Introduction

This year we've seen a lot of slightly updated camcorders with one or two new features and no substantial improvement to image quality or performance. But the Sony HDR-PJ710V is one product that actually delivers. The camcorder has all the cool features that made the Sony HDR-CX700V great in 2011, but with drastically improved low light performance, better image stabilization, and a built-in projector that was only found on select Sony models last year.

Sony isn't just giving the HDR-PJ710V away for free, so you have to decide if this better performance is worth the cash. With an initial launch price of $1299 (too high), the camcorder has since dropped to $1149 on Sony's website. This puts it in roughly the same price range as the Canon HF G10, and just a bit more expensive than the Panasonic HC-X900M. If you have even more cash to blow, Sony does offer a step-up HDR-PJ760V Handycam for $1399. The PJ760V has three times as much internal memory (96GB) and includes an electronic viewfinder—otherwise it's the same as the HDR-PJ710V.

Video Review