Well I have read a lot of reviews and am about to buy my first camera. Fromt he reviews, the Sony TRV22 look like a good bet which I can get for £449 or they also have the TRV33 for £499.

Is it worth spending a bit more for the 33?

Should I wait for the replacements that are due from SONY?

Hopefully someone out there has a bit more knowledge / insight than me.

Taa for any help,

Andy.

I have recently bought a TRV33E.

The thing that made the decision for me, between the two, was that the TRV33 has a true widescreen mode.

From footage shot in that mode, I can edit in Premiere and build my DVDs in Encore and have the equivalent of an 'Enhanced for 16:9 TVs' (Anamorphic?) DVD come out the end. Just what I want.

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I'm not young enough to know everything!

Got to agree with young Millsy on this one. The reason for the widescreen thing, is that the CCD on the 33 is larger than that on the 22. In addition to widescreen it provides for an all round higher resolution of around 1Mb on the 33 and 800 (or os it less). This also gives the advantage of higher resolution stills.

All round the TRV33 is a great camera. Do a price check, I have a feeling you can the 33 cheaper than £499 these days.

Go for it!

OK I'm finally going to ask. The larger CCD only impacts the quality of still surely? With the fixed resolution of video footage (OK I know the larger CCD allows widescreen) the only real difference in a larger CDD is to enhance still isn't it?

Is there any real gain in video quality from a larger CCD? I assumed not but am I talking b*ll*x again?

but having said that the 33E is a good product. A Colleague of mine who takes video editing a littlemore serious than I (amateur dramtaics or some such) bought some pro-sumer model a year again and spent the better part of £2K on it. He borrowed one of the Mini-DV tapes I shot from my 33E in widescreen andhe is, quite frankly, very envious.

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I'm not young enough to know everything!

As I understand it the larger CCD does make an impact on resolution. Quite apart from stills, where the difference is much more quality and much more noticable, on the moving image it equates ot more lines of resolution. If I remember correctly the TRV33 equates to around 520 lines (of 625 on a PAL TV) and the TRV22 equates to around 500 - 510 lines (Please don't ask where I read this, but I did). Frankly from the amateur point of view, this is going to make very little difference on the end product (assuming your average television).

So yes there is a difference. On pro sumer models the CCDs tend to bigger, but critically, so do the lenses! And it is the combination of larger lense and CCD that leads to larger quality.

I still agree though the TRV33 is a great camera. My personal view is that the £50 differnce for wide screen and higher resolution is worth it.

We're talking "image quality/definition" rather than resolution here: http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/camcorder2.htm

http://www.digitalhomemag.com/featur...bsectionid=935

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Well thankyou to everyone who replied. At least no-one has said don't go near that camera which is encouraging. I will head down the shop today and see what extras / discount I can negotiate. If they will do a deal on the 33 then I think that is the one for me.

Taa for the help and advice,

Andy.

head down the shop???? are you sure????

When I hunted around for my TRV33 at the start of the year I found high street prices typically more than a £100 (UKP) more than internet prices. Just be careful not to pay more than you need to.

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I'm not young enough to know everything!

I know.. I am not usually a shop shopper either, but I have had a look at prices and the cheapest that I can find a 22 for is £410, but the local shop is asking £450 and I reckon I should be able to get either £20 off that or an extra battery. The 33 is £490 in the shop which is cheaper than I can find on the internet. For the convenience of having someone to complain to and take it back to, I am happy to pay a little more.

I think that there is a bit of stock clearance going on for new models, so shop prices are on the way down. Of course if anyone can point me to better prices on the internet I can easily be persuaded if it means that my wallet won't be stretched so much.