What if someone told you could do the following, all with the same device;

• Record digital movies.
• Easily connect to a computer to import and export those movies.
• Add simple digital and picture effects to your recorded creations.
• Take digital photos.
• Easily transfer you digital photos to your computer.
• Play recorded movies on a built in screen, or play them on your TV.

If that interests you, perhaps you should read on! The product that delivers on all the above, and more, is the DCR-TRV720 Sony Handycam.

Visiting the Sony Digital 8 product page yields a selection of similar looking products... but changing a few digits at the end of product number can make quite a difference. Starting with the TRV-120 ($899) , you'll find all the basic functions of a digital video recorder, but no digital camera is included. You'd be wise to move up to the TRV-320 ($999) if you want a digital camera and memory stick media included. The TRV-520 ($1099) adds a larger 3.5" LCD screen, while the TRV-525 ($1099) has only a 3" screen but a colour viewfinder (with an LCD screen, who uses the viewfinder anyway?).

This brings us to the TRV-720 ($1299) - it has "all the above" features, but is equipped with a 4" LCD screen. It's the model ScienceMan describes in this review. A few words before we get started... this review focuses on basics of functionality for the "everyday Joe" who wants to take some photos and do some simple digital video editing. To those of you who find technical details lacking, sorry!

Ok, let's first take a look at these different screen sizes. I've tried the TRV-320 with a 2.5" screen and found it a little small. The 4" screen of the TRV-720 is definitely luxurious and makes it easier to track the action around you (it also has brightness controls right next to the screen - nice touch). It's also an impressive playback screen. The only drawback to the large screen is that it really sucks batteries dry. Using the screen as opposed the viewfinder decreases available battery time by about 40%. If you record with the LCD screen, under typical conditions you can expect about 35 minutes of recording time with the "infoLITHIUM" battery that Sony supplies. If you want to spend another $150, you can get a battery that will provide 275 minutes of recording time. But hey, you can spend many more times the cost of the camera on a variety of accessories!

The design of the camera is much better than previous analog models. The old handycams have the mode switch on the side of the camera, forcing you to turn the camera sideways if you want to change modes. The new digital models have all the modes right at your thumb;

I found this very convenient for quick switching between camera mode and memory (photo) mode. Of course, the big red button is the record button. The strap on the side of the camera made one hand operation very natural. Especially when you consider where Sony thoughfully put the zoom and photo buttons - right under your index finger on the top of the camera;

Speaking of zooming and taking photos, I found both to work pretty well with this camera. The camera claims a "450X digital zoom"... yeah,so? If you're like me, you just want to know that you can zoom in a lot and still maintain quality. Take a look at the following (unaltered) image pairs and judge for yourself, the image sets are taken from exactly the same location, the ones on the right are just zoomed in all the way;

A few things worth noting about digital camera mode;

• the camera only takes images at 640 X 480 (jpeg format)... you can't change resolution.
• for you "shaky Bobs", the camera is equipped with "field mode" that compensates for moving subjects and camera shake, but the quality is not quite as good.
• the camera includes a feature to take successive shots at 0.5 sec intervals.
• as you can see from the images above, quality is not that bad, but keep in mind that this is not exactly a "megapixel" camera... it's only 460k pixels. Like most photography though, lots of light and still conditions improve quality greatly.
• this camera takes mediocre quality shots under typical indoor lighting... bright indoor lighting or supplemental lights are needed for good quality shots indoors.
• the camera can record photos on the 8mm tape if you don't have a memory stick inserted. If you easily want to transfer your pix to computer, you'll want to use the convenient memory stick.

The memory stick technology is pretty impressive. Sony includes a 4MB stick with the camera, which holds about 40 fine quality photos, but 8, 16, 32 and 64 MB sticks are available. Click here to view a short movie of the memory stick. (QuickTime, 1.8 MB) What really makes memory sticks great for the mac user is the very slick MSAC-US1 USB memory stick reader;

This reader installs in a minute (two extensions) and works like a charm. Simply shove your memory stick into the reader and the stick shows up as a volume on your desktop - your photos will be in a folder on that volume. I tested this successfully both on an iMac DV and on a G3 All-in-One equipped with an Orange Micro Firewire/USB card. Sony says in the manual that it does not guarantee that memory sticks formatted by the computer (instead of the camera) will remain compatible, but I didn't have any problem using the computer to erase the sticks.

Well, I suppose this wouldn't be a real camcorder review if I didn't talk about movie making, but this is a case of saving the best for last. Just so that I don't blab on for hours, let me summarize the points I'm most impressed with;

• camera design is ergonomic - really easy to handle
• recorded movie quality is excellent
• VTR controls are clearly marked and responsive to light touch
• easy to access connections included for S-video, traditional A/V jacks and DV
• easy to apply titling and digital effects
• ability to record in 16:9 wide picture mode

I could go on and on with many other features... but I think the most important thing to get across is that every feature I have attempted to use has worked flawlessly, as expected (come to think of it, this may have something to do with the excellent manual, too).

Importing movies to the computer couldn't have been easier. Again, I tested the HandyCam with an iMavDV 400Mhz, as well as a G3 AIO 266MHz. In each case, iMovie2 controlled the camera perfectly - importing video was a snap. Exporting was equally successful. Within the first few hours of using the HandyCam, I was producing great looking QuickTime movies. Just for the heck of it, I experimented with poor light conditions, both outdoors and indoors. These short movies are of some fireworks, and in a dim classroom playing with a laser. Even compressed for the web, they still look pretty good!

If you are considering a camcorder - digital camera combination, I'd definitely go to your local electronics store and give the Sony TRV series a close look. Don't expect razor sharp fantastic photos with the unit, but the quality and resolution is more than good enough for slapping pix onto your web page. All the other functions get three thumbs up, especially the movie recording and DV compatability. Well done, Sony!