Sony's CCD-TRV138 provides excellent Hi8 video recording at an affordable price. It will likely appeal to the budget conscious, those looking for an easy introduction to home video making, and of course anyone with an existing library of Hi8 home movies. The CCD-TRV138 offers all the basic features needed in a point-and-shoot camcorder, including program auto-exposure modes, NightShot Plus for recording in low light, manual focus control, and an array of picture effects, titles, and faders.

Picture quality is extremely good for an analog camcorder. The CCD-TRV138 features a 1/6-inch CCD imager that delivers 200,000 effective pixels, along with a powerful 20X optical/990X digital zoom capability. A tripod will be necessary to steady the camcorder at high magnification levels, and the CCD-TRV138 lacks image stabilization, so even low-zoom recording can suffer from the inevitable camera shakes. The 2-1/2-inch LCD screen rotates 270 degrees to make framing shots as straightforward as possible. It also displays the amount of charge time left in the camera's InfoLithium battery.

Warranty
90 days labor, 1 year parts