Camcorder Repairs - worth it?

[Ron Riemersma]

My sony trv 250 digital 8 camera recently stopped working. Wont play, record, ffd, rwd, nothing. Sony website gives flat rate of $141 to repair, local Best Buy says they can ship it out and probably be $100-$200.

Anyone got any better ideas? Might be time to look for a new camera, but I have alot of video stuck on digital 8's that I would like to be able to view or download, too.

Thoughts?

 

[Scott Weberpal]

There are a lot of really good, used, Digital8 camcorders going for $100-$150 on ebay. You're better off finding a good used one than trying to get an old one repaired.

 

[cedwards]

I agree with Scott on this one. If it were a higher-end camcorder, it may be worth repairing. I just had my Sony FX-1 repaired and it was not cheep. In my case, it was much less than getting a replacement, but for one like you have, I would go the ebay rout. If you want to upgrade later to HD or mini-dv, you can always transfer the video to the other format. I still have a lot of old 8mm, high8, digital8, and mini-dv that I need to archive. I will eventually have it all on multiple hard drives.

 

[Jason Foster]

My sony trv 250 digital 8 camera recently stopped working. Wont play, record, ffd, rwd, nothing. Sony website gives flat rate of $141 to repair, local Best Buy says they can ship it out and probably be $100-$200.

Anyone got any better ideas? Might be time to look for a new camera, but I have alot of video stuck on digital 8's that I would like to be able to view or download, too.

Thoughts?

If the CCD chip is still working...I'll purchase the old 250. Mine is 100% functional, but I broke the pins to the CCD during Hurricane Ike. It's too hard to resoldier the connection, so I'd sure buy yours for parts...which you can put toward the purchase of a replacement.

I like have the SD cameras as back-ups or for remote/probe projects, but I don't want to spend the $100+ for full functioning SD cameras off ebay.