Digital Trends

Sony is usually first to market with ground-breaking technology—Walkman, Trinitron, CD players, HDV camcorders--you know the drill. The company, along with Panasonic, created the newer AVCHD high-def camcorder format and had the first models for sale, the HDR-UX1 and HDR-SR1. Those camcorders respectively recorded high-def video onto 3-inch DVDs and hard disk drives. To this observer Sony graciously let Panasonic introduce the first flash memory based AVCHD model—the HDC-SD1, a home video maker I especially liked because of its small size and video quality. Now Sony has finally introduced a flash HD cam but instead of SD cards like the Panasonic, this one use Memory Stick Pro Duo media. Because there are so few moving parts, the HDR-CX7 is also as compact as can be (under a pound including battery). And it’s a beauty. Featuring a 3MP CMOS sensor, a 10x optical zoom and optical image stabilization, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on one and immediately ran out to a ball game to test it out (at least that was my excuse to see my beloved NY Mets).