Sony produces a wide range of digital camcorders across a variety of formats, each with different feature sets. This buyng guide will help you understand the terminology and the key differences, to enable you to make the right choice.

• Camcorder Buying Guide
• Camcorder Glossary

The Formats

Sony currently produces digital camcorders in three formats: Digital8, MiniDV and MICROMV. All of these formats record in DV, (digital video). The digital video, or DV, format has a host of advantages. For starters, video quality is very high: at least 520 lines of resolution. Colour richness and accuracy are much improved because digital records across a wide colour spectrum. DV also records in 16-bit CD-quality audio, and most digital camcorders let you record 12-bit audio in two channels for layered soundtracks.

Digital8: developed four years ago as a completely digital video format, the beauty of Digital8 lies in its bridging capabilities between the analogue world of Sony Hi8 and the digital multimedia future. Digital8 is essentially the DV format recorded onto 8 mm or Hi8 tapes, while retaining the ability to play old 8 mm and Hi8 footage. Digital8 camcorders tend to be a bit bigger and heavier than Mini DV camcorders, but they use the same IEEE 1394 connector to transfer footage to a computer. The DCR-TRV355 features backward compatibility with Hi8, ideal for those who are looking to upgrade to digital from an analogue Hi8 camcorder.

MiniDV: the media most often associated with the DV format is the Mini DV tape. Smaller than 8 mm tapes, Mini DV tapes record about an hour of footage and sound. The MiniDV format offers more precise image detail and colour accuracy than previously possible with analog camcorders.

MICROMV: Sony takes "ultra-compact" to the extreme with the MICROMV series of camcorders, a family of digital video recorders that incorporate exceptionally compact and well thought-out design with incredible picture quality, powerful features and ease of use. The world's smallest and lightest camcorders makes it that much easier and more convenient to be ready to capture the moment when something worth remembering happens. They record digitally on PC-friendly MPEG2 format.