Which MiniDV Camcorder with Analog Pass Thru for Capturing?

[DigitalMan43]

I am planning on buying a MiniDV camcorder and one of the main things I want to use it for is to capture from analog sources (VHS, my old 8mm camcorder, etc.) to DV format directly to my computer. I wanted to ask everyone's recommendation for which camcorders have analog pass thru and which ones work well for this.

Other things I'm looking for are small size, mic/headphone/USB/DV/AV IN/OUT connectors, good picture quality, decent low light performance. Still picture capability is nice to have, but not a deciding factor at all.

Right now I'm leaning towards the Canon ZR65. What do you think of it?

Thanks,
DigitalMan

[yg1968]

Have you considered a digital8 camcorder such as the Sony TRV-350. The digital 8 camcorder has the advantage of being compatible with your Hi8 tapes. Digital 8 camcorders also use DV when recording to digital 8 tapes.

As far as DV camcorders are concerned, I have the Sony TRV-25 and I am very happy with it. I believe that it's been replaced by the Sony TRV-22. Anyways all these models have what you need.

[DigitalMan43]

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, I have considered the Digital8's, but as of yesterday made the decision to go with MiniDV. The reasons were the size of MiniDV's is so much smaller. Also I don't like the idea that Digital8 is a Sony only format. Even though I do have a bunch of 8mm tapes, my old Sony 8mm camcorder still works. I want to capture all these 8mm tapes and burn them to DVD anyway soon. So I decided rather than getting a Digital8 that could play these tapes directly, I would go with a MiniDV and use the pass thru to capture these old 8mm tapes.

DigitalMan

[mustang581]

I just purchased a Canon zr70 a few days ago. I have not had a lot of time to play with it except for testing the digital passthrough option, which works well (I use Pinnacle studio8) for capturing.
I have read that it if you shoot indoors (low light) with the default settings you may not get optimal quality, I guess it just might take some pratice and getting to know the camera settings.
I was debating between the Sony and the Canon, it finally came down to finding the canon on sale for about $595.00 (special offer from Dell at the time)
good luck..this is not an easy decission.

[ferries]

I have the Sony DCR-TRV 18 and it is a great camera. It allows you to do what you want with the pass through. In low light, you can get an optional light for the camera but it may not be necessary. It has alot of features, you can take video, still pictures on the memory card as well as on tape. You can even take still pictures from the tape(I have found this great). The clarity of the tapes are far superior to other camera's Ive had too. You can hook it up to your computer by USB or DV.

[yg1968]

Sony has replaced the TRV-18 with the TRV-19.

[PelicanDriver]

Just got the TRV 350 and am real happy with it. But, I haven't been able to load drivers for it under XP or 98. Does anybody know where on the install CD's they may be located? I tried going to Sony's website but couldn't find drivers. Haven't tried MS yet. Any ideas?

[yg1968]

For my Sony TRV-25, I didn't have to install anything. When the camcorder is plugged in, the camcorder is on vtr, Windows XP recognizes it. You may have to enable DV out from your camcorder's menu.

[wild4trv30]

I have Sony's TRV-30. I have used it to it's extremes and have been very happy with it considering it is a 1-chip camera. My only wish is that the still camera features were 3 megapixels and better low-light stills. Video has been great.

The current version is the TRV-50, and I think there is soon to be (in not already) and newer version--TRV-85??

I have used the pass-through feature (I looked for that specific feature too) several times now and it has worked out well. Once I got more involved in this area, I learned that VHS Tape only has a life of about 10 years. Accordingly, I've now converted important tapes to miniDV for future encoding and burning to DVD (once I take the DVD burner plunge).

IMHO, you can't go wrong with Sony's higher end cameras. I would stay away from the microDV format though since it is not as good as miniDV and not as compatible with editing software.

[PelicanDriver]

yg1968, that may be it. The LCD showed "DV In"...I'll dig through the menus and set it to "DV out" and see what happens...Thanks

[slacking]

I just bought a Panasonic PVDV851 from onecall.com for $566.00(http://ww2.onecall.com/PID_11198.htm), it does analog capture, it's also a one megapixel camera vs 680K for Canon. Low light perfomance is better than most, has a manual focus ring and you can manually set the white balance. Setting the white balance was a big one for me because white balance generally sucks under artificial lighting. I think it's probably a step up from the Canon Z65 and cost about the same or less. Also, the audio capture on the Panasonic is flat out superb.