality (it actually does a better job playing back old tapes than my 5 year old Canon Hi8 camcorder). You can digitize your old tapes. Couple it with a DV editing card (like Pinnacle studio DV 8) and you have virtually endless possibilities as the camera has analogue video in/out and digital video in/out capabilities.

- very good video quality and good zoom range. - plays back 8mm and Hi8 tapes in very good quality. - possibility to digitize 8mm/Hi8 tapes - analogue and DV vide in/out makes editing easy if you have a computer and a DV card. - easy to hold steady (big enough for my hand) - reasonable sized still images recorded on memory stick. As image is not recorded (by default) on tape, it does not interrupt video.

- zoom lens is not wide enough - black and white viewfinder (all D8s have b&w viewfinder. Why Sony, why???) - still image quality is not good enough