First Review Available! Sony DCR-TRV950 Camcorder Review

by Robin Liss
Published on Jun 27, 2002 12:00 AM



Camcorderinfo.com was the first to report rumors of the DCR-TRV950, and now we're the first publication to have a full hands on review! Sony has set a new standard for high level consumer / prosumer camcorders with the 3 CCD MiniDV DCR-TRV950. The DCR-TRV950 follows in the steps of it's predecessor, the TRV900 and produces excellent quality video with bright colors. The camcorder delivers extensive manual control, combined with good looking stills and many other features. This excellent performance makes the Sony DCR-TRV950 a CamcorderInfo.com Select camcorder for it's price range – and possibly the best combination of price and quality of all consumer camcorders available.

Video Imaging

The DCR-TRV950 has an MSRP of $2699 and a street price around $2400. The Sony DCR-TRV950 has three, 1/4.7 in. Mega Pixel CCDs. The effective video resolution of the camcorder is 690K pixels. The camcorder has a 3.6 – 43.2 mm lens with an F range of 1.6 to 2.8. The video quality is absolutely supberb. The colors look very bright and well defined. The picture is also very sharp, certainly comparable to broadcast quality. Even in low light conditions, the DCR-TRV950 produces an excellent image. I was extremely impressed with the picture quality of the camcorder. I feel at this point, that the DCR-TRV950 is the best deal for picture quality of any consumer or prosumer camcorder available, when price is a factor. Although I haven't done a side by side comparison in the initial review, I can confidently say that the image quality is better than the Canon GL-1, and improved over the DCR-TRV900 and better than all Sony consumer models other than the VX2000.

The Front

Before we get into the features of the DCR-TRV950, I want to give you a tour around the 950. If you want to get straight to the performance of the features, you can skip this section. On the front of the camcorder is the lens and the lens hood. The lens hood is removable by slightly unscrewing it. The lens hood is square and helps protect the lens from simple bumps. The filter diameter of the DCR-TRV950 is 37 mm. Looking at the camcorder from the front, on the left side is a 1/8 in. standard mic jack which is protected by a small plastic cover. Located slightly above and to the left of the mic jack is the Hologram AF auto focus emitter. The emitter is the same diameter as the mic jack, in fact I think they used the same mold for the two holes. When I first saw this I immediately worried that I would stick a mic plug in the Hologram AF emitter hole by mistake and break the Hologram AF emitter. I like the mic jack on the front, but I think the Hologram AF emitter is placed really poorly. Below the lens in the on camera right and left mics, separated by the IR sensor for the remote. In the middle of the IR emitter is a small record light which can be toggled on or off from the menu.

The Right Side

On the right side is the tape transport mechanism. The tape eject button is located on the top of the camcorder and recessed about .7 cm. It takes quite a lot of force to slide the eject button so you won't accidentally eject it. The tape loading mechanism folds out. Located in front of the tape (where the tape window would usually be) is the Memory Stick slot. To load the Memory Stick you slide a purple button which is located on top of the camcorder towards the back. The memory stick slot folds open and you slide the Memory Stick in. I think the tape and Memory Stick loading mechanisms are cleverly designed by Sony.

The Back

The back of the DCR-TRV950 holds the InfoLithium type M batteries. The included battery is model NP-FM50 which gives approximately 95 minutes continuos recording time with the viewfinder, and 75 minutes continuous recording time with the LCD screen. It should be noted that as you zoom and use other power intensive functions like the flash, the battery life decreases.

Most of the manual controls are located on the back of the camcorder, including the Program AE button, and the manual shutter speed, white balance, exposure and audio level buttons as well as the jog dial used to control all those features.

The Left Side

On the left side towards the lens are the focus controls and the fader button. Above the focus controls are is a flash button to toggle the flash on off or to automatic. On the bottom part of the camcorder the back light, spot light, edit search frame by frame and Auto Lock feature. The menu button is located on the left side towards the back of the camcorder. When you open up the LCD screen the VCR controls, volume control, zebra patter switch, data code button, color bar button, custom present button and speaker are revealed.

The Top

On the top of the camcorder is the pop-up flash, smart shoe adapter, network button (to access the network features of the camcorder) and the viewfinder.

Manual Control

The DCR-TRV950 gives you manual control over almost all important picture elements other than picture gain. You can adjust the exposure, white balance, shutter speed, audio level and focus all manually. The shutter speed is adjusted by pressing a small button on the back left of the camcorder and then rotating the jog dial located at the very bottom left of the camcorder.Your shutter speed is displaced on the LCD or viewfinder in the bottom left of the screen.You can set the shutter speed from ¼ of a second to 1/10,000.

Below the shutter speed button is the white balance button. Holding down the white balance button will set the white balance for the camcorder. As you set the white balance a button icon flashes on the bottom middle of the screen. Typically, camcorders with manual white balance would have a user manually set white balance as well as a preset indoor and outdoor setting. The indoor and outdoor settings were nice because it gave you some customization of white balance when you didn't have the time or means to set it manually. However, indoor and outdoor presets are missing from the DCR-TRV950.

Still on the left back of the camcorder, below the white balance button is the exposure button. When you press the exposure button a bar pops up in the top left corner of the screen with a slider showing your exposure. You adjust the exposure by using the same dial used to adjust the shutter speed. Sony has always disappointed me with the manual exposure control on their consumer camcorders. All of their consumer camcorders, including the DCR-TRV950 show a dial for exposure but they do not give numerical F stop ratings. Although a numerical F stop rating isn't needed it would be a good feature especially so you could take note of the settings used in specific shooting conditions and make other calculations.

One of the very useful upgrades of the DCR-TRV950 over the lower Sony MiniDV models is the ability to a zebra pattern on and off. A zebra pattern is a professional feature that displays a slanted black lines on areas of the picture that are over exposed, these zebra lines don't appear on the final tape, just in the LCD or viewfinder. They are very helpful in setting the exposure. You can set the zebra switch to off, 70 or 100. The number corresponds to the minimum IRE brightness which will activate the zebra pattern.

Located on the left side of the camcorder is a small metal switch called the Auto Lock selector.This is certainly an excellent feature on the DCR-TRV950. If you slide the switch to it's right most position the camcorder will operate in full auto mode or in an automatic exposure setting. The center position lets you adjust the picture controls manually. If you move the switch to the far right position, it will lock the shutter speed, white balance and exposure how you set them in the middle position. This way, if you calibrate your camcorder you won't accidentally change a picture element.

Manual focus is controlled by a focus ring around the lens. On the left of the lens, slightly behind the the focus ring is a switch that allows you to select auto or manual focus control. You can also slide the button down to ''infinity'' range focus. There is also a button located below the focus switch to have the camcorder set the focus while in manual focus mode. The large diameter of the lens makes focusing through the focus ring quite easy, because the ring is not too sensitive. When you are focusing manually a counter pops-up in the bottom center of the screen telling you the distance in meters that the focus is set at.

The camcorder also has a back light and a spot light button located on the bottom left side of the camcorder. The back light button is standard and the spot light button is for situations where a lot of the scene is dark, but there is one bright spot – like in a theater. Sony has included a spotlight Automatic Exposure mode on their camcorders for years, but a specific spotlight button is fairly new. I really like this feature because you can turn on the spot light feature, but still have control over the other picture elements. Overall the camcorder provides good manual control, and I especially like the Auto Lock selector. The one important missing control is control of picture gain, which I cover further on.

The neatest innovation on this camcorder with picture control is the Spot Meter and Spot Focus controls. The LCD screen on the DCR-TRV950 is a touch screen. You use the touch screen to access the network features, digital effects and the memory mix mode, but more about those later. You can either press the buttons on the LCD screen using your finger / finger nail (which Sony probably discourages because it will blur the screen) or using a stylus which is neatly stored on the right side soft strap of the camcorder. The best utilization of the touch screen are the Spot functions. When you press the FN icon on the LCD screen a menu screen pops-up with a page one and page two tab on the top four buttons on the bottom. The first button is the Spot Focus button. When you press the button a box, appears on the screen. You can touch any where on the screen, or rather on any object, and the DCR-TRV950 will quickly switch focus to that object. This is a really great feature and a very creative innovation. It's a great way to escape those funky automatic focus blues with out trying to master the focus ring.

Once you press the okay button you exit the spot focus mode and go back to the first touch screen. The far right button is the Spot Meter button. When you click on the Spot Meter icon, you enter a mode similar to the Spot Focus mode. Wherever you tap, the camcorder sets the exposure for that object. This features is very useful for situations where there is a lot of contrast and the user is having problems adjusting the exposure – however, since exposure is less sensitive on the camcorder and because it's more of a greatest good picture element, the Spot Meter feature isn't appropriate for all situations.

Zoom

The camcorder has a 12X optical, 150X digital zoom. The zoom is controlled by a rocker switch. Although the rocker is a nice feature, I found that it was overly sensitive, and that there were not enough levels of variable zoom. It was hard to get and keep a really slow zoom. I know it would be tough to put a larger rocker on the camcorder, however, it would be nice if it gave more resistance when pressed – this would make it easier to perform a slow, controlled zoom. I would recommend buying an external zoom controller if you are going to get the DCR-TRV950.

Still

The camcorder saves digital stills to Sony's Memory Stick format. The camcorder comes with an 8 MB Memory Stick.The Mega Pixel CCD's allow the camcorder to take 1152 x 868 pixel stills. One 8 MB Memory Stick can fit 35 stills. The camcorder includes a pop-up flash which really helps in low light situations. To take stills you can either press the Photo button while in camera mode, recording or not, or switch into photo mode. In Photo / Network mode the camcorder indicates how many stills you can take as well as home many second of MPEG video you can record. The touch screen LCD really helps in managing the stills on the camcorder. If you press the index button you can see previews of 6 stills at a time. From here you can mark stills for deleting or lock stills.

When viewing a still if you press the function button you are given many more options. A really cool feature is the ability to zoom in on regions of the photo just by touching them on the touch screen. From here you can also navigate the pictures in full screen mode, or turn on a slide show where the camcorder automatically cycles through all the pictures on the Memory Stick.

The DCR-TRV950 connects to the computer via USB. Once you've installed the drivers, which was easy and went without and problems, you just hook your camcorder up to your camcorder via a small USB cable which is a standard cable on one end, and a small USB jack that hooks up to the camcorder on the other side. The camcorder appears in your computer as a removable drive. The stills are pretty good, although the resolution is lower than what you can get on the DCR-TRV50. The DCR-TRV50 stills were good for a camcorder, but not great. The 3 CCDs on the DCR-TRV950 really produce some excellent stills with very good colors and acceptable resolution.

The camcorder also includes a Hologram AF automatic focus feature for stills. I explained my fears of poking the sensor out earlier. This features is somewhat cool. The camcorder projects these little red laser lights onto a surface (which Sony assures you won't hurt you) and uses them to auto focus. It's neat a neat feature because it can be very hard to focus in really really dark situations.

Below are two example stills which were taken in pretty poor lighting conditions.Click on the thumbnails to see the full images. Be careful, they have very little compression so they are large files.

VCR Mode

The VCR buttons are hidden behind the LCD. The obvious downside to this is that when you are reviewing a tape, you have to have the LCD open, and thus if you are using a battery you are going to drain your battery twice as fast. I really like the VCR buttons that the Sony uses on the DCR-TRV950. Instead of being made out of soft rubber, or being the flat kind, they are made out of hard plastic. They really depress when you push them and have a very good tactile feel. The one VCR control that is a little oddly placed is the edit search backwards and forwards buttons, which are the frame by frame shuttle buttons. They are not grouped right next to the other VCR buttons behind the LCD screen, but rather towards the bottom of the camcorder. I noticed that the tape rewinds really fast on the DCR-TRV950. I'm not sure if it's faster than the other Sony MiniDV camcorders because this isn't something I usually notice, but it was really fast and the camcorder heads made a very loud whirring noise. In fact the noise might be too loud so that it would draw attention in a quiet shooting environment.

Low Light Performance

One of the most talked about issues with the DCR-TRV950 is the low light performance. Specifically, the DCR-TRV900 had a minimum LUX rating of 4 while the DCR-TRV950 has a minimum lux rating of 7. I am yet to do a side by side comparison and I will try to during the period I have the camcorder for review. However, I must say that overall I am impressed with the low light performance of the camcorder. In a fairly poorly lit environment, not to the point of a night club or a bar, but certainly not well lit, the camcorder performs very well and the automatic gain doesn't kick in very much (where other camcorders would). When the automatic gain does kick in, it is barely noticeable. One of the weaknesses of the camcorder is that you can not manually control the gain – and I ran into situations where I could tolerate or needed more gain. In fact, the weakest aspect of the low light performance that I found was the fact that there was not enough gain when it was needed. Although there is not full manual control, you can set limits on the automatic gain. If you feel the gain is too much, the camcorder has a custom preset mode which allows you to set a limit of 6 or 12 dB. I think overall most users will be very happy and very satisfied with the low light performance of the DCR-TRV950 – I was.

LCD / Viewfinder

When you're dealing with a prosumer camcorder like the DCR-TRV950 I believe the manufacturer should do their best to make the camcorder as close to a professional camcorder as possible. Time and time again, Sony puts color viewfinders on their prosumer camcorders, as they have with the DCR-TRV950. I find it hard to get a very accurate focus with an LCD monitor and especially with a color viewfinder. I also find that I like to switch between a color LCD and a black and white viewfinder when adjusting picture elements. As professional videographers find, the added sharpness and contrast of a black and white viewfinder can't be beat – that's why black and white viewfinders are standard on professional camcorders. I really wish Sony had put a black and white viewfinder on the DCR-TRV950, and the VX2000 for that matter.

Audio

The on-camera mic is pretty good but it does pick up a lot of background noise. If you're looking for a really good video, you're going to want to go with an external mic. I was disappointed with the amount of noise that the camcorder makes and how much the microphone mics up. In reviewing the tape, I heard a lot of background camera noise, a typical weakness of on-camera mics.

A nice feature is that with the DCR-TRV950 you can manually setting the mic recording level. By pressing this button, an audio meter pops up. As with most MiniDV camcorders, you can record in 12-bit or 16-bit audio mode. An added feature on the DCR-TRV950 is an audio dubbing mode, which lets you rerecord the audio over previously recorded video.

Handling

The DCR-TRV950 handles nicely. The camcorder weighs 2 LB 2 oz. The camcorder is 3 and ¾ in. wide by 4 in. tall by 8 in. long. The weight is too much to comfortably hold in one hand for a long period of time, but just right for two hands. The camcorder also has enough heft that it isn't too shaky. If you hold the camcorder through the strap in your right hand, and cradle the lens with our left you can easily adjust the focus, zoom and recording and get stable shots. I really like this size camcorder, I think it weighs just enough and is the right size.

MPEG Recording / USB Streaming

You can also record MPEG videos to the Memory Stick, in either 320 x 240 resolution or in 240 x 180 resolution. The MPEG videos are only limited by the size of the Memory Stick. You transfer the MPEG videos from the camcorder to the computer just like the stills. Although they are neat, the quality is horrible and would only really be acceptable for distribution on the web. The DCR-TRV950 also includes USB streaming, this allows you to use the camcorder as a web cam or as an internet videophone through the USB port.

Network Features

The DCR-TRV50 includes Bluetooth wireless networking technology. This allows the camcorder to communicate with another Bluetooth enabled device that is around 30 feet away. On the DCR-TRV50, the Bluetooth is used for enabling internet features. You can wireless connect to either a Bluetooth enabled cell phone, or an adapter that connects to a normal phone line, which Sony sells separately. You enter the network mode by sliding the power switch to Photo / Network mode, and by pressing the Network button on the top of the camcorder. Once you are in Network mode, a light by the Network button glows a really bright a cool looking blue. Once in Network mode you have four options, Mail, Browser, Album and Setup.

Setup is where you configure the internet options of the camcorder. You can configure the camcorder to connect to your own ISP or Sony's So-Net service. You can also setup your mail server for the email functions and you setup the browser proxy and port. You can also setup the network options and Bluetooth options from the Setup menu. Sony also offers a free online digital imaging service to use with your camcorder. You can sign up for this either through the camcorder or through your PC.

There mail function allows you to send email's with still image attachments. You can also receiving emails from your existing email account. The camcorder also has an address book (I can't believe I just typed that) to save email addresses. The album function interfaces with Sony's digital imaging website. Using this function you can upload images from your camcorder to your own personal online album. You can also view your album from the camcorder. The last function allows you to browse the web with the camcorder. I must admit the Network Handycam functions are slowly growing on me. When they first came out with them, the camcorders did not have touch screens. The addition of a touch screen has made it much easier to use the Network functions. Composing emails is somewhat possible with the stylus by typing them out on a tiny keyboard. It would be really cool if the camcorder had handwriting recognition software like Palm computers have. I think the most practical use for the Network functions is when you're on the road for a long time and you want to keep up with the world. I hope to spend more time with a network camcorder on a trip and write an article on the Network functions. At this point, I think the touch screen has moved me from negative, to neutral.

Other Features

As comes standard on every Sony camcorder, the DCR-TRV950 includes programed auto exposure modes, though I'd hope that if you're spending this much on a camcorder you would utilize the great manual features. The camcorder also includes digital effects but I wouldn't recommend using them – on any camcorder. You can also fade up from black, white or certain digital effects or fade out to those same effects using the fade button. Hidden behind the LCD screen near the VCR buttons is a color bar button. Pressing it will generate a standard color bar pattern which you can record to tape. I think this is a very useful, and professional feature. I would recommend recording color bars to every tape before you record video on it. There's an story in the Guides and Tips section on the importance of color bars, you should check it out.

The DCR-TRV950 has Memory Mix mode. This mode allows you to overlay graphics or stills from the Memory Stick. You can also use luminance or chromaky to overlay the video on top of a still image, like the weather people do. Memory Mix mode is a neat feature, but anyone who is serious about any of these options will do it later in a computer editing environment.

The electronic steady shot on the DCR-TRV950 is really good. It seems as though Sony has used the extra 300K+ pixels (the camcorder only uses 690K pixels for video) for the electronic steady shot. The steady shot is really good on this camcorder, arguably the best I've seen. Of couse, nothing will replace a good tripod.

The DCR-TRV950 gives you two options for tape recording speed. You can record in both SP and LP mode. The DCR-TRV950 can also record using Interval recording mode. This mode allows you to do time-lapse recording by recording. You can set the interval at 30 seconds, 1 minute, 5 minutes or 10 minutes. The camcorder will then record one frame at at time, waiting the desired length each time. You can also manually record one frame at a time, which is useful for stop motion animation. Another recording feature of the camcorder is cassette memory. This allows you to mark different shots with titles and search for them later, as well assign a tape a label.

Sony included a lens cleaning cloth with the camcorder. This is great! I think it's such a smart move, my only fear is that people will loose it really fast. The camcorder also gives you some other options from the menu. You can turn on a guide frame which overlays a white box in the center of the shot. The guide frame works off the rule of thirds. If you were to extend the lines on the guide box in all directions you would create a tic tac toe board. This is another really innovative feature by Sony, however if you don't know the rule of thirds (which we have articles on in the Guides and Tips section) you might use it incorrectly.

The DCR-TRV950 includes many input / output connectors. The camcorder includes separate 1/8 in. mic in and headphone out jacks. The camcorder includes a mini RCA jack which is converted into a video and a left and right channel signal using the supplied cable. The camcorder has an IEEE 1394 FireWire (or i.Link as Sony likes to call it) port for transferring video from your camcorder to your computer or back again. The TRV950 has an S-Video port which acts both as an input and an output. For transferring images and MPEG video the DCR-TRV950 has a mini USB port and lastly the DCR-TRV950 has a Lanc Control-L port for zoom controllers or editing controllers.

As for accessories, the DCR-TRV950 includes an 8 MB Memory Stick, an AC adaptor, a Mini jack to RCA cable, a USB cable, a remote, batteries for the remote, a camcorder battery, a camcorder strap, drivers and software for digital imaging.

Conclusion

The DCR-TRV950 camcorder is well designed. The lens and three CCDs produces a great looking image which is truly superior to similarly priced camcorders. The camcorder certainly surpasses the high standard that the DCR-TRV900 set three years ago. The camcorder comes with most manual controls you will need. The 950 has it's weaknesses; specifically little gain control, a bad zoom control, and especially the fact that Sony forgot to put a clip on the lens cap so you have nothing to attach it to and it just dangles. The touch screen is a useful improvement (which we've been lacking over the past few years) and is beginning to make the Network Handycam Bluetooth features useable. In total, the Sony DCR-TRV950 produces excellent video and excellent stills, and we're proud to award it the CamcorderInfo.com Select award for it's price range.

These are my first impressions of the DCR-TRV950. I wanted to get the majority of the review up fast for those eager to hear about the camcorder. I am planning on doing some more technical tests before I have to send it back. The most important test on my list is a side by side comparison to the DCR-TRV900. I would also like to do a resolution test as well as a test to show how much extraneous sound the camcorder makes.