Sony DCR-TRV25 Camcorder Review

The camcorder has a 1 Mega Pixel 1/4.7 in. Advanced HAD™ CCD. The camcorder's video resolution is rated at 520 lines. The CCD is rated to use 690K pixels for video and 1000K pixels for stills. When I compared the images of the DCR-TRV25 to the DCR-TRV18, I couldn't notice a difference is picture resolution or sharpness, but the DCR-TRV25 colors were much more lifelike than the DCR-TRV18. I can confidently say that the DCR-TRV25 produces a noticeably, though not remarkably, better picture than it's smaller CCD cousin, the DCR-TRV18. Interestingly, the CCD on the DCR-TRV25 is smaller than the DCR-TRV18, while the DCR-TRV25 is supposed to be a better model. The smaller CCD results in a higher minimum lux rating of 7, versus the minimum lux of 5 on the DCR-TRV18.

The DCR-TRV25 has a 10X optical and a 120X digital zoom. The zoom on this camcorder is pretty much standard on Sony models. The camcorder has a 2.5 in. LCD screen with 123K pixels.

One of the greatest things about the DCR-TRV25 is the manual control that it delivers. You can manually adjust the autofocus using the focus ring, or adjust the exposure (aperture) using the dial. Unlike the Digital8 models however, you can manually adjust the white balance, and shutter speed. You have to navigate the menu which is a pain, but it's better than no manual control.

The mega pixel CCD on the DCR-TRV25 enables the camcorder to take stills up to 1152 x 864 stills. As with all the other Sony MiniDV models, the camcorder saves the digital stills to Memory Sticks, and the camcorder includes an 8MB Memory Stick. If you want however, Sony has up to 256MB Memory Sticks available so you can save hundreds of stills to one Memory Stick. The camcorder does not have a pop-up flash for taking your digital stills, for that you have to go to the DCR-TRV50. The camcorder transfers the digital stills from the camcorder to the computer via USB.

One of the upgraded features that the DCR-TRV25 has over the DCR-TRV18 is the addition of MPEG Movie EX Mode. This allows you to record unlimited (or rather only limited by the size of the Memory Stick) MPEG video to the Memory Stick. You can record either 160 x 112 or 320 x 240 resolution video.

The camcorder handles pretty well, and there hasn't been much change in the layout between this camcorder and other horizontal Sony MiniDV camcorders. If you were to compare this model to the higher end Digital8 camcorders, like the DCR-TRV740 or 840, which carries a similar price tag, there is a difference. The DCR-TRV25 is much easier to handle with one hand. I do not like the zoom control on the camcorder. When I compare it to those on some of the Panasonic models, although it is bigger, it is also much looser and as a result it's harder to achieve a slow zoom with the variable zoom control.

You got get your video off the camcorder somehow. The camcorder has a IEEE 1394 Firewire port for transferring your video to and from your camcorder to your computer or to any other digital device. The camcorder has both standard, RCA and S-Video in out ports. Importantly, the camcorder has a 1/8 in. microphone in, and headphone out port.

The camcorder has many other extras to spice up the mix. Interesting, it seems that after supporting it for many years Sony has dropped the IR Link feature from the camcorder, it seems it never really caught on. The camcorder has electronic steady shot, which is fine in quality, but will never replace a good tripod. A neat feature that the camcorder has is on the fly analog to digital conversion. This allows you to convert an analog source (coming in through the RCA or S-Video ports) to digital, through the Firewire port on the fly. The camcorder has also added Sony's new color night shot (actually each manufacturer has now converted their older, mono-color night shot to color). The night shot is improved over the first version, however it still has a green hue. There is some color that is noticeable but I still wouldn't recommend shooting anything you care about in night shot mode.

The DCR-TRV25 adds USB streaming, which has also been added to many other Sony digital camcorders. This feature allows the user to hook the camcorder up to their camcorder and stream 320 x 240 video, effectively using the camcorder as a web cam. This feature can be used to shoot video for emails, for the web, or for videoconferencing.

Overall the DCR-TRV25 is a really nice camcorder. The camcorder produces a great looking picture, although the still performance is worse than the lower DCR-TRV18. The mega pixel CCD provides great looking stills. I really think this camcorder is a great choice, the manual control it offers over DCR-TRV740/840 Digital8 models makes it much more desirable in my opinion. This is a really great camcorder that I would recommend. If you're debating between this and the DCR-TRV50, I don't think you need to go with the 50 unless you are very inexperienced and don't think you can handle dial based manual controls or if you don't need super high resolution stills. If you're looking at this camcorder, you should also look at the ZR50MC. Sony also offers the DCR-TRV27 which is the same camcorder but with a larger LCD. I don't think that the larger LCD is really nesseccary, and you'll do just fine with the 2.5 in. LCD. However if you do need the larger LCD, look at the JVC GR-DVL820U which has a lower price than both the DCR-TRV25 and DCR-TRV27.