Sony HDR-HC7 Camcorder Review
By Michael Perlman
Reviewed.com Editorial Staff
Published on May 10, 2007
At the time of its release, the Sony HDR-HC7 ($1399) is a likely runner-up for Camcorder of the Year. It has superb video quality in bright light, stellar handling, and a broad gamut of automatic and manual controls. Then along came the Canon HV20 with its enhanced low light performance and true 24P mode. The HC7 still manages to put up a fight, however, and proves to be a solid HDV camcorder.
The HDR-HC7 is equipped with a 1/2.9-inch ClearVID CMOS sensor, which is found on most of Sony’s top-end consumer camcorders. Thanks to the single chip’s large size, the HC7 is capable of cranking out 3,200,000 gross pixels which contribute to a sharp, crisp image. In bright light (3000 lux), the image displayed a saturated, brilliant color palette spurned by vibrant, lively hues. Low light is a different story. At 60 lux, the HC7’s image faltered significantly in comparison to last year’s HDR-HC3. It was darker, noisier, and lost a great deal of color information. This is likely due to the HC7’s larger pixel count. The Canon HV20 did not produce quite such a bad image in low light, and blew the HC7 out of the water.
Aside from our low light qualms, the S0ny HDR-HC7 is exceptionally user friendly—if you’re a fan of touch screen menus. The 2.7-inch wide LCD screen has a tendency to smudge up thanks to the natural oils found in skin, but overall the HC7 feels great. It features a burly, mesh hand strap, extendable rubberized viewfinder, and Easy mode button, which converts the HC7 to full auto mode. You’ll find that scrolling through the HC7’s menu takes time and patience, but this is not an issue on the Canon HV20, thanks to its rear-mounted joystick. In addition, the HC7 includes a tiny manual focus wheel that is slippery and difficult to operate compared to a focus ring.
The HC7 offers a wealth of automatic controls, including Auto Focus and Auto Exposure, or “Scene modes.” The Auto Focus has trouble adjusting to certain environments or a close subject. That’s where manual controls come in, and the HC7 has a nice array, including manual exposure and aperture, white balance, shutter speed, and gain. As an added bonus, Spot Focus allows you to hone in on a particular section of the screen and sharpen it for a dramatic effect just by touching an area on the screen.
The HC7 records to MiniDV tapes in the HDV format. MiniDV is more convenient for editing than DVD and SD camcorders because it is more widely recognized by editing software. MiniDV tapes also hold more recorded footage and compress at a much higher quality than DVD and SD formats. HDV is currently the highest quality consumer HD format.
For a camcorder that’s $300 more than its competitor (the Canon HV20), the HC7 should offer more. In this case, it doesn’t, merely wowing consumers with its flashy looks, great handling, and awesome bright light performance. While the ClearVID CMOS sensor, touch screen LCD, and sturdy construction might tempt Sony-loyalists, the keen and perceptive camcorder enthusiast will sacrifice style for quality and spring for an HV20. It was a tight race, but Canon came out on top.For a more in-depth review, visit the Sony HDR-HC7 Review at our partner CamcorderInfo.com
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