Sony DCR-TRV22 First Impressions Camcorder Review

by Robin Liss
Published on Apr 25, 2003 12:00 AM



Read the NEW & UPDATED Sony DCR-TRV22 Camcorder Review

The DCR-TRV22, priced at $700, is Sony's second cheapest MiniDV camcorder for 2003. It is a part of the redesign of most of the Sony MiniDV line - announced at the Consumer Electronics Show 2003. At the show I got to spend a good amount of time playing with the camcorder and making observations about it. However, with this model line change, Sony has moved virtually all the functions inside the touch screen LCD to the point where if you want to do anything more than just 'point and shoot', you have to use the LCD. It's an interesting and dramatic change in the model line and it's certainly stepping out on a limb - I just don't know if it's the right one.

Video Performance
At this point, I really don't feel comfortable making judgments about the video performance of the DCR-TRV22 or any of the camcorders I examined at the Consumer Electronics Show 2003. The problem being that each camcorder was displayed under carefully controlled lighting conditions and it is impossible to make judgments about picture quality from one camcorder to the next.

The Front
The front of the DCR-TRV22 is quite thin, with the lens actually protruding outwards a little to the left of the camcorder. Located below the lens from left to right is the microphone, and IR sensor with a recording tally lamp located inside the IR sensor. Below the IR sensor and the microphone is the S-Video in / out port.

The Right Side
On the right side of the DCR-TRV22 are most of the in and out ports. The Firewire, USB and A/V in out are located towards the center top, covered up by a hard piece of plastic. On the right side towards the lens is the microphone in and Lanc / Control-L port and the headphone jack. The handle strap overlaps these ports. At first I was worried that the users hands would cover up the microphone, headphone and Lanc ports but they are far enough towards the front of the camcorder that even a big hand can hold the camcorder with out covering up the ports. Towards the back of the camcorder is the power dial, you can select VCR Mode, Off, Camera Mode or Memory mode. Moving closer towards the front of the camcorder you have the Memory Stick eject button. Lastly, almost at the front of the camcorder you have the Memory Stick slot. The slot opens by simply swinging open a small door and sliding in the Memory Stick. You can close the door and it is not the similar Memory Stick slot of older models where you press in and a spring loading action ejects the stick, rather moving the eject button forward ejects the Memory Stick.

The Back
There's not much going on in the back of the DCR-TRV22, too little in my opinion. On the upper left is the color viewfinder, to the right of that is the battery eject button and to the right of that is the DC power in port. Located below and center of all those is the battery. Directly below the DC in port is the record button and the other side of the mode dial. I'm really disappointed about how much of the control of the camcorder is now dependent on the touch screen LCD. I think there is certainly space on the back of the camcorder for a dial at least, for adjusting focus and exposure but Sony decided to move these controls completely into the touch screen LCD.

The Left Side
The left side of the camcorder with the LCD closed or open is pretty simple. It really stresses how few controls or buttons are on the outside of the new 2003 entry level MiniDV camcorders from Sony. On the top is the lens with the Carl Zeiss logo and the Sony logo and below that is the backlight and battery info buttons (in a neat transparent teal color). Below that is the 2.5 in. color touch screen LCD. As with the other models, when you open up the LCD screen all you get is an LCD screen and a speaker. All buttons and controls have been moved into the touch screen LCD so there isn't a whole lot going on here.

The Top
On the top of the camcorder is the photo button and the tiny zoom control, as well as the viewfinder which extends out from the camcorder about half an inch. The Nightshot on / off switch and the intelligent hot shoe as you move closer towards the front of the camcorder.

Manual Control
The DCR-TRV22 does have more actual picture elements to control manually than Sony's similarly priced digital models from a year ago (the Digital8s) - being that the DCR-TRV22 has added white balance. But the are very inaccessible because you have to use the touch screen LCD to use any of them. The camcorder does however include seven auto exposure modes which you can select from the touch screen LCD.
Zoom
The only manual picture element which is not controlled via the touch screen is the zoom. It is controlled by a tiny zoom slider, only about 1.5 cm long. The zoom control in my opinion is too small. It is very hard to get variable speeds, although the camcorder can achieve multiple zoom speeds, it is very hard to get between very slow and very fast because there is such little room to move the control.
Focus
The focus is sadly controlled by touch buttons on the LCD screen. Similarly priced digital models by Sony (Digital8 models) last year had focus rings however the company decided to not put them on the DCR-TRV19 (Review, Specs, $372), DCR-TRV22 and the DCR-TRV33. Another way of controlling the focus besides auto and manual mode is Sony's spot foucs mode - which I really like. It allows you to touch on any element of the picture and the camcorder will adjust the focus to that part of the screen pretty fast - it's a nice in-between for people who want a little more control over the focus than just straight auto.
Exposure
Exposure is also controlled by the touch screen, of course the camcorder can be put in full auto mode if you choose. We counted 22 steps of exposure control, the same as every other Sony camcorder on which I've counted the number of exposure steps before. The camcorder has a Spot Metering function similar to the spot focus control. It is also a nice in-between. Of course, I really wish Sony had included a ring around the lens to control the focus and a dial to control the exposure. With the DCR-TRV22 you are forced to open up the :LCD if you want to adjust any picture element. When you're shooting with out a tripod opening and closing the LCD just creates unwanted shakiness and I think forcing the user to use the touch screen LCD was a big mistake.
White Balance
White balance is controlled via the menu. You have four modes to set the camcorder in. Full auto, indoor, outdoor and the last in manual, with which you can set the white balance.

Still
The major upgrade of the DCR-TRV22 over the cheaper DCR-TRV19 model is the addition of a Memory Stick slot for still capability and MPEG-EX recording. The camcorder can record 640 x 480 stills to the Memory Stick. The camcorder includes an 8 MB Memory Stick (not the one in the picture, that is a prototype of the 1 GB Memory Stick which Sony plans to make available sometime soon). Stills are transferred from the camcorder to the computer via the included USB port. When the camcorder is in Memory Stick mode you can do read and write functions such as playing back pictures and deleting pictures as well as doing a slide show. At this time I can't make any conclusions about the still quality of the camcorder for the same reasons I couldn't make any conclusions about the video quality.

VCR Mode
The VCR mode is pretty simple. It includes all the functions of previous camcorders except all the buttons (play, rewind, fast-forward, stop) are on the touch panel itself. I don't really object to having the VCR buttons on the LCD because if you are going to be using the camcorder to watch previously shot video, you are going to most likely have the LCD screen open. Of course, it wouldn't be bad if Sony included hard button controls either in the area hidden by the LCD or on the top of the camcorder.

Low Light Performance
The DCR-TRV22 does include Sony's Night Shot capability and the Super Color Slow Shutter night shot capability but I can't make any judgments about the night shot, the color night shot or the low light performance of the camcorder because it was impossible to do so at CES 2003. I am weary of the low light performance of the DCR-TRV22 however because the CCD is only 1/4.7 in., which is quite small and small CCDs typically do not do well in low light situations.

LCD / Viewfinder
The viewfinder on the DCR-TRV22 is a color viewfinder as I mentioned earlier. The 2.5 in. LCD screen is what this camcorder's all about. The screen seems relatively sharp and high quality, and also it is quite responsive to your touch - it better be considering how many things are controlled by it.

Audio
The audio options on the DCR-TRV22 are not so bad. Although I wasn't able to monitor the audio in a controlled environment, I promise you that the mic placement on this camcorder is going to create problems and you will get a lot of camcorder operator noise. However, Sony does include the necessary microphone in port, and headphone out port and a hot shoe for using your own external microphone. This seems to be the only 'manual option' or maybe customizing option is a better word - that Sony did a good job with on the DCR-TRV22.

Handling
The DCR-TRV22 and the other two entry level Sony MiniDV models have a very square, 'boxy' feel to them. Although I was unable to take them off the tripod at the show, I imagine that that boxy feel will make is somewhat hard to grip the camcorder. The zoom and record controls seem placed fine and are easily accessible when holding the camcorder in your right hand via the normal strap, however I think that the user will run into problems when they try to do any manual or non 'point and shoot' function. Because you have to open up the LCD screen to adjust any picture settings or do anything other than take photos, zoom in and out, record and turn night shot on - it's going to create a very problematic situation. If you're not shooting on a tripod, or if you want to conserve battery life, whenever you open up the LCD it's going to shake the camcorder. I think a lot of people are going to run into this problem. The inaccessibility of the camera controls without using the LCD is going to make the camcorder very hard to handle other than in straight 'point and shoot' environments.

Other Features
Battery Info
Sony is now including a pretty neat 'Battery Info' feature on their MiniDV models. The battery info option allows you to learn how much time is left on the battery, both using the LCD and using the viewfinder; without turning the camcorder on. With the DCR-TRV22, you open up the LCD screen and press the battery info button and the battery information is calculated and displayed on the screen - with out truly powering up the camcorder (of course it does take power to display the battery information on the screen itself - but Sony says it's faster and more convenient than having to turn the camcorder on to learn how much batter time is remaining.
USB Streaming
As with last years models, the DCR-TRV22 includes USB streaming for using your camcorder as a web cam. You can hook it up to windows messenger to do web chats or use it for other web cam functions. I do not know if Sony actually changed anything with the USB streaming on the new camcorders and I was unable to test out the USB streaming at CES.

Comparisons
The DCR-TRV22 is the second most inexpensive MiniDV camcorder Sony is offering in the new 2003 line. The biggest upgrade it has above the lower model, the DCR-TRV19 is the inclusion of a Memory Stick slot and a color viewfinder. As for the Memory Stick slot - its a nice feature to have - however the still resolution is very low - only 640 x 480, when you take stills of a tape with the lower model - although they won't be shot using progressive mode (instead using interlaced mode) - the resolution is going to be about the same. I strongly believe that the DCR-TRV22 will produce slightly better quality stills than the DCR-TRV19, however I don't think the upgrade is worth the extra $100. As for the color viewfinder, I actually prefer black and white viewfinders because they are sharper than the color ones, making it easier to adjust focus - although every other higher model includes a color viewfinder - I consider it a downgrade.

Combined with the DCR-TRV19 and the DCR-TRV33, the DCR-TRV22 replaces last years DCR-TRV18 with three camcorders. In the 2002 lineup The DCR-TRV18 cost $799 - while the lower priced digital models, the Digital8s were the entry level digital models. Apparently because Canon was beating Sony in some months in sales of Canon ZR models when compared to similarly priced Digital8 models - Sony has redone their model line reducing the number of Digital8 models from five to two, and replacing them with the DCR-TRV19, DCR-TRV22 and the DCR-TRV33. When compared to the DCR-TRV18, I would certainly consider this a downgrade. Withholding judgment on picture quality, in manual control and easy of use, I would have to say that the DCR-TRV18 did much better, however the DCR-TRV18 was priced at $800. The cost of the DCR-TRV22 is $700. At a price point of $700, last years similarly priced model was the DCR-TRV340. I wasn't a huge fan of it - as in I didn't think it was of great value, however control wise it did was much easier to use than I think the DCR-TRV22 is; however I think that the DCR-TRV22 will produce a better picture in the end. I think you are trading handling quality and general feature set for picture quality.

The only similarly priced model which I have been able to do have a through hands on look at s the Canon ZR70MC. The 70MC, like the DCR-TRV22 includes a memory card slot, however the ZR70MC takes SD cards. The 70MC has a 22x optical zoom, compared to the 10x optical on the DCR-TRV22. The ZR70MC in my opinion is much easier to hold than the DCR-TRV22. Lastly, the control of the ZR70MC isn't completely forced into a slightly hard to use 'touch screen' LCD, the ZR70MC uses actual buttons. However, the ZR70MC does not offer the nice spot metering and spot focus of the DCR-TRV22. I like the ZR70MC a lot more than the DCR-TRV22, it offers the manual control of the DCR-TRV22, however you can operate it with out opening up the LCD - you do give up the in-between auto and manual control of the spot functions - however the Canon ZRs have quality manual control. Of course, this is not at all based on a picture quality comparison - just a hands on feature set, handling and ease of use comparison.

Conclusion
In the end, I would recommend the DCR-TRV22 to the user who wants total simplicity. To the user who is never going to want to do much manual control with their camcorder - and to the user who just wants to point and shoot. The problem with the DCR-TRV22 is that you are paying $100 more (over the DCR-TRV19) for a Memory Stick slot to record low resolution. If you are actually interested in having quality still which you can print out, it is worth forking over the extra $100 for the next model up, the DCR-TRV33 - which has a Mega pixel CCD. I think the DCR-TRV22 is the awkward in-between model which is a set up - but not one that I would put my money on - especially considering what else is out there.