Sony HDR-PJ710 Camcorder Review

Video Sharpness

Under the hood, the Sony HDR-PJ710V has the same image sensor as last year's Sony HDR-CX700V. So, we expected the results of our sharpness test to be similar, and they were. Sure, the PJ710V has a different lens than its predecessors, but we found this lens didn't do anything to improve sharpness. That's not to say the Sony didn't do well in this test (it did), but its results weren't the sharpest we've seen from a consumer camcorder.

The PJ710V managed a horizontal sharpness of 750 lw/ph and a vertical sharpness of 800 lw/ph, both of which are very good scores that rank in the upper echelon of consumer camcorders. Both of these numbers were also obtained using the camcorder's highest-quality record mode; the 28Mbps 1080/60p option. Shooting at the next step down, with the camcorder's HD FX 1080/60i setting, the PJ710V managed sharpness values of 700 lw/ph horizontal and 600 lw/ph vertical. More on how we test video sharpness.