Sony Handycam DCR TRV60

Author's product rating:   

Ease of use	Excellent
Recording quality	Good
Picture quality	Excellent
Sound quality	Excellent
Value for money	Excellent

Advantages:	2MP Stills, Memory Stick PRO Compatible, Touchscreen
Disadvantages:	No manual shutter or iris control

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

If you were searching for a miniscule, pocket-friendly camera, then this really isn't the one for you, as the TRV60 is a conventional, horizontal-format MiniDV camcorder. It’s not so small that you can carry it around in your jacket, but it’s not uncomfortably large either. Of course, it wouldn’t be a Sony if it didn’t have at least one new feature to add to the already impressive roster, and the DCR-TRV60 doesn’t disappoint on that score.

The key additions here are a 2.1-megapixel CCD, support for the new Memory Stick Pro format and the first true widescreen-recording mode on a home-consumer camcorder.

A new camera sensor and support for a new memory format might appear to be more useful in a digital camera, but they also improve things on the video front. As well as 1,600 x 1,200 stills, the high-resolution CCD provides an impressive 540 lines of video resolution. The inclusion of Memory Stick Pro and its greater capacity (up to 1GB) is useful too, as you can finally start to make practical use of the power to record MPEG video. It’ll cost you, though – you only get a measly 8MB stick in the box. The 1GB stick is now fairly common, and can be purchased for as little as £200, so don’t let that put you off

The rest of the features are impressive. Like the rest of Sony’s new range, this model sports an excellent, easy-to-use touchscreen LCD, so changing options/settings on the camcorder are now simpler than ever before. It also has infrared NightShot and an integrated flash for low-light work. The latter is used for stills only.
What will be of greatest interest to videographers, however, is the widescreen mode, which uses more of the capture sensor to grab a true widescreen image.

Sony has also introduced a progressive-scan mode to the range. It’s a standard feature on other manufacturers’ camcorders, and it enables the TRV60 to record video as a sequence of frames, as opposed to the conventional interlaced fields.

Physically, the camcorder is comfortable to handle ,although I’d have preferred a side-loading tape drive instead of one on the bottom, as it can get a little tricky changing tapes in a hurry.

The zoom is responsive and relatively easy to control with the traditional Sony rocker button, and key functions such as manual focus and backlight selection have their own dedicated buttons on the camera body.

The TRV60 is let down a little by the lack of manual control. While you get manual white balance and focus, the shutter speed and iris settings are notably absent, however, this should not affect too many people, only the professionals among you. On the flipside, you can now adjust image sharpness, from pin sharp to slightly blurry.

There’s little to complain about with the picture quality, which has the neutral tone that’s typical of Sony.

As per usual, Sony have produced another high quality product. The DCR TRV60 lies in the middle of it's camcorder range, and now provides excellent value for money with features that would embarrass many more expensive products.