A relatively generous selection of jacks populate the SR7, including the aforementioned mini-HDMI 1.3; component and AV outputs; and a wired remote 2.5mm minijack. However, there's no USB port on the camcorder body; it's on the Handycam Station dock, along with a button that will launch DVD burning. It would have been nice if Sony had put a full-size HDMI connector on the dock as well, at least until the mini connector becomes more popular.
On its 60GB hard drive, the SR7 manages 8 hours of best-quality, 2.1MB-per-second HD video. And that best-quality video looks pretty good. As with the HC7, the auto white balance could be a bit more neutral, but overall the colors emerge ballpark accurate and saturated. I probably wouldn't print the stills any larger than would fit on a letter-size sheet, but I tend to be a bit conservative when it comes to print sizes.
As usual with the Zeiss T* lenses, video renders sharply, especially when shot in conjunction with Sony's great Super SteadyShot optical image stabilizer. It helps that the lens doesn't have to stretch beyond 10x zoom; that means neither the optical system nor the stabilizer face undue challenges.
The autofocus and metering systems also perform quite well. The HC7 renders correct exposures in a variety of situations ranging from overcast evening skies to glaring midday summer light. In a typical single-lamp living room environment it fares better than many competitors for sharpness, noise, and color. And the autofocus adapts relatively quickly to changes in position and zoom.
Like the HDR-SR1 before it, the Sony Handycam HDR-SR7 is an excellent HD camcorder that tries to deliver the promised convenience of hard-disk-based recording. But the lack of widespread software support remains an insurmountable inconvenience, holding me back from recommending it to all but the bravest of video geeks.
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