Sony CCD-TRV138 Hi8 Handycam Camcorder w/20x Optical Zoom

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Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 6 x 3.9 x 3.4 inches ; 3 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0007M3PJ4
• Item model number: CCDTRV138
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,686 in Camera & Photo (See Bestsellers in Camera & Photo)

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  Camera & Photo > Camcorders > Analog 8mm & Hi8

• Date first available at Amazon.com: February 2, 2005

Product Description

From the manufacturer

Capture Hi8 quality video and Hi-Fi sound with the compact, affordable, and easy-to-use CCD-TRV138 Handycam camcorder. It features a CCD imager with 320K gross pixels that provides detail and image precision along with exceptional analog video performance. Digital zoom interpolation creates clearer, sharper images for extreme digital zooming.

Along with a variety of features to capture quality images and sound, the CCD-TRV138 lets you customize your personal videos with such tools as fader effects, picture effects, and titling. Choose from a variety of modes to add creative fades, pictorial exposures, and titles. Get creative and enhance your home movies with professional looking video effects.

Video Hi8 recording
Records outstanding video quality up to 400 lines of horizontal resolution with hi-fi sound on affordable 8 millimeter and Hi8 tapes.

1/6-inch CCD imager, 320K pixels gross
1/6-inch CCD imager with 200K (effective) pixels provides great detail and clarity along with exceptional analog video performance.

20x Optical/990x digital zoom
Offers up to 500 lines of horizontal resolution, 3x the color bandwidth and a significantly higher signal to noise ratio, to provide spectacular video performance.

2.5-inch swivel screen LCD display (123K pixels)
Provides excellent viewing clarity with improved resolution. The high resolution 123K pixel LCD screen rotates up to 270 degrees for multiple viewing angles providing sharp, detailed images for monitoring or playback.

InfoLithium battery with AccuPower meter system
Charge the battery at anytime because unlike NiCad (nickel cadmium) batteries, Sony's rechargeable lithium-ion batteries are not subjected to a life shortening memory effect. Sony's exclusive AccuPower meter displays the battery time remaining in minutes, in either the viewfinder or on the LCD screen.

Multi-language menu
Change the menu display from English to English (simplified), Canadian French, Latin American Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Korean, or traditional Chinese.

Easy dubbing
Connect the handycam camcorder to a VCR to effortlessly make VHS copies of your home videos. The camcorder can control up to 59 brands of VCRs.

NightShot Plus infrared system
With Sony's Super NightShot infrared system you can capture natural looking video, even when shooting in low light. Record subjects up to 10 feet away using the built-in infrared system, without the monochrome color common with earlier low-light recording systems.

Stamina battery power management system
Using the optional NP-QM91D InfoLithium battery, the DCR-TRV480 can continuously record for up to 12 hours on a single full charge, providing extra long battery life.

Program AE (auto exposure) modes
Program AE modes make recording easy even when filming in challenging situations. Choose from portrait, beach and ski, sports lesson, landscape, spotlight, or sunset and moon modes.

Picture effects
Get creative when recording or playing back your videos with Sony's picture effect modes. Effects available in camera mode: negative art, sepia, monotone, solarize, pastel and mosaic. Effects available in playback mode: negative art, sepia, monotone, and solarize.

End search
Automatically advances the video tape to the last 5 seconds of the recorded scene. This prevents accidentally recording over previously recorded videos.

Fader effects
Enhance your personal videos by adding professional looking fader effects. Choose from black, mosaic, white, monotone, and stripe.

Titling
Add professional looking titles to your video. Select from 8 presets, or customize 2 titles with up to 22 characters.

Battery information
At the touch of a button, battery information is displayed on the LCD screen when charging and when the camcorder is turned off. The display will show how much the battery is charged, in 10 percent increments and the recordable time left when using the LCD screen or in the viewfinder.

Built-in white LED light
Brighten your video, and reduce shadows when shooting in low-light situations. The LED light uses considerably less power than bulb-based light systems, with the same light output.

Manual focus
Allows the user to manually adjust the focus of the camcorder using the touch panel. Manual focusing also allows the user to control the focus in difficult situations where either the environment or the subject does not allow the camcorder's auto focus to perform optimally, such as when shooting through a window or in a crowded environment.

Easy Handycam button
Using a camcorder can be intimidating for some people, so with a press of the easy Handycam button, most of the advanced features of the camcorder are locked out leaving only the buttons essential for recording operational.

Product Description

Box includes: AC-L15 Power Adapter/In-Camera Charger, NP-FM30 InfoLithium(R) Rechargeable Battery, AV Cable, Lens Cap, Shoulder Strap Sony's CCD-TRV138 Hi8(TM) Handycam(R) Camcorder delivers outstanding video quality with Hi-Fi sound in a compact, affordable, and easy-to-use package. The high-quality Hi8(TM) Recording can be enhanced with new features to customize your personal video. Use Fader Effects, Picture Effects, and Titling to get creative - enhance your home movies with creative fades, pictorial exposures, and titles. The Digital Zoom Interpolation and CCD imager with 320K gross pixels provide clear, sharp detail during zooming or playback. Dial exposure (24 steps) Dimensions(WxHxD) - 3 3/8 x 3 7/8 x 6 (85 x 98 x 151 mm) Weight - 1 lb. 11 oz (780g) without Tape and Battery

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Camcorder - Better than my First., November 14, 2005

By	Chris - See all my reviews

I bought this camcorder 4 months after the sound on my other one stopped working and I was impressed. The optical zoom is good at 20x and the digital zoom (which is completely pointless) is 990x. The second thing I noticed is that the LCD screen moved to more places and that there was 2 record buttons. One was on the LCD screen, the other was next to the off button. The viewfinder can also move to different places but is still in Black and white. Another feature that this camcorder has is Nightshot Plus. This feature allows you to record at night with a brighter picture than with a flashlight or lamp. There are also many DSEs or Digital Special Effects that you can play with in recording or editing. They are:

Sepia: adds a brown old tone to the screen
Black and White: the way films used to be
Negative Art: reverses the colors in the picture
Pastel: makes the picture look colored in with a pastel crayon
Solarize: makes the picture out of basic colors
Mosaic: the picture - made out of squares
Slim: stretches the picture vertically
Stretch: a lot like widescreen

When filming out or indoors there are different Program AEs you can use when the light in the picture changes. If you dont like switching them, you can set them to AUTO. The PAEs are:

Sports
Spotlight
Portrait
Beach/Ski
SunsetMoon
Landscape

If you want to buy this camcorder because it has great battery life, don't. It doesn't have a great battery life but it is still a great camcorder.

26 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good enough., January 2, 2006

By	my name goes here (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This is your basic video camera. I'd say it's good for those who just need a video camera for occassional video recording. It has the basic features, with NightShot as an additional bonus. The picture quality isn't as great as I thought it would be (it's a bit grainy on my 36" WEGA), it doesn't record in stereo, and I wish it could hook up on my computer, but there's no USB port. I guess for the price you pay, it's expected. I'd recommend it if you're not really looking for something too hi-tech. I wish I could've gone with something better, maybe the next model up, but hey, it gets the job done.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not good for playing old S-Video Tapes, January 5, 2007

By	EF_IN_MD (Baltimore, MD) - See all my reviews

I bought this to play back old Hi8 tapes so I could transfer them to DVD. However, there is no S-Video out and no stereo out. Video quality was bad: output was noisey and reds were over saturated. I imagine this is because there is no S-Video out. I returned it and have ordered a Sony GV-D200. Hopefully it will give me better quality since it was more than twice as much. There are some cheaper used options available, e.g. Sony EVO-250.