A bargain can be defined as something for which you pay less than you budgeted for, and for which you get more than you expected. Under those criteria the Sony TRV 250E qualifies as a definite bargain.
While it is a barebones machine, it does a pretty good job on quality, fulfilling its job as a budget camera very well.
Had it not been for its lack of a genuine still photo facility and some grainy images in low light, it would have been a contender for the overall award.
It is one of the bulkiest cameras tested, and mainly to keep costs low Sony has opted for the larger Digital 8 format over the Mini DV cassettes used by the others in this Labs. Sony's ImageMixer software was the best of the video editing packages bundled with any of the cameras, although there was a serious glitch when loading the USB drivers on to one of our computers, which caused the hard drive to be wiped. The problem appears to have been a software conflict, as it was later loaded onto another machine without problem. Still something to be cautious of though.
This article appeared in the October, 2003 issue of PC Authority.
Comments
Own this product?
Post your review and
you could WIN a share of $3,000 worth of tech prizes!
Thoughts on this article? Add a comment below.
Be the first to comment on this article.