| This album contains pictures taken with the TRV950 using the photo
mode. I bought this camcorder in mid-sep 2002. It uses 3 CCD each with
1,070,000 pixels and the photo mode has the highest resolution of 1152x864
pixels. Unfortunately, the photo mode cannot use shutter speeds slower
than 1/50, making it unsuitable for digiscoping using photo mode in low
light. CCD noise is very noticeable with photos taken in such lighting
conditions. However, the camorder has a pop-up flast and 'hologram' auto
focus which can produce resonably good pictures when not shooting through
the eyepiece. I have yet to try using the flash with teleconverter but
I think the result would not be too encouraging in view of the poor sensitivity
of the camera.
Nonetheless, since this camera has a smaller lens, vignetting is less
than its predecessor the TRV900. Since there are more manual features such
as sharpness, color levels and white balance controls, it represents an
upgrade over the TRV900 as far as video function is concerned. The addition
of spot meter and spot focus is something hard to find in other camcorders.
Thus the video from the TRV950 is as expected very good in adequate light.
Its drawbacks beside the poor low light performance is the lack of a progressive
scan mode, aperture priority exposure and ND filter. The lens produces
much more severe chromatic aberration than the TRV900 too.
Links to more info on this camcorder
(without special reference to digiscoping):
Product release and Specifications:
http://64.35.93.160/pressrelease/2199
http://www.sel.sony.com/....../dcr-trv950_specs.shtml
Reviews:
http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/sony_dcrtrv950_camcorder_review.htm
http://www.bealecorner.com/trv900/trv950.html
User forums:
http://www.camcorderinfo.com/board/list.php?f=13
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DCRTRV950/
All pictures in this album had been taken with Swarovski 80AT HD scope
using a modified, unbranded 40mm plossl eyepiece. I would love to used
my Televue 40mm plossl (also modified to give closest lens-to-eyepiece
approximation) but vignetting is more severe with this eyepiece. The photos
here had been resized, photoshop enhanced and compressed. I deliberately
underexpose most shots to avoid CCD noise and to reduce the chromatic aberration.
Hence many photos may appear darker than you would wish them to be. Some
had to be cropped to remove vignetting. The original JPG images are about
500-600 KBytes each. |
