Sony Handycam HDR-HC7

First, I gotta put my thumbs up for Sony's accomplishment by fitting this much horsepower into a package as small as this HC7. If you take off the battery and look at it, you realize just how little space is used for the real mechanics.

For the performance, the video quality it produces is stunning, but only when you have strong lighting (e.g. exterior scene). It's like seeing an HD football game program in 1080i, if you get my point. However, in low light the quality drops off. In fact, at first blush I don't see any real improvement over the HC1's relatively poor performance in low light. Of course you have the night shot feature but that makes everything look like night footage from Survivor. But if you put this as your personal camcorder or for minor purposes, then there's no problem.

As for the new feature that called X.V. Color, you can actually ignore it. X.V. Color is a feature that will give you more life-like color performance. We'll get to this in my other article. The point is, you gotta have a TV that also support X.V. Color to see it, or otherwise, you'll get undesirable results. So, go as the default says: X.V. Color -> Off.

Many experienced ones that have tried this camera would probably say that its wide angle is not wide enough for them. Yes it's true. So the solution is you will have to purchase a wide angle adapter. Not efficient.

The almost 7 megapixel (6.1) still is really something, but then again, you'll want some of your pictures taken by wider angle lens, so perhaps you'll look for camcorder that has lesser quality in still but wider angle in lens. This is dilemma.

Just like its brothers (HC1, HC3), HC7 can shoot stills while shooting video, and what makes it more interesting is that it can capture up to 4 megapixels while shooting in video. It doesn't produce "video frame goes freeze" pictures anymore, and this is one of its advantage.

Here's a trick I hadn't read about and I don't know if it's been present on previous units. But I figure if I didn't know about it most others won't either. While playing back the video you've already shot you can press the Photo button and grab digital stills to the memory stick. It's like saying "Damn, I wish I could've taken a picture of that moment" and then being able to go back in time and take it. These pics are back to 1.3 megapixels but you'd be amazed how really good they look. Forget any experiences you may have had with standard def freeze frames - these look beautiful.

I don't like the position and operation of the power/mode switch. On the HC1 turning the camera on was a simple thumb movement. It's now more of a two handed procedure.

The lack of a focus ring on the HC-7 is especially annoying as is having to step through a myriad of touch screen MENU items to adjust iris, shutter speed, color, and focus and almost everything else. The zoom lever requires practice to get smooth, slow, steady zooms. The optical stabilzation is okay but not nearly as good as my TRV900.

They put a quality hinged access door over the video / firewire / lanc/ headphone ports. But there's still the flimsy tethered covers for the mic jack, power / charge port, HDMI, and the accessory shoe that feel like even if they're handled with TLC, they'll eventually break free. Those are really the only complaints I have about the camera.

I love the automatic lens cover. I appreciate the top loading cassette mechanism. Both the viewfinder and LCD screen are bright and have adequate resolution.

Hope this review was helpful.

image source: itechnews.net