cameras for fun
 

Hi there. I am already an avid user of the digital cameras, but am now looking to get something on the consumer side, so when I'm on vacation or with friends, I'm not carrying my xl1s with me, although that would still be pretty cool.

Without price being an option, I was looking between the sony trv22 or the elura 50. From what I've read about the two, the sony gets slightly better reviews, but they are both pretty much the same down the line.

I'm looking for the camera to do general shooting, low lighting situations can be alright. I believe that the sony does a better job in the low lighting than the canon. Also, from what I've read, the sony doesn't have any sort of wind shield or protection. I did plan on using this when skiing :) So any thoughts would be good for that, too.

I was hoping someone who has also done the kind of research that I'm doing, and someone who has actually used them, could offer there own personal opinion. As many of you know, reading "professional" opinions can only go so far.

I appeciate everyones help again.

There's been quite a buzz around the Canon Optura Xi around here lately. That might be worth checking out (there are a few threads here and there dealing with this camera).

for FUN camera i use is the original Elura ( 4 years old) ..
i like it because it is small - though not as small as elura 50 ...
i take this on holidays and have it with me most of the time ..
IMO size does make a difference when you are having fun - and if you want FUN IMO the smaller camera with slightly less spec's is the way to go as it is NO fun trying to carry the larger camera around with you ..
i'm off to Cuba next month so do i take GL1 or Elura ? well for me there is no 2nd thoughts- ELURA !! fits in pocket ..it's holidays

it's not the best in low light , the mic is so-so ...

Appreciate all of the thoughts so far.

i picked up a sony trv-19, pretty much on a whim, it was REALLY cheap and it is pretty small.

i hadn't realized how good the small ones had gotten until i played with a trv-19 at a clients office and i was impressed so when i saw one at tweeter and saw how cheap they were i picked one up.

matthew

The TRV19 is the TRV22 with less features. I shot a few hours on the TRV22. The image quality should be good in most situations, but in the situations I shot in I noticed false colors in certain places. The lighting was stage lighting set up by a TV crew (sorry I have no idea what temperature lighting it was). False colors show up in most of my shots which is ok except when stuff is moving. In one shot it showed up in a guy's forehead which was REALLY annoying. You can kind of see it at http://www.foraychallenge.ca/dayone.html (speech by John Pollanyi). I don't think this problem happens outdoors. Some other brands exhibit this problem too.

Camcorderinfo.com sort of has a review for the TRV22. The TRV22 has pretty good low light for its price point. It's actually better than the higher models in its family in terms of low light. All of the images have the "Sony pop" look to them- contrasty and highly saturated to my eyes.

The mic is OK for a camcorder mic. I don't find the quality of camcorder mics acceptable but that's me (with the exception of the TRV120, but that's another story). On the clips at foraychallenge.ca (see link above) you can hear lots of sibiliance on "s"s. I'm not sure if this is a camcorder problem.

Easy of use: ok. I don't like the touch screen too much. It's hard to use its features while your other hand is holding the camera. The camera does very well with its auto-features. Manual features are not too practical to use while shooting. In stage lighting situations I find that Sony cameras tend to overexpose. You can kind of compensate with "spotlight" mode in the them but it doesn't go far enough. I don't know how other brands of cameras handle that kind of situation.

The resolution of the camera isn't as good as a prosumer 3CCD camera but should be good enough for your needs. I guestimate the lines of resolution to be about 400+ whereas a 3CCD camera would be 500+. When presented with a shot of a real-world situation I probably wouldn't notice the *resolution* difference right away.

i think i checked out the trv-22 and the only real difference was the color viewfinder (i really liked the simple black and white) and it had a memory stick for the still camera (which i had no use for) and it was like $200 more

the trv-19 was under $500 which made it a neat toy!

plus its so small it fits in a jacket pocket, the other sony they had was even smaller but i like the shape of the trv-19 better.

matthew

An extra feature that's actually useful is analog-digital passthrough. I believe the XL1s already has that feature so it would be redundant.

I second the trv19 as Fun Cam. It does indeed have a b/w v/f, and no analog/digital passthrough. Very cuddly, I forget it's on my hand :=). Bought it as a deck for my PDX!0, but it I'm also enjoying it for black and white experimentation (if color is it's weakness, get rid of color! :) ). My latest fun effect with it is going to b/w and switching on nightshot in low light. Ghostly.

This is great so far. I really appreciate all of your thoughts. I'm leaning now more towards the trv19. All I really need is a half decent camera to shoot. Nothing to special.

Thanks

i remember years ago my first digital camcorder, a sony trv-510 i was so happy to get a color viewfinder and then i found that i actually preferred the black and white.

what is digital/analog passthrough exactly?

i have a sony gv-d900 clamshell that i use for weird stuff, did something last week where i took a cheap ccd lipstick camera and taped it to the bottom of a small private plane and ran the wire into the cockpit and flew around western mass. and got the whole flight from takeoff roll to landing. it was kind of neat.

i need to get a better quality lipstick camera...

matthew

You might want to check out the new Canon Optura 300. I have not seen the camera, but understand that it has the same form factor as the Elura 50, but with improved optics, CCD, etc.

Digital/analog passthroughs are a way to use the cam to digitize vhs recordings, for example.

You're quite sure you don't wan't a lower end, somewhat more expensive 3ccd cam? I'd hate to be the guy stretched another's budget, but great color is great color. They aren't really less expensive than $1000, though. Oh yes, and someone has already mentioned the Xi.
Just wanted to run this by you.

What about the Pana DV953? I have heard some good things about this camera - never used it - but it would seem that the quaility would be better than the Canons, seeing as it has 3 CCD's vs. the Canon 1 CCD. And, the DV953 is about the same price as the Optura 300. Anyone know any more about this camera?