After looking at what Sony had to offer on their digital camcorder line, I decided to buy a TRV740. I was impressed with all the features it had to offer. After playing with the shelf model for a while I purchased the TRV740. Once I opened the product at home and inserted the tape there was a hum or buzzing noise while recording or playing back a recording. In a quiet environment, this buzz is also picked up in the recording. The location of the buzzing sound came from the tapes drive mechanism. I returned the product two times and all subsequent camcorders aired this buzz. If you are looking to buy this product play with a shelf model WITH THE TAPE IN. This way you can judge if this will be a problem for you.
I would have given the camcorder a 5 star rating except for these annoying things that I hope Sony will fix in future models:
1) The tape mechanism IS as noisy as folks say. It IS detectable in the playback IF you listen for it. I can live with this is since the audio record quality is so nice and sharp. My guess is that this noise is due to the tape been driven at 1.5x to 2x the speed of Hi-8.
2) The supplied battery's life is about 60 mins with LCD usage so this will drive most people to buy an additional power pack. This is common across camcorder lines, but still annoying.
3) The 2.5" LCD is not as detailed as the Sony's MiniDV version. While it is acceptable, realized that this 2.5" LCD has 61K pixels and the Sony MiniDV line has almost double the number of pixels.
4) Megapixel or no megapixel, a camcorder's digital stills are rarely as good as a "decent" digital camera. Since I have a 2.1 mega pixel digital camera, the quality of digital stills on the TRV740 is useless to me.
5) Wide angle shots are not as wide as the old TRV95. One would almost need a wide angle lens to properly capture an indoor gathering. However, the wide angle lens is another $$. Again, due to the limited zoom on DV camcorder these days for preserving picture quality (lens), this may be common across other camcorders. I can only wish for 28mm by default.
Okay, I feel bad ripping on the camcorder for so long, overall, I am happy with the TRV740 and I look forward to using it to preserve years of memories.I bought a Sony DCR TRV740 this summer and have been very pleased with it. It was my second D8 camcorder and is a nice step up from the DCR TR7000 it replaced.
I used the still photo function recently at a boat race and was more than pleased with the results. The high resolution stills come in a 1152x864, which results in a pretty good picture.
Video quality is good. The ccd in the 740 and 840 produces a really nice looking picture.
I can't hear any of the tape drive sound that others claim to hear on their recordings.
The only thing that keeps me from giving it 5 stars is the need to get a larger battery is you plan on shooting much away from a power cord. A larger memory stick is probably in order if you intend to use the still photo feature.Pros: Picture quality, Hi8 Playback Capability, Price
Cons: Zoom Control, Image Stabilization, Bottom cassette loading, Handling Comfort, 15x Zoom
While holding out for the cost to come down on DVD camcorders and needing a new camcorder that would play my existing Hi-8s, I went with the backwardly compatable Digital8. The TRV740 appeared to be a solid choice with it's many features and great output quality. But when I first started to use it I was quickly disappointed by the following:
Zoom Control: My previous camcorder was a Canon ES5000 (Hi8). The TRV740's zoom control is awful in comparison with the Canon. It's very difficult to activate the slowest zoom speed as the sliding switch does not move smoothly. 9 times out of 10, you'll go right past the slow speed as the force needed to get the switch moving is much greater than the force to keep the zoom speed steady so an overzoom situation happens. Then you're zooming rapidly and have to slow it down which ruins the slow zoom effect.
"Super" SteadyShot: Huge disappointment here. Electronic stabilizers simply do not compare with optical stabilizers (Canon). It almost seems that when the stabilizer is turned off, Sony added shake to the image so that when the stabilizer is on, it looks better in comparison to when it was "off". Just a silly conspiracy theory to let you know how bad it is.
Bottom cassette loading: Did you ever think you'd see a camcorder that had to be removed from a tripod in order to change the cassette? You've got it with this one. Unbelievable.
Handling Comfort: It's a little heavy and not something you want to use for an extended period.
15x Zoom: This is on the low side and the only reason I can imagine that they went with this low of an optical zoom is because of the poor image stabilizer. At 15x, let alone 20x, you need a tripod or it looks like you have some sort of neuro-muscular affliction.
I'll probably keep it to use as a player to backup my Hi-8 collection by playing those tapes to a DVD burner. I recommend looking for something else if you think you'd be bothered by the same things as I am with this camcorder.First of all, let me say that the bottom-loading thing is terrible. It has more downsides than ups! I mean, the way they have you open the deck exposes the entire tape assembly! Sony has said this is done to make the camera smallerwith D8, you can't get smaller. Anyway, back to the camera.
The DCR-TRV740 is not quite a well-defined camera. It's older brother, the TRB840, has many feautres that the 740 skimps on. One major dissappointment is the low-resolution 2.5" screen. The screen is not only small, but also has about half as many pixels as the MiniDV cameras have on their LCD's. So, you can understand that the picture you see while shooting may look dissapointing. As far as the CCD, yes, it's Megapixel, but what good is the resolution when the pictures don't look any good? I had a DCR-TRV310, which in 640x480 mode took better stills than this! The low-light quality of this camera is worse, as well. I think that the use of a small 1/4.7" CCD is to blame. It just doesn't capture as much light!
The real problem is that there seems to be no real reason to buy this camera unless you need D8 and can't afford a DCR-TRV840. The manual features are downright terriblemost of the controls must be accessed throught the menu, even the automatic stuff(a very bad move by camcorder companies)! And to press the buttons on your cam, you inevitably move the camera. The camera does have a nice fast rewind/fast-forward speed, so if you own a lot of D8, Hi8, or 8MM tapes, and need a camera to play them back, this will do.... I returned my camera and am going to get a real D8 Playback device, the GV-D800. And then buy a MiniDV camcorder.
CONCLUSION: This camera is OK, just don't expect anything magical out of it. Not even the Megapixel resolution saves it. Just not well thought outI think the camera designers should actually use the cameras they make!
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