Rating: 
Summary: Bought DCR-HC40 and the DCR-TRV22, comparison.
Review: I orginally bought the DCR-HC40, which is the 2004 version from Sony. The HC40 has much better specs and is 25% smaller, which is significant.I actually loved the size of the HC40, although it was a little difficult to get a firm grip on as the middle fingers have no where to lock onto. The HC40 does a good job during the day and I didn't notice and problems. The touch screen was washed out but still usable for the menu during the day in sunlight. The major problem I had with the HC40 was in low light. By low light I mean a typical living room lit by normal lighting at night. I tried to take video in the living room at night lit by a florescent tube about 16 inches long torchere. The light is comparable to a 100 watt light pointed at the ceiling. The vide it recorded was extremly grainy and had many blue "sparkles" of grain. You could see the picture but it was not pleasing or good at all. Changing to night shot or color slow shutter would brighten it but still not make it pleasing. Slow shutter blurred movement too much. Night shot turned colors greenish. I do not recomend this camera for filming indoor at night. Yes, you can use a video light, but most people find a bright light in thier face anoying, and you can't get candid moments. Seriously teh HC40 is good for daytime, but bad for nighttime even indoor with normal lighting. I then tried the TRV22 in the same low light. It did much much better. The video was still grainy, but you had to look for it. My fiance didn't see the grain, but she sure did with the HC40. She said the TRV22 looked professional. The TRV22 produces good results at night in normal indoor lighting. It is a much better choice then the HC40 for nighttime. During the day, they both are good. The TRV22 also has edge you can grip better with your middle fingers, so it is easier to hold and more comfortable to use. The grip on the HC40 makes it difficult to use. The HC40 and the new Sonys have a Easy mode. All that does is make the on screen buttons bigger and doesn't let you do most things. So to do the same thing on the TRV22, just don't press any buttons and leave it in automatic mode, which does great. As for photo capability, both make very very grainy pictures at night or indoors at night with normal lighting. Both will take a OK picture outside during good sunlight. The HC has better resolution. But you are better getting a cheap small digital camera then either of these. You may wonder about the TRV33, well it is higher resolution, but does worse in low light then the TRV22. Also as of May 2004 you can find the TRV22 for four hundred thirty at BH photo video. Price aside I think the TRV22 is better as sooner or later most people will film at night indoors. The features are almost the same, but the video at night is much much better on the TRV22. Both myeself and my fiance are happier with the TRV22.
Rating:
Summary: Bought DCR-HC40 and the DCR-TRV22, comparison.
Review: I orginally bought the DCR-HC40, which is the 2004 version from Sony. The HC40 has much better specs and is 25% smaller, which is significant. I actually loved the size of the HC40, although it was a little difficult to get a firm grip on as the middle fingers have no where to lock onto. The HC40 does a good job during the day and I didn't notice and problems. The touch screen was washed out but still usable for the menu during the day in sunlight. The major problem I had with the HC40 was in low light. By low light I mean a typical living room lit by normal lighting at night. I tried to take video in the living room at night lit by a florescent tube about 16 inches long torchere. The light is comparable to a 100 watt light pointed at the ceiling. The vide it recorded was extremly grainy and had many blue "sparkles" of grain. You could see the picture but it was not pleasing or good at all. Changing to night shot or color slow shutter would brighten it but still not make it pleasing. Slow shutter blurred movement too much. Night shot turned colors greenish. I do not recomend this camera for filming indoor at night. Yes, you can use a video light, but most people find a bright light in thier face anoying, and you can't get candid moments. Seriously teh HC40 is good for daytime, but bad for nighttime even indoor with normal lighting. I then tried the TRV22 in the same low light. It did much much better. The video was still grainy, but you had to look for it. My fiance didn't see the grain, but she sure did with the HC40. She said the TRV22 looked professional. The TRV22 produces good results at night in normal indoor lighting. It is a much better choice then the HC40 for nighttime. During the day, they both are good. The TRV22 also has edge you can grip better with your middle fingers, so it is easier to hold and more comfortable to use. The grip on the HC40 makes it difficult to use. The HC40 and the new Sonys have a Easy mode. All that does is make the on screen buttons bigger and doesn't let you do most things. So to do the same thing on the TRV22, just don't press any buttons and leave it in automatic mode, which does great. As for photo capability, both make very very grainy pictures at night or indoors at night with normal lighting. Both will take a OK picture outside during good sunlight. The HC has better resolution. But you are better getting a cheap small digital camera then either of these. You may wonder about the TRV33, well it is higher resolution, but does worse in low light then the TRV22. Also as of May 2004 you can find the TRV22 for four hundred thirty at BH photo video. Price aside I think the TRV22 is better as sooner or later most people will film at night indoors. The features are almost the same, but the video at night is much much better on the TRV22. Both myeself and my fiance are happier with the TRV22.
Rating: 
Summary: Firewire problem with TRV 19 & 22
Review: I own a Sony TRV-10E, a fantastic mini DV cam. I also take a lot of video of the family and this resulted in some 34 VHS cassettes which I just had to convert to DVD as it's a pain to remember which cassette contains what. So I acquired a TRV 19 with the promise that it will work to convert my old VHS cassettes but I couldn't get it to work. The salesman offers to give me an i-link cable at no extra cost. I opted to upgrade to the TRV 22 at 1/7 extra and I took some still photos with it and was impressed with the increased resolution of the pictures as compared to my old TRV 10. The zoom feature is the same as my trusty TRV 10 but the video picture is marginally better. Problem arised when I tried to transfer the film to the PC via the firewire card. I had to repeatedly connect and reconnect to enable the PC to recognise the camcorder. Out of 20 tries the TRV 22 and the TRV 19 could only manage to connect once and sometimes it would not give a picture. My old trusty TRV 10 connects 20 out of 20 times. No problem.
I am returning the camcorder (the 3rd one in less than a week) tomorrow as the primary reason for acquiring it was to convert the old videos. In other words, the TRV 22 offers DV in and out whereas the TRV 10 only offers DV out; this in/out feature of the TRV 22 allows the old videos to be converted for DVD recording.
I have read that MAC users have this problem where the PC does not recognise the camcorder. I can now confirm that IBM compatibles also experience the same problem.
Rating:
Summary: TRV33 Camcorder
Review: I owned a TRV33 Sony camcorder(which is very similar to TRV22). When I play on the TV directly from camcorder, the quality is excellent. But, when it transfered to my laptop through USB with ImageMixer software(come along with the purchase), the quality sucks. I had tried Ulead Studio, the video quality is as bad.My transfer method is through USB port. However, has anyone tried using iLink ? Not sure how it is as I am hesitating to invest further on this hardware (Fireware PC cardbus)unless it is proven. TRV33 video quality is excellent (no less than DVD). The motor noise sometimes are more dominant and annoying especially in a room, other features are great. So, I think the better option will be to wait for the newer model that has this noise to be eliminated.
Thanks
Rating:
Summary: A good Camcorder.
Review: I recently bought a Sony TRV22 from Best Buy. I liked it very much. after using it for a day I decided to exchange it for TRV33 a 1Megapixel camera as the still picture quality is poor in TRV22. I brought TRV33 home and tested it. It was a real disappointment!. TRV22 performed much better compared to TRV33 under low light conditions. Still picture also is very much the same. I learned later that it is because of the difference in LUX rating of the two cameras. TRV 33 needs 7Lux to capture pictures, while TRV22 needs only 5 Lux. TRV 22 gives much better picture under flurescent and other indoor lights. I did not waste any time getting my TRV22 back!. It's a very good camera, I recommend it without any hesitation.
Rating:
Summary: OK, but overrated
Review: I though I was upgrading when I replaced my Canon ZR40 with the TRV22, but I was disappointed. Indoor point-and-shoot was definitely better than the Canon but still not great, and the Canon was close when manually setting shutter speed. So how did the Sony do with manually set shutter speed? Surprise - can't do it! I found the touch-screen far inferior to buttons you can feel and the built-in mic worse than the already-not-very-good Canon. I was also surprised to see a problem with the transport - insufficient tape tension I think, where when reusing a tape, I got stripes interleaving the old and new for several seconds at the beginning of a shot several times. This was with a standard grade Panasonic DV tape that never had a problem in the Canon. 10x zoom wasn't very impressive either. 640x480 stills are just silly in my opinion. Do at least a megapixel or skip it. Most other features of the camcorder were quite good, but the negatives were big enough for me to return it in favor of another Canon.
Rating:
Summary: A Worthwhile Investment
Review: I too read reviews of various camcorder features, brands, prices before making my first purchase. The decision boiled down to either the Canon ZR series or the Sony TRV19 or TRV22. I decided to try the Canon ZR60 due to the significant difference in price. I read about its low light performance but thought I'd give it a try. My kids play sports at school. It was swim season so the first video footage was indoors under pool lighting. The video was horrible...unbelievably grainy...outdoor video was very good but I wanted a camera that would be high quality in both settings, indoor and out, so the ZR60 was returned. I then leaned toward the Sony TRV19 but decided to spend the extra $100 for the analogue to digital conversion capability, well worth the extra money in my opinion as we have many old VHS movies of the kids that can now be made into DVD. The Sony TRV22 is an exceptional mini dv...video inside and out is great. There is noticeable wind noise but only on very windy days but this can be altered when making a DVD. Have made many DVDs using Pinnacle software - they came out great. As others have mentioned, the still camera capability is poor - I wish they added more onto the optical zoom instead of adding the still capability. I find the touch screen very easy to use. Overall this is a wonderful, easy to use camera that fits in the palm of your hand, can plug directly into the TV to watch or can be made into a DVD to watch for years to come.
Rating:
Summary: Hard to beat!
Review: I wanted a small camcorder, and I love my Canon Powershot and Canon printer, so I decided to stick with Canon and bought the new Canon Elura 50...great camcorder, so small and so cool, a perfect match for my Powershot! But then I had to go ruin it by taking video with it! Outside was ok..but as soon as you took any inside footage, the grain was just awful, and the audio only picked someone talking from within 5 feet...any further than that forget it. Also, the auto focus tends to fade in and out. I took it back for the TRV22 and now I can see why this camcorder gets such rave reviews...it just works, and works well. Video, both outside and indoors, was perfect, the touch screen is cool and works great, the auto focus is always right on, the sound is great (no motor noise) and the size,not the smallest available, but it's still acceptable. So in short, until Canon improves the video and audio quality of their camcorders, save yourself the trouble and get a Sony.
Rating:
Summary: help
Review: I'm looking into buying the dcrtrv22. I would like to know if anyone is putting their footage on dvd. If so, what are you using and how easy is it.
Rating:
Summary: Anybody who knows how to convert Video to VCD
Review: Ive only had this camera for a week, but i'd like to find out of anyone has converted video on tape to vcd. thanks
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