HD Camcorders: Next Generation

Source: Technology Digital

Date :04/12/2007 10:55:55

Which HD Camcorder is the best? ExecUK looks at two of the top models.

JVC GZHD7 (pictured)

This is a serious piece of kit, which is exactly what you’d expect for a camcorder that costs a shade over £900. According to JVC, this is the first in the world to offer full 1920 x 1080i HD recording and playback. It’s definitely aimed at the more experienced user- the list of manual controls is impressive and conclusive- but features such as Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS) and a well designed control panel make it surprisingly simple for the amateur as well.

The GZ-HD7 includes a 60GB internal hard disk that allows five hours of recording at the highest resolution, plus the obvious benefit of not needing DV tapes. HD files can also be played through the camcorder, meaning that it can act as a convenient HD Blu-ray player as well.

Overall, it’s a fantastic product for getting the most out of your HD TV, despite occasional problems with low lighting. Bizarrely though, even with all its bells and whistles, there’s no headphone jack.

Sony HDR-FX7E

The Sony FX7E marks the first ever use of the much-vaunted 3ClearVid CMOS Sensor technology, a tool that rotates pixels at a 45 degree angle to double the area of each individual pixel while retaining the same pitch, giving a fantastically full image. This, combined with a 20x optical zoom and a Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* lens, gives a professional quality performance from a surprisingly lightweight camcorder.

At £1,600, almost twice the price of the GZHD7, it’s certainly not cheap. But this is the best you can buy in the ‘prosumer’ bracket at the moment – for another £1,000 you enter the cumbersome territory of broadcast cameras such as Sony’s DSR-500.

If you want exceptional resolution, purity and natural colour reproduction from an easy to handle product, there really is nothing else that can touch it.