This is a Great Camera!

I have a Sony CCD-TRV30 (circa 1995) and I felt it was getting a bit old. When I looked at CamCorders I felt that the Sony was going to be my preference due to its outstanding performance from the past. I wanted a better zoom than the TRV30 had (12x optical) and a lighter weight. The TRV128 satisfied that with an excellent 20x optical and a large digital zoom. I was skeptical of digital zoom having experiences with Digital Cameras with very poor results. But based on my limited experience at the moment - I can state that one can use the Digital Zoom up to 40x without a serious problem. In fact - in setup one can choose to leave zoom only for Optical - or Choose Optical and Digital up to 40x - or Optical and Digital up to 990x - so it seems Sony knows that above 40x it is a maybe situation. There is a slider bar with a mark showing where Optical Zoom ends and Digital begins.

I would suggest for those considering this camera to invest in a TV-Card and/or an Analogue Capture Card so one can transfer the video to their computer. These items are relatively inexpensive - with just a plain vanilla capture card going for about $20 and a TV-Card not much higher. This will give you the ability to edit your video and then send it back out. I use a Scan Converter to send my edited work back out to the TV/VCR and of course once on the computer it is a snap to burn a CD/DVD with your video.

I prefer the Analogue world for video - and as another reviewer wrote - it just seems that analogue is crisper and more life-like than Digital. The camera uses Hi8 tapes, but can playback Video8 tapes (which is what the TRV30 used).

I looked at competing products - the JVC brought me looking as it was less than $200.00 on sale (wanting expanded zoom I could have purchased a teleconverter for $80.00) - so I simply chose the Sony as it was also on sale, but about $50.00 higher than the JVC which uses VHS-C tapes, but they can only hold 30minutes of video compared to the two hours for Hi8 at the same price. This meant I would have need to spend $36.00 to get tapes enough to hold six hours of video instead of $12.00. The $24.00 difference and the superior quality of Sony in the past sold me.

I hope if you are considering a CamCorder - you will try the TRV128 as it is an excellent camera with outstanding optics at distant and close range.