Review on 🎥 Sony DCR-TRV510: Advanced Handycam with 20x Optical Zoom and 360x Digital Zoom (Discontinued Model) by Will Kern

I've had the Sony DCR-TRV-510 for about three months now. It was a lot of fun to use and learn. Charge the battery right out of the box, insert a cassette and you're ready to record. With a little practice and reading the manual, you can create perfectly acceptable and entertaining (digital) still images. In terms of video, the camera is exceptionally easy to learn and use. This requires standard 8mm video cassettes - cheaper and more readily available than mini DV cassettes. The zoom lens is excellent, although once you step out of the optical zoom range and into digital zoom you'll likely notice some 'pixelation' (digital zoom can be turned off). Feeds can be viewed on the fold out screen - great image. One feature I particularly like is one that lets you find the end of the last video recording - no matter where you left off on the tape, press this button and it will take you to where you left the recording. Low light performance is excellent even without using the night light function. Stills are fun. This is easy to do once you master the technique. Image size is only 640 x 480 so is only suitable for web content or 2 x 3 or 4 x 3 shots. Images can be downloaded to your computer using the supplied serial connection or a FireWire port if available . The serial channel can be slow, but it works fine for me. I took a few hundred shots (and 2 hours of video) on a 10 day cruise and everything was fine. The camera can only store about 20 still images internally (in fine mode) so I copied it from the internal memory to a separate video cassette that I intended to use for still images only. Once on your computer, you can play with it to your heart's content. Consider purchasing a second battery with a larger capacity. I bought an 8 hour battery - a little extra weight but lots of extra time. I also bought an IR channel for the TV. Eliminates the need to connect cables to the back of the TV/-510 every time you want to watch a feed. It works perfectly. And take a good camera bag with you.