Video

Any doubts I had that the digital video format will prove a revolutionary new standard were blown into the weeds when I viewed the output from Sony's DCR-VX700 Digital Handycam-and it's only a single-chip model.

After connecting the DCR-VX700 to my TV set and playing back the tape, I was astounded by the images on the screen. The colors were richly saturated and the images were crisply sharp; far better than anything you see on commercial television. Bright reds and oranges did not smear as they often do with analog camcorders. Exposures were right-on, even in difficult, contrasty situations. This is the way I've always wanted my video movies to look. And this is just with the one-chip camcorder! Sony's threechip model, the DCR-VX1000, which I haven't had a go at, should be even better. (The DCR-VX700 lists at $3,000 and the three-chip model is about $1,000 more.)

I copied the digital recording onto conventional VHS tape and played it back. It bore remarkable fidelity to the original; the colors, contrast, and sharpness all held up well. Pros would be hard pressed to guess this was second generation.

(For a [mostly] nontechnical description of how digital differs from analog, see "Video," April '96, page 48.)

Ergonomics and design

The DCR-VX700 is only a little larger than a typical 8mm camcorder. The rubberized pad on the top left of the body provides a comfortable grip for your fingers. The pad also has what appear to be barely visible icons for playback of the tape. But when I started to play back what I'd shot, the icons glowed bright orange (see photo 10, page 58). The camcorder simply obscures the markings when you're in record mode, and makes them very visible only when you need them.

Some infrequently used features, such as interval recording and viewfinder brightness, are accessed on a viewfinder menu.

The control buttons are tucked behind a panel at the back of the camcorder, next to the battery. Here, too, is the switch for turning on image stabilization. The buttons are small, but not too small to manipulate easily (see photos 5 and 6).

The 180,000-pixel color viewfinder is a very good one. Many color viewfinders are difficult to use because they can't resolve...