Sony Handycam HDR-SR7E

Print | Close this window

http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/camcorders/0,39029967,49291749,00.htm

Reviewed 25 October 2007

Reviewed by Lori Grunin

Sharing a perch at the top of Sony's HD prosumer camcorder line, the Handycam HDR-SR7E manages to combine a raft of cutting-edge capabilities without forgetting that its primary function is capturing high-quality HD video.

This facility still doesn't come cheap or easy, but if you've got the money and the patience, the SR7E delivers the bang you've been wanting, for around £800.

Design
Along with its trio of siblings -- the tape-based HDR-HC7, the flash-based CX6EK, and the DVD-based UX7E -- the SR7E uses Sony's 1/2.9-inch, 3.2-megapixel ClearVid CMOS sensor, recording video at 2.3-megapixel (HD) or 1.7-megapixel (SD) resolution before downsampling and encoding to 1080i HD -- 1,440x1,080 pixels -- or SD -- 720x480 pixels, respectively.

It also shoots photos at native 2.3-megapixel (16:9) or 3-megapixel (4:3) resolutions, despite the grandiose 6-megapixel claim on the body, which refers to a maximum interpolated resolution. It sports a 10x zoom Zeiss T*-coated lens and 5.1 Dolby surround-sound recording.

Features
If all you plan to do is play the video back on an HDTV, the SR7E is a great fit. For editing, though, there are still some hurdles to jump. Most important, the AVCHD format used by Sony, Panasonic and Canon for file-based HD recording faces some glitchy-to-nonexistent software support.

In Sony's case, it really should drop the feeble Picture Motion Browser software bundle and include the more functional Vegas Video Movie Studio Platinum Edition, at least for the folks who drop nearly £1,000 on the HD Handycams. Other cutting-edge pitfalls include a mini-HDMI connector -- Type C, which requires a cable that's not yet ubiquitous and support for the mostly still unviewable x.v.Colour -- xvYCC -- colour space.

That's all unfortunate, because the SR7E otherwise delivers a very good HD experience. From a design and operation perspective, it has everything we liked about the HC7. It weighs a bit less -- 530g without battery -- but feels similarly comfortable to hold and shoot. Only using the touchscreen requires an awkward two-handed balancing act.

Though inconvenient for menu navigation, the LCD otherwise works well and remains visible in harsh lighting. We generally prefer shooting with an eye-level viewfinder, though, and wish Sony had padded the hard plastic eyecup. Like most of Sony's consumer models, the SR7E incorporates the love-it-or-hate-it touchscreen interface. We fall more into the hate-it camp, especially on the SR7E's smaller 16:9, 69mm (2.7-inch) LCD.

Performance
Within the menus you'll find eight scene modes; 24-step exposure shift; manual, indoor, outdoor and auto white balance and manual shutter-speed adjustment between 1/2 and 1/500 seconds. Spot Focus and Spot Metre take advantage of the interface by letting you literally point at your subject.

You can assign one shooting adjustment setting -- manual focus, exposure compensation/exposure shift, white balance shift (toward red or blue) and shutter speed -- to control via the rather slippery CAM CTL dial. For shooting convenience, Sony provides its excellent SuperSteadyShot optical image stabiliser and Active Interface Shoe, plus Super NightShot infrared mode for when you need to record in the dark. Other niceties include a built-in electronic lens cover and a flash for still photos.

A relatively generous selection of jacks populate the SR7E, including the aforementioned mini-HDMI 1.3, component and AV outputs and a wired remote 2.5mm minijack. However, there's no USB port on the camcorder body -- it's on the Handycam Station dock, along with a button that will launch DVD burning. It would have been nice if Sony had put a full-size HDMI connector on the dock as well, at least until the mini connector becomes more popular.

Image quality
On its 60GB hard drive, the SR7E manages eight hours of best-quality, 2.1MB-per-second HD video. And that best-quality video looks pretty good. As with the HC7, the auto white balance could be a bit more neutral, but overall the colors emerge ballpark accurate and saturated. We probably wouldn't print the stills any larger than would fit on a letter-size sheet, but we tend to be a bit conservative when it comes to print sizes.

As usual with the Zeiss T* lenses, video renders sharply, especially when shot in conjunction with Sony's great Super SteadyShot optical image stabiliser. It helps that the lens doesn't have to stretch beyond 10x zoom -- that means neither the optical system nor the stabiliser face undue challenges.

The autofocus and metering systems also perform quite well. The SR7E renders correct exposures in a variety of situations ranging from overcast evening skies to glaring midday summer light. In a typical single-lamp living room environment it fares better than many competitors for sharpness, noise and colour. And the autofocus adapts relatively quickly to changes in position and zoom.

Conclusion
Like the HDR-SR1E before it, the Sony Handycam HDR-SR7E is an excellent HD camcorder that tries to deliver the promised convenience of hard-disk-based recording. But the lack of widespread software support remains an insurmountable inconvenience, holding us back from recommending it to all but the bravest of video geeks.

Additional editing by Shannon Doubleday