Sony DCR-TRV19 camcorder

In January 2004, I purchased the Sony DCR-TRV19 camcorder from Future Shop for $749.99 CDN. This is a fairly small size DV camcorder (610 grams or 1 lb. 5 oz) that takes adequate video, but makes most daytime footage seem like it was shot on a dark or overcast day. I was not sufficiently happy with this unit to want to keep it for vacation use. If you are interested in this model, you might be better off with the DCR-TRV22 or TRV33 because they have some significant features that the TRV19 doesn't have.

Likes:

• Stereo mic seems to be unidirectional & picks up more from the front (as it should) than the rear. Did not hear camera operator breathing noises, yet still picked up operator narration fine.
• I liked the LCD touch screen buttons which simplifies users functions & eliminates extra buttons. It was hard to see the buttons on the LCD screen in daylight.
• The tiny NP-FM30 battery (700 mAh of power) that comes with camcorder lasted almost 2 hours while shooting which was pretty good, & optional NP-FM50 battery ($89.99 CDN)(1180 mAh of power)(same physical size as NP-FM30) lasted almost 3 hours. I was impressed with the energy efficiency of this camcorder.
• Lens cap hinges open, which is a good idea.
• The charger/power supply is capable of working on European 240 Volts 50 cycles, or North American 120 Volts 60 cycles.
• Picture was not grainy or noisy when electronic gain was all the way up at +18 dB.
• Camcorder made some attempt to keep black levels up to the proper 7.5 IRE level, though lots of deep blacks feel below this pedestal level.
• Auto focus usually worked well.

Dislikes:

• Doesn't seem to handle high contrast real well. Dark portion gamma is too dark which tends to make most pictures look like it was shot on an overcast day.
• Stereo mic picks up significant wind noise & does not have a mechanical foam wind filter, or an electronic one.
• Only has a 10X optical zoom function, I consider 16X optical zoom a minimum.
• Auto gain goes up to +18 dB with an F1.7 lens opening (wide angle) which gives a 5 lux low light rating. I felt that wasn't light sensitive enough is some lower light situations. Since the CCD imager is very clean at +18 dB (no significant noise), perhaps Sony should consider increasing the auto gain to +24 which would effectively lower it's light sensitivity to 2.5 Lux & make it more comparable to other camcorders, although this would increase the video noise level at +24 dB gain.
• Digital zoom function can be set to 20X or 120X, but both significantly soften the picture sharpness & are semi useless. 20X at the end of it's zoom range was too soft, so I turned off the electronic zoom. I usually turn off digital zoom since it only magnifies what isn't there to begin with once you zoom in beyond the extra screen raster of 680,000 pixels (twice what is required for NTSC). In my opinion, digital zooms are mostly a worthless feature (especially in the higher magnification range), thrown in to impress the consumer who doesn't realize the compromise in quality that comes with digital zoom.
• Colors seem adequate, perhaps slightly undersaturated.
• Electronic motion stabilizer circuitry (Super Steady Shot) wasn't very impressive compared to the Canon ZR60.
• Camcorder has video/audio out, but not IN so you can't record from another source (DCR-TRV22 & TRV33 have video/audio IN).
• White levels went up to about 105 IRE & made no attempt to keep levels down to 100 IRE & like all consumer camcorders makes no attempt to compress white levels so they don't clip or affect overall picture brightness.
• It is necessary to charge the battery on the camera unless you purchase the optional BC-VM50 or BC-TRM charger cradle.
• Can't easily display camcorder functions (f stop, gain, auto, AWB, time, date, etc) on camcorder LCD screen without also superimposing them on video output. Unfortunately this information is only available when played back on the same brand of camcorder.
• Switch that determines on/off, VCR or camera functions was hard to see which position it was in & easily bumped into the on position from off.
• There is a "Nightshot" on/off button which takes pictures in almost no light (0 lux using infrared lighting), but the pictures are greenish (not natural color) so this has extremely limited practicality. The DCR-TRV22 & TRV33 has a "Super Nightshot" feature as well as a slow shutter feature which increases light sensitivity.
• If you were reviewing shot footage & didn't cue up to the tail of recorded material, but instead started recording in blank tape, the counter would reset to zero, which makes it more difficult to locate footage later.
• Auto white balance (AWB) sometimes jumped all over the place (responds too fast) & therefore caused some shots to look off in color. I didn't think it accurately accessed the color temperature sometimes.
• There are out connections for S-Video, A/V (composite & stereo audio) & firewire IEEE 1394 in/out, as well as a USB connection. Comes with an A/V & USB cable, but no S-video or firewire cable.
• To view the LCD screen in proper contrast, you must tilt it up. Looking straight on doesn't give the correct contrast.

By Doug Hembruff.
Last updated January 19, 2004