Sony cops to HDR-SR5, SR7 and CX7 AVCHD camcorders

Sorry we ruined all the surprises, but in case you were holding out for someone to confirm those three new HD camcorders we spotted yesterday, Sony seems happy to oblige. The HDR-SR5, HDR-SR7 and HDR-CX7 just got official, with the CX7 indeed laying claim to the "world's smallest and lightest AVCHD high-definition camcorder." At 15 ounces with battery, and recording done straight to Memory Stick PRO Duo exclusively, who are we to argue? The HDR-SR7 does some more heavy lifting with 22 hours of room for 1080i on its 60GB HDD, while the HDR-SR5 does 15 hours on its 40GB drive. All three cameras sport USB connections and 2.7-inch LCD screens. If you're looking for the best resolution, the CX7 and SR7 share 3 megapixel video sensors, and 6 megapixel stills, while the SR5 does 2 megapixel video and 4 megapixel photos. We're always surprised by Sony's change of tune from the "True HD" 1080p of the PS3 to the "full HD" 1080i of its consumer HD camcorders, but it's really plenty of resolution for most consumer uses, and at $1,100, $1,200 and $1,400 price points for the HDR-SR5, HDR-CX7 and HDR-SR7, respectively, it's hard to complain.

Gallery: Sony thinks tiny for new consumer-friendly camcorders

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[Asterra @ Apr 25th 2007 4:30PM]

15 hours on 40GB and 22 hours on 60GB? That's 6mbps. What kind of compression is this.. MPEG7 circa 2015?

I was hoping that at least one of these camcorders enabled at least 25mbps AVC, but with the average bitrate at 6mbps, there's no point in asking.

[Max @ Apr 25th 2007 5:10PM]

H.264/MPEG-4

[endless @ Apr 25th 2007 6:00PM]

those are on the low quality settings.

as i remember the SR1 on high quality was around a 15 Mbps setup.

[Asterra @ Apr 25th 2007 7:19PM]

Too bad. It's already been established that 15mbps AVC (or 30mbps MPEG2; pick your poison) is not good enough. It doesn't look too shabby when we're talking about 24fps, multipass-encoded, cleaned-up movie footage, but those are not luxuries camcorders have.

It's really saddening that the last time a digital camcorder video standard with reasonably adequate bandwidth was introduced was the day the first Digital8 DV camcorder hit the scene.

[Chuckles McGee @ Apr 25th 2007 5:04PM]

Oh no, my kid's elementary school production can only be recorded in 1080i?! Grandma and grandpa are going to be peeved when they find it of unwatchable quality on their 80 inch 1080p DLP.

That's sarcasm for any uncertain person.

[Max @ Apr 25th 2007 9:49PM]

How do you mean? I supposed this would have adequate bandwidth to support recording 1080i at 30fps, Those digital8s where only designed to have enough bandwidth to support recording at like 640 lines or so. It says it also has a high speed function, you can up it to 240fps and record for three seconds, and then make a 12 second high speed video, that would be fun to mess with.

[Nogami @ Apr 26th 2007 2:01AM]

Just a quick correction to the previous poster - Digital8 is regular DV25, 720x480 resolution.

[nico @ Apr 26th 2007 9:39AM]

I don't see if it's an only one CCD? no 3 CCD ?
What is the sensor size, 1/4"?

thx

[John H @ Apr 26th 2007 11:04AM]

Vario- T* lens! Yesssssss! Finally a new product with a Zeiss lens. My Contax U4R was starting to look a little dated- though with only a 2 mp increase on stills it's not life changing...but it'll do.

The price isn't bad either. I had expected these to retail above 2 grand especially with the weak dollar.

[Joe @ Apr 26th 2007 7:14PM]

Wow, these new cameras from Sony look great. I've been shopping for an HD camera for weeks and so far, I've fallen in love with the Sony HDR-SR1. It's about $1,200 on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Sony-HDR-SR1-High-Definition-Camcorder-Optical/dp/B000GXBBL8/ref=dp_return_1/102-0877178-4382514?tag=freeplefav-20&ie=UTF8&n=502394&s=photo&qid=1177629024&sr=1-4

But after seeing these bad boys, I am reconsidering. I wonder which model I should get. Great, there goes another week of researching on the Internet :)