This is the best camcorder that Sony currently has. Its worth every cent that I paid. Each component snaps into its place. The features never end. I can zoom across the water and video a boat far away. Taking still pics is great too. I could take still pics on the cassette, and later transfer the good ones to the memory stick. The TRV820 is packed with cool features and also came with software/cable to transfer video clips or still to PCs. This is a cool video cam upgrade for those who may have had Hi8 cams previously... you can still play your old Hi8 videos and can begin shooting digital videos. 3 in 1 (video/still/printer) is neat. The prints are great for "on the fly" handouts, a good ice-breaker when shooting children and strangers. The 450X digital zoom is an overkill and somewhat useless (pixelation at the maximum zoom) and really can't be hand held at these magnifications. Very solid: functioned well even at hot and humid conditions. Couple of negative comments: p1. The still resolution is low (640x480). This needs to be pumped up Sony! 2. The camera does not have the capability to play wide-screen format filming on regular TVs (a feature on Hi8s). You get a vertically streched video images unless you have a wide-screen TV. 3. If you take videos on 16:9 widescreen format, and later transfer these photos to the stick the photos get stretched and does not look good. Other than that I would definitely recommend it. The printer is worth the extra [money] over the other model. And the printer doesn't add much weight but it adds lots of fun! A piece of advice while buying accessories, if you need 8 hours battery, buy two 4 hour battery as the 8 hour battery is big heavy.

Good things about this camcorder:br1. The 25X zoombr2. HUGE LCD screenbr3. Great video and sound qualitybr4. Solid build br5. Easy connection to computer with iLink--especially with a Sony VAIO computerbr6. Enough special effects and super nightshot. pThe bad things:br1. It is very heavy and bigbr2. The build-in printer: I stop using this feature completely since the still image quality is quite low so the pictures came out not pretty at all and it takes more than 2 minutes to print one photo. The 830 does the right thing to have the printer externally. br3. Slow rewind speedpI have no trouble finding the Digital-8 tapes and got quite a lot of photo papers for it (even though I don't use them at all).

great overall camcorder. you have to love the 25x zoom. easy to use. i've gone through just about all the features with only two trips to the manual. the grandparents loved being able to get print out pictures of their new grandson instantly during our last visit.

Accessories for the printer are VERY hard to find. No one I have checked with carries the paper or cartridge in stock - all of them say they can order the supplies, but every store, especially specialty camera shops, wants way too much money for the order. I have found that buying supplies from Sony is less expensive, but does take some time (so if you need it NOW you better start looking...yesterday!).pAs for other features, there are so many it may take me a while to figure them all out. I shopped for over a year before buying this camera - coincidentally, my previous camcorder was a Sony Hi8 - great camera until my brother went out and destroyed it! ;-)pThis is a terrific camcorder if you can afford...

Seems like a GR8 camera...having a little trouble finding some things I'd like to add to it tho...Like FILM? Can't seem to find the Digital 8 cassette, or find the IR Receiver (to play tapes to TV w/o hookups) or... I guess it's part of being the new technology...parts are hard to find at first. I am impressed with the resolution of the LCD screen, am losing sight in my right eye, so the viewfinder is pretty useless, but the LCD screen is large bright. I like the printer feature think this is a camera that will be a benchmark

A great camcorder by Sony. Loaded with endless features, great zoom, and high resolution. The printer feature is great. It comes out great quality. You can even print on one big sticker or 9 small ones. I would recommend this camcorder to anyone.