The HDR-FX1 is the granddaddy of the group, with a list price of $3,700. It's large and bulky but liked the control setup better than the smaller cameras, particularly the zoom handle (which makes manual zooms much smoother) and the top-mounted LCD, which was easier to read than the lower mount most cameras have.

The HDR-FX7 shaves a few dollars off the price and looks roughly like a 2/3 scale model of the Fx-1. With no zoom handle and the LCD placed more conventionally I found the camera less appealing than the FX-1. It felt only marginally lighter, but of course I might havge felt differently if I'd had longer with the two units. The CMOS sensor seemed to produce an identical picture to the FX-1's 3 CCDs.

Both cameras balanced well and felt good in my hands. In the end, I give a slightly edge to the FX-1 due to its superior controls.

A dark horse is the much cheaper HDR-HC7 which I also tried. In DV camcorders, there was always an enormous picture quality difference between cheap consumer cameras and expensive 3CCD units like the FX1. In the case of the HC7, picture quality was surprisingly similar to its big brothers - colors were sharp and bright, not washed out as in older style consumer units. In fact, the limitations of the HDV video format are probably going to be much more probematic for shooters than CCD versus CMOS sensor differences.

So the main advantage of the more expensive units is not raw image quality, but the ability to do manual adjustments such as manual zoom and focus, and the better balance of the heavier cameras, leading to a steadier hand and less shaky images.

In short, even amateur filmmakers who have only $1,400 to spend can get a pretty good looking images. People with the money are going to prefer the fancier units, but anyone with an idea and a $1,500 credit limit nowadays can start shooting very nice looking images.

Sadly, Sony's straight to DVD and hard disk-based camcorders don't work with third-party editing software, and can't be used on a Mac at all. As a result, I can't recommend them even though the hard drive recording option would be very tempting to me.

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