good

My Sony Handycam DCR-TRV38 was great for the first couple of years. It has always had great sound quality and great picture quality. In these aspects it was superior to many cameras that I used at work and which cost well over a thousand dollars. These most important aspects of the camera, picture and sound quality, are still working extremely well. The problem that I am having, and which has been getting worse more recently, is that the camera is messing up tapes. It is crumpling the tape to the point where they are often unplayable. I do not know if it is just my camera or a more widespread problem but it is worth inquiring about before buying. I am looking into some kind of an easy fix but have not found one yet. It is a shame because otherwise the camera is top notch. The camera is most certainly handy. I used to bring it around in my winter coat pocket and whenever I travel it comes in the main camera bag with our stills. For about a hundred dollars, a 9 hour battery is available and has served me very well overseas. The included battery is sufficient for most occasions lasting a solid two hours. I have taken an enormous amount of footage all over the world with this camera. It is not too good in low light conditions but not too bad either. It has an infrared "nightshot" that works well when lights are simply too low for regular photography. It also has a great many tricks and options for during and after recording. All in all it is easy to manage and it has nice size LCD as well.