Sony HDR-CX7 Camcorder Reviewby David KenderPublished on Sep 10, 2007 10:00 AM
|
|||||||||||||
Audio (5.0)
The HDR-CX7 (Specs, Recent News, $1199) (Review, Specs, Recent News, $849.99) is equipped with a 5.1 channel Dolby Digital built-in stereo microphone that is mounted to the top. There are no onboard audio adjustments, such as levels or AGC (auto gain control) found on the Panasonic HDC-SD1 (Review, Specs, Recent News, $1119.99). In fact, you won’t even find a wind cut feature on the HDR-CX7, which is almost universal among camcorders. At this level of audio quality, it wouldn’t do the HDR-CX7 much good anyway. The only setting you have over recorded audio is a normal and low setting for the microphone. That’s it. Your best bet is to take advantage of the AIS (Active Interface Shoe) on top. Yes, it’s only compatible with Sony mics, but it’s better than relying on the awkwardly-placed built-in microphone, hands down.
Playback (6.0)
In order to play back recorded video and stills, you can press the oval playback button embedded in the LCD cavity or the rectangular playback button located in the bottom left corner of the LCD screen. Once in Playback mode, a screen will appear with two tabs located along the bottom—one for video clips and one for recorded stills. Bookending these tabs are two buttons: Video Toggle mode, and the Playback menu. Above this row of controls is a large screen containing thumbnails that represent individual clips or images.
 |
 |
|
Video Playback. |
Photo Playback. |
To the left of the thumbnails is a thin vertical scrolling bar that navigates between pages. You can change the date of a clip by pressing the date button located in the upper right corner of the LCD screen. Thumbnails can be viewed in small and large sizes, and the LCD screen can accommodate either six or 12 icons at once based on the size. You can also set the zoom toggle to bounce back and forth between small and large thumbnails.
 |
Counterclockwise from left: |
 |
 |
To access a clip or image, simply press on its corresponding thumbnail and it will begin playing within the entirety of the LCD screen. A host of playback controls usurp the previous menu screen: rewind, fast forward, slow rewind, slow fast forward, play, and pause. In order to return to the Playback menu, just press the back button. In Photo mode, your playback options are limited to beginning and pausing a slide show and selecting the next or previous image.
In Video mode, the Function menu consists of three tabs at the bottom containing the following options: add, add by date, HD/SD index settings, delete, delete by date, delete all, and divide. In Photo mode, the function menu is composed of two tabs that offer print, slide show, delete, and delete all options.
Connectivity (7.0)
The HDR-CX7 contains ports along the back, left, and top sides. In back, a vertical strip of two burly plastic doors pull out and swing to the side to reveal the HDMI, AV out, and DC jacks. Finger tabs are located at the top and bottom of the port covers to aid accessibility. This is the quality craftsmanship we expect to see on a camcorder. The Memory Stick PRO Duo slot is located within the bottom ridge of the LCD cavity, housed by a hinged plastic enclosure. The problem with this placement is—you guessed it—tripod interference. On the plus side, the HDR-CX7’s tripod mount is located to the far right side of the bottom, allowing enough space to clear a small tripod head, but not by much. On top, the HDR-CX7 is equipped with an AIS (Active Interface Shoe) that is only compatible with Sony products, as the marketing team would have it.
 |
 |
Sony has chosen to split up the ports between the camcorder and a separate docking station, which has USB, component, AV out, and DC jacks. Why they chose to put an HDMI on camcorder but not on the docking station, and vice versa with the USB, makes little sense to us. The whole thing could have been simplified by putting all the ports right on the camcorder and skipping the base entirely.
 |
 |