Sony DCR-DVD708E Handycam

Sony DCR-DVD708E Handycam: The thing about Sony handycams is that the interface is pretty much identical in all their models, and the same applies here. There’s the trusty touchscreen interface that manages to pack in a lot more than most other uncomfortable button interfaces that I’ve seen in mid-range camcorders. You can use the interface for just about every function of the camera and it feels a lot more natural too than using something hidden behind the screen flap.

As one can expect, you have the option to shoot videos in widescreen (16:9) or fullscreen (4:3) aspect ratio. As appealing as it may seem, if you use a fullscreen TV at home, then I would strongly advise against shooting in widescreen mode as the anamorphic widescreen video simply stretches itself to fit itself to all the edges of the display. On a 4:3 regular TV, this results in everything appearing vertically stretched.

The mic on top of the camera is capable of recording full 5.1 channel audio, which is very impressive. The problem i have with the front microphone system on camcorders is that they usually fail to capture the voice of the person shooting the video very clearly, but here, the sound from all channels was very clear, even when the output was in stereo. Impressive!