By lifeisgood “lifeisgood” (Houston TX)

This camera works great, its memory stick duo performs way better than hard drives, flash, tapes or anything in the market. Very easy to download to a computer and work with the image files. Still pictures are of good quality too! You do not need to carry a camcorder and a digital camera, this device is both! My only complain is that, as it does not have a viewfinder, it should be smaller, though its size is convenient to put in a coat’s jacket.

By Chris C. Topolovich “Chris” (Los Angeles)

I bought mine a month ago and have had alot of fun with it.You should know, this camera only records it’s audio as 5.1; it is not switchable to Stereo… which is ok since all dvd players and authoring software will mix it to stereo for you. The audio outputs on the camera are just stereo though, weird.

Also, keep the camera steady, it’s so light that’s it’s difficult to keep steady and it does have a harder time with too much commotion in frame.

In auditorium envirments where the audience is dark and a stage is well lit, it will over-expose on auto-exposure, which is incorrectable and adds video noise. So just switch the exposure to manual and tune it down.

At least buy an extra battery & a camera bag. I also bought a wide angle lens and a telephoto lens, & video lamp/still flash. You’ll also want editing software:

Sony Vegas lies about editing AVCHD. It merely plays it and accepts it as an import file. It WILL NOT export to AVCHD.

As of now, Pinnacle Studio 11.1.1 is the only software I know of that allows users to edit from start-to-finish in AVCHD. Exporting to file, Blu-Ray compatible DVD, or HD-DVD compatible DVD. I know because I did just that and I noticed NO video quality degradation. You get 40 minutes of video at 15K bitrate to a 4.7 DVD, compatible for most new Sony and Panasonic Blu-Ray players. 15K bitrate is the maximun bitrate this camera records at. But be warned, many users have problems with Pinnacle; I don’t.

ALSO, a good thing here, there is NO “spinning up” noise from tape drives or disc drives or DVD drives… because there ARE NONE! Since it records to a memory card, there are NO moving parts for the Mic to hear. That tends to be a chief complaint with many serious camcorder users.

It’s worth it, and will likely last you 15 years, unlike cameras with tape drives and disk drives.

Shoots good stills too.

• Read More About Sony HDR-CX7

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