Sony Hi8 Handycam Camcorder Review

Who Says that Hi8 Camera's Aren't Cool?

As most of us are well aware of, having a Hi8 camcorder has slightly become outdated. This is only because the majority of the filming industry has become wholly digital, or at least on miniDV cassettes, and thus making Hi8 cameras obsolete. For a while, I was sure that manufacturers are going to stop making these type of camcorders, solely because demand has shot down. However, that demand is now starting to rise again with the coming of Sony's newest Hi8 camcorder. I am talking about the Sony Hi8 Handycam Camcorder with 2.5" SwivelScreen LCD Monitor, Model: CCD-TRV138.

This amazing camcorder has some of the best features that can be put onto a camcorder. At first, I was not very impressed, solely because it was a Hi8 handycam, however, the more that I researched and played around with this camera, the more that I loved it. Now, I actually prefer this camera over many of the digital ones - even the models with high-definition. This camera comes with 20x optical zoom and 990x digital zoom. If you know anything about cameras, than you are well aware of the amazing zooming capabilities this camera has. And think, it's all within a seemingly "outdated" model. Also, this camera comes with a CCD image sensor that has a total of 320K pixels and a total of 200K effective pixels.

You can record up to 400 lines of horizontal resolution with hi-fi sound on either 8mm or Hi8 tapes with this really cool camcorder. This Handycam also comes with a pre-programmed Auto Exposure mode, which makes it extremely easy to adjust your camera's setting depending on the filming situations. Some of the various filming modes include beach, sports, landscape, sun, moon and portrait. These modes will give you the crispness that you want from your video camera.