Sony Digital8

[KeithReeman]

Bob C
I read the review of the Sony DCR-TR7000 with great interest but would like to ask whether you intend to do a full review on it as a camcorder. I read a reply that you made to a letter in which you aired doubts about the format's ability to replay Hi-8 tapes and also doubts about the quality of the front-end (lens and CCD).

I and I'm sure many others would be very interested to see the results of such a review before too long.
Cheers
Keith

[Pj24Davis]

Bob, if you are doing a review, can you say something about the auto white-balance (i.e. no manual white balance) and exactly how balanced it really is!
Thanks

[pcwells]

On a purely subjective level, I wasn't too struck by the picture and sound quality of the camcorder. Auto white balance worked fine for most situations, but the overall quality was very ordinary, lacking clarity in artificial or low light. As a camcorder, I certainly wouldn't recommend it over DV models in the same price range, but as a digital VCR it was quite lovely.

Hope this helps,

Peter Wells

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Deputy editor, Computer Video Magazine

[Colin Barrett]

I think Digital 8 is a welcome little format, though the TRV110 I've been using lately does suffer from compromise engineering in the way that Peter describes. Image quality is definitely on the "average" side. As a simple backwards-compatible device, though, it's very useful - especially for the DV-editing card owner with lots of mixed-format 8mm tapes to capture. But, to be honest, I think it's a subtle technique for Sony to squeeze a little more life out of its 8mm manufacturing capability whilst it gears up for solid-state recording.

Colin Barrett
Freelance contributor, Computer Video

[neilbuck]

Come on guys! I think you are running the risk of becoming a little too 'Hi-Fi' minded. Do you watch the video or the pixels? I have 2 of these 7000 D8 machines and I compared their performance wich a number of 3 chip cameras before buying. I;m hugely impressed with this cam, forget the fact that it plays Hi-8 tapes, thats purely incedental to me, it weighs up heavily on features and manual controls (20x Optical zoom!) And now I've got a digital VCR too, all for under £550 Can't be bad huh!
Who cares if the format dies in a few years, they're all going to die one day. Lets not get too precious pleeeeeeese!!!

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Neil Grant