plan on buying a video capture card in order to get decent video to your pc.

I simply dont understand the complaints regarding battery life, tape loading, or low light performance. At this price point, and considering the competition, Sony is way ahead of the game.

Two suggestion for all users:

1) Spring [$$$] for a UV or skylight filter to spare the lens.

2) Spend [$$$] for a Firewire card to take advantage of the i-Link port. You can edit video like a pro, record it back onto Digital 8, or even push it back out to any VCR.

If you want to be a professional, get a professional camera, for about [$$$]. If you want to have fun, get this camera and spend the rest on a vacation to try it out!

The camera itself is fine. It takes clear pictures, and the image stabilization helps keep things steady. It is a little bigger than some of the other digital video cameras available, but easy enough to work with. I have taken this on vacation to Disneyland and the Southwestern U.S. and was happy I had it with me. The night shot feature makes it possible to film in darkness, which is a plus, although the picture comes out a bit green (but its so awesome to be able to film in the dark, that everyone who has watched my night shots has been impressed and the green wasnt an issue). One of the main reasons I chose this camera was that it plays and records on both regular 8mm and digital video. It was easy to learn how to use this camera, and after reading the instruction manual a couple of times, I was using many of the features, such as night shot, fades, titles, etc.

I found that the microphone picks up the sound of the air going by when I film while hanging out the window of a moving car. Its fairly loud.

I bought a cheap (less than $10) UV lens cover at the advice of the sales girl, and have read about others who have done so as well. It seems like a good idea. This way, the $10 lens cover gets scratched, not the expensive camera lens. This does not appear to change the image quality.

Problems:

~You will want to buy at least one extra battery, and Sony cameras ONLY use the Sony Info-Lithium batteries, which are horribly expensive. I bought the longest lasting one for (Money). It was so frustrating to see other brands of batteries that were less expensive but not compatible with Sony cameras.

~You have to charge the battery ON the camera (you plug the camera into the wall, and use the power coming into the camera to charge the battery), which means you cant film while charging the battery. The solution to this is to spend MORE MONEY and buy a battery charger. The one I purchased cost me (Money). I was happy that this charger came with a car adapter, so I can charge the battery while driving.

~The other problem I have read about but not experienced yet is for users of tripods. The video tape goes in the bottom, and if you have a tripod attached, you need to remove the tripod to get the video out. I havent used a tripod yet but it will be a bit of a hassle if I decide to try one.

I love this video camera and have no issues with perfomance or quality, but I was disappointed about the expensive batteries and the method of charging them.

PROS:
- Digital 8 with backwards compatibility (reads all analog 8 tapes) and can still record in digital.
- Electronic Image stabilization (Called Super-Steady Shot)
- Excellent 25x optical and 700x digital zoom (very nice).
- Camera controls and data connectors are laid out quite nicely.
- Solid audio capability (records nice 16-bit stereo sound).
- Intelligent hot shoe: for adding accessories like a brighter light or bigger microphone (few other cameras in this price range have this expandability).
- Nice remote control and video playback features.
- Both an auto and manual focus capability
- Comes with an "infoLITHIUM" battery, good for about 60 minutes and which indicates the precise time left on the battery.
- Both USB and 1394 (fire wire) data transfer.
- Video/Audio in jacks: very nice for converting non-digital formats to digital (i.e. VHS).
- Streaming web-cam capability

*Note: Up to this point, this is a 5 star product...but read on, for my biggest complaints with this camera.

CONS:
- Tapes feed from the bottom, which is not a big deal UNLESS you use a tripod. When using a tripod, to change a tape you must remove it from the tripod AND unscrew the tripod mount to get the tape bay open. A call to Sony and every camera/tripod place in town resulted in the same answer...you are out of luck, there is no adaptor made that will address this problem :(MAJOR bummer to me).
- The camera records poorly in lowlight. Even though it is considered 0 flux (able to record in color one foot away), it desperately needs light or the quality takes a dramatic dive. The advertised super night shot turns everything green; which is good if you are a sniper, bad if you are a video enthusiast.

*Note: You can add a bright light accessory using the aforementioned hot shoe, to help address the lighting issue.

- The battery ratings from Sony are very misleading. For example: you can buy the "ultra battery" (NP-FM91) which is rated at 10 hours-which seems quite impressive... The problem is most folks will never use the battery the way they achieved those 10 hours.

Heres the "real" breakdown of estimated battery time with actual use:
* 10 hours - in standby mode (no LCD and no Super-Steady Shot)
* 6 hours - recording/ playback (no LCD and no Super-Steady Shot)
*3-4 hours - recording/playback (with LCD & Super-Steady Shot on)

So what LOOKS like a clear Sony advantage re: battery life is really not, when you consider other brands can also achieve 3-4 hours of battery life with their "ultra battery" and the same manner of usage.

Summary: In my estimation, this camera could be a good or bad buy depending on what your needs are.

* This camera might be a good buy IF you use 8mm, record in adequate light, need a strong zoom function and dont use a tripod for more than 1-2 hours at a time or would like to convert older video formats to digital.

* It is not such a good buy IF you dont need 8mm backwards capability, use a tripod for an extended period of time (2+ hours), need a memory stick function, are choosing Sony based upon its "clear advantage" in battery life or consistently do recording in lowlight

For me however, the tripod fiasco and the poor lowlight recording was enough of an issue for me to knock it down a bit and return it to the place of purchase.

*Note: in all fairness to Sony, every bottom feed camera available will have a similar tripod/tape issue, and many low-end digital camcorders perform poorly in lowlight.

I purchased this camcorder and returned it within a day. The first shots I filmed were in the sunlight. Picture quality was bright, vivid, and sharp with great detail and skin tone. BUT, I made the mistake of next shooting video of my baby inside my apartment and thats all it took to ruin my day...

I tried every manual exposure setting, and every AE option, with varying degrees of suck as the result. Heres the setup: My living room is connected to my dining room, so I had 2 dining room lights (70 watts each) and two living room lights (70 watts each) going. In other words, standard indoor lighting. The quality took a TREMENDOUS dive, regardless of the camera setting, when shooting in this indoor environment. Colors became muted to the point of almost looking greyish, skin tones took on a whitish-grey death tint, grain and color noise was dramatically increased... in other words, this camera is worthless for indoor shooting. The image looked like an old overexposed, color-devoid photo with poor detail, worse color, and flat-out ugly results.

Sure, you could fork out the [money] for an add-on light and get better quality results, but theres nothing candid about shooting video in an apartment when the subject has a bright light beaming into their eyes making them squint.

For comparison sake, I also have a Sony CCD-TRV43 Hi8 analog camcorder. The results are night and day when compared to this Sony digital (DCRTRV240). Put simply, the analog camera performs WONDERFULLY under the same lighting conditions.

What sold me on the camera was the features and digital effects. Theyre cool. The analog input option to run other video through the camera and into the computer is great. But features dont help you much when the video you actually SHOOT with the camera doesnt look good. The bottom line is that the video you shoot with this camera simply looks bad. I showed the results to 4 different people and they all grimaced when they saw it.

Dont buy this camera. Maybe itll force Sony to finally deal with such an obviously inherent problem with their digital cameras (read other reviews by customers of this and other cameras in the same Sony line and its a reoccuring theme.) Either that or itll force them to start being honest with consumers about what Ive come to find and regard as the dirty little secret of digital camcorders under $1,200: they simply do not look good in low light environments. Im reading that about the Canon models, the JVC models and the Panasonic models as well. Nobody, other than angry customers like me who feel like theyve been had, is talking about it. Thats just plain shifty.

The Sony TRV240 is the most amazing camcorder I have ever seen. After about 30 minutes of reading I had this camcorder pumping out digital video and sound quality like never before. There are so many features and it just so happens that we will end up useing most of them. The firewire port and usb are super. I was able to record TV and old movie home movies right onto the camcorder thru the A/V port and then feed them into I Movie on my Mac. The result is some super footage. I did however purchase a 4 year warranty on this machine. That way I can have piece of mind for the next four years. I dont think anyone will be disapointed with this camcorder. It has made me feel like a video editing pro. Movies and still shots will never be the same in this house.