Sony HDR-FX7 First Impressions Camcorder Review

Super SteadyShot Optical Image Stabilization - On prosumer camcorders, OIS (optical image stabilization) is a standard feature, but OIS comes in lots of competing flavors. Sony calls the OIS feature on the HDR-FX7 Super SteadyShot – and its among the best I’ve seen, ranking with Canon’s OIS systems in terms of effectiveness.

Assignable Buttons - The HDR-FX7 may confine many settings to the menu, but it does serve up 6 external assignable buttons. These can be assigned to govern most of the camcorder’s image control settings, such as digital extender, peaking, or color bars. This adds tremendously to the efficiency of this camcorder, because it essentially gives you 6 shortcuts to the image controls you commonly use.

Picture Profile - You also have the option of storing six Picture Profiles in the camcorder’s memory. A Picture Profile allows a user to store manual image control settings and is useful for performing multiple shots under similar conditions, such as lighted interviews, or maintaining a look across multiple shoots. Picture Profile settings cannot be stored to MemoryStick or shared between camcorders – a feature that is available on the HVR-V1U.

Native 16:9 - Reflecting what has become today’s prosumer industry standard, the HDR-FX7 is a 16:9-native camcorder, with the ClearVID CMOS sensors, LCD screen, and viewfinder all sized for widescreen.

Hue and Sharpness Control - In addition to the great manual control that the HDR-FX7 gives you over the standard areas, it also gives manual control of camcorder hue and sharpness. Although most users won't use this, it's a great "add-on" feature.

Contrast Enhancer - Allows you to boost the contrast in the recorded image. It’s a control that can only be turned on or off.

Smooth Slow Record - One benefit of the ClearVID CMOS and EIP is the ability to shoot high-quality slow motion footage for brief spurts of time.  Sony advertises Smooth Slow Record as a good way to analyze golf swings, and it's certainly a cool feature.  This camcorder allows you to record up to 6 seconds of video at 240 fields per second, and that footage can be reviewed after another twelve seconds have passed.

Shot Transition - This is a feature that allows you to control the speed at which the camcorder makes transitions for manual picture controls like focus, zoom, iris and gain. Shot Transition allows you to essentially program camcorder moves like rack focus to proceed at a specified pace. These settings for shot transitions can also be assigned to buttons 1, 2, and 3 on the camcorder’s body.