Peter Bismuti wrote in message <67bfm1$e04$1@news.fsu.edu>...

>I was all set to get the Sony TRV7 digital camcorder but now I've been
>told that Sony has lousy lenses. My understanding is that the electronic
>image stabilization (as opposed to the optical that Canon uses) imposes
>limitations on the quality of the lens. I did try out a TRV62 hi-8 and
>I was surprised how poor the picture looked and decided that I needed to go
>to digital.
>
>Are they really that bad?
>How much superior *are* the Canon lenses to Sony?
>Any TRV7 owners out there who have an opinion?

Having had a few Canon Hi-8's (L1 with 2 lenses, UCS-3, ES-5000),
a couple of Sony Hi-8's (TR-200, TR-400, TR-700) and a few Sony
DV's (PC-7, VX-700, VX-1000), I can assure you that, in my experience,
there is no noticeable overall difference in lens quality between the
two brands. Much more relevant is the system used in the stabilizer,
the format type, and whether the image device is one-chip or three-chip.
Of the Hi-8's I had, the TR-400 with digital stabilization had the worst
sharpness, and the UCS-3, TR-200 (and maybe the TR-700) had the best
(possibly due to higher image contrast than the L1...). While the PC-7
uses digital stabilization, the chip pixel count is much higher than
normal, keeping a reasonably normal chip area (and good sharpness) for
the on-tape image. Though the VX-700 and VX-1000 use the same lens,
under many conditions, the image of the VX-1000 is noticeably sharper
(and the best mini-DV image quality I have seen so far...). Other
differences in camcorders (besides basic lens quality, which I think
is a non-issue...) may be for you how good the low-light image is,
and how good the lens is with the best-matched wide-angle converter
you can find (these camcorder lenses are NOT wide...).

--
David Ruether
http://www.fcinet.com/ruether
ruether@fcinet.com