Amazon.co.uk Review
The Sony DCR-TRV240 Digital8 Camcorder is a well-specified model with both DV In and Out connections, making it ideal for those wishing to edit digital footage on a PC. Sony's new Digital8 cameras are more compact than previous models and the DCR-TRV240 sits neatly in the hand and is light enough to use without effort. Digital8 has the added advantage of being to play your old analogue Hi8 tapes. It's also a less expensive way into digital video than MiniDV camcorders, both in respect of the cameras themselves and tapes. Digital video comes as a real surprise after analogue systems, the image quality is superb and free of all the noise associated with analogue systems. Digital8 offers a resolution of 500 lines, over twice that of VHS. The superb Super SteadyShot picture stabilisation system means you can produce good shake-free shots too. Sound is also digital and the built-in microphone is adequate, as long as you remember to keep quiet yourself, but an external one is an idea for more serious work.

There are a wealth of features, many controlled by a menu system on the LCD screen. This helps keep the number of buttons down but can be tiresome to navigate. Getting started is easy, everything comes set to automatic, just pop in a tape and away you go. The camera boasts a remarkable level of zoom, a healthy 25x optical backed by digital zoom that extends this to 700x. At higher levels the picture degrades considerably though and you are advised to keep the digital zoom within reasonable levels. Usefully, the display indicates when you've exhausted the power of the optical zoom and are about to move to digital zoom. The zoom control reacts to pressure, right down to a gentle creep. There's little else to do for easy shooting. There's a manual back light button and exposure control. Other functions need to be changed via the menu between shots. It has 16:9 support which simply cuts strips off the top and bottom of the image so that when replayed on a wide-screen television the image fills the screen. This does of course cut back the image resolution a little. It can also take stills, fitting over 500 on a tape, though the quality of these do not make it a sufficient replacement for a high-quality digital camera.

Battery life is enough for a day trip perhaps but spare or better high-capacity batteries are a wise investment. A full charge takes an hour and a quarter and is good for about an hour's continuous use. If you can resist using the LCD you might get an extra half an hour. High capacity stamina batteries are separately available that can provide up to 10 hours use.

Another interesting feature is the time lapse function enabling you to film flowers opening and so forth. The Super NightShot mode offers a green-hued recording in darkness thanks to an infrared lamp below the lens. A multitude of buttons can be daunting, bu