Sony DCRTRV460 Digital8 Handycam Camcorder w/20x Optical Zoom
by Sony
(Click here)
Customers in the UK,
buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Photo Product Details
Manufacturer: SonyModel: DCR-TRV460
Color: silver
Product features:
- Digital8 Handycam camcorder and digital still camera with 460,000-pixel CCD
- 20x optical zoom lens (digital zoom to 990x) with Super SteadyShot image stabilizer
- 2.5-inch rotating LCD and black-and-white viewfinder
- Low-light recording settings, Memory Stick Pro slot, and analog-to-digital conversion ability
- NP-FM30 InfoLithium Rechargeable Battery
- Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 9 [OLD VERSION]
- Pinnacle Studio Ultimate Collection V14 [OLD VERSION]
- Nero 9 [OLD VERSION]
- Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3 [OLD VERSION]
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Sony DCRTRV460 Digital8 Handycam Camcorder w/20x Optical Zoom
Customer Review: Perfect transition camcorder
Summary: 5 Stars
My old 8mm camcorder died around Thanksgiving leaving me with 15 years worth of home movies and no way to view them. The TRV460 was at a great price point and perfectly bridges the gulf between analog and digital. I wanted to transfer the keepers stuff to DVDs and edit the really good stuff in to movies. I'm far from done, but I've worked with this camcorder enough to pass on some tips.
CAMCORDER: Easy to use. Pictures are so much sharper than my analog camera (I know, no surprise here, but it had a wow factor for me). The camera is smaller than my old one, a little bigger than my two hands wrapped together. The touchscreen is easy to use - plan on studying the manual though. It's all in there and it's easy to read, but you have to approach it like a text book. It powers up quickly. Two things to beware of -- (1) the tape inserts through the bottom and this that if you use a screw tripod adapter you have to take it off the to insert a tape, (2) there are some features that only work on movies recorded to DV tape vs. recording straight to the memorystick - for example when you record to the memory stick it only records in mono.
SOFTWARE: Other reviews are correct when they pan the software that comes with the camera. I bought Adobe Premiere Elements and it is great. I bought the adobe software from amazon - they were offering a Photoshop Elements/Premiere Elements combo that I opted for after reading numerous reviews. I've used the full version of photoshop for years and the user interface of elements is dumbed-down but still has a familiar touch and enough features to do everything I want. Wait a minute - this is a camcorder review, sorry for the tangent.
FIREWIRE/USB2.0: Elements will capture movies recorded to the memorystick via the USB2.0, but to do the same for movies recorded to tape you need a firewire cable. If your PC does not have a firewire port, you can just add a PCI firewire/usb2.0 card onto your motherboard (costs less than $20 for the card). I had bought the card at retail a year ago. But camcorders need a firewire cable with a 6 pin to 4 pin configuration. Found one on line recently (listing: 6ft IEEE 1394 FireWire Cable 6pin-4 DV ILINK IPOD SONY) for less than a buck. Once you plug the firewire cable into the TRV460, you control the camera from the computer through the premiere software - no special settings or adjustments needed. By the way, you can do some camcorder to PC transfers using the USB2.0 cable and the Sony Picture Package software - but "clunky" is too kind.
Along with the camcorder, there are some necessary accessories. I looked for low-cost options on all of these and was pretty successful. I'll pass them on here - for what they're worth.
DIGITAL TAPES: Sony makes many different types of tapes that are good for recording digital. The Sony Digital8 Camcorder Tapes (at first I thought these were the only ones that would work) costs $20 a pair at retail. There are many other 8mm tapes that are compatible for less than half this cost (check out Sony's website for compatibility).
MEMORY STICK: Again I went online to find a good price on a memory stick. But the stick I bought was not compatible with this camcorder (listing: SanDisk 256MB Memory Stick PRO Duo Sony 256 MB DSC-T1 +). The camcorder would only intermittently recognize the stick (mostly it wouldn't). Searches on the web showed that many people had this problem. The kind customer service dept at SanDisk agreed to check it out and said they would probably replace it. They did and the newer version of the same memorystick works fine. While I was waiting I bought a Sony 256MB memory stick at a retail store and, of course, it works fine. I got a memory card reader to plug into my USB port (listing: USB MS/MEMORY STICK CARD READER) so I could transfer movies to the PC without involving the camcorder.
ANALOG TAPE TO MEMBORY STICK TRANSFER: One cool thing I learned about the camera is you can copy scenes from an analog tape to the memory stick all from within the camcorder. With the touch screen monitor, it is very easy to do. This is great if you want to compile selected scenes (from the huge pile of old 8mm tapes) without sitting at the computer. I did a lot of this analog tape-to-memorystick xfer (using just the camera) while sitting around the fire with my family - it made me a little more sociable with the family than if I were staring at the computer.
BATTERY: Another reviewer posted some tips on non-Sony batteries. I took an even cheaper approach that worked great. On line I bought a charger (listing: CHARGER for SONY NP-F550 NP-FM50 NP-QM71 QM91 BATTERY) for less than a fiver and a high capacity battery (listing: SONY NP-QM71 NP-FM70 DCR-TRV950 2800mAh BATTERY NEW) for less than fifteen bucks.
So that's it. I feel like the only splurge was on the tape editing software. I could have stayed with the free Sony Picture Package - but the Adobe is so much easier and does tons more. If you amortize it over the hours you spend on editing, the $100 bucks or so is not that much.
My PC is a off-brand clone with a AMD Athlon 2800+ CPU running at 2.07 MHz, wtih 512MB ram, running XP Home Edition SP2 and a ATI AIW 8500DV videocard. I like this camcorder a lot!
Description of Sony DCRTRV460 Digital8 Handycam Camcorder w/20x Optical Zoom
Digital8 record/play, Hi8/8mm play only * digital photo mode * MPEG Movie EX mode * 460,000-pixel CCD * 2-1/2" color touchpanel *Camcorders
Digital Cameras and Photo Categories
Bestsellers in Camcorders
Panansonic PV-L671 VHS-C Camcorder with 3.0" LCDPanasonic; Digital Camera
Sharp VLWD255U MiniDV Digital Camcorder with 2.5'' Viewscreen, Smart Media Slot and Built-in Digital Still ModeSharp; Windows NT; Digital Camera
Price in other shops:
Panasonic PV-L751 VHS-C Camcorder with 4" LCD and PhotoShot Built-in Digital Still CameraPanasonic; Digital Camera
Price in other shops:
JVC GRDVL805U MiniDV Digital Camcorder with Built-in Digital Still ModeJVC; Windows NT; Digital Camera
Price in other shops:
RCA CC6373 VHS-C AutoShot CamcorderRCA; Digital Camera
Price in other shops:
JVC GR-DVM50U Digital CybercamJVC; Digital Camera
Price in other shops:
RCA PRO854 Hi8 CamcorderRCA; Digital Camera
Price in other shops:
Sony DCRTRV310 Handycam Digital CamcorderSony; Windows NT; Digital Camera
Price in other shops:
Hitachi Hi8 Video CamcorderHitachi; Digital Camera
Hitachi 8mm Camcorder with 2 1/ 2" LCDHitachi; Digital Camera
Similar digital cameras and accessories
Transcend 32 GB Class 10 SDHC Flash Memory Card (TS32GSDHC10)TRANSCEND; CE
Best price: $23.68
Price in other shops:
Sony DCR-TRV280 Digital8 Handycam Camcorder w/ 20x Optical ZoomSony; Digital Camera
Best price: $799.95
![Alien Anthology [Blu-ray] Image](/images/Alien-Anthology-Blu-ray-B001AQO3QA-X.jpg)
Alien Anthology [Blu-ray]Twentieth Century Fox; Release date: 2010-10-26; Blu-ray
Best price: $44.99
Price in other shops:
Magnavox ZV427MG9 DVD Recorder/ VCR Combo, HDMI 1080p Up-Conversion, No TunerMagnavox; CE
Best price: $169.00
Maxell Cassette VHS-C AdapterMaxell; Release date: 2012-02-23; CE
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops:
6FT 3.5 mm to 3 RCA AV Camcorder Video Cable Sony JVC 6Cable_Showcase; Digital Camera
Best price: $0.01
Firewire DV Cable Camcorder For Canon Sony Sharp JVCGeneric; Digital Camera
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops:
Sony Consumer Tape - Sony V8-25CLD 8mm / Hi8 / Digital8 Camcorder Video Head Cleaning cassetteSony; Release date: 1990-11-21; Mac; Digital Camera
Best price: $19.99
Sony VMC20FR AV CableSony; Digital Camera
Best price: $3.49
Price in other shops:
Belkin IEEE 1394 4-Pin/ 6-Pin 400 Mbps FireWire Cable (6 Feet)Belkin Components; Windows; CE
Best price: $1.99
Price in other shops: